Cool backpacks made of waste

For the past 6 months, I have been personally involved in a very cool sustainability project that was finally launched. Here at PepsiCo Brazil, we are converting waste from potato chip bags into backpacks and messenger bags.

In association with TerraCycle, we're replicating in Brazil the upcycling model that has been working in the U.S. market for a years. The project serves both an environmental purpose removing tons of packaging waste from landfills, as well as, a social cause since revenues support 250 families in low-income communities who produce the items.

This is how it works...

TerraCycle is partnering with waste management cooperatives to collect our snack bags. Bags are fused into fabric which is then sent to Solidarium...

Solidarium coordinates the production of the backpacks which is carried out in low-income communities of Curitiba...

The items are then shippped to our first customer: Wal*Mart Brazil...

... and merchandised in an exclusive display that combines chip bags with the upcycled items.

One of the things I love about this project is that it is the result of true collaboration. Tom Szaky and Richard Perl from TerraCycle in New Jersey providing us with their amazing experience from the North-American market, Tiago Dalvi from Solidarium who brings their experience with social work, Wal*Mart who supported us since the beginning of the project, the Future Group who developed the in-store presence, Claudia Pires - the marketing manager who is working with me on the project and shares the same passion I have for sustainability - and Sergio Julio and Camila Feola from the R&D Team who are the packaging experts.

Another example of the power of collaboration. All of us working together with a dream of building a sustainable upcycling model for snack bags in Brazil.... with a nice social story behind it. 

Fun project.