Eco Friendly Bags

Eco Friendly Bags

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. alone every year. The bags are known to bring death to wildlife, leak toxins and other carcinogens into the soil and to top it off it takes around 430,000 gallons of oil to produce just 100 million plastic bags, now that can not be right can it? With this rather sobering thought the Eco Friendly Ideas website has listed there top 5 eco friendly Tote bags to help you make a difference and just in case you were wondering what a tote bag actually is; it’s a large handheld bag or purse that is used to carry things, such as books, shopping, beach wear or everyday items. Eco friendly materials for these bags include Canvas, Cotton, Jute, Leather, Hemp, Nylon or Polypropylene.

Hurley Eco Tote, $25.00
A large, eco-friendly tote bag, made from 80% recycled bottles, featuring embroidered faux pockets and zipper, an embroidered logo and an embroidered recycle symbol. Pictured, 1 opposite.

Angela’s Garden Eco Garden Tote, $37.00
Complete  with a total of 7 outside pockets to hold you cell phone, water bottles and of course and other items with elastic straps keep them in place.
Three large inside pockets, waterproof bottom and fully washable. Pictured 2.

Hurley Cooper Rev Tote – Women’s, $25.99
A fully reversable eco tote which you can either use it with the 100% canvas side facing out for one look, or change it in an instant to the 100% nylon design side. This eco friendly bag features silver cast hardware and an nicely embroidered logo. Pictured 3.

Lug ECO SHOPPER, $16.00
This clever design turns a small pouch into a large and stylish tote bag. Coming in many different colors this durable and water resistant eco tote is handy for many occasions and features a neat internal pocket to store your purse or cell phone. Pictured 4.

Dante Beatrix Pink Flower Eco Stroller Tote, $140.00
This eco friendly bag is made with nylon made from recycled plastic water bottles and is trimmed with naturally biodegradable canvas. Zip closure bag with two side pockets, a large back pocket, cell phone pocket and two small inner pockets. Each one of these eco friendly bags is said to remove six 16oz. bottles from our environment. Pictured 5.

www.cutebag.co.uk
Fruity reusable shopping bags that fold up into themselves to form a fun, compact strawberry shape.  There are no pouches to worry about as the bags stuff into their own corner as per the left hand side of the picture above.  You simply then pull the drawstring, and hey presto, you have a strawberry.
Dimensions when open:  38 x 37cm (not including handles), strawberry dimensions: 7 x 8cm approx
Pictured 6.

Eco Luggage Overview

Choosing green eco friendly luggage saves pollutants from entering the air and our environment. Support is also given to people who believe in fair trade, organic fabrics and the abolition of child labour and sweatshops.

Suitcases are normally manufactured probably using the two most common, and toxic, chemicals: polyvinyl chloride (or PVC; cancer causing) & chromium (toxic when inhaled). These chemicals add strength and durability to the cases outer skin but as they were hardening they omit toxins into the air. When the suitcase is finally discarded it will most likely go to landfill and take almost forever to biodegrade due to the plastic construction.

Solution – Buy Eco Luggage (or borrow from someone else!)

You can now choose a new eco suitcase made from a wide and varied selection of materials including canvas, organic cotton, hemp, recycled products, leather or nylon. All of these are biodegradable or recyclable. A more in depth look as the options follow-

Hemp is a versatile, durable and very green material making it an ideal choice for constructing suitcases / luggage. The hemp can also be mixed with cotton fabrics to add extra strength for larger items.

Nylon is a fully recyclable synthetic alternative to silk. Waterproofing again should be carried out as before using a water based repellent. Ideally buy a piece of luggage that has been recycled already and make sure that you dispose of it at a recycling centre.

Organic cotton suitcases are recommended as cotton is a natural product as well as being biodegradable. Cotton is obviously not waterproof, but there are non-toxic water repellent coatings (water based) available that due not use toxins and allow the cotton to biodegrade.

Recycled bags and luggage made from many different materials; we saw one recently made out of recycled movie billboards! (manufactured by a company called Ecoist). The bags feel like a new product and are made just a strong as anything else available. Most are made in fair trade, sweatshop-free co-operatives so whilst they do their bit for the environment, they do even more for local communities in helping toaid unemployment and poverty.

Leather is an incredibly strong and flexible material, ideal for suitcases, bags and wallets. The leather should be tanned and produced using eco friendly processes. Many recycled leather products are also available today.