Empowering ways to upcycle single use plastic with Looply at The Baytree Centre
This week, we had the joy of bringing one of our favourite brands, Looply, to The Baytree Centre for a hands-on upcycling workshop. This workshop was a powerful reminder of how creativity, community and collaboration can be so incredibly powerful.
For those who have supported Leiho for a while, you may recognise our previous partnership with The Baytree Centre for our candles employment project.
To refresh memories, The Baytree Centre is a social inclusion charity based in Brixton that supports women and girls through education, skills development, and personal growth. They create a supportive environment where individuals can learn new skills and unlock new opportunities.
This would not have been possible without Looply. Looply is an innovative and sustainable brand founded by Fyona Seguin. Looply are on a mission to turn plastic waste into beautiful, functional products. From making and selling laptop cases to tote bags, pencil cases, and keychains, Looply saves your single use plastic that would otherwise end up in landfill. More than just a brand, Looply is also about education and empowerment through their workshops and events. Their team encourage people to rethink materials and rediscover the value in making things by hand.
Together, we taught The Baytree Centre ladies how to transform everyday plastic waste into mini coin pouches, a small but mighty project that introduced skills in design, cutting, sewing, and assembling. For many of the women, this was their first time sewing or even crafting something from scratch. What started with a bit of nervous energy quickly turned into a room full of excitement, pride, and real joy as they held up their finished product.
“I am so happy, this is my first time learning to sew” one participant said.
“I’ve sewn before but never something like this. Usually I sew trousers, clothes but not used plastic” another participant said.
80% of the women who attended had never sewed before.
90% of the women were not aware you could melt plastic and repurpose it into products.
100% of the participants felt accomplished and proud of themselves.
Workshops like this are about so much more than just making a product. They're about confidence-building, hands-on learning, and opening doors to new possibilities.
At Leiho, we believe in the importance of these kinds of experiences. We know that real impact happens when we work directly with people and communities and the support from our community and brand partners makes this possible.
We’re so grateful to the teams at Baytree, Looply, and all of you in the wider Leiho community for helping us bring moments like this to life.
Stay tuned for more workshops, collaborations, and impact stories.