From Plastic Waste to Bath Mats - A Mdantsane Recycling Initiative

We do not need to ask the question: Is there too much waste in Mdantsane? 

Everybody who has been to Mdantsane knows, that waste management and sanitation are the biggest challenges for the township. Two challenges, that have not even reached the stage of coming close to being mastered. 

Let us show you the good pictures first! There are initiatives in Mdantsane, that try to fight the problem. And they are doing it at grass root level.

Yellow and white striped bath mat made from plastic waste

The bath mats of the Sizamile Women's Group are entirely recycled and crocheted from stripes, that have been cut from discarded plastic shopping bags.

The project is still in its baby shoes and encounters the same problems like many other well meant initiatives in the township, starting with product development and design to make products desirable so that they are bought for their value and not out of charity ending with the lack of proper marketing, project management, public relations, accounting and branding skills and techniques.

Entirely recycled and made in Mdantsane - but still a long way to go.

The recycling project was started by the women alone and the idea is remarkable. But to turn it into an income generating "green project"  the women have a long way to go. 

Consumers all over the world are willing to support green businesses and projects, not only to do good but for their own sake as well. In the end the costumer is interested in eating better, healthier food and in being surrounded by cleaner less hazardous products, that have been produced by taking the environment and the beauty of our dear world into consideration. 

Beautiful and unusual - a green product, handmade and recycled

A well designed and developed proper waste management system is based on the willing participation of all stakeholders involved. 

The municipality can clean up only so much. The residents have to do their part.

Mdantsane and its waste management problem

But in a case like Mdantsane we have to consider several factors: the long history of neglect and discrimination, that the township has endured, the complete lack of environmental education in schools in Mdantsane, and last but not least the fact that poverty reduces drastically a person's capacity and energy to get involved in environmental projects because the fight for survival, for food and shelter is the main concern in that person's mind.

Let's rather say Mdantsane has a plastic problem............

We also have to ask the question: what is here defined as waste? In a location like Mdantsane the definition of waste differs most likely from suburban East London. People in well developed and groomed suburbs throw different things away, than people in squatter camps.

The beautiful old proverb says so wisely: what one man considers as junk or waste can well constitute another man's treasure.

Simply falling apart - but not waste

There are structures, where time has taken its toll and they are falling apart. But they can not necessarily be considered waste. Collecting scrap metal is a source of income for many. 

Wilsonia's scrap yards, an industrial area in East London are busiest on Monday mornings. Collectors are standing in long queues to deliver the metal they have collected over the week-end.  

Metal still has a use and monetary value. Collecting it is an income generating activity for many.

Mdantsane, like many other regions and countries suffers from a disease, that is slowly killing Africa's nature and environment - plastic waste. Africa's waste problem is predominantly a plastic waste problem.
Non degradable, wind torn plastic is found everywhere, in streets, in trees, on fences, in animals stomachs and in any other place you can imagine.

The Endaweni Lounge

Even a most successful and hip business like the Endaweni Lounge has waste problems displayed in front of the door of their music lounge. What can be done about it? The owners are aware of it and they are trying to sort out their waste problem by themselves. 

But it takes capital and investment as well, they say. How does one recycle and discard of thousands of glass bottles and cans, guests have been drinking in a couple of days, if only once a week trash is collected by the municipality?

 

Recycled plastic carpet in burnt orange made by the Sizamile Women's Group

One can argue, that recycling projects like the one of the Sizamile Women's group are only a drop on a hot stone but they are a conscious start to do something about it.

Back side of the recycled carpet

But we can also argue, that for us, who would like to see a change in the cleanliness of our environment this means, that we have to support grass roots recycling projects like Sizamile. Can we say it is our duty to make an effort and buy from them instead from Mr. Price in town. 

A cleaner environment for everyone.... poverty is a great obstacle

If self help initiatives and recycling projects like Sizamile are not supported they "fall into idle". 

Waste in Mdantsane

And once in idle it is difficult to get out again. Out of a sudden a costumer comes and want to order a product and the group or business can not produce it in the time required.

Waste turned into a consumer product

Why? There are numerous reasons. Life itself is one of them. The members of the group can not be found because nobody has given them an order for so long. So why come to the workshop if there are no costumers. It is discouraging! It would be for you too. So you go along with your life and look for other opportunities although you had a great business idea there! There are government grants to keep you alive.

Back side of  a hand crocheted bath mat made by the Sizamile Women's Group

Made from this.....

 

And frankly you have enough now of all that project and sustainability talk. You have set up an NGO, you have learned what a constitution is but really it did not give you food.

