{"id":384859,"date":"2017-12-20T20:41:54","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T20:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=384859"},"modified":"2017-12-20T21:10:32","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T21:10:32","slug":"meet-the-22-yr-old-innovator-who-makes-durable-paper-bricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/meet-the-22-yr-old-innovator-who-makes-durable-paper-bricks\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the 22-yr old innovator who makes ‘durable’ paper bricks"},"content":{"rendered":"
A 22-year old South African with Ghanaian parents, Elijah Djan, has adopted a rather improbable approach to address the Southern African country\u2019s urgent housing and waste challenges.<\/p>\n
Elijah Djan\u2019s brick-made paper, named \u201cnubrix\u201d, specifically addresses South Africa\u2019s build-up of paper waste and the shortage of low-cost housing.<\/p>\n
These bricks, according to Elijah, are weather resistant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have built a wall with these bricks and I left it outside in the rain and it is still standing tall,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
His innovation was inspired by a documentary highlighting South Africa\u2019s low-income housing shortage.<\/p>\n
Recounting how his innovation started off, Mr. Djan recalled on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong> that \u201c New bricks came back in primary school when I was 11 years old. Back then I was very passionate about Science. When I was in Grade 6 my dad use to burn his old photocopy text books and this was the time during global warming and me, being the scientist thought of something to do.”<\/p>\n He further narrated that \u201cIn about a few days later, one of the TV programmes was poaching one of the shortest of RDP housing in South Africa and RDP housing is a form of cheaper housing by the government, so I said let\u2019s see if I could use a paper to help cellutape this [papers] so I did different tests, different ratios of different stuff, different methodologies of how we can turn the paper into bricks and use that whole scientific process.\u201d<\/p>\n