Upcycled and safer ocean clean-up bags from Trshbg

Text by the Trshbg team

Trieu was at his favorite surfing beach in Indonesia when he saw an island of trash floating by. It was huge and moving on the waves like a living creature. There was rubbish everywhere in the surf bay, not far from the surfers lineup. To remove the trash you needed tools, but at the time there were none.

As a designer, Trieu made a first sketch for a bag that allowed him to jump into the water and to catch plastic, while keeping his hands free. He went to a local bag maker and together they made the first prototype. Trieu personally used it and it worked—he was catching plastic and catching waves!

One day, a tourist saw Trieu using the bag and asked if he could make a video. It turned out to be a good idea: the video went viral on social media channels, with divers asking for the bags. Trieu requested a first small batch of products from his bag-maker friend and so it began.
Trshbg was created by a Trieu and team of divers and surfers from around the world. Now, all water enthusiasts can clean the ocean while doing what they love. If we all do something, the impact will be huge!

Trshbg's trash collection bags are handmade with reused materials, like broken rafting boats, scooter tubes and old banners. You can wear a Trshbg during your dive, surf or swim and keep your hands free. You don’t feel the bag at all! Pick up plastic litter whenever you happen to encounter it, on every session.
 
The one way system makes our bag different from the others, when you put trash in the bag it cannot come out! Their sleeve is unique and closes well even when hanging upside down. 
Trshbg’s mission is to make every diver and surfer an ocean cleaner.

MADE LOCALLY WITH LOVE

Trieu is a designer, Fauzi a craftsman. Together, they create handmade bags with recycled materials. The bags are being made in an atelier, or workshop, in Indonesia.
At Trshbg, we want to do everything the right way and have the deepest respect for our bag makers.

Each person gets fair pay for their amazing skills. They choose their own salary, which is decent and fine for the Trshbg team. The gentleman who made the first bag is still making the bags, by hand, for top quality. He has a team now and a few more machines, with the help of Trshbg.

UPCYCLED BAGS

It makes no sense to try to create clean up bags completely from new plastic materials.
Trshbg uses old scooter tubes, rafting boat material and billboard banners.
They offer 2 sizes of bags:

• Hip bag (3.8L)
• Calf bag (1.2L)
• 
  

So far, their movement has recovered and cleaned more than 10.000 kg of wasted material to turn that into ocean clean-up bags and has removed 20.000 kg of plastic trash.
Safer for you and the environment!

Trshbg bags are naturally wearable and streamlined, which can be a lifesaver. You are quicker and there is less drag. The bag is not floating next to your head creating a lot of drag, you won’t notice a Trshbg. There is hardly any chance of getting hooked on something or damaging corals. In addition, there is a tough layer protecting the diver from hard/sharp plastic objects in the bag.
Anything you lose underwater is a potential hazard to you and other divers, but with these bags you lose nothing!

FOUR REASONS TO CLEAN

1. Divers and surfers get to places others don’t go. If we don’t remove plastic trash, who will?
2. A piece of plastic in nature takes 500 years to break down. In such a long time span it will do damage and will end up on our plate, as micro plastics. Let’s remove it, it is easy!
3. There are 8 million divers, 25 million surfers, 500 million runners - calculate the impact we can have together!
4. There are so many excuses to do nothing. Yet, to us, doing nothing is simply not an option.

Trshbg is committed to ocean cleaners who want the best to help the planet one piece at a time:

“We have no other products than clean-up goods. We don’t do this to promote other products to make us look good. Bags to clean the ocean, that is all we have. That is everything to us.”  - Trshbg team