Growing up on the Mississippi delta, one might expect a young boy to pursue a career in football (playing for Ole Miss), take part in a marching band (for the Ole Miss football team), or find a vocation that can generously give back to his alma mater; that’s right, you guessed it, Ole Miss. Matt Mahler is clearly the exception. Having descended from trappers, Mahler became closely acquainted with the wildlife and ecosystem that inhabited the coastal wetlands of southern Louisiana. This exact place is where Mahler drew his inspiration to create his now one year old business, Tierra Ideas. Tierra Ideas takes wasted materials from various industries and transforms them into stylish bags for anyone to wear. His first successful attempt at this innovative idea of recycling waste into useful products came when he found Performance Bikes. Performance Bikes is a cycling shop that initially discarded over twelve tubes a day from each of its ninety stores nationwide. When Mahler approached the company asking to re-create its waste into useful handbags, the staff exuberantly agreed. Today, Mahler works with fifteen Performance Bikes shops in the vicinity of his home in North Carolina. When he’s not crafting luxurious handbags from inner tubes of tires, he is constantly experimenting with other wasted “want-nots” such as: sails from boats, car headliner, seat belts, and fabric from seats on Delta airlines. Yes, we said Delta airlines. Random, huh? Not so... Turns out that an airline seat can only be washed ten times before the fabric must be thrown away due to minimized potency of their flame retardant chemicals, as stated by government decree. Currently, Mahler has about 5,300 pounds of used airplane seat fabric, which is sadly only one third of Delta’s waste. Along with his trusted tires and whatever else he chooses to recycle, Mahler is creating environmentally friendly bags today, and granting them new life for tomorrow. Have YOU helped save the world today? For more information, visit: thedailygreen.com, www.tierraideas.comWant to become a Social Firestarter? “Like” us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @ BrushfireMG
