Some of the best news comes from surprising places. This time it's Tanzania.
While I can't post photos right due to some kind of technical difficulty I did wish to share a good news story.
I've been trying to get my computer to work all day; the phone does but I have only been able to get minimal connection once or twice and absolutely no joy in anything requiring any bandwidth. So as always, welcome to Africa. Never a dull moment.
About ten days ago I had the pleasure of interviewing the young staff of designers at a company called Dunia Design (https://www.duniadesigns.org/. While I can't add photos at the moment I would entreat you to go to their website. A full article is coming, as soon as I can sort out the internet issue.
However here's the back story. A husband, a wife, here on a job back in 2013, decide to create a company together. She's a tree hugger, he cares about having a good world for his new kids. Long story short, they go after the plastic garbage issue.
What follows is a fairy tale. They came up with an approach, found a way to make what they call "greenwood," which is plastic garbage made into very attractive planks. Again, long story short, all was going well, they had the tourist market scoped out, BANG, Covid.
They had a choice. They chose to rethink and buckle down. They had a massive explosive opening night which blew everyone's minds. NOBODY who knew what they were doing expected what they saw. Again, please visit their website. I guarantee you joy. Unbelievable joy, along with hope and immense potential.
Here's why. The more furniture they sell, the more garbage gets recycled. Assuming they can find investors and replicate their process elsewhere, they want to take their model all over the world. Local folks get trained, plastic gets picked up and made into superb furniture, people get skilled jobs, trees are left alone, everyone wins. Big time. The bigger they get, the more everyone wins. That is the new model for sustainability.
Again this is a short story in the sincere hope that what's left of the internet will get it out to you but here's the final kicker: As they currently sell to the tourism market, their hope is to get big enough to create lines of good products that the average African villager can buy. That replaces cheap, awful, breakable plastic Chinese chairs which add to the problem.
You can see why I am a big fan. I am trying very hard to some posting while the bandwidth issue limits what I can produce but I thought you might truly enjoy reading about what's working over here.
I collect good news. Boy, this was a big one. A full article follows, photos still not loading, but kindly stay tuned.
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