In the middle of the Sahara desert on the western border of Algeria, refugee camps hosting tens of thousands of people rely completely on humanitarian aid: Water, food, and other basic supplies come in on trucks. Trash, on the other hand, doesn’t really leave; until recently, all the waste from the camps was dumped nearby in the desert into an ever-growing pile of plastic. But at a new recycling center at one of the camps, refugees are now turning that plastic trash into furniture and other products that they can use.
“They were looking for a way to solve two problems,” says Joseph Klatt, managing director at Precious Plastic. “One, they have a large refugee population there with a high unemployment rate. Everything is brought into the camps, so there’s not a lot of economic activity going on. And secondarily, there’s a lot of waste in the camp. They were looking for a solution to create a new business from processing the plastic waste and providing some economic activity for the refugees.”
“We had a few design sessions where we talked about what’s possible and how to use this plastic material,” Klatt says. “And then they were just super stoked on coming up with ideas that made sense to them—furniture styles that they’re used to, and different ideas they had.”
The U.N. is paying a group of refugees to work at the recycling center for the first year of its operation; thereafter, refugees will become part owners in the facility. The first products will be sold to nongovernmental organizations who support infrastructure, like schools at the camps, and have the means to buy the furniture.
“It’s almost like an island context—a somewhat closed ecosystem,” Klatt says. “There’s an opportunity to try to create a circular economy within that community.”
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