Swiss designer Yves Behar has designed a backpack made from recycled sails for California-based environmental non-profit Sustainable Surf, to raise awareness about protecting the ocean.

Deep Blue Bag is made in collaboration with MAFIA, a sustainable bag company influenced by nautical design and based in San Francisco.

"Being a surfer and being an ocean-lover, I'm very concerned about the state of the environment," said Behar. "Supporting Sustainable Surf and MAFIA Bags with a functional backpack made of re-used sails is exciting."

A main feature of the design is its waterproof compartment, so a wetsuit, towel, or swim clothes can be packed without getting the rest of the contents wet.

The compartment's lining can also be pulled out and dried upside-down from a hook on the bottom of the bag.

"The materials we used for the Deep Blue Bag have been on their own adventures and now recycled: lightweight spinnaker sails, seatbelts, kite sails, used wetsuits, and climbing ropes from Yosemite's El Capitan for the handles and detailing make up the majority of the materials for the bag," Behar said.

The bag also comes with a padded laptop sleeve, bottle holder and a "secret city pocket" to hide valuables, like a wallet and keys.

The rucksack is designed to promote sustainable design alternatives, as each bag saves 10 square feet (one square metre) of material from landfill waste.

All profits from sales will support Sustainable Surf, which spearheads a variety of sustainability projects, like Waste to Waves – a program aimed a treating waste as a resource, instead of a problem. The non-profit also manages a styrofoam recycling program, and has created a sustainable surfboard made from recycled and plant-based contents.

Behar is the founder of Fuseproject, an industrial design and brand development firm with offices in New York, San Francisco and Shanghai. His smart lock company August was recently acquired by the world's biggest lock maker Assa Abloy.

The designer is one of several to promote the use of recycled plastic in projects large and small. The Parley for the Oceans initiative is working with well-known brands including Adidas and G-Star Raw to swap new materials for recycled alternatives, while a pavilion at this year's Dutch Design Week – which hosted Dezeen's Good Design for a Bad World talks series – was clad in shingles made from repurposed plastic bottles.