Heaps of rubber from tire tubes - useless to cyclists - are being cut, cleaned and refashioned into unique, hand-sewn products now being sold in stores from Downtown Seattle to Japan. Alchemy Goods has created its spot in a business model as circular as the recycling it promotes.
An 'unlikely entrepreneur'
Eli Reich, 28, founder of Alchemy Goods, calls himself "an unlikely entrepreneur."
What began as the mere sewing of a personal messenger bag at a Wallingford apartment in 2004 has flourished into a full-time business, operated out of the lower floor of Reich's Fremont home.
"When I first opened doors for business...I was making bags at a desk," he said.
"I've always considered myself environmentally conscious," continued Reich, who left his job at a wind-energy company more than a year ago to focus on Alchemy Goods.
With used soymilk boxes cut open to hold clasps and recycled valve stems dangling from finished bags' zippers, Reich's new business continues this.
Except for a few smaller productions, every product is stamped with a small box containing the symbol "Ag" and two digits in the upper-right corner. That number is a beacon to an emptier landfill.
"It's how much recycled material there is," says Miyuki Ott, an employee of one year.
Reich is honest. Although the percentage is never below 50, it's also never 100. Even the ink on his business card sinks to a 99.
Valuable tubes
The rubber used for Alchemy's messenger bags begins with the very people who often buy them.
When a cyclist brings in a flat tire for a change, the shop discards the used inner tube. Reich collects boxes of used tubes from 27 bike shops in the Seattle area.
"We see the tubes as valuable," Reich said. "We give them a cardholder or a wallet [in the end]."
A handful of those shops complete the cycle by also stocking an array of Alchemy products. Gregg's Greenlake Cycle was among the first.
"People like that they're reused," said Loa Arnoth, a Gregg's employee, referring to the environmental appeal.
Queen Anne's Counterbalance Bicycles, which has carried Alchemy Goods' bags for about six months, both recycles the tubes and shelves Reich's products.
"We've gotten a lot of positive feedback on the bags," said Adam Smith, a Counterbalance employee.
Refining the process
Not all the rubber Reich collects is usable. Behind a minivan in his driveway lies a haystack-sized heap of black tubes snaked into entanglement. These defective tubes are also recycled as raw material elsewhere.
Checking to see if the tubes are usable through hand-sorting is the first step.
Because of their girth, mountain-bike tubes are best, Reich said. Each tube is then rapidly inflated, inspected for slashes, cut and cleaned.
Pieces of dark rubber cling to the basin of Reich's basement washing machine like lost coins. The material is then stitched together to form the product's pattern in stripes of recycled rubber.
Traditional manufacturing would typically start at this point, when a company would purchase the raw material. The refinement process does make the product more expensive, Reich said.
After processing the rubber into sheets, it's sewn into unique, water-resistant products, either in Reich's own shop or hired out to local sewing companies - what Reich calls "a pressure-release valve."
Recycling ideas
When it began, Alchemy Goods produced a maximum of 20 bags a month; now it's in the hundreds.
Most bike tubes are stamped with a gray serial number or pocked with a patch. These details end up on the final product.
Seatbelt webbing is also reused into a shoulder strap.
A smaller version of the messenger bag, called a haversack, is also available. Both are waterproof.
Lately, Reich has begun creating new products out of entirely different material.
He takes the mesh of advertising banners hung from buildings, spreads it out in a parking lot to be trimmed and sews it into bags with handles. Called an ad bag, it's slightly bigger than a grocery bag.
The growth of products coincides with the growth of Reich's business. He added another shop for recycling last month and is also looking to expand with another employee.
Reich thinks Alchemy Goods' recycling ethic will help consumers think about products in the long term.
"We make these products for disassembly," he said, referring to Alchemy Goods' repair guarantee. "People need to think about what happens after."
For Reich, what happens after a bike mechanic swaps out a popped tube is just the beginning.
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