Working out of Santiago in Chile, Constanza Alvarez and her family up-cycle single use plastics into beautiful, vibrant and colorful jewelry. Whereas otherwise these plastics would end up in landfills or oceans and rivers, the Alvarez family gives them a 2nd life and turns trash into treasure.
Apart from the beauty of the products we love that they are up-cycled, we love that they are handmade, and we love how they use Instagram to express their brand.
Up-Cycled
Let’s start with the greatest aspect of their business. Giving single-use plastics a 2nd, and much longer, life. The ladies in the Alvarez family collect discarded plastic wrap, organize them into color pallets inspired by nature, and fuse them rolled together to create plastic beads which they combine to form their artful pieces.
There is a video on their website which tells their story and their process. It’s such a great story to hear about environmentally conscious generations working together to solve one of our planets most pressing issues. Climate change, pollution, and preserving our ecology is crucial for our future generations. We should be taken care of our earth so our future family members can have a happy and healthy world to live in. We hope this post can act as inspiration for anyone else who has a mind to up-cycle waste in their communities.
What we love about this model isn’t just that it’s environmentally friendly. But some a business standpoint it’s smart. Whereas most manufactured products require expensive parts or materials, up-cycling has a zero cost input. Instead of having to buy the metals, gems and materials they need to create their jewelry, the family is able to procure them for free.
In some cases you may even be paid to take it (since more places will pay people to take their garbage away). So not only do you get paid for the product you sell, but you’re getting paid for using the materials themselves. The business model can pay you twice!
Handmade in Chile
The story of Plastica starts with the matriarch, Grandmother Oma, who believed in recycled and up-cycling, and would use her technique to create baskets. These baskets are still used and in as good as new condition, which inspired the family to continue their tradition and create something buyers can treasure.
Below is their Chromatic Medallion. The artisan ladies first create beads of similar and matching colours and lay them out in their own create templates, mixing and matching, and looking for inspiration as they create. Once they’re happy with their combination of colors and textures, they fuse the beads with heat to create one solid piece of jewelry.
Below is the Nala Ring from the Africa collection. Most of their products have the same development process. It’s a scalable and sustainable manufacturing system that the family is able to do from their family home in Santiago.
Branded Instagram & Facebook
Last but not least, we love how they are getting their story out to the world through Instagram and Facebook. Having an inspirational story like Plastica’s is only as great as the effect it can have on other people, and so getting people to take notice is just as important to their cause. Whether customer buy their products or not, having a greater reach helps them in their mission to inspire up-cycling and sustainable lifestyle choices. Their hope with their brand is to inspire all generations to recycle, up-cycle and live an environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Their Instagram pictures above shows how beautiful and attractive up-cycled jewelry can look. Breaking any misconception that only new things can be attractive. By continuing to focus their messaging and imagery around up-cycling, their process, their inspiration, and of course the beauty of their products, they are grabbing their audiences attention and creating virality.
You can visit the Plastica website here: www.plastica.com
Plastica uses our Shop Phone app for Shopify to help them recover abandoned checkouts, and welcome new and VIP customers: Shop Phone Shopify App