Put your feet up on your favourite movies while watching your favourite movie

Giving VHS tapes a second lease on life.

Caption: John Singano, local upholsterer in Imizamo Yetho, Hout Bay, is the talent behind covering footstools being repurposed from old VHS video tapes as part of the Re.Bag.Re.Use^TM initiative.

The Re.Bag.Re.Use^TM team, crochets beautiful multifunctional items from the tape itself. Going a step further to use the entire VHS tape, the Re.Bag.Re.Use team has found a way to use the empty video tapes as well. VHS and cassette tapes are in most cases non-recyclable or not accepted by recyclers, therefore repurposing this material is the next best sustainable option.

“For quite some time I have been worrying about all the empty VHS video cases that we are generating,” shares Re.Bag.Re.Use founder, Regine le Roux. “The main reason being, it's one of those awful plastics that can't be recycled and will potentially end up in landfill when they are not repurposed.”

“Footstools is one of the solutions that we have come up with to repurpose empty VHS boxes!” adds le Roux.

John Singano, local upholsterer in Imizamo Yetho, Hout Bay, is the talent behind covering the footstools. “When Regine first asked me for a quote to upholster the footstools made from VHS tapes I was so excited. Instead of throwing something away, we can turn it into something that people can love. As an upholsterer, we are often left with a lot of material offcuts that are too small for other projects and the material gets thrown away. But now, we can use these off cuts to cover the VHS footstools. Nothing goes to waste!”

“It’s such a thrill to make something so beautiful out of ‘nothing’,” adds le Roux.

Re.Bag.Re.Use is an initiative that was borne in Hout Bay;  it started off as a hobby during the Covid-19 lockdown. The flagship product is a multifunctional bag, crocheted and repurposed from empty bread bag, but as the project is growing and building moment, additional products are being added to the product range. For more information visit www.rebagreuse.com or Instagram: www.instagram.com/re.bag.re.use