Waste plastic is not recycled in Cape Verde but either left in the environment, in streets and on beaches, or collected and burnt in garbage dumps. This is bad for the environment, but also for the health of people. Cape Green Foundation intends to start a plastic recycling program that involves the local population, especially young people. The project will start in 2025 in cooperation with the city council of Tarrafal. Learn more in this video below.

We have bought a shredding machine, which will shred any type of the seven plastics that are typically used by consumers. We have also bought a machine that melts the shredded plastic and pours it into molds. These machines have been designed and built by MAD Plastic in Portugal by engineers like Carolina Espinoza and Yann Chouvin who were inspired by the Precious Plastic project and worked with this project in a number of African countries.

This process produces a variety of objects in different colours made out of the waste plastic. These can be household objects like plates, cups and buckets but also objects that are suitable for selling to tourists. Colourful bracelets, pendants, small animals and so on. We will be working in a workspace made available to us by the city Council with a group of women (photo) to train them in the use of differentiating between the various kinds of plastics, using the machines and making various products. The women will be selling these products both to tourists and to local shops and the proceeds are divided among them. We will pay the women a basic daily salary in addition. We also make baskets by weaving strips produced from empty bottles. The molds are supplied by Plasticpreneur, Austria.

We will also invite young people to collect waste plastic and pay them. This is an incentive to clean the environment. All waste will be collected in an electric driven tuktuk.

In November 2024 two team members, technical expert Aren Slootweg and Ton van der Lee, went on an investigative mission to see what the needs and possibilities are. They investigated where the waste plastic is and in what quantity and what the possibilities are for collecting plastic bottles and glasses from restaurants and bars. In 2025, the plastic recycling project will be led by supervisor Ton van der Lee and technical expert Ian Davidson.

We also did research into what products are popular among tourists and what products are needed by the local population, like for instance, chairs and stools. They found that there is a lot of interest from local shops is to resell these products; there are a number of small tourist shops and quite a few shops that sell household items to the local population. The idea is to sell our products to the shops at low price or give them in consignation for them to sell, after which they will pay us our basic price back. This will enable us to set up a business model.

We have already tested and designed a number of products, like these turtle keyrings, chairs, toys, bags and wallets.

WORKSHOPS FOR VISITORS

If you are interested in learning more about the project by doing a workshop with the local women at our workspace near the beach, you can do so by contacting us via Whatsapp or Signal on Number 0031–653–742728. There will be a supervisor participating to help your communication with the women who only speak Portuguese. We have interpreters who speak English, German, Dutch and French. You will work togeter with the ‘Mulheres Batalhadores’, a women’s activist group, see picture.

You can do a half day workshop, which involves the various steps of the process in our workshop space (sorting and cleaning the various types of plastics, shredding them, using the mold press and making useful products out of it like for instance and necklace, bracelet or a fly curtain which you can then take home. For those who have weaving skills you can be taught how to make a basket out of plastic strips made from bottles. Or you can do a whole day workshop which also involves going out into the town and the surroundings in an electric duck to collect waste plastic which will then be converted by you and the women into useful products. the price for a half-day is €50 and for a whole day is €80. Due to the heat we start at eight and finish at four in the afternoon and we have a break from 12 to 2.

come and join us!