WoeLab, a start-up in Togo, West Africa, is creating 3D printers using e-waste, with the goal of distributing them to nearby schools.

All across Africa, electronic waste is proving to be a big problem. Everything from discarded phones to broken-down computers is piling up.

Worst of all is the toxic gases expelled from burning these electronic devices. Needless to say, it’s unhealthy and hazardous to the people who live nearby.

Thankfully, some of the affected communities are finding their own solutions to this persistent problem. One such area is Lomé, the capital city of Togo in West Africa.

WoeLab is an innovative tech hub looking to make use of the toxic e-waste. The result of their efforts is the first “Made in Africa” 3D printer.

The lab was started by Sénamé Koffi Agbodjinou, a local architect, back in 2012. Now, it is a network of around 50 inventors and entrepreneurs. Together, these creators built 3D printers from e-waste.

“We wanted to see how we could build a new one but with our own resources,” Agbodjinou said. ”What we are concerned with is to try to create in the young people a confidence in themselves in their capacity to realize projects.”

 

Creating a 3D Printer from Scratch

To encourage young people, Agbodjinou wants to place a 3D printer in every school within one kilometer of the lab. Until now, the team at WoeLab has created 20 3D printers and inspired labs across the continent to create their own, too.

However, it hasn’t been easy getting to this point. The first step was inspiration. That came when Agbodjinou purchased a 3D printer and brought it into the lab.

Creating their own from scratch was a process that took a whole year and required a lot of collaborative work. The team used old printers, computers, and scanners and based their design on the RepRap 3D printing model.

Procuring a 3D printer from electronic scraps is an achievement of its own, but Agbodjinou has bigger plans. In his words, “the idea is that the African city of tomorrow will be built by our own innovation spaces.”

Earlier this year, a second WoeLab opened in Lomé and there are now 10 technological start-ups based there. These start-ups also have far-reaching goals, from effectively dealing with waste to building robots. Agbodjinou adds:

“We want to bring these technologies to Africa, and see how Africans can develop and understand them in an effort to create African possibilities.”

Source: CNN