“Governments in every county across the state are cutting back on plastic. On Hawaii Island, the county is no longer recycling plastic, and that’s where one woman has turned a problem into a business.
Upcycle Hawaii owner Mattie Mae Larson talks about how she got into the business of repurposing material that would otherwise end up in the landfill.
‘It goes back to being a kid. I have been tinkering and reusing, and my Mom used to call me a little MacGyver. I would take materials and remake them into other things. And I entered my first farmers’ market in 2014. I got such a great response, that’s what really motivated.’
Upcycle Hawaii has evolved from creating handbags and earrings out of pop-tops to her current practice of using what she calls ‘fused plastic.’”
View the whole story here: https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/big-island-business-turns-plastic-trash-sales