If each of our actions had the same expiration date as the planet, we would probably think more carefully before taking any action that would harm it.

Marta Uetela – The lesson of sustainable entrepreneurship

If each of our actions had the same expiration date as the planet, we would probably think more carefully before taking any action that would harm it. Without any moralism, but with determination, innovation and creativity, Marta Uetela found a way to respond to a need through the reuse of sea plastics. Curious?

Marta Uetela created BioMec because a friend needed it. The motivation seems simplistic, but isn’t it from the simplest gestures that great actions emerge? We hope so, since the 24-year-old Mozambican young woman established a start-up that develops sustainable prostheses after a friend had a car accident.

The challenges that the friend had to overcome served as a driving force for Marta Uetela to find a more accessible solution, faster and with less environmental impact. “After a small survey, we found that 90% of the amputated population in Mozambique do not have access to prostheses, due to high prices, the delay in having them effectively in their possession and access to health services,” the young designer says, through email.

Marta’s objective is to present high-performance prostheses at a controlled cost, always maintaining a special attention to the environmental and aesthetic issue and with a short development period.

In practice, the plastic nets and bottles are cleaned, shredded and then placed in a granulator, which produces small spheres of material pressed in a steel mold. 6 PET bottles and 2 m² of nets are needed to make a prosthesis for those who have suffered a transtibial amputation (below the knee).  Once completed, the prostheses cost about 3,600 meticais.

“I have always been passionate about the environment, which ended up leading me to become involved with some organizations focused on environmental education and zero waste. The biggest challenge has always been reusing the plastic taken from the beaches. Halfway through one of the collections I thought: why not use the plastic caught on the beach?,” Uetela tells us.

“From the sea to the street” is BioMec’s “mantra” and gradually, while Marta improves the lives of people with mobility challenges, developing and expanding sustainable prosthesis construction projects, BioMec is becoming a reference for biomedical, practical and ecological solutions, at competitive prices. This year, BioMec was considered the second best creative start-up in Africa and made the global Top 16 at the ClimateLaunchPad, the largest global green business competition, after participating in an activity developed by ideiaLab.