[dc]Next time you’re tempted to toss the tag off a new loaf of bread, consider its potential to change a life – a project called Breadtags for Wheelchairs recycles the plastic pieces for profit and uses the funds to buy wheelchairs.[/dc]

Needy recipients have been awarded 80 wheelchairs in the past six months using proceeds from the collection of thousands of high-impact polystyrene bread tags, used as bread-bag fasteners.

“We are amazed at the growth of this project as volunteers from all ages and walks of life become involved in collecting these bread tags,” says Adri Spangenberg, director of the Polystyrene Packaging Council, which has administered the project in collaboration with Mary Honeybun and the Sweetheart Foundation for about a decade.

Spangenberg highlights the story of Xoliswa Yabo, a young woman from the Daliwe Township in the Eastern Cape who was born with a speech impediment and without the use of her legs. She is one of the most recent recipients of a ‘breadtag wheelchair’, purchased through the collections of learners from a nearby high school.

“Cathcart High…managed to collect an impressive 271kg of bread tags,” says Spangenberg, “which [were] sent to a recycling plant in Cape Town. This was a massive effort, considering that 271kg of bread tags translates to a staggering 826 550 000 loaves of bread!”

There are currently 10 bread-tag buyers around the country and more than 200 collection points.

For more information about collection points, visit www.breadtagsforwheelchairs.co.za.