upcycling

Horizon Air seats get upcycled

ALASKA LOOPTWORKS

Need a gift for an aviation geek or just some really nice environmentally responsible gear?

Bags made from old airline seats may do the trick.

When Alaska Airlines decided to replace the seat covers on planes flown by its sister carrier, Horizon Air, sending the old leather to the landfill seemed too wasteful.

Instead, the airline turned to Portland, Ore.-based Looptworks, a company that upcycles unwanted materials into limited edition, hand-made products, for a solution.

Looptworks already makes a Southwest Luv Seat line of bags and accessories that use that the carrier’s old seat leather, as well as a line made from motorcycle jacket leather, so turning 4,000 Horizon Air leather seat covers into useful items wasn’t a big challenge.

Now there’s the Alaska Airlines Carry-On Collection, which includes a wallet ($65), laptop sleeve ($120), tote ($160), crossbody bag ($140) and a messenger bag ($230)

The leather is cleaned and prepped in partnership with an Oregon non-profit that employs and trains adults with disabilities and then is passed on to Northwest craftspeople who do their magic.

Alaska and Southwest aren’t alone in exploring upcycling.

Clothing made from the surplus leather and fabric from Hawaiian Airlines seats was on exhibit recently during Honolulu Fashion Week, there’s a line of bags made from recycled JetBlue crewmember uniforms, and Skyebags makes a wallet and a tote bag from reclaimed Delta Air Line seat leather.

(My story about upcycling old airline seats first appeared on USA TODAY in a slightly different version.)

Upcycled carry-on bags from United banners

united recycled bags

The airline industry uses a lot of ‘stuff’ and some of that stuff gets recycled and re-used and made into new things that you may want to buy.

The newest “upcycled” aviation items are a set of 100 carry-on bags made from 20 United Airlines “Fly the Friendly Skies” banners.

The airline worked with the Columbia College Chicago Department of Fashion Studies and the Re:new Project and asked them to come up with a carry-on bag that would look good and be durable, be economical to make and fit under an airplane seat.

The results look appealing and are available for purchase at the United Shop .

Even better: the proceeds from sales of the upcycled banners will benefit Re:new and the Alto Mayo Forest Carbon Project in Northern Peru.

JetBlue upcycling old uniforms

JetBlue's new uniforms_courtesy JetBlue

JetBlue switched to a new uniform last year, but found an eco-way to keep all the old, worn and never-worn crew uniforms out of landfills.

The solution: upcycling.

JetBlue joined up with Manhattan Portage, the company that first popularized and continues to make iconic New York City bicycle messenger bags and this week (just in time for Earth Day) rolled out the “JetBlue Uniform Bag Collection,” a line of five items made from unworn recycled uniforms and available online and in Manhattan Portage stores.

JetBlue Toiletry Case

JetBlue Toiletry Case

 

The toiletry case ($39) exteriors are made from JetBlue’s signature windowpane flight attendant shirts, the linings are made of scarves, and the handles are former neckties. The City Lights bag ($45) is made out of recycled pilot shirts, with intact pockets and pilot wings. The Sohobo bags ($89) were once all-weather jackets, the backpack ($109) is made from recycled JetBlue rain pants and all-weather vests have been turned into Europa bags ($115).

JetBlue Sohobo Bag

While the new line of upcycled bags puts unworn uniforms to good use, JetBlue also found a way to recycle the old uniforms crewmembers wore. In 2014, the airline donated 37,000 pounds of old uniforms, clothing and fabrics to a non-profit that planned to sell the material and use the proceeds to support a variety of programs in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Old fabrics from other airlines are also being upcycled.

Skyebags made from recycled aircraft leather donated by Delta Air Lines

Skyebags made from recycled aircraft leather donated by Delta Air Lines

Skyebags turns recycled aircraft leather from Delta Air Lines into wallets, toiletry bags and totes. Leather from replaced leather seats on Alaska Airlines is being reborn as carry-on bags in a line by Mariclaro. And while Looptworks has sold out of the totes it was making out of leather from old Southwest Airlines seats, its LUV line still has some duffle bags, toiletry cases and backpacks for sale.

(My story about JetBlue upcycling old uniforms first appeared on USA TODAY’s Today in the Sky blog in a slightly different format.)

Gifts for Avgeeks

I’m gathering up a list of cool aviation-related products and handicrafts, just in case Santa reads StuckatTheAirport.com, or in case you’re looking for some cool gifts this holiday season.

Two for today:

Jerome Daksiewicz has a kickstarter campaign going to create a boxed set of his runway prints of 30 of the large hubs in the US and a screenprint illustrating all the runways.
 
runways

And Matthew Mahler at Skyebags has a refreshed line of items – a wallet, a tote and a Dopp kit – made from upcycled leather from old Delta Air Lines seats.

7_Skyebags Dopp Kit

Have a great avgeek gift to recommend? Send in your suggestions.