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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Juicy couture

Bags made from recycled Tetra Pak containers look cool and support a good cause

By: David Sanderson

25/04/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

WINNIPEGGER Kent Anthony was 13 years old when his father ac­cepted a one-year term teaching math and science at a school in the Philippines.

Days after the Anthonys touched down in Quezon City in August 1983, Benigno Aquino, a critic of Ferdinand Marcos's then-ruling Nacionalista Party, was assassinated on the tarmac at Manila International Airport. "Immediately the country was thrown into upheaval and ultimately martial law and the ouster of Marcos," Anthony says. "That, in a nutshell, was my introduction to the Philippines."

Three years ago, Anthony, 39, was reintroduced to the island nation by his mother, who had travelled there to visit her grandchildren. (One of Anthony's two sisters moved back to the Philippines after getting married and is now an instructor at Faith Academy, the same school where her father taught.)

While there, Anthony's mother purchased a number of bags and purses that had been hand-crafted by local women. "When she came home she gave two (bags) to every female in our family," Anthony says. "From that moment on, anytime any of them went anywhere, people tapped them on the shoulder and asked where they got their bag from."

It's not every day you spot somebody sporting a purse fashioned from recycled juice boxes. The properly-named Doy Bags are made by a woman's co-operative in Pasig City called the KILUS Foundation. For 10 years, community leaders have encouraged Filipinos to donate their empty Tetra Paks to KILUS. Women and children then use the foil-wrapped containers to create a variety of colourful products like purses, belts and wallets.

The finished products are sold worldwide and provide employment for over 200 families in the Metro Manila area, most of who were living in abject poverty before getting involved with KILUS.

"The Third World is a different ball of f ing wax, man, and if you're not outraged by it then you're not thinking about it enough," Anthony says, explaining why he and his wife, Debbie, began marketing Doy Bags in Winnipeg just over a year ago. "One woman making these bags used to be a dump dweller -- she actually lived in a cardboard shack at the Payatas garbage dump. But after doing this for four years, she was able to turn that shack into a cement house."

The couple paid KILUS up front for their initial shipment of 500 units. Anthony's sister delivered the funds in person to ensure that the money ended up in the right hands. Anthony -- the salesman in the family -- now peddles the bags wherever there's interest: at community events like Osborne Village's Canada Day festival or at Tupperware-like parties. That is, when the self-titled ReBag Man isn't being strong-armed to sell the one slung over his own shoulder. (Case in point: during the course of a one-hour interview, three people approach Anthony in an Osborne Village coffee shop, wondering where he got his Quality Tomato "kit bag" from. Sorry, folks. Not for sale. Anthony needs his to carry his hand sanitizer and photos of his daughter, Toni.)

"I'm used to it," he says, apologizing for another interruption. "The other day I was at the remand centre getting a criminal record check and I sold one to the girl who was helping me out. I just slapped it on the counter, said 'Hi, how you doing' and that was it -- gone."

Prices range from $10 for a makeup holder to $30 for a beach tote. Bags come in a variety of "flavours" including apple, orange, pineapple and durian. "They're already durable to start with -- I've heard these things don't decompose for, like 1,000 years -- plus they're all double-stitched," Anthony says. "I've been packing mine around since last spring and there's hardly any wear at all."

The Anthonys aren't in this to make a fortune. Both have full-time jobs -- he's a financial analyst, she's a physician's assistant at the Health Sciences Centre.

"What motivates us is being able to make a difference where we can. Helping people dig themselves out of a hole in some small way, yeah, that's what excites me in the morning," Anthony says.

For more information, visit www.rebagman.blogspot.com.

 

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 25, 2009 F10

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