‘Another man’s trash is another’s treasure’ is a saying fitting for Stewart Maui of Rennell Bellona and his two Malaitan friends.
Hundreds of logs harvested by logging companies operating in Rennell Bellona have been left to rot but Maui and his friends from Malaita thought the logs were not worthless.
Shipping furniture to the isolated province is too costly therefore Maui met two Malaitans who were working on a Church building in the province and an initiative was born.
They decided to utulised their trades skills in turning those wasted logs into fine looking piece of furniture such as tables, cushion chairs, chairs, shelves and beds.
The old man from Hatangua village of West Rennell met his Malaitan friends, who were brought to the island to help out in the construction work of the church building, owned by the South Sea Evangelical Church (SSEC).
They held discussion several times and came up with the idea to make use of the huge number of logs that were left behind by logging companies.
His friends agree with their new business plan then came back to Honiara to prepare themselves for their new job and went back to Rennell, fully equipped with their carpentry tools.
Maui told the Weekend Magazine that thousands of dollars has been wasted in Rennell from the piles of ignored logs that were left unused for years on the islands.
Meeting up with his Malaita friends was one of the opportunities he was waiting for as he had been thinking about utilising the wasted logs for years already.
“Those abandoned logs still have value, if they are transformed into products of high demand.”
In the middle of May this year Maui and his two business partners started to examine the logs deemed suitable for making furniture and preparing the site for their workshop.
They tested a number of woods and selected the good ones to start milling timbers out from them.
It took them a week to produce their complete sample of a chair and a coffee table.
Their product was amazing and people around were marvelled at the exquisiteness of the chairs and tables that were created out from the pencil cedar wood.
Few days after their first samples of chairs and tables were displayed, Maui and his boys constructed a food shelf, and a wooden bed, which captured the attention of people in the community and started to gain popularity in the province.
Maui said many people visit them to witness their work and started to make orders.
He said currently, they are working on an order from the school in their community that asked them to supply a huge number of chairs and tables.
Besides schools orders for their product, Maui revealed that some church groups are also placing their requests for them to provide chairs and tables.
“It was exactly what we were hoping for and I can’t stop smiling at how this initiative turns out.
“I am quite surprised that since we produce our first products, we were popular and orders started coming through.
He told this paper that one of the reasons for him to venture into such business is to provide all the household equipments that people of Renbell demands which is costly to transport from Honiara to the province.
He said many permanent and beautiful homes never equipped with furniture and their business is providing just that to households.
People in the province are also happy according to Maui because they can now get furniture at home instead of footing costly freights from Honiara via passenger ships.
“He said people as far as East Rennell that use to buy things from Honiara are now showing interest in their products, as they preferred to get their supplies at their doorsteps which save cost.
“I am very pleased to have my two friends from Malaita as business partners. These two are very skilful and hardworking tradesmen.
He said without the help and vision of the two gentlemen that work cooperatively with him to fulfil their business dream, nothing tangible would have happen to generate income and contributes to development of the island.
“Besides, all the logs would have been rot and wasted.
“Those were trash from the logging companies and this is what logging companies always left behind. Their trash can still be very useful in many ways.
“Now we’re turning their trash into cash, and the products become treasure in another man’s home,” he said.
By AATAI JOHN
