Up, up, and away!

A couple of years back, I’ve tried my hand at upcycling, and here are some of the results!

Wallet made out of an envelope

Wallet made out of poker cards

Wallet made out of plastic bags

Why I chose to make my own wallets was because most wallets are made out of leather, and there are many detrimental impacts on the environment when tanning leather. There are high concentrations of organic compounds, salts, and heavy metals present in the waste product of tanning leather. (D.W. Nazer et al. 2006) According to K. Joseph, a lot of resources such as fossil fuels for electricity and transport, and water, are used in leather as well. He also mentioned that 14% of the waste produced is non-biodegradable, and 6% are hazardous.

Even if the wallets were not made out of leather, and instead from PVC or cloth, production of these materials will still have their own large carbon footprint. Some may criticize, saying that using envelopes, cards and plastic bags to make wallets are also not sustainable. However, my argument is that I delay their trip to the incinerators and landfills, making the most out of their material lifespan, such that the resources spent in producing them in the first place will be maximized. At the same time, it takes away my need to buy a wallet!

Literature cited:

Dima W. Nazer, Rashed M. Al-Sa'ed, Maarten A. Siebel, Reducing the environmental impact of the unhairing–liming process in the leather tanning industry, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 14, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 65-74, ISSN 0959-6526, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2005.04.002.

Kurian Joseph, N. Nithya, Material flows in the life cycle of leather, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 17, Issue 7, May 2009, Pages 676-682, ISSN 0959-6526, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2008.11.018.