After a decade of designing home products and soft goods for wholesale businesses nationwide, I moved my focus to industrial waste solutions and the need to recycle and reclaim materials that were dumped in landfills in bulk. It was a combined effort between 3 friends, Jeff & Robin Janson and myself, who I have been working with for many years.  We formed Vy&Elle (a play on the word “VINYL”) as a company to recycle vinyl billboards into useful everyday items for home and over the shoulder. The nature of the billboards made it an ideal material to reclaim. Not only did it come in bulk and was readily available, it was also waterproof and because of the graphic nature, offered a unique fabric for one of a kind colors and finishes.   

We started the line in 2002 with 5 styles that we introduced at my partners booth (they recycle buildings into furniture) at the New York International Gift Fair to see what reaction was. Today with over 35 styles in the current line, and additions made every season, we have a successful handbag and accessories line that offers both wholesale to boutiques around the world, and also custom/private label work to corporations who are interested in recycling their own waste.   We sell in over 1000 boutiques and stores in Japan, Australia, Europe, as well as extensively throughout the US. We also recycle billboards for the Coca Cola Company, Cirque Du Soleil, Sundance Film Festival and many other corporations who produce banners and billboards.

Our decision to do this project was to educate ourselves about this industrial waste, and how to think of ways to reuse items in a new and different way.  It was an unfamiliar story to most and we felt strongly that it offered both a unique recycled product and design opportunity (and a great challenge for us) but also was an educational opportunity at the consumer level. This continues to grow. Corporations are now becoming aware of the waste they are creating and we are able to offer a recycling solution to them. I am constantly working on new ways to incorporate this material.  Our 2008 Summer collection includes the use of PET fabrics (fabric created from recycled plastic bottles) for all our trim and lining, thereby making the items 95% recycled – which is great news.

Vy&Elle  is driven by the idea of mass market, because in theory the impact to educate the everyday consumer could be so much greater. When we took the industrial waste effecting local communities it made so much more sense and the fabric was readily available to us.  In the early days of Vy&Elle we purchased the billboards by the 100’s from any of the outdoor companies that would allow us.   In 2005 we finally teamed up with Metro Media Technologies to assist us in securing an unlimited quantity of billboards that were readily available to us. With MMT’s help, last year we recycled approximately 100 tons of reclaimed billboard vinyl! 

The most common question is how do we make it happen. I think that it is important to understand that recycling makes production just that little bit more complicated and adds a whole other dimension to production. I rely heavily on my partners in the recycling process (they own a salvage company). The billboards are delivered to one of 2 of our facilities (one in CA and one in WI) based on the location of the billboards at the time they come down. They are then cut and cleaned and rolled into standard size rolls of fabric. This in itself is no easy task and it is a laborious process that has to follow strict guidelines and specifications. We do not treat the billboards other than to clean them with water and biodegradable soap. The scrap from the preproduction process is then collected by MMT and sent to recycling partners they work with who can convert the scrap into garden hoses and linoleum flooring products

The need to create a business that combines both principal with profit is our biggest task, and with today’s challenging environmental issues, we are focused on the success of this combined recycling effort with all our partners. Our greatest achievement to date is perhaps seeing the line in some of the top art and contemporary museum stores we find ourselves in –because it is not just about the recycling – its also about form, function and design. This is an intrinsic key to a successful sustainable business model.