Every morning after finishing his night shift at a hospital in Migori County, Nixtone Ambiche walked home through streets littered with plastic containers and broken glass bottles. To many people, the waste was invisible, just another part of everyday life. But for Nixtone, the trash spoke loudly.

The young pharmacist would often stop and stare at piles of used cooking oil jerricans, detergent containers, and broken bottles scattered along the roadsides. While others saw rubbish, he saw opportunity.

“One morning I looked at all the waste around me and asked myself, ‘Why don’t people just turn this plastic into treasure?’” Nixtone shares.

That simple thought marked the beginning of a journey that now sees him balancing two very different worlds, working in healthcare by night and transforming waste into art by day.

Working alongside his friend and mentor Brian Olunga, the two collect used containers from homes, hospitals, petrol stations, and restaurants before transforming them into beautiful products that can last for years.

What once looked like useless trash is now becoming valuable art.

But the work is not easy. Between long hospital shifts and hours spent cutting hard plastic by hand, the process is physically demanding and sometimes risky.

“These knives are very sharp, and accidents can happen anytime,” he says. “But when you love what you do, you keep going.”

Beyond creating art, Nixtone hopes his work can change how people think about waste and unemployment.

“By making items out of used plastic, I try to send a message that people can create jobs from waste,” he explains.

His work is slowly influencing communities to preserve plastic containers for recycling instead of throwing them away.

After long shifts at the hospital, he dedicates his free time to collecting discarded materials and transforming them into creative pieces that not only inspire people but also raise awareness about the importance of proper waste management and environmental protection. 

Through his art, he hopes to encourage communities to see waste not as useless trash but as something that can be repurposed into meaningful and valuable creations.

“I have always loved seeing clean surroundings. Whenever I saw plastic waste lying everywhere, I felt like the environment was crying for help,” he says.

Using little more than sharp knives, heat, and creativity, Nixtone carefully cuts and reshapes old jerricans into decorative pieces that many people struggle to believe are handmade.

“Some people think I have a machine in the house doing all the work,” he says.

Plastic pollution remains a major environmental challenge in Kenya. According to a 2023 Kenya Private Sector Alliance report, only about 8% to 10% of plastic waste is recycled, despite increasing waste generation across the country.

For Nixtone, however, the crisis also presents an opportunity.

“To me, plastic is not a waste,” he says. “It is a resource waiting for creative hands.”

His breakthrough came after posting a basket-making video on TikTok that quickly went viral, growing his audience from 2,000 followers to more than 91,000 almost overnight. The exposure attracted customers from across Kenya and inspired other eco-artists as far as Burkina Faso.

Others have even encouraged him to open a training school, saying his work reflects the creativity and hands-on skills promoted under competency-based education.

“Some people think I have a machine in the house that does all the work,” he adds.

When people see the finished products, they are often amazed by his work, and others suggest that such talent should be nurtured and passed on to children.

Although he now receives growing recognition for his work, Nixtone remains focused on a bigger dream: building a recycling and innovation center that can turn waste into more useful products while creating jobs for young people.

For him, art is about more than income.

It is about healing the environment, restoring value to discarded materials, and proving that creativity can turn trash into treasure. Through carefully crafted flower pots, baskets, and decorative pieces made from discarded plastic cans and glass, his work demonstrates how waste can be transformed into beautiful and functional products.

At a time when plastic pollution continues to threaten communities and ecosystems, Nixtone believes turning waste into useful products is no longer just an option, but a necessity for a cleaner and more sustainable future.

Although Nixtone and Brian Olunga currently operate as a two-person team, they dream of building a larger recycling and innovation center.

Nixtone hopes to create products such as children’s toys, fencing posts, paving blocks, and decorative items from recycled plastic. He is also interested in pyrolysis technology, which converts plastic waste into fuel.

“If we get support from the government and well-wishers, we can turn waste into products that benefit the whole society,” he says.