The greasy wool arrives from our growers’ establishments to our facility in large plastic bags. We have been recycling this waste for a very long time; however, we noticed it is a noble material with striking strength and resistance.
One day at a sustainability exposition carried out in our city, Montevideo, we met Andrea Ramagli founder of Mare Sustentable. Mare was born in the pandemic. Andrea was staying in a farm during quarantine and was shocked with the great amount of fertilizer bags she found in the fields. Being a nature and sport enthusiast, she immediately saw value in this material for creating surf equipment which was the jumping start of the company. At the sustainability exposition her project stood out for the creative and modern designs of the surf covers made out of these fertilizer bags. We met and immediately started talking, brainstorming ideas and agreed to work on a project together regarding our company’s waste, which was something Andrea never had done before. After receiving our plastic waste, Andrea was impressed in how similar this material was to the fertilizer bags and the many possibilities we had to create many useful products.
Engraw is located in a town 100km away from Montevideo called Fray Marcos in the department of Florida. When we think of “giving back” we always put our surrounding community first. With school classes about to start we thought that we could create school bags for out staff’s children out of this noble material.
“I loved the proposal; I loved that it was for the children. Very simple but innovative. As you can notice the backpack has its own pencil case so all the pencils´ colours are seen through the transparent material. This design looks great in transparent plastics” Andrea Ramagli, Founder of Mare Sustentable
The school bags were manufactured by Mare’s seamstress Sandra in Cerro Colorado, Florida. Mare works with women from rural areas and women facing vulnerable conditions in many cities. Most of them live in remote locations, far away, where they do not have frequent means of transport and where there are practically no other sources of employment.
“I can also tell you that this is a first experience in a new line using the residue of a client, so it was a tremendous experience to start with you. The good thing is that the circular economy is generated by a 100%”. Andrea Ramagli, Founder of Mare Sustentable
We loved the experience and the resulting product, but it was most exciting to see how the young ones cherished their new backpacks and found value in them. Sometimes waste is just something (with value) misplaced.