'We've become the waste-management solution': sisters make bricks from recycled material

Two sisters inspired by local waste pickers are playing their part in keeping the environment clean, one brick at a time.

From collecting waste from people's houses to their homes prototyping, the duo, Kedibone Tsiloane, 35, and Kekeletso Tsiloane, 31, now manufactures strong and durable bricks from recycled materials, including plastic. Their bricks are now made from 90% recycled material.

“We started collecting waste from people's yards. We were taking plastic waste from people's yards and we were using this in the making of our bricks. As you can imagine, my mother was not impressed with the fact that we were taking garbage from other people's houses and bringing it into her yard,” said Kedibone.

Established in Sasolburg in the Free State in 2013, Ramtsilo Trading now supplies some of the biggest stores in the country.

Despite their parents' background in construction, the two never thought they would end up making bricks, with Kedibone having pursued studies in auditing and Kekeletso in engineering. 

“We grew up in a construction environment where our father had a construction company. Our parents would allow us to go to the site during school holidays. At the time it seemed like a punishment because every time you came back from school, instead of playing with your friends, you had to go to a random place in the middle of nowhere, where they were building either homes or whatever development that was happening in the area.”

Kedibone said their father registered a company for them in 2013 to enable them to get opportunities in the construction space.

“We did some general building constructions, which is where we got used to the concept of bricks because we were using a lot of bricks in our project. Through those projects, we started to identify that we were using a lot of money on building materials, specifically bricks.

“We went on to look for established female-owned brick manufacturing companies in the Free State and we didn't find it. That's when we said, why can it not be us?” she said.

After interacting with waste collectors in their area, they started looking at how what they knew could play a part in plastic recycling.

“We started collecting waste from people's yards. This went on for quite some time in 2016, when we were prototyping, experiencing how it looked and what would happen. We didn't know that there were different types of plastics at the time, but the fact that we knew how a brick should look and perform helped us a lot. We used that knowledge in developing this product.

“We had a product we were comfortable with by early 2017. About April, we took it for testing and we were blown away by the quality results we got. That's when we realised that there is something to this thing we are trying to create and we started focusing more,” Kedibone said.

When they moved to Gauteng in 2019, they got a bigger market for recycling material.

“At first the opportunity that came we didn't realise that it would be the heart of the business. We had waste on our site, we prototyped it and it was fine — we moved. We learnt in growing the business and interacting more with people and corporations that have waste problems. We have become the waste-management solution,” she said.

Kedibone said one brick, about 2.5kg, consists of 30% plastic.

“It's quite a lot — it is equal to about 10 water bottles loosely. There is quite a lot of plastic that goes into the making of the bricks, which is a good thing because it means you are disposing of more plastic waste that would have landed in landfills or the environment.”

She said when they moved to Gauteng they were manufacturing about 6,000 bricks a day and they have now ramped up their capacity to more than 50,000 a day.

According to Kedibone, they have developed a technology for processing and the right machinery to operate.

She believes that construction is a calling as she left her auditing profession, where she was thriving.

“Keke has always been the entrepreneur at heart, but we never sat down and planned to do this together until later on, when we had to formalise the business. Growing up I don't think we ever even said we would be in the construction space, it was not planned. But the growth of it has been so natural that it might seem like this is what our parents were channelling us to.”

Kedibone said they always take the challenges that they encounter head-on.

“To get to some of the stores that we find ourselves supplying now, we had to be in conversation with people quite high up. Some people are not even from South Africa or Africa. You need to contextualise what you are doing and prove that you know what you are talking about,” she said.

“We had to invest in a lot of testing of the product, from fire testing and durability, so that when we talk to other people, before they even start challenging us on the product, we know we have the credibility for the product, which makes the conversation easier.”

They are now still supplying locally in Gauteng as, due to the weight of the bricks, it is difficult to supply elsewhere.

“Business does take time to grow. We will find opportunities to grow outside South Africa in time. We deliver to the biggest retailers in the country — Builders' Warehouse, Leroy Merlin and others — and we also do large-scale private contractors.”

She said the price of their bricks is competitive compared to cement bricks and depending on where you are you can get it from between R1.30 to R1.60 each.

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