03 Apr 2017

Different waste materials such as plastic bags, empty sacks and several others seem to be a challenge in terms of disposal.

Such materials are often left lying loosely around and eventually get carried away by the wind and left hanging on trees making the environment look untidy.

However, some individuals continue to make efforts to re-use these materials to come up with appealing end products.

One such is a 70-year-old Ms Chinana Jack who uses empty maize-meal sacks and those used to package vegetables such as cabbages and butternuts for basket weaving.

Ms Jack said whenever she goes around collecting all these materials, some people often look at her with dropping jaws dropped others consider her an attention seeker.

The unfazed active granny never takes all these into consideration, for she knows that at the end of it all, through her weaving activity, she will come up with usable items from these waste materials.

"The thought of re-using this material does not only benefit me, it also has a positive impact on waste management, hence helping to reduce environmental pollution,” she said.

Ms Jack also uses plastic bags to croch items such as table mats, bangles and also uses pieces of wools to come up with children’s toys such as dolls and other items that can be used for ornamental purpose.

The grandmother of six grandchildren said she hates to see waste materials that could be taken care of left lying around.

She said through weaving and crocheting, she was confident that she could make a difference in waste management.

Ms Jack might be old but one fascinating thing about her is her ability to be creative, and this gives her end products appealing colours and patterns.

She uses her end products for storage and other domestic purposes.

“Instead of using plastic bags for storage purposes, I now use the baskets I design to store food items such as dried bean leaves (morogo wa dinawa), dried mophane worms, cereals such as maize, beans and others,” she said.

The mother of five said although she uses her products for domestic purposes, some people have shown interest in them and at times gives them away as gifts or donates to different centres and sells some.

While all her children take full responsibility to provide for her, Ms Jack said with the little profits made, she supplements her old age pension allowance and attends to minor monetary matters.

Her intention is to liaise with the Ward Development Committee (WDC) in her area so as to encourage other individuals to re-use some of the waste materials. ENDS