Upcycled Wine Bottles
The drinking glasses, carafes and vases are made from upcycled empty wine bottles, a waste product from the tourism industry of Zanzibar. Zanzibar is a beautiful but very poor island in Tanzania and attracts a substantial number of tourists every year. Unfortunately, the island lacks a waste management program and litter from tourists end up in landfill or in the sea. Giving a second life to empty wine bottles by upcycling them, contributes to waste reduction and raises the environmental awareness of the local population.
Sustainable & local sourcing
The empty wine bottles are collected from hotels, restaurants and bars on the island of Zanzibar, in a surrounding area of 50 kilometers. When the transfer busses drop the tourists off at the hotels, the empty busses are filled with empty wine bottles to be dropped at the upcycling project on the way back. Since there is no well-established waste management or recycling program this project prevents this litter to end up in the sea or landfills. Today locals become more aware of the fact that litter actually has value and bring empty wine bottles proactively to the workshop.
Environmentally friendly production
The empty wine bottles, collected from hotels, restaurants and bars are carefully sorted on usability and color and are thoroughly cleaned. The craftspeople, mainly women, cut the bottles into different sizes and shapes and sand the edges by hand with a simple sanding machine. This whole process only requires a limited amount of electricity and is therefore environmentally friendly.
Saving resources
By reusing wine bottles, we do not only avoid the negative effect on biodiversity when it ends up in landfills or in the sea; It is also a very environmentally friendly way of producing glassware.
Compared to producing new glass, 1 kg of upcycled glass saves:
- 1.2 kg of raw materials
- 0.105 kg of fuel
- 0.9 kg of CO2 emission
Creating job opportunities
The entire sourcing & production process is executed by hand with the support of simple traditional tools. This process creates more job opportunities and income for people in the rural communities where the unemployment and poverty rate is high.
Other Materials & Production
Nature is at the origin of the originalhome collection. To minimize a negative impact on our eco-system we solely use natural, organic, biodegradable, non-toxic and eco-friendly materials and/or materials that would otherwise be considered as waste. The products have been sourced and produced with the lowest environmental impact possible.
