Joshua Attat is a man on a mission. Driven by a passion for environmental advocacy and a desire to create social impact, Attat isn’t just talking about sustainability but he is making it a reality through his company, Pneedles. Attat, who is the CEO and Founder, sat with BusinessDay’s Anthony Udugba to speak on how he saw an opportunity to replace conventionally made buttons with sustainable alternative buttons crafted from recycled plastic waste which is abundant in the city of Lagos.
Pneedles wasn’t always about buttons. Attat’s journey with sustainable innovation began in 2018 with Lyvin, a 2022 Circular Lagos Award-winning brand that created furniture, building, and construction materials from plastic waste. Lyvin’s success fueled Attat’s entrepreneurial spirit, and in 2022, he established Printy and Packer, a biotechnology company that manufactures sustainable packaging materials from agricultural waste.
Printy and Packer’s achievements were impressive, winning the 2022 Creative Business Cup and securing funding from the Kingdom of Netherlands via the Orange Corners Program. However, Attat’s vision for Pneedles stemmed from a specific observation within the fashion industry. “Plastic is one of the major raw materials used in making buttons,” Attat explains.
“With my background in sustainability, I figured we could replace the buttons made from virgin plastics with sustainable buttons made from plastic waste – an abundant raw material in Lagos stat.
