Recycled-bag producer gets more sales in local markets

Agnes Winarti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 10/11/2008 11:26 AM  |  City

BAG LADY: Yulia, an employee of Happy Trash Bag, puts the finishing touches on a bag made from canvas and pages from glossy magazines. JP/Agnes Winarti

While her unique bags and purses made of paper and plastic have been sold abroad for almost 20 years, Kasmi is starting to break into the slow growing Indonesian market.

"My customers have been expatriates from the U.S., Australia, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates and Singapore. However, in the past two or three years, I have been getting more orders from local companies," 51-year-old Kasmi told The Jakarta Post.

"Since the 90s, foreigners have shown appreciation of recycled products, while local people usually regarded trash as worthless," Kasmi said.

As the importance of environmental conservation started to hit home over the past couple of years, there has been a growing trend for using recycled products in Indonesia.

"Recently, I began receiving orders from locals," Kasmi said. A local grocery chain has agreed to purchase 1,000 recycled bags for its stores. Throughout the past year about 25 percent of her sales have come from locals, Kasmi said.

The majority of her products are sold to supermarkets, shopping centers and hotels frequented by expatriates, as well as the U.S. and Australian embassies in Jakarta. Overseas sales are also a major source of sales and distribution.

Before commencing her business in 1990, Kasmi worked as a make-up artist at the Jakarta International School.

"I fixed hair and applied make up to JIS students performing in the theater," Kasmi said.

Her low income forced her to be creative with whatever she could get her hands on. Kasmi found her ideas in the trash.

Initially she made recycled bags from old newspapers by covering them with plastic and sewing them together.

Now, her recycled handicraft products include purses and tote bags made of used plastic food packages, cleaning utensils, and magazine pages. A purse costs between Rp 25,000 and Rp 35,000 while a bag costs Rp 75,000 and 95,000.

Through her business with parents of JIS students, Kasmi was able to find a market for her products.

"Through them, I had five regular customers who each bought 500 products for their monthly charity events in their home countries," Kasmi said.

Kasmi also takes a unique approach to hiring employees, offering positions only to deaf people, including her own daughter.

"As a mother of a deaf daughter, I want her to have a productive life after she graduates from the school for special needs," Kasmi said.

"You know how it was in Jakarta, especially in the 90s, when deaf people could hardly receive a higher level of education let alone a decent job," said Kasmi, who currently has a total of 18 employees.

Her employees at the South Jakarta workshop use 11 sewing machines, donated to her by expatriate friends. Together, they can produce 30 bags per day and create dolls from pieces of batik cloth.

Kasmi and her employees are known as the Group of the Deaf People and the producers of the Happy Trash Bag.

Besides managing her own deaf employees, Kasmi also trains deaf students from various schools around the capital, as well as from Yogyakarta and Surabaya.

"I have lost count of the students who have followed my training in the past years. There are too many of them," Kasmi said.

Kasmi has also shared her bag-making techniques with poor people living in the slums of Penjaringan in North Jakarta, Rancamaya in Bogor, Tebet in South Jakarta, Karawaci in Tangerang and Bekasi.

Kasmi, who admits she did not start working out of awareness for the environment, said she would only assist unfortunate people with her skills.

"I prefer sharing my skills with unfortunate people, like these deaf kids, so that they can earn their own living."

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