Bio Bags
In San Miguel de Allende, a colonial town in central Mexico, you can meet Arturo.
Arturo’s passion was addressing the large problem of trash throughout Mexico. He realized that the environmental issues in Mexico were a bi-product of poverty. In his own words, Arturo explains his motivation and his mission for starting BIO Imaginarte to help address environmental issues and poverty in his country.
Arturo published two small books called reduce, reuse, and recycle and in 20 years have sold 100,000 copies. Then made a little book call the World of Composting. He gave hundreds of talks about environmental protection and then companies started to call him and started to make programs for companies.
Arturo’s father is a graphic designer so he feels he inherited observation and the ability to do things just by putting his hands on it. They started to use garbage materials and give workshops to make all kinds of useful things, decorative things and toys. They travelled around Mexico giving workshops on how to make things from trash and then put collection boxes in schools for the pop top tabs, which went along with the presentations he gave to the students.
They start selling at environmental fairs in Mexico, then in 2001 they went to a fair in Nashville and sold 1000 bags. Continuing in markets and everywhere there was an opportunity to do it so they could support their NGO organization by making their own things.
The bags are now mostly made by five sisters who live in the town of Guanajuato. They sew together the pop-tops. One man, Chuco, makes the inner tube part of the bags. They all work from home so they can spend time with their families. In total they are 12 people in the organization working together to keep this project alive.
They have built something out of nothing, out of what is call garbage. Using their own resourses and trying to be sustainable, creating products that take care of our planet.
What a better way to contribute with Earth's healing than with this eco-friendly pieces!
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