After last week’s post about BannerBags, I’ve been seeing that type of vinyl banners everywhere, particularly adorning the roadside along the main road towards the motorway.

I remember thinking about those banners a few years ago at a geek conference thing but dismissing it as a suggestion for here because I didn’t think they were common enough (although since when has that really stopped me) and because, in the case of that conference, I could imagine people wanting to take them home as keepsakes.

But, as I said, now they’re everywhere and not about keepsake worthy things. The ones that annoy me most are event specific things which sit on the side of roundabouts,forgotten about, until the rope holding them up rots or the wind blows them away. Sigh.

Anyway, we’ve got bags already on the list – what else could be done with them?

(By the way, I’m currently on my way to Alison Bailey Smith‘s workshop as part of the “Recycle Into Art” week in Liverpool – we’re making bags. I’ll show off my creation tomorrow :) )

In a similar vein to Ecoist’s bags from old movie posters, BannerBags makes, well, bags out of old banners. Specifically, PVC banners (the sort that hang on lampposts etc) and the tarpaulins used on the sides of trucks.

At the moment, they’re concentrating on making bags out of banners used to advertise the Capital of Culture stuff in Liverpool – some of them quite obviously tied in (like the one above) but others are more subtle (like those below).

They’ve got a number of different designs available – flight bags (above), laptop/messengers (the Anglican Cathedral one below) and bowlers (like the hand one) – but are apparently open to suggestions if you fancy something else.

On a related topic, we’re off to Liverpool tomorrow for the launch event of the Recycle Into Art week of workshops – should be fun :)

We’ve had an email from unsteadyocean:

I was just wondering if anyone has suggestions for reusing the cloth bags that bulk rice comes in? I’ve seen suggestions for making them into tote bags but I would love to get more ideas.

Around here, they tend to be plastic-coated cloth or just woven plastic – but either way, ripe for re-using.

So any suggestions?

(Photo by kirsche222)