Argentine designers use shale sand bags for shoes
Argentine designers turn shale sand bags into handbags
LOCATION: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fashion firm ‘Fracking Design’ has found a new source of inspiration:
oil industry burlap plastic sacks
from the country's huge Vaca Muerta shale formation
which they recycle to make shoes, bags and purses
(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CLOTHING DESIGNER AND CO-FOUNDER OF 'FRACKING DESIGN' , ORNELLA BASILOTTA, SAYING:"Forty families are involved in the entire production chain and we have recycled 9,300 meters of this plastic burlap, that is equivalent to 1,100 trees that would be needed to absorb the carbon dioxide that these sacks would generate if they had been burned. So that we can visualize the problem, today we use 10% of what an (oil) well generates. In other words, we have a lot of work ahead of us to keep growing."
The plastic waste-leather products are sold online
and used by local oil companies as sustainable corporate gifts
(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CLOTHING DESIGNER AND CO-FOUNDER OF 'FRACKING DESIGN' , ORNELLA BASILOTTA, SAYING:"The oil companies are our main clients and we love it when they use their own waste. We start from scratch with the treatment of disassembling, washing and then reinserting it [finished bags] back in the company. Creating a win-win using the need [to eliminate waste residues] and the reinsertion of the waste itself."
