Growing Mounds of Waste Offer African Women Unexpected Business Opportunities in the Bioenergy Sector

New technologies and smart business models could turn waste into a veritable gold mine of opportunity for African women.

How waste can fast-track transition to cleaner bioenergy

To explain how women are able to turn waste into opportunity, we need to revisit a well-known challenge: In sub-Saharan Africa, most people rely on firewood and charcoal for cooking and heating, even though this dangerously pollutes indoor air quality and degrades the environment.

Therefore, efforts to replace firewood and charcoal with other forms of energy have been long underway. Yet, it is only recently that opportunities to find entirely new sources of biomass energy are being pursued.