The brand-new startup company Hamilton Perkins Collection is debuting with a line of purses and luggage made from an unusual source. You’d never know it by looking at them, but these bags are manufactured from plastic bottles and used vinyl, straight from the landfill. These otherwise wasted materials that would be further harming the environment are now repurposed as key components in this line of stylish new bags.
Behind this idea is Hamilton Perkins (30), designer and CEO of the company he is now forming through crowdfunding efforts and media press. According to Perkins in an interview by TakePart, the idea for recycled baggage came from not being able to find a suitable bag that was both good-looking and eco-friendly. The designer originally looked into leather options, but was later inspired by how many water bottles he was going through and realizing he could put them to better use by melting them down to use as base materials for his new products.
Even though water bottles are recyclable by sanitation services, recent surveys report that about only about one-fifth are actually put through the recycling process. The rest are thrown away with regular trash, adding to the already overwhelming amount of waste that is slowly accumulating on the planet.
It is estimated that 8 billion water bottles are meeting this fate every year. However, Perkins claims that he can save about sixteen thousand water bottles from the landfill with every thousand bags sold. This would be a huge dent in the amount of unnecessary pollution caused by humans–especially when it comes to water bottles, which are known to poison the ocean and create greenhouse gases.
The Hamilton Perkins Collection will open a public Kickstarter campaign in June, 2016. Until then, you can keep up with the company’s actions and get informed about other eco-friendly products they endorse on their Facebook and Twitter.
