Plastic Upcycling Initiative in Egypt

The sheer volume of plastic waste generated coupled with energy and material resources required for production, as well as emissions resulting from these processes paint a grim picture of the environmental havoc created by plastic bags. Single-use plastic bags are a huge threat to the environment as an estimated 1 trillion such bags are consumed worldwide every year.

Plastic bags are notorious for their interference in natural ecosystems and for causing the death of aquatic organisms, animals and birds. In 2006, The United Nations Environment Programme estimated that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean and upto 80 percent of marine debris worldwide is plastic which are responsible for the death of a more than a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals each year from starvation, choking or entanglement.

Re: Genuine Plastic Bags

The problems associated with single-use plastic bags forced two Egyptian youngsters – Yara Yassin and Rania Rafie – to think of a way of reusing plastic bags. Their upcycling venture, Re: Genuine Plastic Bags, makes innovative handbags sewn from throwaway plastic.  Re: Genuine plastic bag is a start up business that aims to recollect existing plastic bags and re-design them in a form of fashionable bags that can be used in day-to-day life, in order to prolong the life of plastic bags, thus producing lesser amount of wastes. They endeavor to create bags that are self-designed and meant for various kinds of stores, brand names, graphical elements and different lifestyles of consumers

The models are produced through a new technique of fusing plastic bags together. The new fused material becomes dryer and more firm, when left to dry, which takes maximum 40 seconds. The outcome is based on the thickness and type of plastic bags fused; if the plastic bag is too thin (LDPE), then it needs several layers to be fused without completely melting. The outcome is also imprecise, as it may shrink from the heat, and maintaining a straight line is almost impossible.

Yara and Rania feel that the eco-friendly bags are a great way to motivate people towards behavioral change, especially in the Middle East.