The art of recycling scrap metal into household goods and decor

It is a calm evening in Voi, Taita Taveta county. Cholo Mwasaru is hurriedly trying to sort out parts of aluminium metal from a heap of broken car engines in his small, single-room brick foundry.

His workshop is at Jua Kali estate. He is the founder of Cholo Arts, a youth start-up venture involved in beadwork, creative art, interior design and metal casting.

This evening, as the sun sets behind the magnificent Taita Hills, Mwasaru is still busy in his workshop, preparing some scrap metal for casting. He uses aluminium metal from parts of broken car engines and aluminium cans to create household goods.

“Besides my passion for art, the project is much focused on conserving the environment through recycling waste metal from motor vehicles. I am also involved in mentoring my fellow youth to embrace self-employment,” Mwasaru says.

He expresses optimism that the project will eventually change the lives of the youth in the area.

He has directly employed four artisans in his workshop, and there are hundreds of other youth who supply him with scrap metal.

Mwasaru, 27, has been able to inspire other youth in Voi to realise and exploit their talents to improve their livelihood.

When he resigned from the National Youth Service in 2017, he focused on perfecting his longtime passion for art. Passion, action and reaction, he says, have been his great virtue in this enterprising venture.

It was a tough decision since none of his family members supported the decision to quit NYS. However, his determination has changed his art to a household name in only four years.

“My parents were shocked when I travelled home one day and told them I had resigned from the NYS. My mother was so mad at me, but I had to pursue what I thought was necessary for me,” he says.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Mwasaru started with beadworks and later moved on to metal casting. He has recruited a team of creative youths who work on a series of projects that range from interior decoration, painting, wallpaper installation and gypsum application.

Other uniquely designed household goods include lampshade stands, cooking pots, frying pans, jewels and trophies.

“We have inspired many unemployed young people to engage in scrap metal recycling and creative art while conserving the environment,” he says.

There are an estimated 2.6 million unemployed youths in Kenya, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

The increase in the rate of youth unemployment has been attributed to companies shutting operations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a good month, Mwasaru makes an average of Sh100,000 from the art business. He uses part of the money to pay the contracted youth.

He advises young men and women to come out and explore the business sector instead of waiting for white-collar jobs.

“Uniqueness sells. Stop blaming your parents, politicians for your problems. Most of us, the only thing our parents could offer is prayers, and it has kept us going,” he says.

Mwasaro's next unique project will involve turning scrap metal into animal sculptures for home decoration. He targets to make sculptures of the big five, which characterise the iconic Tsavo National Park.

“This is a new art of turning scrap metal and mechanical objects into different sculptures. We are targeting homes and also public places to install the unique sculptures. The entire creation will be made using assorted waste metal from our scrap pile,” Mwasaru says.

WHAT IT TAKES 

Timothy Mjomba, a creative artisan involved in the project, says they have been able to sustain and scale up the project by supplementing it with other jobs like painting and interior decoration.

“In this business, we heat aluminium up to 660 degrees to melt it before casting it into shapes. A single project can take more than a fortnight. Therefore, we are also forced to work on other projects,” he says.

The moulding process of making a product starts by drawing the designs on paper before making a 3D sketch. The design is then taken to the foundry team, who deal with smelting the scrap metals to form a finished product.

Citing the increase in the number of motor vehicle owners in the country, Mjomba says there are more metals disposed of, thus causing air, soil and water pollution.

“Our project is inspired by the desire to make use of these metals that are thrown into the environment every day,” he says.

Further, they are targeting to also use unwanted pieces of gemstones, which are usually dumped at mining zones to make household decorations.

Taita Taveta is endowed with numerous gemstones, including Tsavorite, ruby, tourmaline, red garnets, green garnets and Tanzanite.

“Miners usualy throw away unwanted and broken pieces of gemstones. We are venturing into value addition to make these pieces useful. They can be used to decorate our sculptures,” Mjomba says.

He urges the government to make youth loans available to individual entrepreneurs as opposed to groups, saying many youth groups have been unable to succeed for lack of common goal.

SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT

Environmentalist Gabriel Musyoka says metal recycling will save the environment from being ruined by poorly dumped metals that eventually pollute soil and water, causing health complications.

“The more scrap metal is recycled, the better for our environment. It is a way of winding up metal deposits in garbage dumpsites,” he says.

The increasing number of motor vehicles in the country, he says, has highly contributed to the volume of dumped aluminium and other metals from broken engines and motor vehicles.

“Past research suggests that if we increase recycling of aluminium and other scrap metals, more than a million lots of toxins would be stayed out of the environment,” Musyoka says.

He says the government should streamline efforts to protect natural resources by enhancing reduce, reuse and recycle plan.

Past recycling statistics predict that if stringent measures are not taken, global waste will increase by up to 70 per cent in 2050.

Edited by T Jalio