From trash to Art

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From trash to Art
by DAVID CHAPOLOKO \| 22-10-2019 12:38 1
Charity begins at home they say. That is exactly my story. I come from a town called Luanshya that is located on the Copperbelt province of Zambia. Luanshya like many other towns it is one of those polluted by plastic litter in most of its areas. It all started as a dream; I wanted a way that I could make my hometown of Luanshya into a plastic and litter free zone, and I wanted to explore how I could turn plastics trash into valuables that people can buy. I had so many questions with me. I thought of how i could recycle plastic waste into anything valuable and how possible it could be. Instead of stressing the marine and terrestrial ecosystem, can there be a way that people can live with their plastic litter at the comfort of their homes? Could there be a way that plastic trash could be turned into gold rush? This led me into creating a social enterprise i called “Art 4 Climate Zambia". The aim of this project was to get rid of plastic waste from the environment and make visual arts products from it like sculptures. I thought about the influence of art and how it could be used as a tool to influence social change. I shared the dream with a few others and we could go out, pick up plastic litter and use the plastic litter to make sculptures. Just one sculpture could engulf up to 23 kg of plastic waste. Before I knew it, a lot of people got interested we started growing in numbers. It erupted into a campaign called ‘Keep Luanshya a Plastic Litter Free Zone’. People joined me in numbers and I received support from the area’s Member of Parliament. We started collaborating efforts with the local government authority. Today, my social enterprise has grown. We are producing different sculptures out of plastic. As the campaign has grown, there has been significant change seen all over the town in terms of people’s behavior and the general town cleanliness. The future of the project is to upscale into producing panels out of plastics like desks among many target products. The designs for such equipment are underway. This project will largely reduce pressure on forest timber and the target is rural community schools that are still lacking basic learning equipment to ensure education sector is enhanced through this innovation. As young people we have a duty to do. We have to become as innovative as possible to change the world. We can make people look at life differently. If they called it 'plastic litter', we can change its name into 'amazing sculptures'. That is how powerful we are. Let us use everything we have, our skills, creativity and energy into impacting society. This is very possible to do if we united each one's voice and sforts together as one. I hope you got inspired. Thanks for your time.

Dormant user DAVID CHAPOLOKO

8 Comments

Hema Sapkota says :
Greeting david
I hope you are doing well!
Thank you so much for this report!
Keep writing
Green cheers
Regards
Hema
Posted 22-03-2020 11:25

DAVID CHAPOLOKO says :
Thank you so much so much. The link to the facebook page as well as more photos to the social enterprise will soon be posted on TUNZA Ecogeneration facebook community. Thank you for the support and kind words.

Kind regards
Posted 27-10-2019 02:37

Kushal Naharki

Kushal Naharki says :
Hello David

I do hope that you are fine and doing great with your works.
Thank you for your report about From trash to Art

Green Cheers from Nepal :)
Keep writing great reports.
We are eager to read more reports from you.

Regards,
Kushal Naharki

Posted 26-10-2019 10:28

Hyeongmin Mentor says :
Hi David

Reading your report, I was wondering about how the sculptures might look, and by look at the picture, I'm just fascinated by the great quality of it. It's just way more great than I expected.
You certainly are a hero to your society. There were already huge differences in streets and in people's attitude toward the plastic wastes. And I'm sure something greater will continue to happen. I can see that all these happened from a basic dream which were little at that time. You were wondering and something great just came up in your mind. The process you described in your report was very impressive.

I hope to hear more about your enterprise.

Thank you for the great report.

Keep up the good work.
Posted 25-10-2019 01:48

Nikolay Dagaev says :
Hello DAVID! I am very impressed with what I read. It's an incredible idea to create sculptures out of plastic. I wish prosperity to your project and great success to you personally!
Thank you for sharing your report!
Posted 23-10-2019 05:11

DAVID CHAPOLOKO says :
Thank you lisa for your encouraging comment.
Let me work on them. I will be able to post the links. And about more of my art work. I can email you if you dont mind.

Thank you and kind regards.
Posted 23-10-2019 01:21

Lisa Mentor says :
Hey David!
this is your mentor Lisa.

I am so amazed by your story, how you moved your passion in to real action!

Your art pieces are not only great in the way they look but they are also great for our future as well. I would love to see some more pictures of them! Plus, I think it would be great if you could share some photos of your artwork in our facebook community so that more people can see them!

I really do love your last paragraph, it is the young people that have creative, innovative and unimaginable ideas and viewpoints that we can contribute to making this world a better place to live. Your story is such a great example and is living proof of why the youths need to be included and respected as the real social agents in the world.

Keep up the good work and I really do support you, dear!

Plus, if you have a website or facebook group page or any SNS for your enterprise, please put the link with the photos on our facebook community! I bet people will love to join and support your work:)
Posted 22-10-2019 18:08