Fly Ash Africa Turning Waste Into Opportunity

South Africa burns coal to generate electricity.

And in the process, we create mountains of ash that need to be dumped somewhere.

But what if that very same ash could become part of the cement used to build our homes, our roads, schools, and bridges? And what if In using it, it could also reduce the pollution created when we actually manufacture cement.

Well, that's the opportunity Timber Nyembezi and Dirk Oudendaal saw when they founded Fly Ash Africa.

They take a fine powder called... called fly ash from the power stations and supply it into cement makers and mines.

And the backstory is wonderfully unlikely.

You see, Timber spent years in the investment world and the deal involving a cement manufacturer Left him, of all things, in love with cement.

Dirk had spent his entire career in that industry.

Then met over a possible deal that never happened.

And years later, over a coffee, Dirk raised a new idea.

Why not build their own fly ash business? They began by packing fly ash for customers and things were going well.

Then suddenly...

For all of us, COVID hit.

It stopped that trade for them.

They had to change direction and in doing so secured permission to set up loading plants at Kusile and Maktimba power stations.

And again, they reinvested in the business.

Just after they opened the Kusile door, a major power station failure stopped ash from flowing for more than a year.

Imagine that.

Your business is ready.

You've invested the money.

Your customers are waiting and your product disappears.

Yet they kept going.

And with engineering specialist Louis Bester, they built simple loading equipment that gets trucks collecting the fly ash back onto the road quickly to their customers.

And for customers, that time saved matters as much as the ash itself.

Trucks can collect four loads a day instead of two.