Entrepreneur who came up with cardboard bicycle says innovative Israeli technology could cheaply give mobility to thousands of people with disabilities
The world’s first cardboard could be a game-changer for thousands of people with disabilities.
Israeli entrepreneur Nimrod Elmish is positive that the idea for a wheelchair made out of cardboard has crossed many people’s minds. But it took an Israeli team to make it a reality.
“Welcome to the startup nation,” Elmish, an expert in leading early-stage startups to maturity, said.
“We have seen you can build agriculture in the middle of the desert. We recognize a major problem in the world and we find the best solutions. We can always find a solution – you just need persistence and patience.”
With great feedback and global interest in their first venture – recyclable cardboard bicycles – Elmish and automation expert Izhar Gafni of I.G. Cardboard Technologies, have quietly added the cardboard wheelchair project to their operation.
It is made of less than $10 worth of durable recycled cardboard, plastic bottles and recycled tires.
“Anything that you make out of wood, plastic or metal can be made out of our material,” Elmish said.
“Cardboard bikes, wagons, wheelchairs, chairs for airplanes or trains, toys, even cars. We’re not building cars yet. But I say, ‘yet.’ We believe that nothing is impossible and anything is possible.”
Wheelchairs for Africa
An international non-profit organization dedicated to providing free wheelchairs for the disabled in developing nations heard about the cardboard bicycles and got in touch with ERB, the parent company of I.G. Cardboard Technologies.
Since 2001, the organization – which requested anonymity – has bought 120,000 metal wheelchairs from Chinese manufacturers every year to ship to Africa, at an annual cost of more than $6 million.
“It will cost him a one-time fee of $6 million to build a factory for the production of cardboard wheelchairs in Africa and then almost nothing to produce them,” Elmish said.
“He can produce as many wheelchairs as he wants once the factory is running. All we need is access to old car tires, plastic bottle recycling and cardboard recycling.”
The maintenance-free cardboard wheelchair, weighing in at 20 pound, can withstand water and humidity, and can carry riders weighing up to 400 pounds. It is even cheaper and simpler to create than the cardboard bicycle.
Elmish said the chairs would be made on largely automated production lines supplemented by a workforce comprising people with disabilities.
“There are no financial benefits to making the wheelchairs in cheap labor markets. We choose the country with incentives in mind,” he explains. “Our factories will always be local in order to receive government grants for the manufacturers.”
Rebates for using “green” materials would cancel out production costs. The wheelchairs and bicycles could thus be given away for free in poor countries.
“Our partners and manufacturers (will) receive almost all of the production costs of our products back from governmental and global incentives, making our products available to almost any person in any philanthropic or commercial business model,” according to the company’s mission statement.
