"CHAKO - From plastic waste to lamps"

Mambo!

White beaches, clear blue water, and a constant temperature of 30 degrees day in and day out. What more could you ask for? It's no wonder that over half a million tourists visit Zanzibar. The consequence is an increasing amount of plastic and glass waste ending up in Zanzibar's natural environment. We are a team of four students from TU Delft and Wageningen University, and from November to February, we are traveling to Zanzibar, Tanzania, for our minor in International Entrepreneurship and Development.

Our mission is to design a product made from the plastic waste on the island to contribute to a circular economy and create more job opportunities for the people of Zanzibar.

Meet the Team

We are Rosalie Buningh (BSc Industrial Design), Nynke Leppink (BSc Civil Engineering), Philippine Oostwegel (BSc Mechanical Engineering), and Lisanne Teeuw (BSc International Development Studies). A diverse team with different academic backgrounds.

We are working on this project on behalf of CHAKO Zanzibar. CHAKO Zanzibar is a social enterprise established in 2012 by the Zanzibari-Dutch couple Suleiman and Anneloes. Through the creation of products from glass and plastic waste collected from hotels, resorts, and restaurants on the island, they aim to reduce waste in Zanzibar with the goal of a cleaner island and the creation of jobs for residents without formal education, with a special focus on women.

The Problem

CHAKO has made significant progress with 64 artisans currently creating beautiful products from glass waste, including lamps, glasses, candleholders, and tables. However, due to the lack of a safe drinking water infrastructure, plastic water bottles are still excessively used. CHAKO aims to expand into creating products from plastic waste, and that's where we come in.

Our Product

Over the past two months, we've been working on creating a product from this plastic waste. After an extensive design process, we settled on a lamp made from plastic rods. This lamp can be sold to hotels, resorts, and restaurants, as well as to tourists or shipped to Europe. This way, plastic waste gets a new and lasting life, and it doesn't end up in the trash.

With your donation, we can

- Order plastic molds for making components of the plastic part of the lamp.

- Create prototypes for our lamp. Besides molds, we need other materials, such as the wooden part of the lamp and the connecting material.

- Compensate CHAKO's labor costs for the artisans working on our project.

- If there is any money left at the end of our project with CHAKO, the remaining funds will be given to the company to further expand their impact on the island.

We appreciate any form of financial contribution to support our project! If you have questions about the project or are interested in collaborating, you can contact Rosalie at rosaliebuningh@gmail.com.

For more information about CHAKO, you can visit CHAKO's website at https://chakozanzibar.com/ or check out our Instagram @projectplastic_chako (https://www.instagram.com/projectplastic_chako/).

Your donation will contribute to creating a cleaner island and more job opportunities in Zanzibar!