From trash cans to treasure
Visitors who take aluminium cans to this year's AfrikaBurn festival in the Karoo, starting today, can leave with a piece of jewellery rather than a bulging plastic bag of trash.A team of "burners" from Johannesburg has set up a smelter at this year's festival which will be used to turn trash into something pretty.Spokesman Alexandra Hutchison said she and Helter Smelter leader Saul Abelson had been refining the idea since the middle of last year.Their smelter has four 60kg refractories."Someone then pumps air into the bottom of the refractory, to get the fire going, hopefully to 700C to melt the aluminium."Once it's liquid, we pour it into moulds," said Hutchison.Almost 12000 people are expected at this year's festival on Stonehenge Farm in the Tankwa Karoo. ..
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