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From Billboards to Backpacks
By Lori Andreozzi
While the sign industry’s main focus is how to get a billboard up, the industry’s also starting to examine what happens after a billboard comes down, finding new purposes for the discarded vinyl. Other companies are experimenting with vinyl alternatives such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropelene (PP), which are still being debated as viable options for the environment.
The main issue with vinyl is the amount produced per year—approximately 600,000 tons—and what to do with this massive amount of waste that can contribute to toxin pollution when left to sit in landfills.
Fortunately there are options for recycling vinyl, solutions that not only turn waste into income-generating products, but also help boost the environmental track record of the outdoor industry.
Vy&Elle (pronounce it quickly and it sounds like “vinyl”) have been producing eco-friendly fashion products since 2002. To date, the Tuscon, Arizona-based company has recycled close to 150 tons of billboard vinyl, turning them into award-winning, chic fashion accessories and bags sold in numerous stores (including Whole Foods Market® and Target), as well as online.
Committed to a process of 100 percent recycling, owners Nicola Freegard and Robin Janson make sure that all of the scrap and waste that’s not turned into bags are made into other useful products—such as garden hoses and flooring—in a process handled by other manufacturers they work with.
Before Vy&Elle, Freegard owned a company that designed home goods. She met a couple that ran a recycled furniture business, turning track tarps from Europe and vinyl from billboards into bags. They approached her with the idea of designing a simple line of billboard bags.
Vy&Elle started with showing five bags at a tradeshow in New York, then the orders started pouring in. A few businesses were already doing this work, but Vy&Elle has grown into a large operation (with manufacturing facilities at home and abroad), producing a high volume of bags for a now demanding marketing.
Since used vinyl becomes waste after a billboard comes down, it might seem easy to acquire it for recycling purposes, right? Well not exactly.
In 2002, it wasn’t easy to get the public or the corporations interested in recycling. Freegard began designing with the material by purchasing billboards from outdoor companies one at a time.
They had recycled thirty tons of billboards within two years but realized this approach wasn’t sustainable for them. So they put the word out to billboard companies, letting them know they were looking for a joint solution. “It was a winning situation for us all,” says Freegard. “Now we have an exclusive supply of billboards that are delivered to us at no cost in return for promoting the billboard companies’ green efforts. We also get a large amount of donations and we also recycle billboards for corporations wanting to take part in our program.”
The first company to respond to their request was MetroMedia Technologies (MMT). “They immediately acknowledged the waste issues, and they were first to stand up and say ‘let’s help you, because we get it and we want to be involved in being greener,’” says Freegard. “It took a year to work out an agreement that fit both our needs, and it’s been such an asset for us both.”
In working with MMT, Vy&Elle found a company that could accommodate their need for a large volume of billboards—enough that would help them create a steady line of products to get the message out to the public about recycling. Six years later, “recycling” isn’t a foreign word anymore, and many outdoor companies are looking to reduce waste.
The accessory industry can always benefit from new, innovative designs and fabrics. In designing with recycled vinyl, each bag has an original pattern made from a tiny, yet vibrant, colorful piece of a billboard. There might be a grainy quality to the pattern—the details you see as you roll out vinyl for a billboard—and the colors might reflect those of a popular product such as Coca-Cola®.
Vy&Elle’s bags are found in small boutiques and museum gift stores, as well as larger retail chains here in the U.S. and also Europe, Japan, and Australia. In addition to Target (which they’ve designed an exclusive line for) and Whole Foods Market, the bags are sold at the Art Institute of Chicago and Virgin Megastores. They also produce custom bags and items for corporations (including the Sundance Film Festival, Lexus, and Coca Cola).
For Cirque Du Soleil, Vy&Elle created bags from the show’s Times Square billboards which were then sold at their performances. These clients love using their original designs from billboards on new paraphernalia, while promoting their “green” efforts.
The process of turning the vinyl into billboards begins with the quality provided by the supplier. “MMT became our exclusive supplier of the reclaimed vinyl, allowing us the ability to control quality issues, color variations, and have more options with the material as a whole,” says Freegard.
Freegard explains that in choosing the right recycled vinyl for designing, there are variables to consider—weight, printing methods, and quality (all of which they discovered when starting this work). “Not all billboards would be very interesting as a fabric because of the print and imaging issues,” she says. “With securing a steady supply of quality billboards, we knew that we were getting the best for our end product. We also wanted the option of securing a recycling partner to deal with our scrap ratio and our billboard supplier offers us just that. They help us work along side several companies who manufacture garden hoses and flooring from the recycled waste.”
The design process typically starts at Freegard’s drafting board, although they might turn to outside designers for assistance with specific products. Occasionally they create prototypes based on designs supplied by a client. The billboards are shipped to either of their two facilities in the U.S. for pre-production where they are cut, cleaned, and rolled into fabric rolls for easy handling.
Freegard says there are industry standards they have to adhere (due to the size of cutting tables, die cutters, and machines). They also have to consider export laws—many countries don’t accept garbage as shipments. To accommodate these laws, the company must make the billboard rolls look like new fabric, a technique that Vy&Elle has spent a great deal of time resolving.
Once the fabric is rolled and ready to ship, they send it out to several outsourced factories as a material ready for production. The final products are then shipped to their Tucson warehouse—where they’re inspected for a second time before leaving for the stores, or in the case of large corporate orders, they drop ship direct.
