BY PHILLIP ZONKEL >STAFF WRITER

Dana and Melanie Harvey are seat belt fashionistas.

They are the founders of Harveys, the Santa Ana-based company that manufactures handbags from recycled car seat belts.

The 10-year-old company was founded after Dana, a skilled tailor, created a purse for Melanie, his wife.

After installing seat belts in a 1950 Buick, Dana, 40, took some of the unused upholstery and stitched a handbag for Melanie, 38, who collected vintage purses.

Some of her friends fell in love with the bag's style and durability - seat belts have a tensile strength of more than 5,000 pounds - and asked Dana to make some extras.

Since then, Harveys has produced almost 450,000 bags.

A few years ago, the company introduced the Treecycle Collection, which has becomeits best-selling bag. It's woven from seat belt remnants the auto industry doesn't use and that otherwise would end up in a landfill. Per year, Harveys uses just short of 1 million yards of seat belt webbing.

"To make a fashion statement with our bag and be socially conscious is great," Dana Harvey says. "People are using their power to make a difference."

The Treecycle bag, which also employs water-based inks and a hemp lining, is available at a variety of Los Angeles-area boutiques and at www.seatbeltbags.com. It's priced at $134 to $168.

No matter how much in demand the bags are, it's unlikely Dana and Melanie Harvey will have to worry about a shortage of materials. Each year, U.S. companies throw out 7.6 billion tons of waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Harveys isn't the only company taking trash and turning it into fashionable handbags.

Numerous businesses across the country have merged design with social and ecological consciousness to create stylish, functional and durable bags out of license plates, billboard vinyl, old books, candy wrappers, gun-powder boxes and aluminum-can pull tabs, among other items.

Phillip Zonkel, (562) 499-1258; phillip.zonkel@presstelegram.com

Looking for a stylish, creative handbag made of recycled material?

>CIRCULAR: A circular bag, which has been around since 1994, is constructed from used car license plates from all 50 states and some Canadian provinces. Littlearth Productions purchases the license plates from large dealers and junkyards around the United States. Last year, the company used more than 35,000 reclaimed plates. Vintage bottle caps adorn the bag, and the strap is made from recycled tire rubber. Customers can mail their old license plates and have custom items made. Clients include Hilary Swank and Chelsea Clinton.

>Price: $30 to $300.

>Details: (412) 471-0909, www.littlearth.com.

>ALUMINUM TABS: Based in San Francisco, Escama Studio works with two Brazilian co-ops of 70 women to design and produce sleek, modern handbags made from recycled aluminum pull tabs, which are collected from discarded cans in Brazil. Each purse, containing 200 to 1,600 tabs, is handcrafted using traditional crochet techniques and takes three to four hours to make. A percentage of gross sales is returned to the co-op.

>Price: $39 to $240.

>Details: www.escamastudio.com.

>VINYL: Founded in 2002, Vy & Elle (a play on the word "vinyl") takes reclaimed billboard vinyl, which is usually tossed into landfills and creates toxic pollution, and turns it into colorful fashions. The strength of the PVC vinyl makes it an ideal material for reuse. Vy & Elle has recycled more than 100 tons of billboard vinyl. Clients include Rosie Perez, Queen Latifah, Rachael Ray, Eddie Vedder and James Gandolfini.

>Price: $30 to $200.

>Details: (888) 285-4367, www.vyandelle.com.

>WRAPPERS: Misprinted or discontinued candy wrappers, food packaging and soda pop labels are folded into strips, then weaved and sewn into these kaleidoscopic purses. Co-ops of skilled artisans in Mexico and Peru use 70 to 800 wrappers per purse, and each one takes several hours or a full day to complete. Clients include Lindsay Lohan and Cameron Diaz.

>Price: $18 to $230.

>Details: www.ecoist.com.

>METALLIC: Metallic purses are made of vintage gun powder boxes once used during the National Festival of Fantasia, an annual event of traditional Moroccan folklore held in the city of Meknes. The purse boxes are adorned with turquoise and coral, and some have been inscribed with Arabic prayers.

>Price: $32.

>Details: (562) 987-4363, www.merrys.biz.

>RICE SACKS: Recycled rice sacks have been torn apart and resewn into wearable purses. The bags are made and sold by a co-op outside of Kathmandu, Nepal. The group uses the money to rescue young girls from bonded labor and to help them go to school.

>Price: $18.

>Details: (562) 987-4363, www.merrys.biz.

Check out these local shops:

>greenROHINI: 13327 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 981-0023.

>Whole Foods: 331 N. Glendale Ave., Glendale (818) 548-3695.

>Regeneration: 1649 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock, (323) 344-0430.

>Peterson Automotive Museum store: 6060 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 930-2277.

>Armand Hammer Museum store: 10899 Wilshire Blvd., UCLA campus, (310) 443-7063.

>Zina: 470 S. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, (310) 286-2212.

>Museum of Contemporary Art store: 250 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 621-1710.

>ReForm School: 4014 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 906-8660.

>Harveys retail store: 3011 N. Main St., Santa Ana, (714) 550-7105.