Making Eco-Friendly Bags in Indonesia: A Story of Tradition and Care
We hear more and more people now consider sustainability is an important factor in making a retail purchase. What does this mean? Are ethically produced products and recyclable materials important as sustainability factors? Let’s take a look at how a unique and handmade bag from NATLOVERS made its journey from Yogyakarta in Indonesia to Australia.
Beyond Function and Style
Beyond the functionality factors such as size, colour, and materials, there are other critical factors to consider when choosing a bag, such as style, beauty and affordability. Two Baskets shop in Balmain, Sydney tries to bring beautiful handbags with unique stories from Java to Australia. Let’s take a closer look at how these bags are made of aquatic waste and how these bags empower the local disabled community.
Water Hyacinth: A Sustainable Material for Indonesian Weaving
For hundreds of years, Indonesians have practised weaving as their culture and favourite pastime. They put their culture and traditions into every weaving product they make by utilising natural materials found locally. Water hyacinth is a wild water grass that grows abundantly and very rapidly in Indonesia. It has been used as a raw material for baskets, trays and side tables, and now as materials for creating bags. Due to the rapid growth and widely available water hyacinth in Indonesia’s thousands of islands, this material is sustainable in supply.
Local people in Java go to rivers and lakes to collect water hyacinth for free. By doing this, they're helping to keep the water clean and healthy or otherwise, they rapidly clog the rivers, lakes or irrigation canals.
Water hyacinth in Java. Photo Credit: Clean Currents Coalition
In 1998, a small enterprise in Java, NATLOVERS set up an initiative that empowers people with disabilities, especially people who can't hear or speak well in the area by training them and giving them income earning possibilities by making bags using water hyacinth. "We now have about 5 or 6 people with disabilities working with us," says the person in charge of the project. "It's tough for people who can't hear or speak to find jobs. Many people don't want to hire them. But in our project, they get to do important work and be part of something special."
This initiative has evolved in the last 25 years, not only in design but also in quality. With extra care and time, each bag is made with lots of love and care.
Turning Problem into Crafts
Using water hyacinths to make these bags helps nature in two big ways. First, it helps control this plant that can cause problems in rivers and lakes. When there's too much water hyacinth, it can make it hard for fish and other water animals to live. Second, water hyacinth is a natural product and biodegradable. Most products with water hyacinth degrade completely within 20 days when it is discarded, hence they don’t harm the environment.
"We're taking something that was a big problem and turning it into something good," explains the person running the project. "Water hyacinth was hurting our rivers and lakes. Now, we're using it to make beautiful bags that people love."
Giving People Purpose
This bag does more than just help the environment. It also helps people. By giving jobs to people with disabilities, this project shows that everyone can do important work when they're given a chance. It helps change how people think about disabilities and shows that everyone has something valuable to offer.
The bags themselves are also beautifully designed with handmade dolls that wear a variety of Indonesian traditional clothes made of natural fabrics. Through these bags, Australians could learn and appreciate Indonesian culture.
Future Plans
Looking to the future, the team has big plans:
They want to keep making their bags better and better.
They hope to create more kinds of bags with even more traditional Indonesian designs.
Photo credits: Two Baskets, Clean Currents Coalition
These beautiful products are available at Two Baskets, Balmain, Sydney. Please see @twobaskets.au