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FASHION TREADS ON

A Richmond, Va., handbag maker has introduced a line of purses made out of the inner tubes of used off-road truck and tractor tires.

Passchal Products collects and cleans the tires, soaking them in an "Earth-friendly" solution to remove the years of grit and to neutralize the rubber smell, according to Ken Kobrick of Passchal.

Kobrick and his partner Angela Greene are able to get seven or eight purses from each truck inner tube. The duo combines the die-cut rubber shapes with leather trims of different colors to create the handbags, which are sewn using industrial equipment. The bags also include Smartlyte, which illuminates the interior of the bag when opened, to help the user quickly access items.

The rubber handbags are attracting the attention of celebrities, as well. They were included in the 2004 Billboard Awards goody bags and will be featured as the goodie bag during the Olympus Fashion Week Call-2-Recycle Retreat sponsored by environmentalist and "eco-stylist" Danny Seo this September in New York City. Seo is partnering with the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp. to encourage Fashion Week attendees to recycle their cell phones.

The bags retail from $150 to $175. More information is available online at www.passchal.com.

American Iron, Minneapolis, has announced the winners of its fifth annual Art of Recycling metal sculpture competition.

All of the artwork in the competition is made from scrap metal that American Iron makes available to local artists. Contestants receive one hour to select raw materials from American Iron’s main yard and have five weeks to create their sculpture.

Entries are displayed at Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis in conjunction with the Minneapolis Aquatennial Celebration.

The winners in the large category were:

• First place – Craig Campbell, "Road to Baghdad;" and Patrick Parsons, "2 Headed Growth"

• Second place – Jeff Lohaus, "Sentinel"

• Third place – Jeff Popovich and Virgil Fiarbanks, "Scrappy Express"

The winners in the small category were:

• First place – Dirk DuBois, "Junk Bull"

• Second place – Kristin Hansen, "Roman Bird"

• Third place – Holly Vrieze, "She Horse"

American Iron sponsors the contest to promote recycling and to support local arts. First, second and third place winners in both categories receive a cash prize.

CLEANER CRUISING

Houston-based Waste Management has announced that it has reduced an estimated 247 tons per year of harmful air emissions from its fleet of garbage and recycling trucks, beating the California Air Resources Board’s early compliance deadline for mandated emission reductions.

The reduction in air pollution includes cutting toxic particulate emissions by an estimated 21 tons per year and smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions (NOx) by 226 tons per year. The NOx reduction is the equivalent of taking more than 28,000 passenger cars off of California roadways, according to Waste Management.

Out of the company’s California fleet of 2,742 trucks, 1,390 trucks met the July 1 deadline for early implementation, Waste Management reports. Early compliance was achieved by permanently retiring 181 trucks, deploying 415 trucks that operate on clean-burning natural gas and retrofitting 794 trucks with "best available control technologies"—special pollution controls such as oxidation catalysts or filters—to reduce harmful particulate emissions.