A business owner in South Texas is recycling inner tubes by turning them into fashionable handbags. The designer, Michelle Karam, figured that if the summer is the best time to float in an inner tube, it would also be the best time to wear them.
During the hot summer months in Texas you can find lots of people enjoying inner tubes on the local rivers. Karam’s recycled inner tube handbags are also making waves, selling fast at the designer store Sloan/Hall in Alamo Heights.
The idea for the unique styled handbags came to Karam while working at MK1 Construction Services, a business that she and her husband own. When it comes time to replace the big tires on their company’s 
delivery trucks, the inner tubes inside them are often brought to a landfill. She wondered what she could do with this type of material and began creating designer-like handbags.
For just over a year Karam has been creating hand-made rubber coin purses, clutches, tots, shoulder bags, and even jewelry in her office. She calls her style traditional but edgy. The bags look like they are made of leather and come in stylish looking geometric shapes. Karam tries to use one piece of inner tube for each bag, cutting and stitching it together by hand using rubber strips as thread. Many of the bags have cool natural distinguishing marks from the tubes that read “Made in the USA” or a blue stripe. She often adds a little attitude to the handbags by placing hexagon nuts on rubber tassels attached to the bags.
Karam’s recycled bags are very intriguing and are getting a lot of attention. She has started making rubber necklaces and bracelets out of the inner tubes too. Her next venture is to create a men’s line of wallets and belts from the material. She hopes her pieces will inspire others to reuse, reclaim, and recycle.
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