Tackling Zanzibar's plastic waste problem through sustainability!

Dear readers!

We are Sophie, Emma and Jamil, and together with CHAKO Zanzibar, we aim to tackle the local waste and health problems on the island Zanzibar, with the development of an innovative and sustainable alternative for recycling the vast amounts of plastic on the island! 

For this project, we work together with CHAKO Zanzibar. This is a social and sustainable enterprise located at Zanzibar, Tanzania, which is known for its beautiful white beaches, clear turquoise blue waters, rich history and more. The only problem is that there is a lot of plastic waste on the island. This is exactly where CHAKO comes into play. They up-cycle the waste on the island into beautiful locally produced and artisan crafted products, and sell this across the globe. Not only does this create something beautiful out of waste, but it also keeps the beautiful island clean and empowers women and youth with a trade and fair wages, given that half of the population on Zanzibar lives below the poverty line. 

With the three of us wanting to make a social and sustainable impact during our minor “International Entrepreneurship and Development”, we were immediately intrigued by their project and mission. That is why we decided to contribute to their cause. During our half year commitment to this waste clean-up business, we saw that not only plastic waste is a problem, but that the general health of the locals of Zanzibar needs improvement, with obesity becoming a bigger and bigger problem. Another observation was that there was a need for a sustainable way to recycle more plastic at low fabrication and operational costs, with vast amounts of plastic littering the island.

To tackle these problems, we came up with a solution! We developed, and are now building, a bicycle powered machine, that shreds plastic waste into useful material for CHAKO to use for the production of their products. This will be the perfect bridge between the vitality of the employees, up-cycling plastic waste, all while being an innovative and sustainable alternative to existing methods!

Now comes the tricky part, where you could play an important role. Before the women on Zanzibar can utilise and reap the benefit of it, we need to raise capital to build and ship such a bicycle shredder. To complete the machine would need the capital for shipping (€300), the shredder itself (€500), (custom) parts (€1500) and tools (€200). If we reach more than this goal, which is €2500,-, we will use this to order spare materials and tools to ship along with our bicycle shredder to CHAKO Zanzibar. Since a lot of parts are hard to find on Zanzibar, these extra parts could give them a headstart in upscaling the amount of bicycle shredders, making the benefits even greater!

If you decide to donate and help us in our cause, you receive several gifts! If you donate more than €15,-, you will receive a beautiful Kitengi mask, made specially for you by CHAKO employees themselves. With a donation €25,-, you will receive two Kitengi masks and a Kitengi pouch. With the donation of €50,-, you will receive a beautiful reversible Kitengi bag, made out of recycled materials. with donations of €100,- or above, you will receive two beautiful Kitengi bags, along with a personal thank you video from us and CHAKO!

We love this project and are glad that we are given the opportunity to transfer our knowledge to Zanzibar. For more information, go to the website of CHAKO Zanzibar: https://www.chakozanzibar.com/ where information about the business and products is provided. If you want to follow our journey, follow us on instagram: @tudelft_chako