The great words “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are” by Theodore Roosevelt run true for this year’s Stellenbosch Network #IdeasForChange Challenge winner and founder of Lilly Loompa Upcycled Homeware, Lizl Naudé. The Paarl-born entrepreneur turned an unfortunate situation into treasure when she started her business.
After losing everything she and her family had worked hard to build, amid a financial crisis and failed investments she saw an opening to start Lilly Loompa. Naudé started off designing handmade jewellery and later began upcycling discarded waste material, transforming it into beautiful and usable homeware. With pollution posing as one of South Africa’s biggest challenges Lilly Loompa’s vision is to pioneer the way to a cleaner South Africa through innovative upcycling.
This venture into upcycling took place six years ago, in 2016.
“We had lost everything, and I had to look to the environment around me, to find what I could do to make my situation better than what it was,” said Naudé. “On the one hand I had absolutely nothing and on the other my community had a huge pollution challenge, so I used what was at my disposal to contribute to making Stellenbosch a sustainable city and to make an impact in my community.”
The Lilly Loompa Upcycle Homeware team believes there is value in waste, which is overlooked, and with more research and innovation it can be a much-needed commodity. Turning waste into usable homeware products can make a valuable contribution to the circular economy. After the waste material has been deemed safe and usable, the idea is to create new products that can be sold directly to the public at stores and online. These products will be manufactured at micro-factories, which are manufacturing facilities where community members collect the waste items for transforming into usable homeware products.
Currently, Naudé’s home serves as a collection facility, with a view to developing a more efficient collection point in Klapmuts, where people will be paid for clean and usable waste. In this way income opportunities for community members will be created, at the same time keeping their neighbourhoods clean. Lilly Loompa’s footprint is spread between Paarl and Stellenbosch, although the plans for Stellenbosch will be achieved mainly through the winnings obtained from the #Ideasforchange Challenge.
During the lockdown Lilly Loompa launched a new range of products, the most popular of which is the My Africa Lap Desk, made with discarded wood. This is a designer desk in the shape of the African continent and can be used for sitting in bed and working, reading or having breakfast. It is also portable and doubles up as art when not in use, making it multi-functional.??
“With all the items we create we want to restore hope,” Naudé says. “Addressing issues such as climate change proves not all is lost and there is still time to make an impact on our society.”
Her journey is one of perseverance with challenges along the way. And she holds that it is important for entrepreneurs not to focus on the challenges they face, but rather seize the opportunities presented to them.
One of Lilly Loompa’s biggest challenges is lack of advanced technology; it currently uses basic equipment and technology to produce or manufacture its products.
“For me the #Ideasforchange Challenge opportunity came at the right time, though,” says Naudé. “It came at a point where we were ready to venture into producing a prototype plastic version of the My Africa Lap Desk. I believe that this is an amazing opportunity to work with scientists and engineers from Stellenbosch University and the CSIR, looking at [effectively and efficiently] harvesting materials and creating new kinds of products from our current waste streams.”
She says winning the #Ideasforchange Challenge will also allow her company to leverage relationships and opportunities that make Stellenbosch a city for the future. “I also want to encourage all entrepreneurs to believe anything is possible, and have the courage to ask for help and consult people about their ideas,” Naudé concluded. “For me that was how I had come across the #Ideasforchange Challenge.”
