The easiest way to tell that you’re on a college campus? The banners waving from every light post advertising the campus and any upcoming games. But what do campuses do once the banners become tattered and faded? ASU and The Centers for Habilitation have solved this problem by turning those old banners into new tote bags.

Jim Hodges is employment development center manager for The Centers for Habilitation (TCH) in Tempe. TCH provides services to people with disabilities.

Hodges said that it all began when they set up shop in Downtown Tempe when Travis Buckner from ASU campus came to them with the idea of turning old banners into tote bags.

The process of making the bags begins with laying the banners out flat, cutting them into workable pieces, and putting some handles on each one.

Hodges says that they can make a banner in about three weeks. Without Jim Hodges and his TCH team, the banners would otherwise be sitting in a landfill. They have plans to use upcoming banners to make zipper bags.