Hauwa Ali
A 27 year old Malawian, Chisomo Lifa, has innovatively device ways of ridding his street and country of plastic waste by collecting plastic waste, melt down the bottles and bags and moulds them into animals, which he designs and paints.
It began with a rhino, then elephants, cheetah and pangolins which now appear in Chisomo Lifa’s plastic artwork.
The 27-year-old from Blantyre, Malawi, began collecting plastic waste two years ago, disheartened by the amount he saw on the city streets.
“I didn’t really have an idea exactly what I wanted to do, but then the idea of producing artworks came to me.” He said.
“The response from people was overwhelming and that encouraged me to continue with the idea,” says Lifa.
“I chose animals in my sculptures because there is also the problem of wildlife poaching,” he added.
His sculptures have been displayed at the Four Seasons garden centre, a leading art space in Lilongwe. He has also sold some of his work.
Lifa hopes that by turning waste paper and plastic into eye-catching art, he can start to sway people’s perspective on the environment and wildlife.
It is estimated that 5,000 tonnes of plastic is produced in Malawi each year, 80% of which cannot be recycled. Most of it ends up in landfill.
Although the government moved to ban the manufacture, distribution and use of thin plastics, court injunctions obtained by manufacturers, and insufficient monitoring, mean plastics still flood the market.
Lifa, who started drawing when he was in bed with malaria in 2014, now teaches in schools and has an ambition to open an art school in the city.
“Working with plastics is adventurous but challenging at the same time, since we work at high temperatures. But I am greatly motivated and am now working on lesser-known animals like pangolins so that people can know what these animals look like.” Lifa said.