Kai Paul at TEDxJIS "What if waste = $$"

It may not look like it but Kai Paul was born and raised in Indonesia. He grew up in Jakarta with his parents who were school teachers at the Jakarta International School. As a young redhead kid living in Jakarta, Kai got to experience what it is like growing up in a developing nation with a pollution problem.

This past February, Kai returned to his family’s alma mater and took the stage at TEDxJIS. Kai took this opportunity to share his passion for his home country of Indonesia and vision for the future of waste management and the emerging “Secondary Resource Market” aka “Modern Day Mining.”

“I love Indonesia with all my heart, and that is why I am willing to fight for her. Because I am afraid of the changes we see happening before our eyes.”

Young Kai and his Dad on a boat in Bali (1980’s)                 

Young Kai and his Mom in the clean Bali ocean (1980’s)    

Now, Kai is a grown man and managing a business (Indosole) which focuses on preventing waste tires from ending up in landfills and giving them new life as saleable products. Kai has done substantial research on the pollution problems facing Indonesia and the world. It’s time to turn those problems into profitable solutions.

“If you break down a tire you will get Rubber, Oil, Steel, all valuable commodities on their own.”

Every day we are taking resources from the earth - it’s time we take less and work with what we already have - the tons of usable waste materials both going to and sitting in landfills. Let’s look at this waste as an untapped resource.

What if we started doing things differently?

What if businesses and the governments started investing into these ideas and if each one of our communities adopted them?

Click HERE to watch Kai’s Talk now and at the end ask yourself “What if.”

Enjoy!