This fashion bag was produced by the NGO Fazendo Arte with recycled materials from EMBARQ Brazil workshops. Photo by EMBARQ Brazil.

Signage materials used for EMBARQ Brazil's recent communications and marketing workshops were recycled into fashion bags to help generate income for an underfunded community in Rio de Janeiro.

The project was led by Fazendo Arte, an NGO that provides artistic and professional services that benefit 200 people in the Morro do Turano community of Rio de Janeiro.

"The goal is to reutilize materials that, in most cases, would be discarded, and to generate income to seamstresses," said the project's creator and socio-cultural producer Rita Côrtes. "This is the first production of these bags. We are looking for companies to help us with materials and machines."

The two EMBARQ Brazil-hosted workshops that inspired the bags, “Inserção do Transporte Sustentável no Morar Carioca” and “Marketing BRT: como atrair e cativar usuários,” were held last October and November, in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, respectively.

The company that EMBARQ Brazil contracted to produce the events suggested that the signage materials be donated for recycling.

“We gambled on the project and paid for them to develop these bags," said Francisco Fernandes of Soulink Eventos. "This material was supposed to be garbage, but with the donation from EMBARQ, BR Distribuidora and Fetranspor, it will now be recycled."