RECYCLED HANDBAGS TURN DISCARDED MATERIALS INTO FASHION STATEMENTS | BY JULIA GREEN

Never underestimate the power of accessories. Of course a new handbag can make a fashion statement, but these days it can make a political statement too—and not just by being the color green. Designers around the globe are taking the things that we are used to throwing in the trash and are turning them into stylish bags. From plastic bags and soda tabs in dumpsters to discarded sail cloth and tires, these bags show that we can do more than just take our recycling to the curb every week. You can save these materials from the landfill by carrying them on your shoulder every day and showing the world once again that environmental responsibility is the opposite of dowdy.

SOCORRO
$115 • escamastudio.com
Drink up! The exterior of this little number is made entirely from aluminum pull tabs, which are gathered from discarded cans and then cleaned, polished, and trimmed before being sewn together. The bags, which include a nylon fabric liner, zipper closure, and inner zipped pocket, are crocheted by Brazilian women who belong to one of the two craft cooperatives that San Francisco-based Escama Studio works with directly. In addition to paying responsible wages for this work, Escama Studio donates a percentage of their yearly gross sales back to the cooperative, which helps pay for amenities such as DSL and new computers. Each bag comes with a hand-signed card from the woman who constructed it, and if you’d like to know more about her, you can log on to www.escamastudio.com, where each artist’s biography appears. You can even write her a thank you note, which will be translated into Portuguese.

CONFETTI
$38 • ecoist.com
This cute little clutch is definitely a party. The exterior is constructed from misprinted candy wrappers and labels for food packages and sodas – labels that instead of going to the landfill go to Ecoist, who turns them into eye-catching bags that will comfortably hold wallet, keys, lipstick, and other knick-knacks necessary for a night on the town or a jaunt to the store. All clutches come in a variety of color schemes (for blue, choose the one made of discarded Luna Bar wrappers) and each has a colorful lining and detachable plastic wrsit strap. The bags are made by hand in Mexico and Peru, and as an added green bonus, Ecoist plants a tree for every bag they sell (thanks to a partnership with Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Trees For the Future). Other Ecoist hadbags are made from subway maps, newspapers, and bar codes.

NEWPORT
$98 • ellavickers.com
Ella Vickers grew up sailing, which means she grew up watching used sails get thrown away. Eight years ago, she used her experience in costume design and transformed some sails destined for the dumpster into handbags for herself. She began carrying them everywhere and at regattas, they received a lot of attention. Oftentimes, after selling all the merchandise she brought with her, Ella would dump out the contents of her own purse and sell the bag off her shoulder. These days she’s expanded her business model: Factories in North Carolina and Brooklyn, N.Y., now turn old sails into durable and great-looking bags for every season and every sport.

MODEL T LUXE
$149 • englishretreads.com
After tubing down Boulder Creek, Colorado, Heather English discovered that she didn’t find tubing all that much fun – the water was cold and she had bruises the next day. Stuck with an inner tube she’d purchased for the adventure, Heather, a devoted vegan who’d been looking for appropriate handbags and belts, decided to cut it up and make the first English Retreads handbag on her kitchen floor. Today, the company picks up inner tubes discarded at truck stops around Boulder, Colo., and transforms them into masterpieces of style and eco-friendliness. All the construction is done locally – first seamstresses sew the bags together and then crafters add linings, rivets, straps, and other necessaries by hand. These tires have covered a lot of miles, and as handbags, they’re practically indestructible – they’ll carry your goodies on a lifetime of your own journeys.

ANARKALI
$32 • globalgirlfriend.com
While plastic bags do come in handy for re-bagging groceries and bringing lunch to work, Anita and Shalabh Ahuja have taken plastic bag recycling to a new level. They founded Conserve India, a nonprofit organization that pays women to collect plastic bags from the streets and dumps of New Delhi. Through a process of heat and pressure, the bags are then converted into the colorful usable material that these eye-catching handbags are made of. In addition to providing valuable work opportunities, Conserve India also teaches its employees how to read and write. Their bags are sold by Global Girlfriend, an American nonprofit organization devoted to promoting fair-trade products and supporting women’s work around the world.