He’s founded a book festival and come up with the idea of selling a beer for upwards of $2,000 in order to help locals in need.

Now Decatur’s Daren Wang has another article to stuff in his folder of “Crazy and Crazy Successful Ideas”: banner tote bags.

First introduced at the Decatur Book Festival launch party last month – though I don’t recall him saying the idea was his – Wang came up with the idea of recycling old DBF banners into messenger bags and totes.  He worked with Ann at Mingei World Arts to find a craftsman to fashion the bags and the rest is history.  Well, the rest will soon be history.

On Monday, in addition to tackling the document-heavy DeVry annexation, the Decatur city commission approved the “recycling” of old city banners into totes, fashioned by Colombian refugee Maria Cristina Giraldo Echeverria.  Echeverria is guaranteed $10 an hour for the work and 10% of sales from the fund go to Decatur Youth Fund, according to an AJC article this morning.

The AJC was so excited about this fashionable recycling story – especially in comparison to that snoozer topic of DeVry annexation – that they put a tease for the story in that little “metro” box on their front page this morning.

But the real question is, what will Daren Wang come up with next?  A beer-powdered lawn mower?  Dog collars that call 911 when your dog senses danger?   Sponsored port-o-lets?  Oh wait…

ALSO: Both my wife and Carl alert us to today’s Daily Candy that features Himalayan Trading Post Candles from Mingei.