Uganda farmer grows natural substitute for plastic bottles

DW (English)

A Ugandan farmer is growing calabash or bottle gourds as a natural alternative to plastic bottles. The idea is catching on and business is booming. Uganda still produces some 600 tonnes of plastic waste every day, and very little of it is collected.

Transcript

00:00A Kalabash garden southwest of Kampala.

00:11The atmosphere here is almost magical.

00:15Farmer Godfrey Kigoya sells the gourds as a natural alternative to plastic containers

00:21and bottles.

00:22The Rwizi River is just one example of how plastic pollutes the environment and threatens

00:28biodiversity.

00:29More and more people are realizing that plastic waste is a huge problem.

00:35This is now an opportunity.

00:36This is a new market.

00:37This is something new on market.

00:40This one has added on our income.

00:43After harvesting, the gourds are dried and then hollowed out.

00:50It's important to farmer Kigoya that nothing goes to waste.

00:56What comes out as a waste are the seeds that come from inside.

01:00Now that's feed for the pigs.

01:02That can produce some good fibers and some good vitamins for the pigs.

01:08So they can also get some good feed.

01:11That's now recycling the wastes.

01:14So you see now there is nothing we can waste.

01:17Kalabash are traditionally used as a vessel for storing dairy products and other things.

01:22Waste vendor Christine Nampanga has seen an increase in sales.

01:28There's a lot of demand for these natural products, and so I've started growing them

01:32myself.

01:35Kalabash fan Martin Ogwal says the best thing is that these containers are biodegradable.

01:41It has no side effect on the environment.

01:44When you dispose it, it is a manure.

01:47But compared to the bottles, the plastic bottles that we pick water and use out of it, you

01:52go through and it becomes a problem to the environment.

01:56Uganda still produces some 600 tons of plastic waste every day, and just 6 percent of it

02:03is collected.

02:04Godfrey Kigoya hopes his Kalabash can be part of a much-needed change.

02:10For you there, which one of the two is better, going Greece or going Greece?

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