A social enterprise with interest in protecting the environment is making real cash from trashes. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare writes on how the innovative skills of the enterprise is endearing used sachet water bags and other plastic materials
On daily basis, over 60 self-motivated workers of the Trashy Bags Project, a social enterprise, often gather at the ground floor of a one storey building at Dzorwulo in Accra washing, disinfecting, drying and stitching flatten pieces of used sachet water bags and other plastic waste into nice bags for sale.
They have been doing that since 2008 and have so far collected and sewed over 30 million bags of sachet water into some 350 assorted types of shopping, travelling and school bags, laptop, ipad and tablet sleeves among others.
With 70 pieces of the plastic sachet water at hand, employees of the venture are able to make a shopping bag which, when not in use, could be folded into a lady’s purse. But when ready for shopping, the recycled material could carry as much as 20 kilos of materials.
The group’s source of motivation, according to the Director of Projects at Trashy Bags, Mr Elvis Aboluah, is their individual desire to clean the environment using an innovative strategy that returns some cash to the enterprise and those engaged in particular.
“We realised that it is not that simple telling people not to litter. But once they are made to understand that there is value in gathering plastics rather than throwing them around, then the tendency is that those people will stop littering.”
“That was the whole idea behind Trashy Bags Project,” Mr Aboluah, 36, told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS in Accra.
And that has worked, thanks to the novelty of Mr Stuart Gold, a British volunteer who doubles as an advocate of the environment.
Prior to coming out with his Trashy Bags Project, Mr Gold was championing a climate change initiative titled ‘Stop Killing Us.’ The momentum on that project has since dropped as Mr Gold and his team shifts focus from educating people to preserve the environment to giving them an economic opportunity to gather plastic litter for cash or at best, stop littering.
The plastic menace
In the early 1990s through to the 2000s, many households that owed refrigerators in the country took to the bagging and selling of iced water in plain oblong plastics to its teeming fans nation-wide.
Although the idea made chilled water readily available to the low and middle income earners, it sparked an environmental problem nation-wide as most people often threw the plastics indiscriminately without regard to the fact that they take approximately 100 years to biodegrade.
Although many thought the phasing out of the iced water which was followed by the introduction of the 500 millilitre bagged water would help reduce the plastic mess, it has rather added on to the extent of complicating the problem.
Currently, Trashy Bags estimate that one out of every two Ghanaians take sachet water daily and that brings the estimated daily consumption of the product to 14 million. About 25 million people currently live in the country, according to the 2010 Population and Housing Census.
Thus, over 14 million pieces of sachet water bags find their way out daily, most of which are left in the open.
Although information on plastic waste recycling in the country is scanty, the Trashy Bags Project said about two per cent of the plastic consumed is recycled. “What happens to the remaining 98 per cent,” the enterprise asked on its website.
In an apparent response, Mr Aboluah said “that is why there is the need for a new mind set towards littering in this country. What most people do not know is that these plastics take more than 100 years to biodegrade, and by then, they would have caused a lot of harm to the environment,” he added.
Rescuing a million to produce millions
Although the raw material for Trashy Bags’ products is everywhere, getting them is challenging as most people shy from collecting or gathering plastic sachet bags. Many people are used to littering, a challenge the Trashy Bags Project is fighting to reduce.
The Project Director said his outfit currently pays GH¢0.70 for every kilo (120 pieces) of used plastic sachet water bags, an amount he said has motivated many people to pick and gather plastic waste for the enterprise.
“When we started, it was difficult getting the materials but that is no longer the case. We now get more than enough because, gradually, people are beginning to realise the economic value of used plastic sachet bags. So, instead of littering after use, they gather them. Some even bring them in trucks and that shows how people are adapting to our message,” Mr Aboluah said.
The project recently produced 1,000 bags, each made from 35 pieces of used 500 millilitre sachet water bags, for participants at the just ended West Africa Clean Energy and Environment (WACEE) Exhibition and Conference in Accra.
“That means about 35,000 plastic sachet water bags were collected from the system. Now, you can imagine what that means to the environment,” he said.
He added that his outfit was now aiming at producing one million of the purse-like shopping bags for retail in markets throughout the country.
“And if we succeed, then we would have collected over seven million plastic sachet water bags from the system and that is remarkable,” he noted. Each of those bags is produced from 70 pieces of the sachet.
The New product
In addition to rescuing plastic waste and turning them into lovely items, the Trashy Bags Project found a way of making good use of publicity fliers and billboard marts.
“If you go round the country, you realise that everybody is advertising. But when the advert is no longer in use, then the story ends there because the advertising agency as well as the company do not need the flier or mart and that creates another environmental problem,” said Mr Aboluah.
“So we thought of it and realised that we could make something nice from these stuffs,” he added.
He said the enterprise, as a result, has struck a deal with big corporate institutions and advertising agencies to supply them with used fliers to turn them into bags.
These bags, pretty and stylish in look, are proudly displayed at the group’s head office at Dzorwulo in Accra.
But unlike the plastic sachets, Mr Aboluah said Trashy Bags is not paying for the fliers and billboard marts because there is the tendency that people will go ripping off people’s banners just to make money.
The challenge
“For us, the focus is not about making a fortune but on making an impact on the environment,” Mr Aboluah said, disagreeing that his outfit was profiting from plastic trashes.
“Here, we do everything manually and that increases the cost yet we still keep our prices down,” he said, adding that “we are more of a social enterprise than a profit making institution.”
“As a result, we price our products low, knowing that the more people buy them, the more litter they take off the environment,” he said.
To the business community and general public, Mr Abluah said “it is okay to do business but when we do, please let’s remember the environment. After all, what kind of businesses will we be doing if we allow it to hurt the environment, the very place in which our products come from,” he asked.GB
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