Caption: Peg bags made from repurposed empty plastic bags featuring a cute elephant design, available at www.rebagreusehub.co.za. Over the past three years, Re.Bag.Re.Use has repurposed the equivalent of 92,124 empty bread bags, helping to keep 645 kg of plastic out of the environment. As we celebrate our third anniversary and World Environment Day, we continue our commitment to creativity and sustainability.
One bread bag weighs
approximately seven grams. Over the past three years, the Hout Bay-based
initiative, Re.Bag.Re.Use, has repurposed plastic equivalent to just over
92,000 empty bread bags! To put this into perspective, that’s the weight
of about five baby elephants!
“Facebook reminded me earlier
today that one of the very first Re.Bag.Re.Use meetups took place exactly three
years ago at Hout Bay Harbour. At that time, I had started meeting with a group
of ladies to share the basics of crocheting. On one of these occasions, for a
bit of fun, I showed the ladies my experiment: crocheting with an empty bread
bag. When I look at that memory shared by Facebook, it feels like I’ve blinked,
and my bread bag experiment has snowballed into something extraordinary!”
shares Regine le Roux, founder of the Re.Bag.Re.Use iniative.
One of the initial biggest
frustrations was having enough plastic cut while crocheting. It’s such a pain
to be in a crocheting rhythm and then have to stop to cut plastic. The
initiative now has five ladies cutting empty plastic bags into strips, and there
are ten ladies from the Hout Bay community and surrounds who crochet different
multi-functional items.
Apart from creating the most
beautifully creative and vibrant pieces, Re.Bag.Re.Use have also been involved
in incredibly exciting art projects. These include the Waterfront’s annual Joy
for Africa initiative last year—check out the beautiful dancing skirts still
hanging from the ceiling at the Waterfront’s Watershed—and working closely with
Ananta Design Studio’s creative design team on their products for Decorex and
their recent design for the UPCYCLE exhibition.
“We are incredibly grateful
for Blue Ribbon's phenomenal support of our initiative by providing us with
empty bread bags for our projects,” adds le Roux.
Tapiwa Likona, who has been
part of the initiative from the beginning, shares: "Looking back at our
Re.Bag.Re.Use journey, we had no idea how far we would go. Over the past three
years, we have met so many wonderful people and achieved significant progress
in recycling. Our efforts to save the environment have grown into a large,
dedicated group committed to this cause. This initiative has not only
benefitted the environment but has also provided crucial support to our
families in various ways. The work we do continues to make a positive impact on
our community and our planet."
The community’s support has
been incredible, with many people collecting bags for us and dropping them off
at Fiddlesticks Haberdashery, the Hout Bay Library, and Pick n Pay in Hout Bay.
It all started with just one
empty bread bag. This shows that with a bit of creativity and fun, you can make
something out of nothing. Most importantly, something beneficial to all. Apart
from 645 kg of plastic not ending up in our environment, the ladies earn some
pocket money for groceries and school supplies for their children. With each
sale, a percentage gets donated to the Neighbourhood Old Age Home (NOAH) and
the SPCA, spreading the love even further.
For more information, please
visit: www.rebagreusehub.co.za or
email sales@rebagreuse.com or
WhatsApp 083 302 1528
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