What have they told you: Consumers all over the world are willing to support green businesses and projects, not only to do good but for their own sake as well. In the end the costumer is interested in eating better, healthier food and in being surrounded by cleaner less hazardous products, that have been produced by taking the environment and the beauty of our dear world into consideration.  

How can you make them come to you? To Nu 5 in Mdantsane?

Something beautiful made from waste

And then there is this thing with the symmetry! Costumers like to buy handcrafted products, they love African crafters but it is good if a product has symmetry! Symmetry means the product has to have the same dimensions on each side.

That is another thing that does not come easy!

Waste or not?

 

Supporting Recycling initiatives is important

A Sizamile Product

Handmade Carpet in earthy colors - rather a piece of art for some

A Perfectly Beautiful, Organic And Sustainable Piece Of Xhosa Jewelry And The Story Of Its Origin

If You Cross The River Bring A Bangle Back For Me

A Photographic Story By Chocolat

When the waters do not want to marry.....

There are times, when the waters do not want to marry! Like some people do not want to be together.

What happened here? What is going on here, you might ask me when you look at the two colors of the sea? The razor sharp line, that separates them seems a tiny little bit unreal. You have never seen such a clear and straight line between waters, you say to me!

I can only tell you, that this land, that belongs to the Xhosa for so long, and that some name the Transkei is a very special one. It is a land of rolling green hills, mighty bulls and clear, clear blue sky. I say clear. It is truly clear and bright like a child's face. It's the land of many rivers.

So, when the rains have been falling for some days and the Xhosa are happy because their hills are getting even greener and their bulls are getting fatter - the rivers from the mountains run into the sea. And sometimes the waters do not want to marry. And that is what you see.

Some of us others - and we are getting more by the day - wish for a cleaner, better and purer life. But we can not find it where we are. So we start to travel!

The Craft And Traditions Of Days Of Old

On my travels I have seen bangles so beautiful, shining and in a way pure, made by female Xhosa hands in the same old way for centuries. They come straight from the earth, entirely woven out of grass. This land of the Xhosa people, I told you about, has a very special type of grass.

The bangles, they last. 

A perfectly beautiful, organic and sustainable piece of Xhosa jewelry

But to have it, you have to cross at least one river. Only once, have I seen someone bringing them to the city. 

It takes a special place to make a special thing.

So, if you have to cross the river, bring a bangle back, just for me.

Finding a place on the ferry at Kei Mouth can sometimes take a while

Your travel, you will share with everyone. And that is nice.

The waters of the Kei River are brown after heavy rains

The river tells you if you are going on or not.

The easiest way to cross the river

Amongst the many others who have all a reason to cross the river, you can find her. There is she.
But she, she goes forth and back on the river. The river is where she works.  

Crossing the river to do business

It seems strange and still makes sense. For her it's what she does - travelling the river with her stuff. All day long.

Bracelets and baskets are handwoven by the Xhosa women in a traditional way in the Transkei since centuries

She has learned this craft form her forefathers and knows to do it as well as her mother and her grandmother. In the Transkei there is no work, so this is what she does.

A serious look - the Transkei has been my home - always

On the ferry, she shows her things to the ones that cross to the other side. The ones who buy are the tourists and she can tell you, there are not really many of them in this region. Christmas and Easter is a good time for her and the other women because she is not the only one doing this.

So she travels from one side to the other, her face protected against the sun like the Xhosa women have always done it.

In the distance the sea

The grasses of the Transkei in the Eastern Cape are used to make handwoven products

 She needs that grass on the other side of the river, to make the things she does.

Handwoven Baskets - Origin Transkei Eastern Cape

Her baskets are really beautiful and some of the tourists say:"Yes they are, but what would I do with it, I really have no need for it".

"Just buy one, I give it cheap for you", she says.

And may be she is lucky. Being on the ferry is to her advantage because she can talk to the tourists and convince them that they need a basket or a bangle until the ferry touches ground the other side.

Then off they drive with dust and noise.

Cheap Chinese import products have found their way into the Transkei

But her bangles and her baskets are not all she sells. 

Lately, she has added things that she knows come from China. Cheap things that are nothing like hers. Things that are made by even cheaper labor than in South Africa. Things that break and do not last like hers. But the young girls buy it.

To live here you have to be strong - and you are born like that

The remotest areas and all the small villages in South Africa have been flooded by cheap Chinese goods. No small village in the rural areas without a Chinese shop, selling dresses and shoes and lotions and potions to the locals. The same dresses you can buy at Woolworths in town, just 30 % more expensive than here.

