Millions of rice sacks are manufactured every year out of polypropylene (PP) plastic, with many simply ending up in landfill or burnt in an incinerator. Whilst polypropylene (PP) plastic can be recycled, there is a much more energy efficient (and stylish) approach which is to simply upcycle these into useable products.
Tovi’s aim is to upcycle the used rice sacks into a range of highly desirable and useable products that not only remove this post-consumer waste material from our planet but also provide sustained income stream for our collectors, family friendly jobs for our seamstresses to allow self-determination and just as importantly to help ‘visibly’ share the benefit of upcycling such waste material across the world when you visit your local supermarket.
Our used rice sacks are collected from a number of sources including local restaurants, international hotels, village collective and individual homes. By paying for the used rice sacks, we have created and support an eco-system where what was once waste product that was discarded has become an item of value. This encourages used rice sacks to be kept and indeed for the team involved to earn an ongoing income.
The upcycling of the used rice bags has created a dependable income stream for our female seamstresses who can work from home in a family friendly environment or from a ‘village factory’, all whilst producing our beautiful bags.
The upcycling process really is quite straight forward and involves washing and drying the sacks, ironing them flat, cutting and sewing to create our shopping and yoga bags. With our quality control processes, fair trade approach to working with our team and our simple ethos of sharing the benefit – ensures our team share the financial reward of creating highly unique and much-loved Tovi upcycled bags made from old, plastic sacks.