A recycling plant in Tanzania’s port city of Dar es Salaam has traded paper for plastic bottles and started making anti-coronavirus face shields that are being snatched up by hospitals and health centers nationwide. Until earlier this year, Zaidi Recyclers had a thriving business in processing waste paper which it exported to customers in China and India, earning it around $37,000 in revenues monthly, according to its founder Allen Kimambo.
New orders dried up, however, as country after country imposed lockdowns to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, reducing global trade to a trickle. Yet Kimambo quickly spotted an opportunity which allowed him to save his business and the jobs of all its 38 workers. Zaidi Recyclers switched to the production of face shields, a vital piece of personal protective equipment for health workers during the coronavirus pandemic. “I think the key is to remain relevant. You should not panic, because these crises have been there, this is not the first time we are facing this kind of crisis,” he said.
“If you panic, you will get lost and then you will not be able to come up or be active as you used to be before.” Orders are flooding from the health sector from across Tanzania, Kimbabo said. In recent weeks they had made 6,000 units that go for about $2 apiece.
To read the full story, visit https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-tanzania-face-shie/tanzanian-recycling-plant-starts-making-face-shields-from-plastic-bottles-idUSKBN238285.
Author: Elias Biryabarema, Reuters
Photo: Reuters/Stringer