Turn Nigeria's Construction Waste into a Circular Economy

Lagos generates an estimated 3 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste annually. Current practice is to either dump it illegally on urban fringes or pay to cart it to landfill. Yet crushed concrete is a valid sub-base material, steel rebar scrap is valuable, and waste timber can be processed into engineered wood products. The materials exist. The market infrastructure to recover and resell them does not. Your challenge is to design a construction waste circular economy model for Lagos or Abuja that collects, sorts, and resells construction and demolition waste profitably. It must cover at least three waste streams, price the recovered materials competitively versus virgin alternatives, and be financially self-sustaining without subsidy within 24 months. Submit a business model design document (max 12 pages) including: the waste streams covered, collection and sorting infrastructure, processing technology for each stream, end markets and pricing, revenue model, site economics, and a 24-month financial projection. Judging criteria: 35% business model viability and financial projections, 30% waste processing design, 20% end market development, 15% environmental quantification.