This furloughed Londoner started her own business upcycling rubbish in the Thames

Jul 3, 2021

This article is published in collaboration with Reuters

Flora Blathwayt, founder of Washed Up Cards, collects plastics found washed up on the banks of the river Thames.

Flora Blathwayt collects plastics washed up on the banks of the river Thames, for her greetings cards. Image: REUTERS/Tom Nicholson

Will Russell

Reporter, Reuters

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Flora Blathwayt founded a business based on upcycling rubbish she retrieves from the banks of the River Thames.
Blathwayt decorates greeting cards with bits of plastic and other items she collects, and then sells them on.
She started her business while being furloughed from her old job during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
She now works on the cards alongside a part-time job for a company selling packaging made from seaweed.

Furloughed from her job and confined to London by coronavirus lockdowns, Flora Blathwayt founded a business based on rubbish she retrieves from the muddy banks of the River Thames.

Just over a year after she was struck by the colourful pieces of plastic she collected as part of a river clean-up, the 34-year-old has made and sold thousands of greetings cards decorated with them.

When she moved to Peckham in south-east London, she sent a batch of plastic-decorated cards to nearby residents offering help if they were shielding from COVID-19.

"They were all the first washed-up cards," she said. "Some of my neighbours were like 'these are amazing, you should start selling these'," she told Reuters.

She now works on the cards alongside a part-time job for a company selling packaging made from seaweed which she joined after being furloughed by, and then made redundant from, a business that makes sauces from unwanted fruit and vegetables.

a picture of Flora Blathwayt, founder of Washed Up Cards, decorating her birthday card with bits of rubbish

Happy birthday! Image: REUTERS/Tom Nicholson

A geography graduate, she had no formal art training but enjoys being outside and finding new potential in old buttons or plastic straws while cleaning the river bank for a local environmental charity.

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"I can't get out to the countryside ... because we've been stuck in London, so the Thames has become a sort of lovely sanctuary for me, and going out and doing something positive while you're there ... yeah, it makes you feel doubly good."

She normally makes hundreds of cards a month, although last month she made several thousand to meet a surge in orders after her story appeared in British media. Blathwayt sees her success as part of a wider movement.

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What is the World Economic Forum doing about the circular economy?

The World Economic Forum Centre for Nature and Climate is actively promoting the transition to a circular economy through various initiatives. The objective is to create a more sustainable and resilient economic system by reducing waste and maximizing resource efficiency.

The Circular Transformation of Industries initiative engages leaders from industry, government, academia, and civil society to drive circularity across sectors and economies. It consolidates information from previous efforts, shares best practices and creates new partnerships.
Learn more about Unlocking New Value in a Resource-Constrained World.
The Circular Cars Initiative aims to create a climate-friendly automobility system by minimizing lifecycle emissions, particularly in manufacturing. Its goal is the development of a convenient, affordable, 1.5°C-aligned system by 2030.
Discover the benefits of circular economy in the car industry here.
The Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) brings together global stakeholders to promote the transition to a circular plastics economy. GPAP provides a platform for global learning and local action in nine countries coordinating efforts and maximizing impact.
Learn more in our Impact Report.

"I think the way forward will be people making things and starting businesses which don't have so much impact on the environment, whether it's reusing something, whether it's upcycling something, whether it's making something from waste. I think that's the way forward," she said.

"So I hope people are going to do more and more - and they are. I'm by no means the first."

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