From Belo breaks the Asian market after winning top spot in Hong Kong Waste is Value exhibition
A handbag and accessories company - which uses waste materials for its products - has made a major breakthrough in the Asian market.
From Belo’s green ju bucket bag was recently chosen by renowned Italian designer, and waste campaigner, Rosanna Orlandi, for the Waste is Value Exhibition at the International Finance Centre in central Hong Kong.
It marks another milestone for From Belo, which recycles materials from waste items such as seatbelts, inner tubes and plastic bottles, and turns them into 'something beautiful'.
“It’s fantastic the bag was exhibited as we hadn’t thought about the Asian market yet, but they approached us,” said Charlotte Bingham-Wallis, from Twinstead.
“We have found success in Europe and also America and this marks another stage in our journey.”
From Belo was founded in 2017 by Charlotte and her friend Maria Costa, who lives in Brazil.
Charlotte and Maria, both 31, first met at Sudbury Upper School when they were 16 years old.
Maria was an Erasmus exchange student and the pair stayed friends.
They devised the company as a way of helping people in the Belo Horizonte region, where Maria lives, and which is impoverished.
From Belo make handbags and accessories from landfill waste, including plastic bottles, decommissioned seat belts, car seat material, fabric off cuts, tyre inner tubes and umbrella fabric, which they describe as 'industrial waste and trash'.
They turn these into everything from handbags to wallets, clutch bags and purses, and more.
Maria sets up the manufacturing with the help of 34 crafts people where she lives in, and Charlotte works on the sales side.
The idea is to both minimise the impact of the bag-making process on the environment, while creating work and investment in Belo Horizonte.
Purchase of the items also goes to help fund food and schooling in the region through two local charities to company works with.
The green ju bucket bag is hand-crafted from seatbelts, plastic bottles and fabric off-cuts.
In 2019, From Belo also won top prize in the Handbag Design Awards - and has been nominated for a string of other international awards in recent years.
“Our motto is fashion kindness – creating something beautiful out of something repurposed,” added Charlotte.
Head to our business page for all of the latest news about businesses in Suffolk
Read more: All the latest news from Suffolk
Read more: All the latest news from Sudbury
