We love recycling at Shanga, not only do we recycle materials that are transformed into hundreds of amazing products but we also recycle Sunflower Seed Oil as the energy source. We receive oil from Elewana properties as a by-product from their kitchen as well as other suppliers. For four years Shanga has been using Sunflower seed oil for energizing a glass furnace and the medium size Glory-hole. The glass furnace produces a wide variety of glass ware such as drinking glasses, bowls, jugs, carafes and house decorations. We may be the only people in the world who are using Sunflower Seed Oil in glass melting for art glass.
Sunflower seed oil is a domestic product in Tanzania. The regions in the country’s central zone are a major producer, accounting for over 20 percent of national production. The planting and extracting cycle provides thousands of jobs.
Sunflower Seed oil is renewable in a sustainable manner, converting the energy of daily solar radiation to chemical energy through a biological vector in large sunflower plantations. The sunflower seed oil has zero carbon footprint, meaning in the plantations the carbon dioxide from ambient air is sequestered into a hydrocarbon compound, which converted into a liquid form is used to energize our furnace in an exothermic reaction together with ambient oxygen. The carbon dioxide thus released is then sequestered back into the seeds in sunflowers. From flowers to flowers in a manner; through solar power as the driving force. Think of the vast fields of sunflowers as huge biologically functioning solar energy converters.
Go green with Shanga by donating used cooking oil and we recycle it to produce glassware from our glass furnaces!