Galoa Women's Group - Recycled Crafts of Galoa

Repurposing plastics and bottles by turning them into useful and arty products can be an easy and profitable way to help clean up the environment.!

A group of women from the village of Galoa in the province of Serua have learned to upskill themselves through the practice of plastics repurposing by turning ocean side trash into cash. The Plastics Repurposing project falls under the Pacific Tourism Waste Action Initiative, and it is one of the projects being implemented by the South Pacific Tourism Organization, in their bid on advocacy for sustainable tourism.

Repurposing plastics and bottles by turning them into useful and arty products can be an easy and profitable way to help clean up the environment.!

A group of women from the village of Galoa in the province of Serua have learned to upskill themselves through the practice of plastics repurposing by turning ocean side trash into cash. The Plastics Repurposing project falls under the Pacific Tourism Waste Action Initiative, and it is one of the projects being implemented by the South Pacific Tourism Organization, in their bid on advocacy for sustainable tourism.

The Galoa Women’s group are one of the only women’s groups in the country in which this project is being implemented. Through this project these women are one of the main groups in the country that are focused on plastics circularity and waste management. The group uses discarded bottles and plastics to create handicraft, jewelry, and home décor. In 2018, 15 women from Galoa village were trained on this skill and this has helped the women as a source of income for their households.

From earrings, necklaces to home décors, these women have explored many ways to make creative handicrafts from recycled plastic materials and utilize all waste resources around them. The practice of plastic repurposing stems from the urgent need to protect our environment and reducing the footprint of plastic pollution in our country. According to global stats around 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way in our oceans daily. 79% of plastic waste is sent to landfills or the ocean, while only 9% is recycled and 12% get incinerated. 25 trillion macro and 51 trillion microplastics litter our oceans.

The Galoa Women’s group are one of the few groups in the country who are benefitting from such projects as well as pushing for the initiative on effective plastic waste management in their community.

It is vital that we as must protect and conserve our environment as its custodians and that we must learn to work together to mitigate and alleviate this issue. It is time that we need to be part of the solution not part of the pollution.