About Us

Our Story

The startup recycling benki, acronym “reBenki”, benki meaning bank in Swahili, is a professional achievement of courageous and determined Congolese women.

The Founder experienced the harmful effects of improper waste management, specifically open burning and dumping of waste. In 2015, while attending college in her hometown of Lubumbashi, she suffered an aggravation of a respiratory disease due to open burning of plastic. That same year, she travelled to the capital city of  Kinshasa for an internship and saw a river filled with plastic bottles, which made her realize that improper waste management was an issue that needed to be addressed at the national level. 

She wondered what could be done with plastics, so through ups and downs, in-depth personal research in the field of waste management created a passion within her – which led her to found WASTEWISE in 2016 after being a runner-up in the Startupper of the Year Challenge by Total Energies (DRC). She visited various recycling plants, did field surveys, completed a Waste Management training in 2018 (IWMSA/Johannesburg), and obtained a certificate in Solid waste management in 2020 (World Bank Group/WBGx). 

She then decided to launch the reBenki project in 2022 alongside 2 passionate Congolese engineers; to make waste collection and recycling more collaborative, convenient, and cost-effective starting with plastic.

Meet The Team

E. Marina HAMISI

President & Chief Storytelling Officer (Founder)

Hermann NGOY

CEO and Technology Manager (Co-Founder)

Gad MONGA

CTO and R&D Manager (Co-Founder)

Our Mission

  • Make ‘inclusive plastic recycling’ services easily available to everyone in developing cities through an incentive program.

  • Empower informal collectors, especially women, to become social entrepreneurs through training in waste separation & plastic recycling.

  • Empower the local community through innovation of useful recycled products; provision of clean water, cellphone charging and internet.
  • Connect stakeholders (households, businesses, informal & formal collectors, recycling companies, and brand partners) across the waste management ecosystem to build healthier communities and stimulate the social economy in Congolese cities. 
Quote
“The reBenki odyssey is accomplished by a determined and passionate TEAM.”
reBenki Founder

Our Vision

Become a revolutionary neighborhood ‘inclusive recycling bank’, where plastic is a means of payment.

Our Values

Health and Well-being

We are fully invested in supporting our local community’s ability to reduce and sort waste, and reduce exposure to environmental diseases through plastic recycling and financial inclusion, leading to an overall improved human condition.

Innovation

Nothing is more important than providing quality and affordable waste management service to everyone, as it is a necessity. We will use green low-tech innovations to improve our efficiency, convenience, and reliability.

Collaboration

We bring together people and organizations who share a commitment to community health. We believe we have a greater potential for impact when we create an inclusive waste management ecosystem powered by informal collectors.

The Why

We want to make plastic recycling services easily accessible to everyone in developing cities

As observed in Lubumbashi, the pilot city for our project and other cities in developing countries, in the peripheral areas of urban cities, as well as in remote and rural towns, residents typically either incinerate waste or pay an informal collector to pick up their waste.

Unfortunately, these collectors often dispose of the waste improperly in rivers in remote locations due to the lack of infrastructure for waste collection and treatment.

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On our part, we want to make plastic recycling services easily accessible to everyone in developing cities, ensuring that when the waste is collected, it is properly processed and recycled into fuel and other products useful to the community.

The distance between the users (households) and the waste disposal site is an important factor in determining whether the waste will be properly disposed of. We want to decentralize waste collection by bringing trash cans (reBin) closer to the households and encourage them to participate by setting up an incentive program.