Why Eco Friendly?

Are Modecorarts' Laundry Baskets Sustainable?
Let’s Talk About It.

I’m not the best at explaining things, so we honestly haven’t talked much about our materials or how our baskets are made. It’s kind of a shame to bring it up only now—almost 9 years after Modecorarts started in Senegal!

But finally, here we go.

Our laundry baskets are mainly made with a type of straw that people here call seagrass. (To be honest, we don’t know the official botanical name—sorry about that!) We get it from the south of Senegal. Big trucks full of straw pass near a city called Mbour. Sometimes, they drop a bunch for us at my friend’s shop there. If not, they go straight to the countryside, about 4 hours from our studio. Two local families living in that area buy the straw for us.

The straw is sun-dried, but not too much—it needs to stay a little humid. If it gets too dry, it breaks while weaving. To make the baskets, we take several straws together to make about 1 cm (0.4") thick bundles.

Then comes the color—plastic threads!

These colorful threads are leftovers from a plastic rug factory. In Senegal, people spend a lot of time on woven plastic rugs—we eat, rest, pray, even cook on them, especially outside. The factory makes really nice rugs, but they always have leftover thread. Basket artisans like us buy it, so it doesn’t go to waste.

The weaving is done by tightly coiling the thread around the straw using a big needle. Each new line of coiled straw is stitched to the one just below it, so the basket holds together firmly as we build it up. Starting from the base, we work layer by layer, attaching each round to the previous one until the full shape of the basket is formed.

We’re proud of using these two materials:
– One comes from fast-growing straw in southern Senegal.
– The other is leftover plastic that would otherwise be thrown away.

Together, they help us make beautiful and meaningful baskets—each one full of color and good energy.

We hope you enjoy our baskets as much as we enjoy making them!
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