Can Africa's Smallest Country Fight Plastic Pollution?

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We recently spent some time in The Gambia where we helped set up a brand-new recycling workspace with shredding, injection moulding and extrusion capabilities. Part of our job was to find out how the citizens of The Gambia deal with their plastic waste and provide some solutions so that it can be turned into new and meaningful items instead of damaging the environment.
Find out more about the workspace: preciousplasticgambia.com/
Machines and moulds: www.sustainabledesign.studio/
#PlasticPollution #PlasticRecycling #ClimateCrisis #BrothersMake #RecycledPlastic #RecycledPlasticBottles #PlasticShredding #InjectionMoulding #PlasticExtrusion
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♻️ Check out our recycled plastic store: www.brothersmake.com/shop
📸 Follow us on Instagram and TikTok: / brothersmake | / brothersmake
FAQ:
➡️ Be sure to watch our recycled plastic safety video first if you fancy giving this a go! • A Guide to Recycling P...
➡️ We don't buy any of our plastic. It all comes from collection and donations. We have a video all about it: • “You Buy Your Lids”… w...
➡️ Our workshop is powered 100% by renewable energy. We don’t use any energy from fossil fuels.
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Music by Epidemic Sound

[@BrothersMake]

What country should we visit next? If you enjoyed this video then you'll love the card we've linked at 17:21 🐝🦋

[@eugenetswong]

I suggest starting at the bottom of the list of of the most environmentally friendly countries, and then working your way up...but first choose the environmentally unfriendly countries that release trash into rivers and other waters. I don't mean to judge, but getting them to stop would help all countries have cleaner water. The first project might be to repurpose large plastic bins and containers to become recycling bins just for the Precious Plastics community. Placing 1 complete set machinery in each country would plant the seeds in their imagination.

[@joseph-ur9yp]

please come to Ethiopia, east Africa. I have been watching your videos since we start a project on how to recycle plastics and create deferent products that can generate some income. i hope this comment find you well and come to our great country

[@eugenetswong]

@@joseph-ur9yp Have you tried ironing plastic sheets together?

[@josephchege07]

Come to Kenya guys. I looooove your videos🥺🥺🥺

[@prabirchakraborty61]

❤❤ visit india ❤❤

[@TomsBackyardWorkshop]

Found out my local land fil doesn't separate the trash from recycling when I went there with a car full of cardboard. They charge me extra to have me separate it but they dump it all in the same place.

[@BrothersMake]

That’s awful! Cardboard should always be recycled

[@VVilde36]

As a person from NOLA in the US (one of the worst corrupt and worst infrastructure large cities in the US) it's been the same here since hurricane Katrina.... I feel for you, now we've had 15+ years on to build up private response to this. Look and see if someone around you is recycling cardboard privately- thats how we've been going about it here, small businesses that do specific cardboard+gas+chems have popped up in response to the fact that everyone here knows that our local dump is broken. Second to that, if its not horribly filthy/stanky, I give clean cardboard to the mechanics shop im near bc they use it to pad the shop's floor(helps their back, help reduce heat in the shop), it'll get tossed, but at least it will get used to death b4 that- Good luck! Sorry its being like that.

[@coliedolphinprincess5512]

​​@@BrothersMakewith the exception of pizza boxes as they are dirty and may contaminate the good cardboard

[@reimog3072]

it means a lot to be able to see the people behind the change, thank you for the work!

[@BrothersMake]

Thank you! It was great to see it first hand also 🤙🏽

[@baguette4205]

so that's why those benches in school had a weird texture. they were made of extruded recycled plastic lol.

[@user-ur4bx9cg6r]

I am John Pyaso watching from Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬.l really love what you are doing at Gambia.Please can you come to Papua New Guinea and set up a same project.We have alot of plastic bottles and waste lying around our environment.Thankyou . John Pyaso

[@jono3952]

Precious Plastic is the perfect name for this. It's so embarrassing that humanity can come up with a class of material as amazing as Plastics, and then we turn around and mostly make garbage out of it. Good for them, here's hoping more people follow suit.

[@BrothersMake]

Absolutely! Single use rubbish and throwaway packaging is such a terrible way to use this material

[@ickisthewolf]

I absolutely agree with you, @jono3952. There is no reason that large companies cannot buy back or simply participate in the rebate programs, to collect their own plastics to reuse. Or for 3rd party companies to get their materials for free from items households can easily separate. I love the vending & return machines in Japan that accept empty bottles for filled bottles of their products or even transportation fare. There are always solutions. Someone just needs to think of them!

[@GermanSausagesAreTheWurst]

I bought a so-called "Happy Meal" from a major fast-food company, and the plastic toy was bigger than the food. It's ridiculous how flagrant the waste is.

