2009 Climate Leadership Challenge
Best International Solution: Solar Cycle

The Project

SolarCycle is an homage to the more resourceful man from the adage, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”: we’re a low-tech start-up that sees great opportunity in the world’s trash.

There are finite resources with which to tackle the world’s development challenges, but by repurposing materials at the end of their lifecycle we increase our options. Case in point: about a year ago, SolarCycle’s founders were brainstorming ways to combat two of the world’s most serious problems - access to clean water and indoor air pollution (which cumulatively account for a greater portion of the global burden of disease than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined) – and found themselves in a goldmine of plastic bag trash. Let us explain:

Access to clean water and indoor air pollution from wood-burning stoves are enormous problems that weigh heavily on the health profile of the developing world. 1.1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, such that every year, waterborne illnesses take the lives of 2.2 million people, 70% of whom were children under the age of five. 2.4 billion people use wood as their primary cooking fuel, and the resultant indoor air pollution causes 1.3 million deaths a year, over half of which are in children under five (WHO 2002).

Reflecting on these problems and the potential of harnessed solar energy to mitigate their effects, SolarCycle observed existing low-tech solar concentrating applications continuously fail their intended market because of expensive or weak material inputs. So, we explored ways to make the products feasible for a market with great demand but limited purchasing power.

Now, the United Nations Environmental Programme estimates that over 1 billion plastic bags exist as trash in Sub-Saharan Africa. Plastic does not biodegrade and takes over 300 years to photodegrade; in the meanwhile, it leaches toxic chemicals into soil and waterways, blocks drains, pools water and thus breeds infectious disease, e.g. malaria.

Thus, by repurposing these plastic bags and the metalized interior of misprinted potato chip bags as the main materials in our cookers and pasteurizers, SolarCycle manufactures durable, financially accessible, and environmentally sustainable solar thermal water pasteurizers and solar cookers. These products have the potential to save millions of lives in the developing world, and ultimately, that’s our treasure.

Contact Information
info@solarcycleafrica.com