Packaging grown from the weed that chokes a lake.
HyaPak harvests invasive water hyacinth from Lakes Naivasha and Victoria and turns it into biodegradable seedling bags, courier packaging and cold-chain linings, replacing single-use plastic while clearing the freshwater the weed suffocates.
A weed that eats lakes, and livelihoods.
Water hyacinth is one of the world's most aggressive invasive plants. On Lake Naivasha it forms mats so dense they stop boats, choke fish, and block the nets that feed thousands of families, fishermen have been stranded in it for days. Authorities spend heavily just to clear it, and it grows back within weeks, on Naivasha, on Lake Victoria, and across freshwater Africa.
Meanwhile Kenya banned single-use plastic bags in 2017, but with few real alternatives on the shelf, the gap got filled by smuggled plastic. Two problems, one answer.
From the water to the shelf.
Harvest
Hyacinth is pulled from the lake with local crews, clearing waterways as a first benefit.
Process
The fibre is dried and pulped into a workable, plant-based raw material.
Form
It’s shaped into packaging and seed-embedded paper that replaces single-use plastic.
Return
Used product biodegrades, and seed-paper can be planted, closing the loop.
Three products, one feedstock.
Reaching customers beyond Kenya, and establishing a presence in new countries.
Wherever water hyacinth chokes freshwater, the same feedstock is waiting. Joseph is building the fastest route to scale it, even open-sourcing parts of the process so biodegradable plastic can travel faster than the weed.
Most single-use plastics have a useful life of about ten minutes after they leave the supermarket shelf. So why not make them biodegradable?
Joseph Nguthiru, Founder