When Annie Colley looks at the contents of her waste basket, she sees potential.
The gold wrapping from a chocolate bar turns into a butterfly, a bread bag is transformed into a sunhat, and a rubbish bin is actually made from waste materials.
All these and much more are displayed at Trash to Treasure, a store and workshop that opened recently in Pine Hill Rd.
The journey began for Mrs Colley when she was working as a social worker in the Philippines. The community she worked with lived beside a dump site, and wanted to move it, even sending a petition to the government to ask for it to be moved because it was polluting a nearby river.
An idea arising after discussion with the community including youth, families and teachers was to find ways to recycle items from the dump site.
Mrs Colley knew how to weave and devised a way to use flattened strips of paper and plastic to weave into bags and other items. All sorts of waste was able to be given a new lease of life.
This ingenuity is on display at the store, as well as a selection of second-hand items also rescued from the trash.
Her husband Neville "Frosty" Colley has made shelving to fit out the store.
"Any small project that wants doing up, I will do it up," Mr Colley said.
The store is being run as a social enterprise and is part of the Leith Valley Presbyterian Church community services.
Leith Valley Presbyterian Church senior minister Rev Richard Dawson said it was thrilled to be partnering in this new initiative.
"We see this as a way of bringing the Church face to face with the whole community of Pine Hill by serving them through the shop.
"It is not there to make money but to provide a service to the community and a listening ear to those who need help," Rev Dawson said.
Mrs Colley said the pair aimed to use the store as a community hub where workshops on how to make items out of waste would be run.
"And it will also be a hub where we will have our Bible study.
"It’s building community, building relationships."
