The Glass Miracle 

Chako upcycling creates 50 jobs

There are bottles everywhere. Of course. This is Chako’s raw material! Chako (Swahili for yours) is the oldest glass collection company in Zanzibar creating handcrafted art products from waste. When we visit the factory near Bububu, more than 50 women and men are busy cutting used bottles into new shapes; some are crafting exquisite little wooden covers for jam glasses, spaghetti containers and water bottles. Carafes, vases, bulbs and lamps are also made of old bottles. The upcycled products of Chako are known to be not only practical but beautiful. Many hotels and restaurants use them; tourists buy them as souvenirs in Chako’s new shop in Stone Town and take them home.

Reduce, reuse, recycle is the idea. 750 students have been taught by Chako about the importance of environmental protection. Chako became the first member of the World Fair Trade Organisation in Zanzibar and is supported by the TUI Care Foundation, a travel-related charity from Germany.

“Tourism brings money but also a lot of waste”, say the Chako’s owners and founders, Anneloes and Suleiman Mohamed, longtime partners in life and business. Suleiman Mohamed was recently elected as the new director of ZATI, the powerful 500-member-strong Association of Tourism Investors on the isles. Chako collects between one and two million bottles per year in Zanzibar. Started in 2019, their success story is presently widening. They experiment with upcycling plastic into modern chandeliers, and have started making terrazzo of crushed glass and cement.

“It was unusual to see women working with glass here”, Dutch-born Anneloes explains. But Nasma and Aziza at Chako look very comfortable heating up delicate glass bottles marked with a diamond laser, until they crack. After cleaning and polishing, a new glass is ready to sell.     (AT)

More information: chakozanzibar.com