The company is conscious about its manufacturing process, making sure that the companies used in China are audited on a regular basis. “I’m very conscious of the need to regulate and monitor every factory we work with,” says Freegard. “It’s important that we ensure we’re using factories that don’t abuse human rights issues and ensure the workers receive good compensation, etc.”
To keep some manufacturing here at home, Vy&Elle is also starting to work with a small manufacturing company in Tucson on some of their products. The company has a unique practice of hiring refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan who’ve been relocated to Tucson. Freegard says she’s been trying to work with larger manufacturing companies in the U.S. (and continues to address this), but so far, she has encountered no luck.
When the completed bag is custom-made for a corporate client such as Coca-Cola, the bag will likely reflect the corporation’s logo and design schemes. However if a bag reflects a brand and sold to the public without the company’s permission, there are copyright issues to contend with. “During preproduction for our regular boutique collection we will cut out and remove all brand logos from the billboard so that none end up at the factory or on any of the product,” says Freegard. “If, by chance, there’s an error and they slip through the cracks, we inevitably use these few items as samples to show to that brand/company of how their billboards could look as product!”
Once in awhile, the company gets special requests for particular billboards, but they can’t fulfill them. Usually, says Freegard, it’s for Harry Potter movies. They’ve also been asked by many of their stores to tell the story of each billboard behind the bags, but with the quantity being recycled (as well as copyright issues), they can’t be that specific. ”Even if we were allowed, the images on the finished goods aren’t identifiable,” she says. “Due to the size of the print, it would be very hard for us.” (Note: However they can tell the story behind their Coca-Cola billboard bags, since there’s a licensing agreement in place.
Freegard defines her mission in this work as helping the consumer look at something in a different way and think of a billboard as more than just one particular form. . “Our objective from the start was to have people understand what billboards are now made from (a lot of people still believe they are made from paper and are stuck up with glue), that PVC vinyl billboards are a major concern as an industrial waste material, and that recycling at least helps get that message across,” she says.
Freegard also points out that vinyl is an oil-based product, which means it’s important for the economy to take a look at what materials require oil (considering the shortage the world is now facing). “Outdoor companies have no choice but to understand this, if they’re to remain the leaders in their industry,” she says. “They must address the issues at hand in order to develop smarter growth strategies and smarter ‘green’ technologies. This issue also forces the outdoor companies to look at alternatives for recycling, because at this time, we don’t see a lot of effort being made.”
An issue Freegard foresees is the amount of billboards stored in massive facilities to avoid the costly process of dumping them. ”Storage becomes an issue in itself,” she says. “These facilities are football-size warehouses filled with vinyl that sits there for years after three months of use. At some point in the near future this will have to be addressed.”
In her experience, the digital printing industry is considering options in their work that will have a positive effect on the environment, but the outdoor industry is still holding back because of the costs involved. To help motivate companies to recycle more, Freegard doesn’t suggest government mandates; she recommends companies learn how to profit from recycling. “Let’s not forget the billboard business is a for-profit business—a big business—and there’s certainly a profitable business to be made through recycling,” she says. “Waste management proved that in the early ’70s, with its recycling programs that are now the norm in most communities across the country.
“Their original recycler started with one man and a VW bus. The outdoor companies need to review their perspective on disposal, on how they can creatively utilize recycling as a for-profit option since they are so driven by profit. We live in a society built on entrepreneurism and it doesn’t take much to see the opportunity in moving in this direction.”
MMT took the opportunity, which helps Vy&Elle run an efficient manufacturing process. “They coordinate deliveries of billboard and assist in anyway they can,” says Freegard. “In turn for their work and contribution, we give them credit throughout by letting our customers know that they supplied the billboard and that they offer green solutions.
“We’re really pleased with how it has worked out, because it was unknown. They took a creative risk—which isn’t the norm in the billboard industry!”
Now that Vy&Elle has experienced a good measure of success, Freegard has additional plans in mind for new designs. “I have a portfolio of designs for furniture, office supplies, home accessories, and all sorts of weird and wonderful things (all to come to a store soon),” she says. “It’s a great fabric for reuse. It’s strong, durable, waterproof, and readily available.”
Freegard also hopes to not only recycle vinyl to help the environment but to also use it for what she calls her “dream project,” making emergency shelters for disaster areas. For the past few years, Freegard has been collaborating with friend and world-renowned architect Rick Joy on designing an emergency shelter for use in disaster relief for large-scale natural disasters both in the U.S. and abroad. ”Rick came on board to develop and design the structure,” she says. “He’s a fantastic architect and this project really appealed to his need to also think outside his usual design environment.”
This project will not only include reclaimed billboards, but also PET (recycled bottle fabric). “We’re currently pulling our resources together for funding, involvement, and corporate help and to understand methods of working with world aid organizations to make this a reality,” Freegard says. “This is my favorite part of the idea—taking it from the seedling to implementing design, getting the project up and running, and getting great people involved. This is what drives me to keep at it every day.
“It’s in its infant stages right now but is on the table and edging forward toward blooming into a reality. I’ll keep you posted.”
In the meantime, Freegard’s work everyday helps regenerate what we would normally consider trash—former billboards made and installed by sign companies throughout the U.S.—into practical, stylish fashion “props” put to good use on shoulders.
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