Dozie Igweilo, founder and CEO of the Nigeria-based company Quadloop, has touted his firm’s R&D efforts to turn electronic waste into environmentally friendly products, such as solar-powered lanterns.
Speaking to Reuters, Igweilo said that he had come up with the idea while monitoring a market for affordable domestically made electrical goods. He added that parts for these products were not available in Nigeria.
“At that point, we noticed that […] if we leverage on electronic waste, we are going to cut down the cost of production as well as the cost of sales, and that is what brought us to where we are today,” the Quadloop chief executive pointed out.
He explained that his company, in particular, recycles lithium batteries from discarded old laptops to produce solar lanterns, which have a lower impact on the environment. According to Igweilo, Quadloop plans to source at least 70% of its materials from electronic waste.
The remarks came after the company’s CEO told the Meaningful Business group that Quadloop focuses on producing devices that “would make life easier and better for everyone while promoting local manufacturing.”
Igweilo stressed that the firm’s “future ambition is to utilize e-waste as a means of job creation, empowering young adults and bringing awareness to the circular economy resource models in Africa.”
“This ambition can be achieved by cultivating a self-sustaining production line and sustainable consumption habits, enhancing the production of local electronics, gadgets, and machines designed for Africa by Africans. The aim is for Quadloop to become the foremost indigenous company seeking innovative ways to reduce, reuse and recycle e-waste, producing an entirely new product designed in the heart of Africa,” he concluded.
The company's drive to recycle e-waste unfolds against the backdrop of efforts by Western-backed environmentalist groups, the EU and US President Joe Biden's climate czar John Kerry to prevent African nations from developing their own lucrative energy projects.