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RUFAI ZAKARI: RECYCLING WASTE FOUND ON THE STREETS OF ACCRA

RUFAI ZAKARI: RECYCLING WASTE FOUND ON THE STREETS OF ACCRA

August 24, 2023
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Rufai Zakari's work examines consumerism, environmental pollution, labour, trade, and the perils of industrialisation in contemporary Ghanaian society and bases his practice on the recycling of waste found in the streets of Accra. He uses discarded single-use plastics and found objects including plastic bags, food packages and plastic bottles to make figurative collages. He fuses plastic scraps, trims them into shapes and forms and stitches them together with needle and thread, sometimes even using rope. 



This body of work draws on how Africa has an almost continuous stream of arriving containers filled with discarded items — from electronic waste to used clothing. It's not only a nuisance, but it poses a threat to both human health and the environment. Every week, about 15 million individual items of used clothing arrive in Ghana. Forty percent of these items end up discarded due to their poor quality.



They find their way to landfills from where they are often washed into the ocean. The beaches of Accra are sullied with enormous piles of plastic goods and clothing. 
Six percent of the clothing is already trash and that number has actually gone up recently. Some of the items were intentionally destroyed and should never have ended up in Africa. Many African countries receive huge containers filled with used electronic gadgets such as phones, kitchen appliances and even automobiles that are not road worthy on European roads.



Africa is becoming a dumpsite for all kinds of waste because the rest of the world is rejecting it. There is a prediction that global e-waste — discarded products with a battery or plug — will reach 74 metric tons by 2030, almost a doubling of e-waste in just 16 years. As with most countries, Africa is already experiencing drastic effects of climate change.  This fact is acknowledged and emphasised by Zakari.

Image courtesy of Rufai Zakari

Find out more:
@rufaiart
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