Trashy Bags Africa showroom opens in Accra
Trashy Bags Africa (TBA), a social enterprise creating upcycled eco-friendly bags from discarded plastic drinking water sachets, has opened it showroom in Accra to offer fashionable and durable bags to the general public.
The showroom, located at Ndabaningi Sithole Street, North Labone, showcases a wide selection of upcycled bags made from water sachets .
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The company is a sister company of Aqua Africa Ltd, a United Kingdom business focussing on water access solutions within Ghana.
Growth plan
Speaking at the opening of the showroom last Friday (April 22), the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TBA, Mr Philip Foster said as the company was embarking on a growth plan to expand and export the Ghana brand internationally to increase the venture in other countries that were also experiencing waste challenges.
Plastic waste
He noted that plastic pollution had quickly become one of the world's most serious environmental challenges.
That, he said, was evident in developing countries where the use of plastic had outpaced the ability to recycle or how to efficiently dispose or manage the problem.
Mr Foster noted that widespread littering and indiscriminate dumping of plastic waste was increasingly becoming a threat to land, sea and air.
With 63 per cent of Ghanaians sourcing safe drinking water from sachet water, he said much of such plastic waste were carelessly discarded thus, posing serious environmental risks.
Reclaimed plastic
He said it was against that backdrop that TBA had identified a function for those waste hence, creating durable and sustainable items from reclaimed plastic drinking water sachets as well as other waste including ice cream and advertising hoardings.
He said all products were upcycled and were not reprocessed in any way apart from cleaning thus, ensuring very little energy was used.
Each month, Mr Foster said the company collected nearly 200,000 plastic sachets bags by a network of commercial enterprises with each obtaining an income from their efforts.
By doing so, he said the company was giving value to waste and creating jobs.
“Our products are known around the world having already supplied goods to the US, Japan, UK and across Europe. A full range of the products available can be found on the website which is trashybagsafrica.com,” Mr Foster added.