The boats men

But we have heard that China is Africa's new big friend. Right? China is helping Africa so much and sending all that money!

And The Passengers

So what is a perfectly beautiful, organic and sustainable piece of Xhosa jewelry worth in our global world? Does it count more or as much as goods, that are produced by child labor. 

And the question is: who wants it? Me, I do.

But I am completely irrelevant int this process. 

International Brands Have Given Their Names And Labels To Africa

Some are not so sure about this trip

But many do not know about all that and are just worried about this trip. There is no time to care cause life is really sometimes not easy. It's the century old, courageous story of African people who can not swim, traveling on rough and long rivers to get to where they want to be. Well, this river is small but it is the same.

Don't look and you will be fine!

She comes home....

And for her, at the end of the day she comes home!

Tired but with may be some money.

Too shy but lots of reason to be proud

At first there was shyness.

What more can you ask for?

But then she showed me her pride.

Different Designs of Grass or Reed Bracelets

Detail of different grass bracelets

Delicate and Fine

A time consuming craft

Incede Womens Project - Art And Recycling In Mdantsane

The Incede Womens Project recycles glass bottles and turn them into beautiful liquor glasses

Nomunde (Patience is her English name, so she tells us) and Zameka are the two savvy ladies behind the Incede Women's Project. The Incede Womens Project's workshop is located in a large room at the Mdantsane Arts Center.

Several women of Mdantsane, concerned about the situation and the future of young people in this country have founded this project a couple of years ago, with the intention to help young people to gain skills in the art sector and thereby allowing them to earn a little income. 

Incede is in the lucky position to be now funded by the Department of Arts and Culture. The efforts of these women, to help create a better community and trying to keep the young people of the streets have been finally recognized.

My name is Patience but I am actually not patient at all, she says!

The Incede Womens Project creates a variety of products with very different materials including pottery ware, mosaic work and has started a line of products, that are made from recycled glass, but we are concentrating in this article on the pottery products, that the women design. 

The products are strongly influenced by the Xhosa culture and the local tradition of the Eastern Cape but they also incorporate many other non-typical Xhosa elements of daily life.

Zameka - a strong vision

Zameka at her working area in front of pottery wares, destined to be painted and glazed

The workshop at the Mdantsane art center seems large to us, but the ladies say it is still not big enough. It is used by many young people, who come there after school to paint or learn the skill of pottery.

Beautiful, colorful handmade and completely RECYCLED glass tiles

The raw material is bought in Gonubie, a little coastal town outside of East London.

The project is well equipped and has all the material needed at its disposition, but the women say what they profoundly lack is marketing, business and selling skills. 

"Once our products are finished, they rest on the shelves in the arts center, Patience says, we don't know how to get them to the clients and we don't know how to attract clients."

The Kiln

Unfinished products

A mosaic clock

The large workshop of the Incede Womens Project

Patience at work

The women belief in their project

The women who have founded Incede believe in the power of work and that if one learns a skill it changes one's outlook on life.

Learning something adds a sense of worth and self respect to your life

"If you are not working, you feel useless. You feel useless and you do not have an income. Sometimes this can not be changed easily because of external circumstances. But if you learn a skill, even if you still have not an income you feel proud and more re-assured of yourself than before," says Patience.

"You have added value to yourself. Life is also about understanding your own value. May be your income will come later or there is the possibility, that you will find money through the skill you have learned in another way, that you have not thought of!"

 

Many women in their later years in life have a deep concern for the future of the young people in South Africa.

Representing the tasks of daily life in the Xhosa culture

If the old traditions die the teachings of these traditions reserved for the young people die as well. But it is a fact of life that certain traditions will die because the effort it would take to uphold them is too big. New ways have to be found to establish values and recognize the value of life. Art can be one of these ways.

The tradition of the rural areas of the Eastern Cape is reflected in these sculptures

Looking at the sculptures one can see, that they have been inspired by daily life. The easy and simple things are shown here. The things, that have to be repeated day after day and that can be a burden sometimes are modeled into sculptures.

I do know nothing about art!

"In fact, I do know nothing about art! But I am very interested in art and all the things that are linked to it", says Patience. 

It is hard to believe, that she grew up "knowing nothing about art", as she says.

Religion is always there

The traditional way of dressing

The traditional way of living

some humor

and something foreign

Makes the eclectic mix of todays South Africa

If you want to support the women or if you are on the look out for some beautiful gifts - Mdantsane is not that far. 

Here are the ladies phone numbers:
Nomunde 0738522088
Zameka  0735794244