Turning giant swans into beach bags may not sound very PC – but when the swans are inflatable pool toys it’s an ingenious way to reduce landfill.
Meet Aucklander Nina Darrah: Council employee by day, recycling warrior by night. Since 2019, the resourceful 33 year old has rescued mountains of unwanted pool toys, giving them a fresh lease of life through her side hustle, I Used To Be. From her dad’s Hillsborough garage Nina fashions key chains from donuts, purses from pineapples and splash proof carryall bags from flamingos, toucans and lobsters, selling her one-of-a-kind creations at markets and online across the motu. Better still, by extending the life of our poolside has-beens, she is playing an invaluable role in reducing plastic waste.
“Inflatable pool tools are super popular in New Zealand – everybody knows somebody with a pool! The problem is, once they are punctured and deflate, nobody knows what to do with them. Because they’re made out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) they can’t be recycled, so landfill is the only disposal option,” Nina explains.
“Through I Used To Be, I hope to inspire Kiwis to think differently about our consumerist culture, and in doing so, do my bit to reduce the amount of plastic waste entering New Zealand landfills.”
In the six years since launching her business Nina has achieved a lot, crafting over 2,000 purses and bags from up to 200 discarded inflatables. (“I can get around 15 bags from a giant swan, maybe ten from an inflatable ring.”) But she reckons she’s only just scratched the surface.
“Right now, I have about 1,000 inflatables stacked up in my dad’s garage waiting to be cut, cleaned and made into bags. When I started out, I just had one small storage rack, now it’s an entire wall. It can be quite overwhelming actually – it’s hard to make a dent in it.”
Nina first stumbled upon the idea while living in the UK, where she met a woman making bags out of bouncy castles.
“I thought it was a cool concept, but I didn’t have the capacity to deal with that amount of material. Then I discovered pool toys. I put a call out on Facebook for old inflatables, then made some samples and took them to a market in Kingsland. People loved them! The reality is, we buy these toys but never know what to do with them once they’ve popped and we feel guilty putting them in the bin.”
An exciting new partnership with Matta has been a game changer.
“Matta makes playground matting which has a large, recycled component so now I take all of my waste to them, including my offcuts and the toys I can’t use, and they can use it for their matting. It’s really exciting because we are now on our way to becoming a zero-waste venture.”
But there’s still one thing holding Nina back. Scalability. Juggling a full-time job with saving the planet is no easy task, and repurposing pool toys takes significant time and effort.
“After collecting the donated toys, I cut the seams and fold them down to manageable sizes before cutting them into pattern pieces with a Stanley knife. That’s the fun bit! Then I clean them with soapy water and dry them before figuring out my colour combinations and pairing them ready for sewing. Once they’re completed, I photograph, edit and upload them to the website, that’s the really intensive bit.”
Recently Nina has taken on experienced bridal gown seamstress Kat Kuper to help lighten the load, and this year she hopes to secure some funding and find a helping hand for sales and marketing. “That’s the aspect I like the least. I really enjoy the repurposing and the community building, but not the sales!”
Eventually though, Nina hopes to go out of business. It’s an unusual aspiration for a budding entrepreneur. “That would be the ultimate dream – running out of material because we’re no longer buying and discarding pool toys.” For now though, she’ll keep chipping away, one giant pizza slice and multi-coloured unicorn at a time.
“My housemates are calling for bum bags so I might try making them next.”
Story by Vanessa Trethewey for the Autumn 2025 issue of AA Directions Magazine. Vanessa Trethewey is an Auckland-based freelance writer who regularly contributes to AA Directions Magazine.
