Mandaue Trash Craft

There are a lot, so I was told. But this one material for a livelihood craft got my attention. They make it into baskets, bags, mats, hats and many other woven products. At first they looked very common to me, but there was some kind of shiny clean finish in the milky color of the material used that I had to approach and ask. The women told me “they are made from stickers”. Ha? I pressed on with more questions and learned that they meant the ‘backing material’ of stickers. Yep, that one which we throw away after peeling off a sticker. I took that pic from their display booth over at the Ayala Cebu Mall where there was some kind of a ‘science something exhibit’ and/or ‘inventors something exhibit’. Fine I thought.

Two days after, I chance upon the same women at a booth over at Park Mall. And there was a demo. I mean the jolly ladies manning their booth were actually doing their weaving processes – this time making a bag. So I decided to record them on video.


Here’s what I learned. Their ‘stickers’ (yep, the material they use) comes from IPI – it’s a big pharmaceutical firm. This IPI, together with RAFI (Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc), organized the women of Kobe Kanduman (in Mandaue) to start this weaving business for them to earn extra income – instead of just sitting around, talking about other people’s lives or playing “tong-its”! That’s according to the dear ladies themselves ha?!

The material – which otherwise would have been trash – is laminated paper. Biodegradable say the ladies but not that easily due to the shiny laminate. When fashioned into baskets, mats, bags, etc., they actually look better than the ‘native products’ made of ‘buri’ or other such leaves from the forest. Plus, these ones are sturdier, water-resistant and won’t need to be treated with chemicals just to preserve the material from rotting. Excellent idea! Excellent product!

So folks, let’s look in the same direction with these ladies and their organizers. We may also be able to give a hand in making use of the trash around us for other folks in this country to get busy with instead of just sitting around waiting for the next best tsismis to come around!

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