TheGrio collaborated with The Weather Channel and Pattrn to share their series Faces of Change – people of color doing the work to promote green solutions and sustainable communities.
Second generation leather-smith Alex Dabaugh uses repurposed plastic bags to create eco-friendly tote bags ‘aNYbag.’
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“When I started this project, my father looked at me like I had two heads,” says DaBaugh.
“He was like,’ What do you do with all this plastic? We are a leather company, we’re a leather factory. We been making leather goods for the last 35 years.“
When DeBaugh mentioned the idea to his employees , they thought he was crazy as well.
“With each aNYbag, we use 95 single used plastic bags or two pounds of plastic to make one bag,” says DaBaugh.
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He adds, “There’s no machine out there that was made specifically for what we’re doing. We’re rigging all our other machines to make this work. Each bag is individual to itself. Each bag is a different story. You know, it’s as authentic as you can get to New York City. “
Check out the video for more.
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