Nigerian clean-tech startup Kaltani secures $4m to combat plastic pollution in Africa

Kaltani, a Nigerian clean-tech plastic waste recycling company, has received initial capital of $4 million to extend its recycling operations across the country.

Engineer Obi Charles Nnanna founded Kaltani in Nigeria to address Africa’s growing plastic waste challenge by promoting the circular economy and recycling best practices.

The firm employs 100 people throughout its collection centers, recycling plant, and offices, who are in charge of collecting bottles and other plastic garbage and transporting it to its collection centers for aggregation and processing before being delivered to its recycling facility. Plastics are subsequently processed at the factory into hot washed PET flakes, PE and PP pellets, and sold to FMCG firms for thermoform, sheet, packaging, bottling, and fiber applications.

To provide transparency and traceability throughout the value chain, Kaltani’s technology employs data analytics, predictive analytics, and geo-mapping.

The firm has already secured a US$4 million fundraising round, with which it plans to construct 20 new collecting and aggregation centers across Nigeria and hire over 500 new employees. These improvements will significantly increase Kaltani’s capacity, allowing the company to recycle up to 15,000 tonnes of plastic trash per year.

“There is a global epidemic of plastic pollution. Plastic garbage is a disaster for the ecosystem, inflicting harm to our oceans, aquatic life, the air we breathe, and our health. The world urgently requires effective and scalable solutions as the amount of plastic garbage produced continues to rise. “At Kaltani, we’ve already demonstrated that our solution and model operate successfully and efficiently with a comprehensive A-Z value chain solution, and we’re beyond eager to start expanding into other parts of Nigeria,” Nnanna added.