All washed up: Londoners who quit their jobs find luck on the Thames.

LONDON, June 28 (Reuters) – Quitting her job and imprisoning in London over coronavirus lockdowns, Flora Blathwayt set up a business from rubbish she pulled from the muddy banks of the Thames.

Just a year after she was struck by a piece of colored plastic she collected to clean the river, the 34-year-old had made and sold thousands of greeting cards decorated with them.

when she moved to Peckham in south east London. She sent a handful of plastic decorated cards to nearby residents to offer help if they were protected from COVID-19.

“They’re all first cards,” she said. “Some of my neighbors were like, ‘Amazing, you should start selling these,'” she told Reuters.

She now works on cards alongside a part-time job for a company that sells seaweed packaging. which she joined after being laid off and laid off from a business that makes sauces from unwanted fruits and vegetables.

After graduating from geography She has no formal art training. but likes to be outside and discover new potential in old-fashioned buttons or plastic tubes while cleaning the river bank for a local environmental charity

“I can’t go out to the countryside … because we’re stuck in London. So the Thames became a sacred place for me. and go out and do good things While you’re there … yes, it makes you feel doubly good.”

She normally makes hundreds of cards per month. Although she made thousands of tickets last month to secure skyrocketing orders after her story appeared in British media, Blathwayt sees her success as part of a broader movement.

“I think the way forward is people who do things and start businesses that don’t have much impact on the environment. whether it’s reusing something whether it is upcycling something whether to make something out of garbage I think that’s the way forward,” she said.

“So I hope people do more and more – and so are they. I was never the first.”

Additional reporting Jonathan Shenfield; Written by Philippa Fletcher; Edited by Giles Elgood

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