Recycling

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.)

Bye-Bye Burning Man & all that garbage

The Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert is wrapping up and more than 70,000 attendees are leaving Black Rock City – with their garbage.

There’s a recycling program at the festival, but all participants are required to remove their own trash and dispose of it elsewhere – in trash disposal stations in neighboring towns or perhaps in the giant trash bins set up at Reno-Tahoe International Airport.

Burining Man

(Photo courtesy Reno-Tahoe International Airport)

Air France turning old uniforms into car insulation

At airports and on airlines, green is in and getting “inner.”

Airports are installing solar farms and wind turbines and getting serious about recycling food waste and other materials generated inside the terminals.

Airlines are rolling out in-flight recycling programs and having flight attendants separate the trash they collect as they go up and down the aisles.

Delta Air Lines gives its old seat covers to Tierra Ideas, which turns them into cool bags.

And now Air France is collecting old uniforms from ground staff and crew uniforms at Paris-Orly and Paris-Charles de Gaulle airports so that the clothing can be recycled as car insulation at a specialized recycling plant.

Air France recycling uniforms

Airports and airlines recycle some surprising stuff

For my At the Airport column in USATODAY.com this month I offered a fun round-up of items being recycled by airports and airlines in an effort to be help save the earth and, in some cases, to save some serious money.

You can read the full column, For airports and airlines, creative recyling  brings cost savings, on the USA TODAY website but  briefly, the list I included ranges from airports that recycle, reuse or re-purpose everything from old metal detectors, used de-icing fluid and concrete from old runways to creative partnerships between airports or airlines and local non-profits and green businesses. 

Two examples:

Jacksonville International Airport is working with the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens on a project to turn tree clippings into food. The zoo needs a reliable year-round source of fresh “browse,” the natural vegetation eaten by many of the zoo’s large mammals. The grounds around the airport are full of browse-worthy trees and shrubs that could do with some regular clipping.  So browse harvested at the airport in the morning now becomes dinner for giraffe, elephants and great apes at the zoo;

And old seat covers from Delta and re-branded Northwest airplanes that could have ended up in a landfill somewhere were instead donated to Tierra Ideas, a small North Carolina company that is recycling the bags as messenger bags, laptop cases and other travel accessories with patterns that will very familiar to frequent fliers on those airlines.

A Delta spokesperson says so far Delta has donated about 5,873 pounds of fabric from an estimated 20,000 seat covers. “…Enough fabric to cover 92 of Delta’s 767-300ER aircraft.”

And – here’s something that didn’t fit in the column: On May 17th, Purdue University Airport, in West Lafayette, IN will be recyling this 737 aircraft.

“Shredding it,” is the term Betty Stansbury of Purdue University uses:

The aircraft is a 41 year old Boeing 737-200 donated to the University by United Airlines fifteen years ago for research and training purposes in Purdue’s  Aviation Technology Program. 

“The plane has reached the end of its useful life, and will be shredded starting on Monday May 17th. ….We use a large cutting device, called a shearer, to chew the plane into smaller pieces, which are placed in metal containers for transportation, melting and recycling.”

Souvenir Sunday: Virgin hot air balloons and Eurostar uniforms

While researching a story about recycling efforts by airlines and airports, I came across Worn Again, a London company that made a line of small bags and jackets out of a decommissioned Virgin hot air balloon (you can order items in any color, as long as its red).

Worn Again also makes a variety of accessories out of decommissioned Eurostar uniforms. And while everything in the on-line store is very eco and desirable, everything is beyond the $10 limit we set for Souvenir Sunday.

Except this: a mobile phone holder made from decommissioned Eurostar staff cardigan uniforms.

Looks more like a lost sock to me; but I applaud the concept.

Have you found a great souvenir while Stuck at the Airport? If it’s $10 or under, “of” the city or region and, ideally a bit offbeat, please snap a photo, jot down some notes and send them along. You souvenir may be featured on a future edition of Souvenir Sunday.  And if you find a great local food at an airport, take a photo of that too.  We’re thinking of making Snack Saturday a permanent feature.