Cycle of Good’s Pocket Wallet made from recycled inner tubes
This practical wallet and others wallets and pouches in this series are made from recycled inner tubes and crafted by Malawian tailors! The Pocket Wallet is big enough to hold cash and ID/credit card via a slot on the back.
Cycle of Good collects inner waste tubes and other products, ships them in containers to Malawi, and gives them to the tailors who carefully craft useful and beautiful items. By employing 20 Malawian tailors full time, but with ambitions to grow this to a team of 100, the employees earn a good wage and can support their families without charity donations or handouts.
CoG is the latest initiative to join a wonderful hub of social enterprises created by the UK-registered charity Krizevac Project over the past ten years. Situated in Chilomoni Township, Malawi, the enterprises employ 500 people who have trained and worked to create businesses that fund a vital children’s center. The center provides early years care and family support to around 2000 vulnerable children at any one time. It’s a quiet revolution of skills building and economic growth in a country with no welfare state: if you don’t earn, you don’t eat.
What’s even better is that many of the enterprises are reusing unwanted or waste products from the UK and turning them into profit. Cycle of Good sales have paid to ship thousands of books, bikes, computers and sewing machines to Malawi. Once they arrive they are renovated, used for training and sold to create a profit which also helps to run the children’s centre.
Over the years, the most popular enterprise by far has been the tailoring school. Over 2000 local women (and the occasional man!) have completed a diploma training course and kept their donated sewing machine at the end.
Besides products made from inner tubes, Cycle of Good also make a fully recycled (and recyclable) reusable range of face-coverings.
All the products that are being made in Malawi are shipped back to the UK where they are sold to raise income. The profits pay to send more containers to Malawi and all surpluses directly fund the work of the children’s centre. It’s why they are called the Cycle of Good!
I spoke with Kelly Shenton from Cycle of Good to follow up on some questions I had about the organisation and their products:
Can you let me know more about the connection between Cycle of Good and the Krizevac Project? E.g.do profits from sales directly go to Krizevac, or is the beneficiary Cycle of Good’s own projects?
Krizevac is the UK registered charity of which Cycle of Good are a brand establish to generate income for the charity. Krizevac set up Beehive in Malawi where Cycle of Good tailoring are situated and that’s where all our products are made.
You collect so many inner tubes. What percentage of them are made into products, and what happens with the rest?
Everything is used! Offcuts of inner tube from making the cycle of Good products are used to fill small stools for our children’s centre (I’ll try to get an image for you). Malawians are natural recycler’s, nothing is wasted and they ingeniously find a use for almost everything!
Can you share how the collaboration with Carradice came about (head over t their website to find great bags made in collaboration with UK bag brand Carradice)? I am actually quite impressed that staff from Carradice went to Malawi!
Yes, this was a great collaboration. We approached Carradice for design help several years ago when Cycle of Good was just starting up and they were wonderful. We’ve worked together ever since and have a great relationship.
How are your projects, operation and people in Malawi impacted by Covid19? How are they coping and do they access to vaccination?
Infection rates were incredibly low (thank goodness). We distributed masks and sanitiser and out outreach workers visited families to educate on the importance of social distancing and good hygiene. We had to close our Children’s centre but the children are due to return in the coming weeks. Fortunately no one within our team contracted Covid but sadly, they did lose loved ones. Vaccination is still patchy in Malawi and most of our team are still unvaccinated.
It looks like you currently only ship within the UK. Do you have plans to offer international shipping? We’d love to but Brexit is making it really hard! Our intention is to roll out international shipping ASAP. Having said that, we made our first sale to New Zealand this week! It can be done but requires a lot of input.
You are member of BAFTS. Does this mean your products are Fairtrade certified? BAFTS are a fair trade network for the UK and their members adhere to the 10 Principles of Fair Trade as set out by the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO). https://www.bafts.org.uk/ Fairtrade certified is different and unfortunately, they do not recognise recycled materials as something that can carry the Fairtrade badge. It’s complicated and a shame but there doesn’t seem to be any movement on their part.
I read this in one of your bog posts, an interview with your Manager Mary. What struck me was this exchange:
Q: What do the tailors think of the recycling element of the project? Is that meaningful here in Malawi?
A: To be honest, that’s a little lost on them. It’s not something we think about in Malawi because here everything is used to death. If you have an inner tube, it is used until it is scraps and cannot be used anymore.
Q: Ah, perhaps we could make some information posters for the walls of the workshop to explain about the problem of waste and landfill in the UK?
A: Yes I think that would be a good idea.
Q: Do the people you know like the products we make?
A: No! They want shiny smart British goods, not something made out of rubbish!
Seeing both side, the UK consumer society, and the society in Malawi, do you sometimes have moments where you question this disparity, that products are thrown away in the UK, that would still be used in a society with more efficient resource management, at the same time the same people that did not care to repair an inner tube then spend on the up-cycled product?
Absolutely. The Malawians really dislike our products! ? They do however appreciate that they have well-paid, dignifying work in UK standard conditions and contracts. They don’t understand how we can generate so much waste in the UK and conversely, some in the UK don’t understand why we send our waste to Malawi. However, there is a need for jobs in Malawi and we have the sales market here to make that happen and there is not enough provision in the UK to deal with the growing waste problem or to encourage reducing waste in the first place!
YellowCrank is working in partnership with Cycle of Good, reducing poverty by recycling waste materials into beautiful and use bags and wallets. Follow https://www.cycleofgood.com/ref/137/ to shop!
(This is an affiliate link and YellowCrank will earn a small commission on any product you purchase)
| Product | Recycled Inner Tube Pocket Wallet |
| Price | GBP 8.50 |
| Brand | Cycle of Good |
| International Shipping available | No / UK only |
| Company Location | UK / Malawi |
| Manufacturing Country | Malawi |
| Sustainability Info | recycled material, manufacturing process detailed on website |
| Product / Company link | https://www.cycleofgood.com |
Got any feedback or questions? Please comment in the section below!
