What happens to advertising banners once they’re removed from the billboards? In the case of the airline EMIRATES, they’re turned into shopping bags, in one of the latest innovative recycling projects by a carrier.

The company recently took one of its 208 square meter PVC posters from a billboard at Zurich Airport and transformed it into over 300 reusable totes.

The image, a giant photo of an Emirates Cabin Crew member, was repurposed into a limited edition line of “upcycled” bags by 10 workers at Feinschliff, a Swiss company that supports long-term unemployed people returning to the labor market.

Each bag took 27 minutes to fabricate, with a process involving cutting and washing the poster and stitching on the 13 straps.

The lightweight accessories were then imprinted with the company’s ‘Where will you be tomorrow’ tagline and handed out during an open air cinema screening in Zurich, in a clever recycling of the original advertising campaign.

Emirates actively promotes recycling across its business, whether it is used newspapers left behind in aircraft cabins or obsolete electrical equipment no longer needed in its offices.

Between 2010 and 2013, Emirates ‘ Engineering department alone recovered and recycled over 432 tonnes of materials from Boeing 777 cabin interiors.