[@DaveGDesigns]

I honestly can’t put into words how much I love you guys and how proud I am of the amazing people you are and the work you’re doing. I found this really quite emotional one of your best videos xx❤️xx

[@BrothersMake]

Thank you so much Davey! We’re pretty proud of this one ❤️

[@melissaburnett4479]

Wonderful idea. Great that you trained people to do this. Keep up the good work!!

[@BrothersMake]

Thank you! They were a pleasure to train

[@andrewmutavi590]

Am in Kenya in Africa n i can assure u it's not an issue of 'inability,'to recycle but rather lack of the insentive to take care of our saroundings

[@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367]

Yes it's true, people don't care at all.. anyone can collect plastic and companies will pay for it if you collect it

[@laceras1611]

"How dare Africans not care about the nasty western trash dumped on them" lol

[@pestacio117]

Am in Kenya as well and was thinking of starting some kind of plastic recycling company... you down Andrew?

[@andrewmutavi590]

@@pestacio117 I would,but sadly I neither have the resources $$wise nor time to do so

[@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367]

@@pestacio117 you be easy but you'd need to import the moulds moulding machines and the plastic shredding machines... The other stuff is simple.. you could make buckets, brushes, plastic chairs ECT. The plastic would be almost for free you just need to pay people to bring it to you.. bottles and bottle caps for instance

[@simonr6793]

It would be great to also hear that a company who does solar panels etc got involved with the new business in Gambia and completely set them up with solar panels etc, this would save them lot's of money when they are putting their great machines to use.

[@giovannacasadio9600]

I was thinking the same thing as there is a lot of sun there, they could also sell the extra electricity that they produce.

[@layjong]

I love the benches and stools.

[@BrothersMake]

They came out great :)

[@merindahthornton5080]

Thanks so much for telling this story! I have been watching Project Kamp (Dave from Precious Plastic) since they started their project and loved hearing about Precious Plastic. It’s so good to know that it’s making a difference all around the world! I love what you guys are doing and am looking forward to seeing more from you.

[@giovannacasadio9600]

Here in Italy, where I live, we recycle mostly everything from plastic, paper, glass, electronical devices, and metal. I personally take a trip to the dump ince a month to bring my recycling things. Thanks for showing us what you have helped do. Ps also our wet waist like food and garden stuff.

[@danielhill6444]

What a really inspirational video guys. Raising awareness here is so needed. I will be using as a teaching tool! Keep up the good work and thank you!

[@zodd0001]

Go gambians, you are great !

[@ajaychebbi]

Loved it! Keep up the good work!

[@ellioni5883]

This is an amazing video, am inspired!

[@tanialimacosta]

Thank you SO much for this video!

[@Upcycled_plastic]

Wow, amazing work from you all. The potential impact can be incredible. Love it

[@michellesotelo-mercer7797]

This video brought literal tears of joy to my eyes, amazing work ❤

[@stevenaquilahare7778]

Hi BrothersMake thank you this project

[@temssky13]

All that plastic.. I see diesel ⛽️ and gas and even building material.. ecollabo8 makes building material and outside furniture.. their andirondack furniture are lovely.. but the turning plastic into fuel and even a propane gas is what I like because you can use it for your vehicles and all generators and even cook with it on gas stoves and heating for furnaces.. and the burning process is clean.. not pollution.. many ppl living on isolated island are doing this. To operate their generators for AC and electric and also all this gas fueled landscaping equipment..

[@amandao.8043]

There are companies doing that and trying to perfect the plastic to fuel process but it takes a lot of energy and expensive equipment, which is not sustainable in a developing area like this.

[@ickisthewolf]

​@amandao.8043 Yet. If enough people pushed for it, someone will make a way to make it sustainable. There is plenty of raw material floating in the oceans or clogging waterways.

[@GermanSausagesAreTheWurst]

We can try many ideas and the ones that work the best are the ones that will stick around. It is easy to find reasons to not do something, but the rewards are better when one goes out and does it.

[@tomholroyd7519]

Future archeologists will always call this the plastic age, based on the rock layers a million years from now. If there are any archeologists

[@MrsBrit1]

We'll be long gone by then, thank goodness. Humanity is a blight on the earth.

[@ZOMBIEHEADSHOTKILLER]

you should post links to where people can buy the same plastic extrusion and molding machines you have in this video.

[@BrothersMake]

We did! Read the description

[@Chris-op7yt]

companies making the plastic should be responsible for their cheap disposable environmentally disastrous products. making these poor people falsely responsible for it is a scam that lets the companies keep increasing production of their polluting products.

[@shanegibbens]

Anyone else catch the older lady from the area with a Michael Kors gold watch?

