However, the daily subsistence of its inhabitants (who mostly earn less than 150 euros per month) is based on recycling, on the reuse of resources. Each society solves daily problems with the resources that are left over. In the first world we do it with money. In the other worlds, with time and ingenuity.
62 kilometers from Antananarivo, the Malagasy capital, going south on the RN7, Ambatolampy appears. It is a chaotic city, like all Malagasy, of low houses, skies full of cables, unpaved streets and an endless market along the rue nationale , which runs through it from north to south. Ambatolampy is famous for its artisans of aluminum pots and utensils. 90% of the kitchenware used in Madagascar comes from here. But don't expect to find a huge factory or large production centers. The pots, pans, buckets and other objects that are made in Ambatolampy are made by hand in small family workshops with recycled aluminum from washing machines, refrigerators and all kinds of old objects that they buy from itinerant shopkeepers.
Hard work carried out by an army of young people who, from the effort and perpetual soot that surrounds them, already seem old. They work between 8 and 10 hours a day, seven days a week in a routine and unhealthy way to earn 10.00 aris (2.5 euros) a day. There are no gloves, boots or special suits. Bare feet, bare hands, and the same filthy clothes day after day. The mold is made in two wooden drawers where earth is tamped around a positive. When it is removed, the drawers are closed again and liquid aluminum is spilled, which has previously been melted into charcoal embers. More artisan, impossible. A system that they learned during French colonization and that has not evolved one iota in the last hundred years. Only their dignity and the elegance of their bearing when I ask them to pose for a photograph exceeds in size the harshness of such a life.
They also make toys, wooden foosball, and other artifacts. If you pass through Ambatolampy you will see many street stalls on the banks of the RN7 where they sell aluminum souvenirs made with this process. Stop and buy one. It is not just another souvenir . It is an act of justice with workers who deserve help.
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