Recycled Tents To Keep Bugs, Rain and Waste Away
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 08.12.08
We’ve had packs, sleeping bags, footwear, apparel, etc, made with recycled content, (see below) but no-one has yet stepped up to the plate and served us with a tent made from recycled material. Until now, that is. Backpacker Magazine correspondent, Kelly Bastone, trawling the aisles of the Outdoor Retailer Show reports for that mag’s blog that two such beasties are in development.
Big Agnes, who we previously noted were doing interesting things with recycled content sleeping bags, have a a two and three person tent coming in 2009. The Salt Creek is said to use recycled polyester floor, inner, mesh and flysheet. According to the reports even the zippers have recycled content zip tape. But not yet so for the tent poles ands clips.
Although the team at Nemo are working on this. More on that, after the fold:
Nemo Equipment too have a two person three person tent, the Oz, on the way for next year. It will sport similar recycled fabrics to the Big Agnes model, but Nemo are going one step further and trialling bamboo tent poles. The prototypes were developed with assistance from a fly fishing rod maker who uses bamboo. If testing shows them to be suitable they might just turn up in 2010 tent models.
Great to see these smaller players showing the big boys of the industry how to do it. We trust that the in-the-field performance is equal to that non-recycled materials and the trend takes off.
(Polyester was once considered a better flysheet material than nylon, because it had superior resistance to ultra violet light and it also remained more taut under rainy conditions -- nylon tends to sag, as it absorbs more water. But external silicone proofing of nylon changed that advantage.)
::Big Agnes and ::Nemo via Backpacker Magazine Blog
Recycle Outdoor Gear
• Recycled Sleeping Bags
• Recycled Footwear
• Recycled Packs
• Recycled Apparel
Images from Backpacker Magazine blog.
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- Single Stream Recycling - Watch and Learn
