Community
"Plastic is a global problem. But there's really a need for localized solution for it now. Our advocacy is to educate communities about proper waste management."
—Willie Garcia, founder of Junknot
Taal Community
As an environmentalist interior designer committed to localized action, Willie Garcia works with government agencies and NGOs to design programs for communities to help address their environmental and economic challenges.
In 2014, Willie was commissioned by DENR PASu-TVPL to conduct a livelihood program in a fishing community in Brgy. Alas-as, San Nicolas, Taal in the province of Batangas, Philippines.
Willie came with values forged through her interior design company Junknot:
community-based solutions, education through action, and ethical innovations and labor practices.
The program hit two birds with one stone – lessen the waste pollution in the community by sourcing raw material from the community’s plastic wastes and provide an additional income source for the women and youth by training them in creating the knotted rope, one of main materials used in Junknot designs.
During the training, only a few women showed interest in collecting their plastic wastes and making the knotted ropes. With continued education on the impact of plastic wastes to ecosystems and with the visible economic returns from the plastic ropes, community participants and Junknot’s environmental mission advocates increased.
Now, more than 70 women from Brgy. Alas-as have been actively collecting, segregating and roping their household wastes. The program participants continue to grow in number as more locals see the need to save their environment, while supplementing their monthly income.
Junknot Concept Store
Global problems of materials pollution and job insecurity need local action.
The Junknot Concept Store brings together small and medium entrepreneurs around the Philippines to showcase their ingenious creations with their partner communities.
Junknot, as a social enterprise, actively collaborates with these social entrepreneurs, artists, and artisans in its interior and product design projects.
See the works of this vibrant community at the
Junknot Concept Store.
