Jordanian artist turns glass waste into mosaics to help environment
Ahmad Manasrah collects the glass from shops around the city of Zarqa and turns them into mosaic art.
ZARQA (Reuters) - Sifting through piles of discarded glass, Jordanian art teacher Ahmad Manasrah cuts, shapes, and paints the shards of glass into colourful mosaic art pieces in an initiative to reduce waste.
Although it may take him and his team anything between one day to a full week to create the mosaic art, Manasrah believes it is a better option for the environment than leaving the waste to decompose for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
The art teacher founded a team called ‘Zaynha’, or ‘decorate it’ in Arabic, with the aim of protecting the environment through the recycling of glass waste.
He collects the glass from shops around the city of Zarqa, and works with his team of 12 members to create pieces featuring influential personalities or depicting pressing global issues.
With his team, made entirely of volunteers, 31-year-old Manasrah managed to create nearly six mosaic murals out of glass waste as well as many other smaller pieces.
The finished products are not up for sale, and Manasrah prefers to showcase them at art exhibitions.
While Manasrah cites U.S. reports that say it takes glass waste hundreds to thousands of years to decompose, the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority estimates that a single glass bottle may take up to one million years to decompose.
