It may be true that one can’t make something out of nothing, but Eleanor Mathews and her mother Becky Gluck’s business, Benevolent Trash, is proof you can definitely make something new out of something that used to be something else.
Natives of Northeast Ohio, the daughter/mother team sews bags, purses and the like out of recycled or secondhand fabrics, fibers and plastics. Operating out of Wayne County, they started doing markets this year with the Wooster Farmers Market. They also were at the Smithville Harvest Fest and have plans to sell at the Lake Anna YMCA Christmas Market. Their current retail outlets are Wooster and Orrville’s Sure House Coffee and Rising Up Rock Gym in Medina.
The business got its start when Mathews noticed her cat’s feed and litter bags were a very rugged grade of plastic, and it felt wasteful to throw them away. She wanted to find a way to recycle them and was looking into either melting, welding or weaving the material…