TEDxAccra’s Kantamanto Stage: What Reuse Still Must Prove

What does it take for a recycled stage set to have a second life? At TEDxAccra on August 29, 2026, the question was visible in the event's lettering and rug. According to TED's event listing, the gathering took place at the University of Ghana School of Law. Speaker Katia Osei is identified by The Or Foundation as its head of environmental justice. The foundation worked with the event organizers to turn discarded clothing from Accra's Kantamanto Market into stage materials.

What was made

TEDxAccra's project page says the three-dimensional stage letters were made with Cassaboard, a material developed by The Or Foundation's Material Technology and Transformation Lab from recovered clothing. It lists 16 kilograms of textile waste in the letters. The stage rug used four kilograms of Tarnty, a yarn made from discarded T-shirts. Those figures add up to 20 kilograms across the two props, according to the organizer; they are not an independent measurement of waste avoided.

The organizer's separate account describes additional uses of Kantamanto textiles at the event: denim converted into tote bags and a public-address system made with recycled material. It also describes the Cassaboard letters as using about 20 kilograms of T-shirts alone, which differs from the project page's 16-kilogram figure. Until the organizers reconcile those figures, the more precise project-page breakdown should be read as the organizer's stated specification, not a settled audit result.

The harder test comes after one event

A stage built from discarded textiles is a concrete demonstration of local material development. Reuse is a separate proposition. TEDxAccra offers the letters and rug to other licensed TEDx events in West Africa, but an offer to lend is not evidence that a second event has used them. No completed loan, number of repeat uses, transport emissions or overall waste savings is established by the published project information.

The organizer's borrowing terms show why those details matter. A requesting event must apply at least 40 days ahead, arrange and pay for return transport and any cross-border customs clearance, install the props only in a covered setting, and return them within three business days unless an extension is approved. The materials therefore have a route to reuse, but distance, cost, scheduling and safe handling could determine whether borrowing is practical for another organizer.

That is the useful question for the project now: can an event in another city borrow and return the set at a reasonable cost, then use it again without rebuilding or significant repair? Evidence of repeat bookings and the condition of the props after travel would tell readers more about the model than the stage's appearance at a single conference. For now, the documented achievement is narrower and still worthwhile: Ghana-made materials recovered from Kantamanto were put to work on a public stage, with a formal plan for lending them again.

Editor's note — October 13, 2026: This article replaces an earlier Em News version that discussed the project in general terms without naming its participants or linking the underlying records. This version attributes the material figures to TEDxAccra, notes the discrepancy between its two published accounts, and does not claim a verified second use or measured environmental impact.