Nzambi Matee, a 29-year-old mechanical engineer from Nairobi, Kenya, had been recognized by the United Nations as one of the Young Champions of the Earth winners in 2020.

Matee founded Gjenge Makers Ltd to tackle two problems at once: providing durable building materials and recycling plastic waste. “It is absurd that we still have this problem of providing decent shelter – a basic human need,” she said. She was inspired to start her business after routinely seeing plastic trash on the streets of her city.

Matee quit her job, set-up a small workshop in her family's backyard, and went to work developing a way to convert plastic into paving blocks. Through trial and error and with help from a scholarship to a social entrepreneurship training program that allowed her to test and refine her product, she succeeded.

“This was three years of hard work. I quit my job. I put all my savings into this. I became so broke that everyone thought I was crazy and so many people told me to give up,” Matee said. But now Gjenge Makers produces 1500 pavers a day.

The colorful blocks are stronger than concrete and can be used to create paths, playgrounds, parking lots, and even roads.

Find out more about Nzambi Matee  and the other 2020 UN Young Champions of the Earth Winners, including 3 more young women:

• Xiaoyuan Ren, an environmental engineer in China, who developed a data platform to help ensure millions of people in rural China have consistent access to clean water.
• Fatemah Alzelzela, an electrical engineer in Kuwait, who founded an organization that promotes recycling and encourages increasing green spaces by giving people plants in exchange for recyclable materials.
• Niria Alicia Garcia, a Xicana human rights advocate, who is using virtual reality to raise awareness about the plight of the Chinook salmon