A sole-ful solution

Social entrepreneurs are vital to our sustainable future, and the innovative Cubic38 has found a way to turn old waste tyres into shoe polish

At the recent IWISA No.1 Community Champions Competition, judges were wowed by Fortune Hadebe & Mzokhona Maxase from Cubic38 and their business idea to cleverly create shoe polish out of a product that would have ended up in the landfill –old tyres. Fortune and Mzokhana were awarded first place for their efforts in the competition, which identifies, upskills and rewards community-based entrepreneurs for doing good while doing well, winning them R30 000 as well as business guidance.

“We aim to build strong communities by empowering South African citizens who add value to our economy and the societies in which they operate through this competition. We congratulate our winners and wish them huge success in the future,” says Sibongile Mooko, Marketing Executive at Premier.

“This feels amazing. It reaffirms our commitment to the community and that we’re on the right path to making a broader impact in South Africa. So many people support the project, and I am so grateful,” says Mzokhona. “The prize money and guidance will help us grow our distribution network and ensure we have the right production equipment to increase our capacity and supply our products to the broader community. For that, I am truly grateful,” he adds.

Eco – Friendly Alternatives

“We’ve always had a passion for the environment and, after researching the potential uses for waste tyres (a huge environmental challenge for us in South Africa), we decided to place our focus there,” says Fortune. “We kept brainstorming, even after coming up with several unsuccessful ideas, and eventually decided on creating tyre shine and shoe polish. We use the carbon by-product from the pyrolysis process which breaks down old tyres into three components –oil, steel, and the black carbon that we use to create our products.

”Today a team of 8, which includes the two co-founders, one business development associate and five lab assistants, are behind the innovative product. It’s currently produced at Tshwane University of Technology’s TIA Labs in Ga-Rankuwa, and production takes place on a daily basis, with 150 units of shoe polish and 150 units of tyre shine created by the end of the day.

“Our Cubic Shoe Polish looks just like normal polish and is designed to protect black leather shoes and provide a good shine,” says Fortune. The Cubic 38 team are working on developing new products with the tyre by-product such as imprint ink, paint, eyeliner and mascara.