Hey there, we (Bart Lauwers, Max Middelbos and Jop van Teeffelen) are three students at the TU Delft studying respectively, Applied Physics, Mechanical Engineering and Technical Policy and Management. We are currently enrolled for the minor International Entrepreneurship and Development. From November until February we are going to work on a project for the company called CHAKO which is located in Zanzibar, Tanzania. CHAKO is a social enterprise working according the “Tourist2Tourist” concept, meaning they make souvenirs for tourists from the waste that tourists directly produce.
About Chako
CHAKO is a social enterprise operating from Mwanakwerekwe, Zanzibar. The company was founded in 2010 in a small workplace in a boutique of a hotel on Zanzibar where local woman created products from recycled waste. The mission of CHAKO is to increase economic opportunity on the island by enabling artisan craft producers in Zanzibar to expand their product ranges, establish networks and connect with broader markets. CHAKO encourages learning by doing and encourages local artisan craft producers, mostly women, to be creative and artistic without any limitations.
CHAKO products are made of recycled materials this creates something beautiful out of waste and it shows the local community to learn to recycle their waste.
CHAKO is Upcycled & Uplifted!
Our project
We will be focussing on a new branch of Chako, namely the plastic Branch. We will build a plastic extrusion machine for CHAKO in the months we are there. This machine melts plastic “flakes” in to dreads of plastic, which can be used to make all kinds of products. By experimenting with different kinds of plastic and different melting temperatures there will be different kinds of plastic to work with. This expands the creativity and productivity of the local employees of CHAKO.
Furthermore we will make agreements with local resorts and hotels to get the resources to make more new products. This way we realize the “Tourist2tourist” concept illustrated by CHAKO
In the end the goal of our project is to make Zanzibar plastic waste free!
