Bottles 2 Bags Recycled PET Makes Nifty Laptop Cases and Bags

Bottles 2 Bags rPET photo

Really it's a bit hard to keep getting excited about the idea of another shoulder bag or cosmetics case made from recycled PET plastic bottles - though the first TreeHugger reviews of Patagonia rPET goods were basically gushing, and for good reason. Anything rPET is better than anything virgin polyester.

rPET is the new polyester
And it is admirable when entrepreneurs take up the task of using harder-to-obtain, more expensive recycled materials. It's just the intrinsic short-sightedness of making barrels of oil into plastic bottles that we don't keep remaking into plastic bottles (EPA says 30% of U.S. bottles get recycled, in Europe the rate is around 40%) becomes more obvious over time. Our global systems seem exactly opposite the very necessary closed-loop thinking that Michael Braungart and William McDonough have espoused for a long time.

O.K. rant over. And, all that being said, Bottles 2 Bags 100% post-consumer rPET bags are really quite sleek and handy - the vertical shoulder bag is a desirable size for wallet, keys, and cell, and the laptop jackets and laptop sleeves are practical. But it is the messenger bags (predictably, perhaps) that arouse the most passion, as they are padded and have a divider for the omnipresent laptop on one side and all that extra stuff that goes along with carrying your laptop everywhere on the other. And U.S.$70 is less than some other stylish recycled-material bags. Bottles 2 Bags don't solve the problem of our out-of-control PET addiction, but they are still cool. Via ::Act 2 GreenSmart

Find More Cool rPET Bags
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Mountainsmith Set to Expand Their Recycled Series
Get Hip, Get Green, and Bring Your Own Bag
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And
Plastic Bottle Recycling Is A Dying Dream