You are currently viewing How Aime Lebon uses pencils from recycled materials as an advocacy tool with Papersmart Industries

How Aime Lebon uses pencils from recycled materials as an advocacy tool with Papersmart Industries

In this episode, meet Aime Lebon, the co-founder of Papersmart Industries in Windhoek Namibia, a company manufacturing products from recycled paper, first and foremost, pens and pencils. 

When Aime first had the idea to use recycled paper in pencils, he didn’t think about building an enterprise around it.

Instead, he just wanted to use the pencils from recycled newspaper as a communication tool, to tell a story and to remind everyone that he got to reach with his story that we can all do our part to save the environment. 

That first idea has turned into a company, Papersmart Industries, that at the time of this interview produced up to 50.000 pencils from recycled newspapers each day, according to Aime. 

In the interview we speak about 

  • How he came up with the idea
  • How he taught himself to make the pencils and to build a fledging business 
  • And how he funded the startup initially

We also speak about learning in general and what Aime’s advice for young Namibian’s is. 

There is a lot of gold in this interview and so we hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did. And now, without further ado, enter Aime Lebon. 

Thomas

Thomas is initiator of Africax.org, co-founder of ecological sanitation company EcoToiletten, digital automation agency Strandschicht and the non-profit tackling youth empowerment YES Founders Foundation. He co-authored a book on Youth-led Changemaking and coaches entrepreneurs on resilience and mental well-being.