Benin project turns waste fabric into recycled 'gold'

Every morning, Amake Yessoufou makes the rounds of the sewing workshops of Ouidah, a tiny coastal municipality successful the southbound of Benin, and collects scraps of cloth utilized by tailors to marque clothes.

In the past, discarded cloth clogged up the gutters of Ouidah, but Yessoufou is portion of 1 effort to alteration that civilization and marque the astir of recycling materials.

When Yessoufou ends her tour, the 28-year-old, who is deaf and mute, joins the "Colour Indigo" workshop, a task transforming discarded cloth into decorative objects.

Employing astir 30 people, including 10 surviving with a disability, the task has recovered a loyal pursuing and adjacent ships immoderate objects overseas.

"I had ne'er imagined that scraps of cloth could beryllium useful. At first, I was amazed and astonished but afterwards, I understood that textile discarded is worthy golden if it is recycled," says Lucrece Sossou, a section seamstress.

In the workshop, Anne-Marie Afoutoutou leaves her wheelchair astatine the ft of a heap of scraps of fabric. On a tiny woody chair, she braids pieces of laundry sorted by colour.

Over the people of the day, the piles of cloth vanish and each mode of objects instrumentality shape, from placemats and rugs to earrings, sold astatine betwixt 7 and 40 euros a piece.

One "Colour Indigo" lawsuit is Marcel Adjanohoun, caput of respective hotels successful Ouidah—a tourist destination 40 kilometres (25 miles) on the seashore from Cotonou, the economical capital.

"These are objects that talk to maine a lot, truthful I usage them to decorate my hotel," explained the entrepreneur.

Braiding the pieces of fabric to marque objects has importantly changed the lives of the workers, astir of whom usage crutches oregon wheelchairs.

Contrary to what immoderate argue, moving with radical surviving with a disablement does not impact the productivity of the institution successful immoderate way, says Nadia Adanle, the concern manager.

Thanks to her work, Afoutoutou tin "finally supply for her needs", whereas before, she says, she could "not enactment thing aside".

"The mode nine looks astatine maine has changed a batch since I permission the location each greeting to spell to work," she says, her eyes riveted connected the bladed braids. "Today, I consciousness valued."

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© 2021 AFP