Old tires don’t always roll into landfills; some become long-lasting sheet rubber handbags, portfolios, totes and accessories at Vulcana LLC, Westfield, N.J. The attractive Vulcana bags come in fifteen styles and retail for approximately $79 dollars—a small price to pay for ecological chic.

The key to the Vulcana product line is rubbRe™, a patented recycled tire rubber thin and flexible enough to stitch into handbags, portfolios, binders, wallets, key fobs, shaving kits and placemats. The Vulcana team continues to innovate with a new fabric, fuzun™, that fuses sheet rubber to sustainable hemp fabric that holds color dyes and is naturally resistant to mold and ultraviolet light. The green products are attracting attention to the company’s fabrics, which may become more widely used in other products.