Rainbow Repurpose was born in May of 2023. But to tell you about Rainbow Repurpose, you have to learn a bit about the Creator, Aliyah. Aliyah is originally born and raised in New Hampshire. She has always had a creative and adventurous spirit. She learned to sew from her grandmother when she was a child and it has been one of the many avenues of creative expression that she has continued to this day. Aliyah moved to Hawaii in 2018 and lived on Maui and Oahu before settling on the Big Island. Its here she found her sense of being at home. Knowing that it is a privilege to be accepted by the Island, she wanted to take care to respect the Aina and make positive contributions where she could. She then started working for a local upcycling business after getting settled into her new home. Working there furthered her understanding and scope of how much plastic we consume and how, if we think outside of the box and challenge our creative muscle, we can come up with some amazing ways to upcycle our trash. It was then that she started saving more of her personal household plastic, instead of throwing it away, though unsure of how to use it.
Aliyah was inspired one day, watching videos online, to make a coiled basket. It wasn't something she had done before and the idea of trying a new art was exciting for her. However, Aliyah has been inspired many times in the past by many other projects and with her honed awareness of what we consume, she aimed to buy nothing new for this project. Old clothes were perfect for the fabric but it took a bit to come up with the rope alternative. Then she wondered if she could use the plastic she had been saving up. Well, with a bit of trial and error, it worked! She started by hand sewing and found she loved making baskets. And it was a great way to use plastic! She soon ran out though, as she practices reducing plastic when shopping. She wasn't ready to stop sewing though, so she reached out to her community to see if anyone else had been saving plastic like she was. She was surprised to find a large number of people like herself who could not find it in themselves to throw out their household plastic, and soon she was full again with materials! The flow of plastic has not stopped since then and she has yet to run out again.
Rainbow Repurpose was then born, to help upcycle some of our communities plastic and feed Aliyah's newfound passion. Since then, Rainbow Repurpose continues to grow and evolve, with the support of the community. We continue to take plastic donations, as well as fabric and plastic straws.
Donations are the life material of Rainbow Repurpose and we could not keep it alive without it! Just as important as donating plastic and materials is shopping with Rainbow Repurpose. Everything is made by hand by the one person team that is Aliyah. She works very hard and her passion and joy in what she does drives her. By supporting Rainbow Repurpose, you help to keep Aliyah busy making trash into something beautiful and lasting.
