Bread Tags For Wheelchairs is an organisation that recycles your breadtags to
provide wheelchairs for children and adults in need around South Africa.
The wheelchairs help the recipient gain independance and makes a big difference to their families lives as well.
You can set up one in eaglehawk and help asomeone in need of a
wheelchair!
The organisation started in 2006 when retired nurse Mary Honeybun came up with the great idea to raise money for wheelchairs in South Africa. She would collect bread tags and sell them to a recyling company and then would spend the money on a wheelchair for a disabled person.
By 2008 they raised enough money to make their first wheelchair. Since starting in South Africa the cause has spread! For a few years the organisation has been in Australia and is rapidly spreading across the country. Over 200 cities in Australia are participating in the bread tag mission!
Mary honeybun lives in Cape Town. She had the idea for the cause when she realised that bread tags were recyclable. She then decided she must collect as any as she could.
They get 10kgs of breadtags to sort through per day!
To buy one wheelchair you need over 600,000 breadtags. In 2016 they had supplied 390
wheelchairs to people in need and were sorting through 10kgs of breadtags per day!
How can you participate?
In Bendigo there are two different places where you can drop off your bread tags.
You can donate your bread tags to:
Baptist Care Op Shop & Mad Cow Cafe, Bendigo.
and Havilah Road Preschool, Long Gully.
But it isn’t limited to those places! You can collect your own in a container in your home, and take them in a batch to the above collection points.
If you own a business or a used space, you can create your own collection point and encourage your local community to drop off their breadtags to your location. When your container – however big it is – is too full to manage, send it thorugh to our central collection points (Havilah Road or Baptist Care Op Shop)
You too can make a difference to the lives of people who are in need of a wheelchair.
Set up a collection point in your office,
at your church, school, college or anywhere!
If you have a collection point, let the
organisation know via an email so that they can add it to the website map.
Havilah Road Preschool
Havilah Road Preschool is a lovely local preschool that you can donate your bread tags to.
The teachers at the preschool have set up a jar where families can drop off their bread tags. They also have a bin at the side where anyone can come and drop their bread tags off.
They have encouraged lots of children to participate. The teachers at Havilah Road
Preschool sell their breadtags to an alternative cause, one much closer!
They go to Brad Scott who lives in South Australia. He melts them and creates beautiful and unique bowls out of them. From the money that they get from Brad, they give to the fundraiser to raise more money for wheelchairs in South Africa.
Brad Scott
Brad Scott is a salf-taught sustainability expert! His workshop is in Robe, South Australia.
He said “I can do bread tags or any sort of polystyrene, styrofoam, all types of plastic, but I didn’t have this sort of volume of bread tags.”
It takes 1,870 bread tags to create each bowl!
It takes around 1,870 bread tags to create each bowl. He mixes the tags to create the desired colours and uses compression and heat to melt the plastic in a mould, allowing it to cool before adding the finishing touches. The bowls are hard, food safe and microwavable! There is a bowl at the Havilah Road Preschool. You can purchase one of his bowls – and other recycled items such as a range of bags, jewelry, swimwear, door knobs and yoga pants through his online store at www.transmutation.com.au
Over 200 towns in Australia have joined the cause. Will Eaglehawk be next?
We encourage families to participate in the fundraiser. Bread tags can’t break down, so they can’t get recycled in the yellow bins (as they also jam machinery). So not only are you raising money for wheelchairs, you are also saving the environment. It’s free and easy to drop off your bread tags, so please join in this amazing fundraiser!
You can download a copy of the collection point flier from this link!