[@JamesAnderson-nz1ro]

I always love the sales you never know what your gonna find.

[@pianotunez3174]

Brilliant video!

[@BrothersMake]

Thank you!

[@e-billy1855]

When you say bricks, do you mean bricks to make a house? Because if you can build housses with your bricks, it could have a very big impact.

[@ellenmcintyre1247]

I DO think this is a very inspirational video. I also thought to myself, how soon those machines were going to break, or get messed up by improper handling. And if you need a whole afternoon of safety teaching? Well, I'm not sure that those guidelines are going to be adhered to very well. The other thing I thought was, do they really need plastic beads? What I'm thinking is... they need more plastic chairs for people to sit on, because obviously every household there has plastic chairs. So why not have a injection mold that makes plastic chairs. And use plastic that is more abundant than bottle tops, say the plastic bottles themselves. I like the idea of making PVC piping or some type of piping that is durable. I know it's not as fun, or exciting, but I'm really a practical person. Or say windmill blades to use with water pumps, so other parts of the country, away from the river, or other countries abutting Gambia, so perhaps they can irrigate, & grow fruit and vegetables. Or what about wash basins? Every household needs to wash their clothes right? Or bathtubs? There's a lot more things you could make than beads. Or you could remake the fishing line they make the fishing nets out of? I know you were starting with a small scale, but the problem is so huge that a practical application seem to me to be of paramount importance. What did somebody say in the comments they need more porta potties? Well they do! I think they're injected molded... Of course then you need the trucks to drain the waist out of those, and take the feces someplace to be sterilized and put on crops... So it's just not the porta potties. There's a whole bunch of other stuff around the porta potties that has to happen. Sanitation is a really good thought.

[@danc.5509]

Thank you

[@tomholroyd7519]

1:04 would you please use blue instead of red --- I'm colorblind and I couldn't see the border until I looked it up elsewhere. Now I see it also wut now I get why the name starts with The

[@IberianCraftsman]

The beam machine looks really cool, how much is it?

[@JeffreySmallwood]

hey i love this channel been thinking about how i can help the planet. what equipment or website could i go to for starting to make glasses like you guys from the plastic i get at the beach. I have a few charging me 10k for the mould and not the plastic injector. Hopefully you or the community can help thanks.

[@chadsshow2010]

Where can we buy the products they make? Is it on Amazon?

[@christopherleblanc9599]

micro business make such a difference , in so many areas, there was a micro business loan from world bank ,years ago , it was a risky investment(in that you could loose your capital if they defrauded on the pay back ), that yielded a good return , these were used to buy equipment, like in this video , so that a person or cooperative, could help their community , it was for items like sewing machines, fruit press,, nut press, baler unit, so bulk items could be collected baled and shipped out economically ,grain milling mill, , i loved that investment , all thought they were considered high risk ,and were only between $500-2500 in size, with 6-18 month terms , i never had one not get paid in full , and loved the thought that i some how made a difference with my megar wealth , and yes i did profit, off my capital investments ,and so did the recipient of my investment, so it was a win win for both,but sadly they discontinued these investments after about 5 yrs most if not all recipients were africian women

[@tsheposolomonseboni7283]

How can I find you guys I need this type of this machines but I'm in South Africa how can I contact you the novel about this machines

[@ricardoarevalo6369]

This is important but it is just a feel good story because if in enriched Western countries we are still building plastic factories then this solves nothing

[@GermanSausagesAreTheWurst]

It easy to find excuses to not do anything, but it is better to find reasons to do it.

[@nunyabitnezz2802]

I think maybe if they had some kind of sanitary facilities there would be less trash in the rivers, which empty into the oceans.

[@user-kf2ki3om6zr4scgtrdcseeff]

Сначало подумал ролик Варламова, судил по превьюшке

[@Toma_Zino]

👏

[@TheDistur]

Dang that's a lot of plastic

[@islandgardener158]

Wouldn’t it be great ifthey could produce PVC pipe, and give the community a way to have running water to each home

[@Desert-Dweller]

The pipes run to homes but water only comes a couple of hours at night.

[@anniekate76]

PVC is a different type of plastic, not common in waste streams and not safe to recycle, it’s the most dangerous kind to melt

[@conorgraafpietermaritzburg3720]

Pray, tell me- shouldn't these folks have a 3D printer?😅

[@sustainabledesign.studio]

It was such a great experience to have Matt & Jonny, come out to help the project and film this video! I can tell you the fun and energy these guys share in the videos is equally matched in person! Looking forward to the next big project together! Who knows it might even be a viewer of this video! 🤞 Keep being inspirational and thanks again, Rory & Team

[@eugenetswong]

Rory, team, and others, thank you for your work!

[@FLAMEH3ART]

@DazGames