Challenge

Taking wood waste off the Puchong Industrial area under Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MBSJ) is the core mission for social enterprise RE: KAYU Co-founder, Faizal Ayob believes in the importance of taking scrap wood from markets and businesses and putting it to use as recycled goods. RE: KAYU aims to support businesses and local authorities to ease their impact on the environment while minimising cost of disposing the wood waste. We also want to help organizations that want to fulfil their corporate social responsibility in upholding sustainable practices in their procedures.

REKAYU aims to support increased recycling by either channelling wood waste to be processed at a recycling plant or by converting these raw materials into furniture. This model enables them to offer a cheaper, more eco-friendly alternative to traditional waste collection services.
They recently been supported by SME Corp and Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia (YIM) through Inclusive SME Ecosystem (I-SEE) program that aim to empower the bottom 40% group in the income pyramid (B40) by leveraging innovation by transforms the wood waste into bespoke benches, tables for community in Puchong
RE: KAYU currently awaiting approval to move to SME Bank’s Entrepreneur Premises Complex (EPC) located at Jalan SB Jaya 1, Taman Industri Sungai Buloh Jaya. Our temporary workshop is situated at Puchong Indah (a not-for-profit makerspace)

Social Enterprise

On October 2021, their idea to make use of wooden pallet waste was recognised by Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia and SME Corporation Malaysia when they won the NGO@Makerthon program. Under the NGO@Makerthon programme, sponsored by Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia, RE: KAYU piloted its five-day apprenticeship workshop at Projek Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) Kampung Baru Hicom, Shah Alam. Together with Adab Youth Garage (AYG), they trained the youths with the technical skills to craft items out of wooden pallet waste.

RE: KAYU also managed to gain support from various parties including government agencies such as SME Corp and Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia (YIM) through Inclusive SME Ecosystem (I-SEE) program. The program accelerates to RE: KAYU mission to empower the bottom 40% group in the income pyramid (B40) by leveraging innovation by transforms the wood waste into bespoke benches, tables for community in Puchong. In just a few months, it has donated wooden furniture sets to 150 flood victims, trained 10 underprivileged youths with woodworking skills and hired two woodworkers from the lower income (B40) families.

Our Values

• Impact: As a community-based social enterprise, we are about more than just profit. Everything we do supports people in our community to make a change.
• Learning: We build confidence, and we teach practical skills for work and for living.
• Empowerment: We are passionate about helping people, especially the young and the underprivileged in our community, to believe in themselves and achieve their goals.
• Creativity & Quality: We are professional. We are excited about good design and crafting innovative products.

Organisation

RE: KAYU is an online eco-friendly designer furniture maker that will take the direct-to-consumer (D2C) approach in light of the COVID-19 situation. In order to ensure we are able to track our products and keep customers happy, we offer an in-house delivery program.

Being new to the market that serves the PPR communities in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, we want to make sure they are truly satisfied with our products and services. RE: KAYU will also offer wood waste collection services where we will collect all types of wood waste at reasonable prices. We provide a unique three-tier disposal system for the wood waste where it could either be recycled at a recycling plant, upcycled into furniture, or be sent back to wooden pallet suppliers to encourage a circular economy.

RE: KAYU aims to support businesses and local authorities to ease their impact on the environment while minimising cost of disposing the wood waste. We also want to help organizations that want to fulfil their corporate social responsibility in upholding sustainable practices in their procedures.

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