Millet’s New Pack Will Be a Load of Old Rubbish

Millet variation pack photo

With all its raw materials fully or partly recycled, the Millet Low Impact Variation 22 daypack is hardly a ground breaking product. After all it is ground well trod by the ilk of Osprey, Mountainsmith and Voltaic Systems. But, hey, this is the sort of bandwagon we want to see companies jumping aboard.

Like Osprey, Millet give a break down of where they have been most successful in realising the recycled content.

100% of the webbing, bias binding and mesh, 90% of the zip, 76% of the fabrics and 62% of the back panel mesh. All combined this gives the pack, which is due for release in European summer of 2009, a total of 75% recycled content. (We assume that is by weight.)

Millet, the French outdoor gear company, who mostly invented the alpine climbing rucksack in 1950 haven’t been reticent to embrace ecodesign, they’ve gone about slightly differently to their peers. For example, the developed a recycling program to collect and reprocess old nylon climbing ropes, as well as designing a pack cover that doubled as a portable solar charging station.

Their parent company, Lafuma, have been on the ecodesign path since 1992 , when they supported French nature organisations. In 1993 they released a daypack made of recycled cotton. They later formalised this eco-direction under the moniker of Pure Leaf. And we previously profiled their own award winning Eco 40 Pack

Similar to the Patagonia Footprint Chronicles, Lafuma are transparent about the countries they manufacture in, and openly describe the transport methods use to get the products to market. They even tell you how long a garment took to construct.

We look forward to further eco news from Millet (and the rest of the Lafuma group of companies.)

::Millet Recycled Pack via web surf.

More Recycled Outdoor Gear on Treehugger
• Recycled Sleeping Bags
• Recycled Footwear
• Recycled Apparel

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