Growth & Jobs | From trash to treasure

IN HER own words, 52-year-old Winsome Reid of McNie district in south western St Ann, “struggled along the way to raise my (seven) kids” but has never given up hope that there would be a brighter day.

In her younger days, she was forced to drop out of school as the harsh realities of life hit her. Undaunted, she, however, returned to school in 2015 at age 44, and today, she is a community health aide employed by the Ministry of Health.

But her story doesn’t end there.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Reid found herself with extra time on her hands, so she started a hobby: using waste materials to make usable or decorative items.

Encouraged by the response to her new hobby, she decided to take it seriously, and by the following year, she had earned her first dollar after using a variety of discarded items such as eggs shells, old washers, rice, her grandmother’s old bedspread, crushed glass, and bamboo, which she recently added to the list, to make decor. Pieces she has made include the decorated bottles and wall plaques, among other items. And using cement, thinset, and trowel-on, Reid has added flower pots to her catalogue.

“I started this as a hobby in 2020 during the pandemic and then it transferred from a hobby into a business,” she told The Gleaner. “I use things that persons normally throw away to enhance my business.”

Reid started out decorating champagne bottles and then expand to including cups. One day, a gentleman went into the little shop she operates in McNie and saw some of the items she had done and ordered a pair of cups in the colours of the Jamaican flag.

Surprised and yet delighted at the outcome when he returned to pick them up, he encouraged her to do more such items and sell them. That encouragement was enough to make Reid decide to turn her hobby into a business, which she aptly named Trash to Treasure.

She said there is very limited space in the shop to exhibit her artwork, but she is hopeful that the business will grow and become a major source of income for her and her family.

“I would like to take this business to places, have my products in people’s homes, have them displayed maybe in tourist areas. I see this as a viable business in terms of people using them as décor for homes and offices. Right now, I am working hard and trying to get it out there. The latest thing I’m working on right now, I’m experimenting with bamboo to see the outcome. I think I can do a great job with bamboo.”

Her resilience hasn’t gone unnoticed within the community and in her family, with her own children showing appreciation.

“I am a mother of seven. I’ve struggled along the way to raise my kids, and right now, my kids are really so proud of what I’ve become, how I’ve transformed myself,” she offered.

Reid’s Trash to Treasure pieces are reasonably priced and start from $3,000 for her mini-pots.

“This is my little side thing ,and I really, really love it,” she said.