Trash Turned Into Fashion?
Used plastics from Indonesia are being saved from landfills. And former garbage pickers are turning these plastics into fashion bags to sell in Singapore, Australia and the United States.
The fad known as "trashion" has gained mainstream acceptance with chic, urban designers worldwide now posting big profits by using leftover, discarded and found materials to create jewelry, clothing and housewares.
The type of plastic used in the bags is found in packaging ranging from soft drinks to detergent to toothpaste and is mostly aluminum bonded to plastic. Use of this plastic is on the rise because it costs companies less to produce, but because it's not recyclable, as hard plastic bottles are, it ends up costing the public more in terms of pollution and environmental damage.
So, the XSProject began as a way to recycle these plastics. Ann Wizer is an artist and environmental activist, who while living in the Philippines had the idea to use trash as her primary medium. This art progressed into developing the XSProject, a non-profit organization which buys plastics from trash pickers and trains trash pickers themselves to make the bags, providing much needed wages. Proceeds from sale of the bags go directly to help the trash-picker communities by providing assistance for daily needs, scholarships and health protection.
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A Shamless Plug
In a shameless plug for a project I'm working on, you can find lots of cool options for handbags made from recycled materials. These bags from Cambodia are made from recycled rice bags-- that would otherwise be filling landfills. Also, they are made from a fair trade collective in Cambodia-- sold by a certified fair trade importer in the U.S.
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