COVID-19: This Tanzanian recycling plant is retooling to make face masks

This article was updated on 19 August 2020.

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 centres 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 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 from the health sector soon flooded in from across Tanzania, Kimbabo said. The company has made thousands of shields so far and they're being used in hospitals throughout the country.

Authorities recently said the disruptions from the pandemic are expected to slow economic growth in 2020 to 4% from a projection of 6.9% made before the outbreak.

The firm has had to meet extra costs to protect its employees while keeping the business in operation, including for special transportation to and from the workplace.