Elderly women in Woodlands transform food wrappers & plastic packaging into bags & purses

Creativity at its best.

Ashley Tan | June 21, 2019, 02:25 PM

Recently, pictures of a poor father in Cambodia upcycling some raffia string and transforming it into a backpack for his young son took the internet by storm.

You might be surprised to know that raffia string isn't the only thing that can be recycled into eye-catching accessories.

Almost like art

On May 18, 2019, one May Woo took to Facebook to share what she found at the NTUC Health Active Ageing Club.

Woo stated that several weeks ago, she popped by the centre located at Kampung Admiralty in Woodlands to check out the activities offered.

Instead, she stumbled across a craft workshop where a group of elderly women were immersed in crafting items out of plastic packaging materials.

Turns out that these women, some of whom Woo mentioned were in their early 50s, were transforming used packaging into functional bags and purses.

They were using a variety of packaging, from plastic candy wrappers, instant noodle packaging, potato chips packaging, coffee or milo sachets, and even wrappers from non-food items such as diapers.

Photo from May Woo / FB

Photo from May Woo / FB

Photo from May Woo / FB

Photo from May Woo / FB

The wrappers are cleaned thoroughly, then cut into smaller strips, and folded and weaved together in a criss-cross pattern.

Photo from May Woo / FB

Photo from May Woo / FB

And here are the finished products.

The bags range from small sling purses, to larger shoulder bags.

Handles and slings recycled from broken bags are attached to the weaved plastic to give them new life.

Photo from May Woo / FB

This one comes with a flap and magnetic clasp.

Photo from May Woo / FB

The shoulder bags even come with an inner lining and zip.

Photo from May Woo / FB

Photo from May Woo / FB

Impressive.

Open to donations of plastic wrappers

In an update to the post, Woo added that the workshop was a free arts and craft session that occurred every Wednesday in the late afternoon.

It is apparently for senior citizens.

If you happen to have plenty of used plastic wrappers at home, you can send them to the Active Ageing Club instead of throwing them away.

It would be best to wash and clean the wrappers before sending them.

Address:

676 Woodlands Drive 71, #06-01, S730676

Opening hours:

Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm

Sat, 9am - 1pm

The centre is closed on Sundays.

You can read the full post by Woo on Facebook here:

Top photo from May Woo / FB