Disabled Recycle Billboards Into Design Products

The Department of Environmental Protection in the city of Kefar Saba in Israel has come up with a new initiative: Recycling used billboards and turning them into all sorts of products. Every year, hundreds of plastic billboard are being hung across the city. In the framework of the new project, the city will collect the used billboards and deliver them to a factory where a non-profit organization called Green Hands employs people with special needs to recycle them.

With the discarded materials, the factory produces toys, newspapers, wallets, lamps and bags. The factory, which employs people with mental disabilities, works under the guidance of the ministry of health and the workers are being guided by a professional crew including a clinical  psychologist and a social worker.

Green Hands Products

“We have created a factory in the center of Israel in order to rehabilitate the mentally ill and give them the opportunity to have full-time jobs,” Benni Shany, CEO of the organization, told Israeli website NRG. “Up until a year ago we focused on simple tasks such as putting napkins into pre-made meal bags, but since the profit was not large enough, we decided to produce our own products. We have chosen the recycling business supplying a wide range of products.”

Tzvika Tzarfati, the deputy mayor of Kefar Saba said “this creative initiative, in cooperation with Green Hands, enables the expression of both social and environmental values.”