1. How are your products Earth-Friendly, animal-friendly and people-friendly?

Vulcana™ handbags and accessories are Earth-friendly because they are made from discarded car tires. Landfills overflowing with old car tires take up valuable green space. In addition, used car tires often become breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes. Why create products made from newly-created textiles when we have so much raw material taking up acres and acres of nature? Why not reuse what we have on hand?

Vulcana™ products are an animal-friendly alternative to leather and durable fabrics. Our Eco-Trashion products are designed for fashion trendsetters who may also be vegans or animal lovers..

Finally, Vulcana™ is a people-friendly company since all of our products are manufactured in the United States by people earning decent wages. Our devulcanized rubber comes from car tires taken from US landfills. The rubber is mixed and cured in the mid-Atlantic states, and stitched in New England. No child labor or unfair trade practices are involved in the manufacturing of these goods.

2. How did you get the idea for Vulcana?

In 1995, Robin, one of the founders, was shopping at Chicago’s Water Tower Place where she found a bag made of cut-up truck inner tubes. The bag, which was riveted together, had a very interesting industrial look. She bought it for about $100.00 and used it to carry her legal work. She found that she enjoyed making a statement about conserving our environment, though she wished the bag were more lightweight and fashionable.

As she carried the bag around, she kept thinking how wonderful it would be to use discarded car tires in a similar way. Car tires are a tremendous blight on the environment, and there are about a billion car tires stockpiled in our country. Couldn't car tires be melted down somehow and refashioned into lightweight and attractive fabric that could be used in fashion accessories and other useful objects? The idea became a passion, and, while she was pregnant with her first child and on a leave-of-absence from her law firm, she began exploring the possibilities.

3. Why "Vulcana"?

The name "Vulcana" comes from the root word "Vulcan," the ancient Roman god of fire, blacksmithing and handicrafts. In addition, our sheet rubber has been "vulcanized," which means it has been treated with heat and pressure, thereby imparting greater strength, elasticity and durability. Finally, as all "Star Trek" fans know, Mr. Spock was a Vulcan. We’d like to think that Mr. Spock would agree that Vulcana’s mission is eminently logical.

4. How is the sheet rubber made?

The main ingredient in Vulcana™ sheet rubber is car tires taken from landfills in the USA. The tires are ground up so finely that the chemical bonds are broken. The end product resembles black Sweet 'n' Low. The devulcanized tires are then mixed with natural rubber and sent off in a slab form to be cured (or vulcanized) as it is rolled out into thin sheets. Vulcana™ received a patent on this process and the finished goods in 2003.

5. Can you make the rubber in other textures and colors?

We can make the rubber as thick as we desire, but not much thinner than .032". We can also create any texture you can imagine -- the imprint of a repeated corporate logo, or an ostrich or ridged texture. Vulcana™ continues to experiment with new textures, colors and finishes.

Color can be mixed into the rubber compound, but the black tire crumb will never disappear entirely, especially since we’re trying to keep as much tire content in the mix as possible. For example, if we mix in white, we’ll get gray. If we mix in red, we'll get maroon. We have produced samples of royal blue, green and burgundy sheet rubber using at least 30% car tire crumb in the compound.

In addition, we can print onto and embroider the sheet rubber. Vulcana™ currently custom-prints logos and written messages on our Portfolios, Three-Ring Binders, and Jar Openers.

6. Do the contents of your bags get hot in the summer?

No. The contents of the bag will not get any hotter in a Vulcana™ bag than they would in conventional bag during the summer.

7. Will the rubber rub off on my white clothes?

No. One test which we’ve conducted, called a "Vinyl Dye Bleed" test, indicates that the black will not rub off on white fabric. If you do seem to get dirty from handling the rubber, the dust picked up by the rubber has rubbed off on you. You can clean the rubber easily with a damp cloth, and it probably is a good idea to wipe the dust off every so often.

8. Do your products smell like car tires?

Some sensitive people may notice a slight rubbery scent. Any such scent, however, fades with time. We feel that the initial rubbery scent reminds people that our products are made from car tires, and that by purchasing our products, they are making an eco-friendly gesture. Some skeptics have to be convinced that Vulcana™ products are, in fact, made from car tires by taking a good, strong whiff of the material!

9. What are Vulcana’s future plans?

We plan to continue our efforts in Eco-Trashion and design fun and functional products and accessories from recycled materials. We plan to concentrate on finding new and innovative uses for recycled tires to do our part in depleting the landfills and prevent the continuation of burning tires.

10. Why use hemp in combination with the rubber instead of some other type of material?

Hemp is an environmentally positive crop, actually improving the condition of the ground. Hemp is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. Hemp fiber is also one of the strongest and most durable of all natural textile fabrics, outlasting the competition by many years. Hemp is naturally resistant to mold and ultraviolet light, and due to its porous nature it holds dyes longer.