Recycling car parts – from high fashion to life saving products
Handbags made out of licence plates may sound crazy, but company LittleEarth is turning old car parts into eco-fashion. Even with the rise of greener motoring solutions such as the Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius, motoring remains one of the least environmentally friendly – but generally most necessary – pastimes. But around the world people are making an eco-virtue of this necessity. LittleEarth was founded in 1993 to recycle old car parts to create beautiful and fashionable bags. They use old American licence plates to create beautiful, stylish metal bags that retail at around £100-200, and are perfect for a night on the town. They come in a range of styles, with some making a design virtue of their origins, while others – such as the ‘More Shoes’, ‘Lace Wallpaper’ or ‘Cocktail Time’ bags – are designed to be more high fashion. Each one comes with a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity, so you can be sure your gorgeous handbag really is made from recycled car parts. With party season fast approaching, they are the perfect winter accessory.
If all this sounds too frivolous, it’s good to hear that ethical design collective Design That Matters has been working on a way to use recycled car parts to build neo-natal incubators for developing countries, and has already delivered a prototype for further development. So from fashion to health, the by-products – and waste products – of the motor industry are being reused for eco-friendly purposes, and that’s something we can all get behind.
