Many depressed areas in third world countries have established cooperatives which are encouraged to design and create unique functional products out of discarded materials that would otherwise end up in landfills or be incinerated. These include handbags, fashion accessories, utility boxes, baskets, and garden bags that are crafted out of recycled paper, and juice packets - a non-biodegradable foil and plastic packaging.

My Ecofriend is a small company specializing in these products from some of the cooperatives. My Ecofriend showcases the talents and innovation of these craft persons to the rest of the world and helps to bridge the gap between these communities and the marketplace.

The range of recycled products My Ecofriend has sourced are made by women's environmental cooperatives.

More than 2000 women and their families benefit from the regular work and fair wages for what they produce plus a number of other benefits such as health insurance, skills training, and an educational scholarship program for their children.

By buying ethically traded products from My Ecofriend you can be assured that you are helping to improve the lives of these disadvantaged women and their families. Indeed with resourcefulness, trash has been turned into attractive and useful items with a positive environmental outcomes.

To encourage and help craftsmen from third countries to be creative and find markets.

To improve the lives of disadvantaged people and their families.

To make fashionable, attractive, and useful products from recycled paper; plastic bottles; wine bottles; aluminum cans; jute, rice, and flour bags; recycled vinyl; juice and chips packets.

To make recycled accessories and bags a fashion choice for young people.

To provide durable bags and accessories.

To offer value for money.

To improve the living standards of the workers.

To make the environment cleaner and greener.

The cooperative has three main teams: buyers, washers, and seamstresses.

The buyers acquire the used juice packs from households and business places where their may be an accumulation of the juice packs.

The washers sort the juice packs, thoroughly wash them in a three-stage process, and then dry them.

The seamstresses use industrial sewing machines to make up the juice packs into bags and fashion accessories.

  The other members of the cooperatives who are variously

involved in quality control, packing and shipping, bookkeeping, and marketing.

Foil packets are a very popular way to sell and consume juice drinks that are sold mostly in stores, supermarkets, and stalls. The juice packs are non-biodegradable and, similar to the plastic shopping bags problem in Australia that end up in landfills or as litter in the streets which can migrate into the watercourses and clog drainage systems, rivers, and lakes.

Our workers, artisans, their families, and friends are enthusiastic about the project and help as much as they can - even going as far as drinking their juice upside down!

An imaginative solution were devised by women cooperatives which recognized that these foil packs and papers are a ready resource that can be recycled into saleable products.

The cooperatives, in order to get a supply of the used packs and papers organizes regular collections of the used foil packs and papers from private homes, schools, hospitals, dormitories, offices, convention centres, parties, festivals, events of all kinds and community facilities in much the same way Australia recycles aluminum drink cans.

Fair Trade is an approach to trade that ensures that workers receive a fair price for what they produce. It also involves a concern for workers' rights and the conditions in which they are employed.

Recycled bags and accessories are made by cooperatives which means that every single person involved in the production of the bags has a say in how things are run. In addition to receiving a fair and living wage, the cooperatives provide safe and hygienic working conditions, reasonable working hours (no forced overtime) and a weekly ration of five kilos of rice per worker. All workers are encouraged to attend free skills training and personal development seminars.

In addition, the cooperatives promotes the importance of education for members' children and provides a scholarship fund to make this possible. No children or minors are permitted to work for any cooperatives under any circumstances.

You may never visit the workers yourself, but by buying a fairly traded recycled bags and accessories you can be sure that you are helping to improve the lives of these disadvantaged women and their families.

In purchasing any of our product YOU are helping the mothers fulfill their dream for their

families.

www.myecofriend.comemail@myecofriend.com

phone/fax (612) 98182445GPO Box 2470

Sydney NSW 2001Australia