Trash to treasure (article)
The Chu Chu project is turning rubbish collected from Yangon’s streets into recycled crafts and one of its objectives to encourage different thinking about waste. By JARED DOWNING | FRONTIER Photos MARO VERLI
Ko Cin Lamh Thang, also known as Tony, helps to run the trashiest shop in Dala. The roof is made of old tyres and the walls from bottles instead of bricks. Inside, the lampshades are cut and sewn from melted plastic bags, as are the “flowers” arranged around the room for decoration.
The shop’s shelves are lined with belts made from bicycle tyres and baskets woven from empty tea packets. One half of the space is a workshop where women work at sewing machines, fashioning purses from rubber inner-tubes and necklaces from the pull tabs of soft-drink cans.
“This is a design from Greece,” Tony said, displaying a large, colourful handbag. “This is my favourite, I think. These kinds of designs are easy and look so nice.”
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