CEO and Founder of Rethread Africa, Charles Oyamo, was named among the 10 winners of the 2023 Global Change Award (GCA), Thursday, June 8th.
As a result, Oyamo will receive Ksh29.9 million (€200,000), part of the Ksh299 million (€2 million) total, in the form of grants from the non-profit H&M Foundation.
Rethread Africa’s submission highlighted how bio-based synthetics could be extracted from various raw materials. He successfully turned waste from sugar and corn production into bio-based synthetics.
Furthermore, the materials used naturally decompose when discarded which was in line with the competition’s agenda.
“Over the next 12 months, we hope to get our fabric into the hands of fashion designers, creatives, and brands. We want to get our fabric past the R&D phase and into textile stores at a comparable quality, if not better, than petrol-based synthetics,” says Charles Oyamo, CEO of Rethread Africa.
This development reinforces the growing trend of sustainable fashion in Kenya where the Ministry of Environment estimates that the country generates approximately 22,000 tons of textile waste annually.
In 2022, Rethread Africa was among the 13 projects that won the Make it Circular Challenge organised by What Design Can Do and the IKEA Foundation.
Rethread Africa is focused on redefining the future of sustainable circular fashion. Its products use 99 per cent less water than cotton reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent.
