Lorna Rutto: From banking to building EcoPost, Kenya’s recycling enterprise

Long before Lorna Rutto became an internationally recognised entrepreneur, she was a schoolgirl in Kaptembwa, Nakuru, experimenting with discarded plastic.

Growing up in an area struggling with poor waste collection, overflowing sewage and unemployment, she saw the environmental damage around her first-hand.

At about 11 or 12, she began collecting plastic litter, melting it and fashioning it into ornaments and small items she could sell to fellow pupils.

What started as a childhood experiment developed into a lasting interest in environmental conservation and the possibility of making a living from discarded materials.

In a 2013 interview with the International Labour Organization (ILO), Rutto recalled how the conditions in her neighbourhood influenced her decision to pursue environmental entrepreneurship.

From science club to banking

At Moi Forces Academy-Lanet, Rutto developed an interest in science and environmental issues through the school's science club.

She later joined Africa Nazarene University, where she studied for a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting, graduating in May 2008.

She also made history at the university as its first female students' president, according to a 2016 profile published by The Standard.

After university, she pursued a conventional corporate career, undertaking an internship at Stanbic Bank before joining Imperial Bank, where she worked for approximately two years.

Accounting, finance and business management would later prove useful in running her own enterprise.

But banking did not satisfy her interest in environmental conservation and community development. She eventually decided to leave the financial sector and pursue the recycling idea she had carried since childhood.

Leaving a salary for an uncertain venture

Around 2009–2010, Rutto began building what became EcoPost, partnering with a young biochemical engineer who brought the technical expertise she needed.

The division of responsibilities was practical: her background was in accounting, business development and financial management, while her partner brought the engineering and manufacturing knowledge.

Together, they set out to turn plastic waste into commercially useful products.

It was a considerable gamble.

She was leaving a salaried banking position for a manufacturing venture that needed machinery, capital, customers and a reliable supply of discarded plastic.

In an interview with INSEAD in 2022, Rutto reflected on the importance of finding mentors and business-development support alongside funding.

She said the Cartier programme gave her access to coaching, training and networks that helped her develop the enterprise.

Recognition beyond Kenya

Rutto's entrepreneurial work attracted attention relatively early.

Among her recognitions were the 2011 Cartier Women's Initiative Award, the 2012 Unreasonable Institute Fellowship, inclusion in Forbes' 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa list in 2012 and the 2013 Transform Kenya Awards.

In 2015, she was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

She later returned to the Cartier Women's Initiative as a jury member in 2019 and 2020, before receiving its 2022 Impact Award in the Preserving the Planet category.

Her idea of success goes beyond the factory

Rutto's work has also focused on creating economic opportunities for women and young people involved in waste collection.

Through EcoPost's community programmes, she has supported informal waste collectors with equipment and business tools to help them process and sell plastic more profitably.

She has described her broader ambition as building a greener Africa while creating sustainable employment, particularly in marginalised communities.

Lorna Rutto's journey is an unusual route from an accounting graduate to an internationally recognised environmental entrepreneur.

She left banking, returned to a problem she had encountered as a child and built a business around it.

The girl who once melted bottle tops to make ornaments eventually made environmental entrepreneurship her profession.