All Bilum bags are one of a kind and are handcrafted in France by persons in occupational reintegration.

The trademark Bilum was created in 2006 by Hélène de La Moureyre and the origin of the name "bilum" stand in a traditional daily string bag from Papua-New Guinea. Hélène begins collecting her first huge banner in front of a Parisian department store, a Sunday when sun was rising and when it was taken down.
She begins to design bags she misses in her everyday life: a bag for her laptop, a big carry-all, a bucket-bag adaptable, for her professional life or her weekends.
Then she seeks local workshops and falls on the special employment centres for disabled workers which she adopts immediately for their professionalism and their warmth.
Each Bilum is a "selected piece", a unique bag made from from advertising tarpaulins of great size, stretched for building applications in front of department stores, in railway stations and airports, on exhibitions, shows and other events, for tents and marquees or used as protection for urban construction work.
Used for a day or several months, depending on the event or the campaign, these tarpaulins are then, for most of them, eliminated (and usually incinerated). All the intermediaries of this market (assemblers, advertisers, websites and advertising brokers) had rather see their tarpaulins recycled than burnt, and usually prove to be very cooperative. These tarpaulins are made out of a PVC coating on a weave of polyester fibres.
As large as 30 to 1000 sq.mtr (323 sq.ft to 10076 sq.ft), they are stretched over huge frames.
They must resist to high pressures and bad weather hence providing an ideally resistant and waterproof material to make quality bags.
Seat belts are collected in breakers yards or destocked by equipment manufacturers.
In favouring recycling, bilum limits the use of starting raw material and gives a second life to materials that are usually eliminated through dumping or incineration.
The pieces of tarpaulins are cleaned with a sponge and the collected seat belts are machine washed with "green" laundry detergents.
The tarps receive no other treatment than cleaning (there is no reprinting or coating).
The whole Bilum confection system operates within a range of 40 km around Paris: collection, storage, cutting, cleaning and making.
Once the pieces of the tarpaulin and the seat belts (used as handles) are cut, they are cleaned up and manufactured in The "ESAT" (Etablissements ou Services d'Aide par le Travail) and "EA" (Entreprise Adaptée) social insertion companies in Paris suburbs.
The insertion company or association offers a job to people living in social and/or professional exclusion and is committed to manage, train and help these people towards social, human and professional reconstruction.
These are ordinary companies employing at least 80% of disabled workers in an adapted environment.
Bilum currently operates with five different companies and social centres located in and around Paris area and specialised in saddlery and luggage.
Bilum has collaborated with different renowed brands such as fashion brand agnès b. and a well known french shops such as "La grand epicerie de Paris". Moreover in 2008 the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF) (French National Library) and Bilum signed up for a partnership: Bilum has to recycle every tarpaulin used to advertise the exhibitions set up by the BnF.