Funky Junk is an innovative social enterprise making art works with re-usable plastic bag. Funky Junk has a partnership with the community development NGO Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia. A group of people whose first goal in mind was settled right after they saw the problem of poor education about environmental awareness, lack of incentives from the local government, and a rapidly expanding population have resulted in plastic bag waste covering more and more of the countryside in Cambodia. Using lots of cheap and non-biodegradable plastic bags can cause severe diseases, even death or other health hazards to humans. The group started looking for a solution about this problem. Finally, they decided to make products out of discarded plastic bags which can contribute to save environment and fair job opportunities for local workers. They divided the jobs into several steps in order to make the work more efficient. First, a group of rubbish pickers from the towns and countryside picked up plastic bags. Second, in Funky Junk center, other group of people wash, disinfect and dry the plastic bags. Third, sort cleaned plastic bags by colors. This process is important to allow them to offer items that are colorful and unique. Lastly, they make it into lots of different kinds of products. Those products are baskets, hats, bags, cushion and etc. These products are only available on retailers that are authorized. Buying Funky Junk products contributes both cleaner environment, fair trade income, training and community benefits for Cambodia’s local producers. Their goal for the future is to advertise Funky Junk more, and to let the people realize that plastic bags can be reusable and use it as a beautiful art decoration.
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