A survey of Hawaiʻi businesses revealed tariffs and trade policies have affected 86% of local businesses in the last year. The Hawaiʻi Pacific Export Council, along with the Retail Merchants of Hawaiʻi, conducted the survey, and 45% of the businesses surveyed said they were expecting profitability declines of more than 10%.
Upcycle Hawaiʻi is among those seeing a slump in sales. The small business creates keychains, magnets, earrings, and other items out of recycled plastic.
“It’s all packaging trash that we collect from different businesses,” owner Mattie Larson said to HPR while picking up a handmade zipper pouch in her now-closed studio. “In fact, our most donated piece of trash ever and perhaps our most sold is the Costco toilet paper wrapper.”
Since forming the company 12 years ago, Larson estimates she has made over 20,000 zipper pouches, which are made by heating and fusing together reclaimed sheet plastic.
“It’s one of our best sellers,” she said. “Our customers call them the world’s most indestructible zipper pouches.”
More than 90% of the materials used for Upcycle Hawaiʻi’s products come from items that would otherwise end up in the local landfill. That’s protected the company from rising import costs, but they’ve still needed to cut expenses.
In May, Larson closed her small studio and shop in downtown Hilo and moved the company into her living room. She said a dip in tourism earlier this year led to a decrease in sales. Shipping prices for web orders have also gone up.
Along with online sales, Larson now sells her products at the Hilo Farmers Market on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.
“We’re still holding on,” she said, noting that she continues to employ three other women part-time and herself full-time.
HPR first talked with Larson in 2019, when she had two part-time employees and an annual revenue of about $60,000. Now, the business brings in $160,000 in a typical year and even reached $200,000 in profits in 2023.
Since they started counting eight years ago, Upcycle Hawaiʻi has rescued nearly 1,500 pounds of trash from the landfill. It’s something Larson and her customers are proud of.
“I know our customers feel good about supporting a handmade, women-owned, literally sustainable, zero-waste business,” she said.
