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The Dandora Women Collective connects women waste pickers, skilled artisans, and contemporary Kenyan design through a shared belief that discarded materials still hold value. At Nairobi’s Dandora dumpsite, one of East Africa’s largest landfills, women recover glass from the waste stream, creating the first step in its transformation.

The reclaimed material is collected, prepared, and passed to local artisans, who reshape it by hand into functional glassware using glassblowing techniques.

Built around a woman-led initiative founded by Kenyan entrepreneur Nelly Gesare, the model places people at the centre of sustainability. By recognizing the essential work of waste pickers, creating meaningful livelihoods, and keeping existing materials in circulation, the collective demonstrates how thoughtful design can address waste while creating something useful, beautiful, and distinctly Kenyan.