Useless into the useful

The story of company Alchemy Goods (http://www.alchemygoods.com/) begun from one accident: When inhabitant of Seattle Eli Reich’s messenger bag was stolen, he decided that instead of buying another, he would make one himself. With plenty of bicycle inner tubes lying around, he decided to make it the primary material for his new bag. Long story short, the completed product was a huge hit at the office, and Eli began to make them on a much larger scale. Today, Alchemy products are carried in many stores across the country.

Today the company enlarge the list of used stuffs and now it includes used seatbelt straps, nipples, awning fabric, including large outdoor street advertising banners.

Access to materials critical to success

One of his biggest raw materials is used bicycle tires that come from bike shops. Without Alchemy Goods these tires would end up in the landfill. Forming relationships with shop owners and people in general is one of the most important parts of the business for Reich. He gets used tires from many of the same shops that now carry his products. It’s this sense of coming full circle that adds to the appeal of his products for consumers. What makes Alchemy Goods products so attractive to consumers is that they can actually see the recycled content in the product.

In addition to junkyards and bike shops, Reich also works with community groups to procure materials. Some years ago Alchemy Goods established a relationship with Portland’s Community Cycling Center to take nearly 15,000 used bike tubes. Sustainable Industries reported on the positive impact of this partnership, noting that CCC had been struggling to find a recycler for its used rubber when its previous partner could no longer process the bicycle tire components.

Customer suggestion leads to creation of new product - the Ad bag

Customers have even helped Reich secure materials, and some have suggested new directions. One woman worked for a company that dealt with large outdoor advertising banners. The banners were simply discarded after use, and she thought Reich might be able to find a use for them. Sure enough, he did. The banners are now the primary material in his new Ad bag. The Ad bag is 95% recycled material by weight and made of the old vinyl mesh signs, seat belts for handles and a section of a bike tube for the grip on the handle. Selling for a very reasonable $30, the Ad bag is a perfect of example of Reich’s goal to make a quality product and get it into as many people’s hands as possible.

Main piece of advice to other budding eco-entrepreneurs: have patience

Reich’s main piece of advice for people looking to go into business with an eco-friendly product is to have patience, pure and simple. He hammered home this point several times during this chat. Start slow: when he started making bags he was still working his other job, which gave him the security to continue to explore and develop his product, as well as looking for sources of raw materials. In his first year he made only around 100 bags. His advice for people out there like him is to develop a high quality product, then have the patience to allow it to develop; it will succeed.

Every product on site of this company is accompanied by story of it’s creation. For example:http://www.alchemygoods.com/bottle-reopener.html

My opinion: It might be possible to organize such company or activity in our country. However there are some obstacles: first of all because of climate there aren’t so many addicted by bicycle people and used bicycle inner tubes correspondingly. However there are a lot of street advertising banners which have very short period of usage. The second problem might happen because of suppressing by administrative and government interference. And even if this activity is organized by eco-geeks or eco-fanatics who overcome every problem this enterprise might have very short life time because of slighting attitude to objects from garbagre and eco-problems in general.