| Type | Non-profit Social Enterprise |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2007 |
| Location | 8 Dzorwulu Crescent Accra, Ghana, West Africa |
| Key people | Stuart Gold, Managing Director Lydia Appiah, Director |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Employees | 60+ (November 2010) |
| Website | http://www.trashybags.org |
Trashy Bags is a registered non-governmental organization (NGO) that recycles solid plastic waste into fashionable bags and gifts.[1] The factory and showroom are located in Accra, the capital of the Republic of Ghana in West Africa. A British architect, Stuart Gold, established the organization in 2007.
The company employs over sixty Ghanaian workers[2][3] to collect, clean and stitch plastic trash in the form of sachets that previously contained water and other beverages. With these, they create plastic bags, accessories, school supplies, and other products.
The plastic sachets is a problem because local recycling initiatives and waste management infrastructure is not sufficient and most Ghanaian people throw their waste on the streets.
The company has recycled approximately 20 million sachets since its start in 2007 to prevent large environmental damage. Every month nearly 200,000 plastic sachets are collected and brought to Trashy Bags by a network of collectors[4] employed by Trashy Bags. The Trashy Bags are sold at the showroom in Dzorwulu, Accra near the Kotoka International Airport, online, and exported[5][6] to seven countries[7] in Europe and the United States.
In 2011, Trashy Bags started using discarded billboards to produce their collection of bags and accessories called Ad Bags. In Ghana, used billboard are often burned or disposed in other environmentally harmful way. Trashy Bags uses this material to produce unique products, each being one of its kind.
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Hygienic water in Ghana can be bought on the streets where vendors sell them in small plastic bags called sachets to the public. The sachets (0.5L) were introduced in 2004 to provide safe and affordable drinking water for customers in sachets. The sachets can be opened easily in the corners to drink from, but after usage the plastic packaging is discarded and will usually end up back on the streets or in informal trash heaps.
The local artist Tei Huagie, who specializes in making art out of waste, created the first bag out of the plastic sachets. The entrepreneur Stuart Gold, together with his local business partner, noticed the potential of the product and started the Trashy Bags company in 2007. The factory started in Madina and the showroom in Accra, but after a year the factory and showroom merged and relocated to the neighborhood Dzorwulu in the capital Accra.
Another milestone in Trashy Bags' development occurred in 2011, when discarded billboards started to be used for producing a new collection of Trashy Bags products called Ad Bags.
First, the sachets are collected from the streets of Accra (mainly water sachets and products made by Fan Milk Limited) and transported to the factory. At the factory the sachets are weighed and bought in at a fixed rate by the Trashy Bags Company. The collection and delivery of the sachets to the company is done by regular sachet collectors, generally unemployed individuals. After that, all the sachets are sorted and have one side cut off to make washing and cleaning from both inside and outside possible. Next, the sachets are cleaned and dried outside in the sun. Finally, the sachets are sewn into sheets and stitched into plastic bags. The accessories are attached, bags are checked and sent to the showroom on the first floor of the building.[8]
Production of the Ad Bags starts off by precise cutting of specific parts of the used billboards. The cutting is performed in a way that the most attractive parts of the billboards (such as faces of celebrities) are ultimately located on the main parts of the products. The rest of the production process of Ad Bags resembles production regular fabric products.
The company makes over 350 different variations[9] of 23 standard lines of product. The product list includes laptop bags, messenger bags, tote bags, vanity cases, backpacks, sports holdalls, purses, hats, wallets, water bottle holders and shopping bags for everyday use. Many of the products are designed in-house by their own workers and given names that are unique to Trashy Bags' range. These include Sankofa, Mama Africa, Moonlight, Home Sweet Home, Fish Bag and Obaapa. Personified embroideries such as logos or name tags can be added as well.
Trashy Bags were presented as one of the official gifts to the celebrities[11] on the 7th of November 2010 at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2010 (EMA)[12] in Madrid, Spain.
In June 2010 Trashy Bags commissioned a film to be made by one of Ghana’s film companies, Creative Storm. The film, directed by Kwesi Owusu, was screened at the Environmental Film Festival of Accra which is an annual event in Accra and organized by Creative Storm. The premiere of the documentary "Fantastic in Plastic[13]" was at the Trashy Bags premises in Dzorwulu in Accra on 6 June 2010 and shown again at the British Council the following week. Fantastic in Plastic has also been selected and has been shown at the Africa in Motion Film Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland 26th Oct - 5th Nov 2010.
The Smart Ghana Initiative is a project which promotes the use of reusable shopping bags made from recycled sachets over disposable plastic bags normally given with each purchase. The goal of the Smart Ghana Initiative is to inform people about the plastic waste problem by offering them recycled plastic shopping bags made from the plastic waste of Accra streets,, clean up Ghana and reduce the number of disposable bags. Through this initiative, companies can buy advertisement space on Smart Bags in order to reduce their price. The Trashy Smart Bag is the most popular Trashy Bag sold. Made from 70 drinking water sachets, it carries over 45 pounds (20kg). The Trashy Smart Bag also fits into a small supermarket trolley. It also stands alone upright so that one's groceries will not spill and folds into its own cloth or sachet bag which closes with a zipper so it is compact and easy to stow away in a shoulder bag or car.
With the money that companies pay for the advertisement, Trashy Bags can cover their production costs so that the bags can be sold for one Ghanaian cedi (one dollar/pound/euro in the US/UK/Europe) in supermarkets and other shops. A leaflet with information about the plastic waste problem is given with every bag. The affordability of the bag makes it available to the public and increases the amount of environmental education in Ghana, especially regarding the plastic waste problem.
In 2008, the Trashy Bags company honoured seven players of The Black Stars for their outstanding performances at the Ghana 2008 26th MTN Africa Cup of Nations.[14] The company gave a donation of 40 bags worth 1,200 Ghanaian cedi to The Black Stars[15] made from re-cycled plastic wastes collected from the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium during the opening ceremony[16] of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana 2008.
The company of Trashy Bags[17] feels responsibility for their employees. Inadequate housing is widespread in Accra, and many workers are homeless or live in cramped and unhygienic conditions. The Trashy Bags Housing Project, launched in 2009, aims to create affordable housing for its workers. The company bought a parcel in the village of Amasaman just outside Accra next to the road towards Kumasi which can hold up to 36 houses, the road is being constructed at the moment. The realization of he project is helped by volunteers from all over the world.