When you’ve finished reading your newspaper, what do you do with it? Throw it away? Recycle it? Leave it in the coffee shop where you found it? Take the crossword with you to finish later…

The Women’s Multi Purpose Co-operative in Baguio City, the Philippines have found an incredibly productive, dynamic and practical use for the newspapers that are thrown away in their area. They recycle this paper and produce stylish home-ware products which, when looked at from a distance, it is difficult to tell what exactly they have been made from, the surprised look on people’s faces when you tell them is great!

The products are coated in a natural resin making them water and heat resistant, although water and fire in large amounts would not do them any good (like most things really!)

The way the paper is skilfully twisted into shapes and then tied together to make something bigger is incredible to look at, and of course the colours all vary but there is a recognisable style throughout. The earrings are incredible – matching colours and a lovely shape with sterling silver hooks, the square hot mats are a popular favourite, and make a perfect accompaniment to the table with the placemats, then there is the fun picture frames and coaster sets.

The Philippines is home to the world’s biggest rubbish dump – smoky mountain in a slum in Manila. People have to scavenge and live among this rubbish to survive each day. The women’s multi purpose co-operative whose members are working their way out of poverty and thinking about the environment, are encouraging the reuse of waste newspaper to make a new and useful product. They are paid a fair wage and have been able to improve their standards of living, although they still struggle but things are slowly improving.