Stitch by stitch, bottle by bottle, 68-year-old Wendy Neampui from Yangon is turning trash into fashionable apparel at her upcycle shop called "ChuChu House".
Libby Hogan reports.
Transforming trash into hip treasures in Myanmar
Southeast Asia has a plastic waste crisis and a lot of it ends up in landfill or polluting waterways.
But one woman in Myanmar had a simple idea:Waste could be turned into a work of art.
Meet trash hero, 68-year-old Wendy Neamui.
You'll find her knee deep sifting through tonnes of trash dumped on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.
She's the face behind 'ChuChu', the Burmese word for "plastic house".
(SOUNDBITE) (Burmese) FOUNDER OF "CHUCHU HOUSE" UPCYCLE SHOP, WENDY NEAMPUI, SAYING: "I wanted to transform trash from an ugly landfill into beautiful items. With this technique, I can save the environment and earn a living.
That's my ambition." She collects plastic bottles, plastic bags and even old umbrellas, cleans them and irons strips of different layers of plastic.
They become wallets made out of tough plastic sacks, belts made out of old tyres.
But that's not all, She also built her shop out of materials like old soda bottles.
(SOUNDBITE) (Burmese) FOUNDER OF "CHUCHU HOUSE" UPCYCLE SHOP, WENDY NEAMPUI, SAYING: "The customers may think that the items come from trash.
So, we have to try hard to attract the customers to feel that they are valuable products.
It is really hard work and challenging for us." One tourist was convinced Wendy's hard work has paid off.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) GERMAN TOURIST AND STUDENT, SANNA, SAYING: "I think this is a great project just to see how you can reuse all the materials that are just thrown away nowadays and you can reused them and create something great and magical just as this elephant for example, which I really love and its a really great souvenir." About 2,500 tonnes of trash are dumped everyday in Yangon from the 5 million people in the city but it all can't fit into landfills.
Wendy says her upcycled designs can only touch on the wider trash problem.
She wants to change people's behaviour.
When she's not sewing plastic designs in her workshop, she also finds time to run classes teaching local women how to craft new things from scavenged waste.