Carry on: Southwest Airlines creates products from unwanted seats

Texas, US – You’ve probably walked past someone wearing an aeroplane seat on their back and not even noticed.

Southwest Airlines, one of the world’s largest low-cost carriers, has joined forces with a series of social enterprises to turn its unwanted seats into high-quality leather goods, including a range of surprisingly stylish bags.

After a large-scale redesign of its cabins, Southwest donated 43 acres of leather from 80,000 seats to product designers Looptworks, for a limited-edition range of totes, duffel bags and rucksacks.

Appealing to consumers savvy to the havoc that throwing out materials is wreaking not only on the environment but on their wallets as well, Southwest's initiative is showing the benefits of going that extra mile and thinking more responsibly about waste.

For more on the brands limiting their waste and upscaling to avoid it altogether, read our Tasteful Waste microtrend.