What do you do with all those soda can tabs that end up in the trash? For one group of women in the Philippines, the answer is to turn them into fashion accessories and home decor, reports Fast Company.
Called Project Katipuneras, the line is the brainchild of five friends who met as volunteers in a political campaign.
As Smarla Pernato of Project Katipuneras explains to Manila Bulletin Lifestyle, "We didn't want to sell just any product," so the friends started a social enterprise to help mothers and raise funds for their initiatives.
Project Katipuneras works with a group of artisans who turn the aluminum pull tabs into earrings, bags, jewelry, and other items.
The tab materials are donated by soda companies, bars, and restaurants, and the artisans then crochet, sew, and weave them together.
Pernato says it takes less than a day for the artisans to make a pair of earrings and a necklace.
But for more complex designs such as bags, it takes them two to three days to finish a piece.
"We wanted to sell products that were made by a group of nanays so that we can help on two fronts: support the livelihood of nanays as well as donate to our chosen NGO
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