Turning billboards into hand bags

Grants | Legacy Digitization | Topics | Arts & Culture | Business & Industry |
March 19, 2001
Eugene Cha - Reporter
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********** LIVE INTRO AND BACK-ANNOUNCE ************ Driving by outdoor billboards, few of us see anything other than the advertisement. But Joni Johnson, an entrepreneur from Minneapolis, sees a raw material for her business. Her company, called Relan (ra-LON), recycles old billboards into colorful hand bags, and tote bags. Most billboards are made of vinyl. After their time as a billboard is over, the vinyl surface is dirty and wrinkled. For 2 years now, Joni's company has perfected the process of taking the material, and recycling it into fashionable bags. We joined Joni and her operations manager Jonathan Fitz at their warehouse where they cut the tennis-court-sized billboards into workable pieces. Joni says the HUGE images on a billboard make it difficult to describe her much smaller hand bags.

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Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.

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