Long Island company gives old billboards new life, turning them into fashion products

BAY SHORE, Long Island (WABC) -- The towering signs on Broadway could end up in your closet. A woman on Long Island is recycling billboards, turning them into fashion accessories.

It seems like everyday in New York there's another billboard popping up.

But have you ever wondered what happens to the ones that are taken down?

So did Jillian Brown. "I found out they pretty much throw them out, so I was like what can I do with them," she said.

She started sowing them into purses. "I made a couple of samples and all my friends loved it and so here I am," said Jillian.

Brown has now started an entire company dedicated to keeping these billboards out of the landfills and turning them into a usable piece of fashion.

"From one billboard you can make about 75 totes," she said.

Remember Me Green, based on Long Island, also hand makes clutches, artwork and furniture.

Brown and her business partner Michael Kaminsky work with sign companies to salvage the 20 by 60 feet pieces of the durable, vinyl material.

"We roll them out. We identify which pieces will be made into what products," siad Kaminsky. "As we get into pieces that might have scratches we make smaller products out of that, because the ultimate goal is to use as much of the vinyl or to repurpose as much as we can."

If you want to know exactly which billboard made your purse or bag there will be a QR code on the tag which will tell you exactly where it came from.

"We also hope to have a registration in place so we can say that the billboard that started on Times Square is now owned by some lady who lives in Topeka, Kansas someplace," said Kaminsky.

Who by that point is surely already bragging to her friends about how she owns a piece of the New York City skyline.