Bring Your Bag Eco Product Review

Bring Your Own Bag is a branded, re-usable bag program designed to help the environment by reducing plastic bag use. The bags are available through retailers and also for companies to buy and brand, and either offer to their customers, or use for promotions.

Made in a variety of colors, and styles they are also made from many materials including non woven
polypropylene, woven polypropylene, post consumer polyester, organic cotton, hemp, jute, linen, and
bamboo. The bags are the type that lay flat but are sturdy when upright. They hold about the same as three traditional US grocery bags (which are smaller than European ones), and are solid and strong.

I got sent four bags, a traditional large bag with a removal card bottom for strength, a wine carrier, a foil lined cooler bag that was zipped at the top, and another bag with a small zipped inner pocket. All were strong, the wine carrier easily coping with 6 bottles of my wife’s finest vintage. Easy to store and pretty handy the only downside is they cannot be easily folded small enough to be kept in a purse, but many bags aren’t.

Take a look at Bring Your Own Bag, plus they have a blog too.

Terratotes From Green-Kits Eco Product Review

Green-kits are made by Eco-Logics, Inc., a Virginia-based company committed to providing earth friendly products of all kinds. Most known for providing ready-made green cleaning kits, they also sell a nice range of sustainable reusable cloth bags that I was sent to test.

The video below (if you’re an RSS reader you can click here to see it) shows the cool bags I was sent, with a special surprise for me at the end!

Featured in the video are the TerraSack Botanical 4-Pack ($32), the Cotton Produce Bag “Produce” ($6), the original signature Terratote ($15), and finally the Personalized Reusable Lunch Bag ($8).

They have a massive variety of reusable grocery bags in all shapes and sizes and different patterns and sale packages so take a look.

Vivo Barefoot Shoes Eco Product Review

More and more people are looking for ethical footwear and also ones made out of recycled material. The pair I own that meet that criteria are the Vivo Barefoot Dharma. I got mine from Male Organics although made by Terra Plana they’re widely available.

The thing about them isn’t just they’re made from as much recycled materials as possible or its eco-design, but these shoes are meant to mimic walking barefoot. Hmmm doesn’t sound good for you? Well according to Terra Plana it is. In fact it’ll improve your posture and strengthen your feet which have been protected by traditional shoes.

Saying that, they do take some getting used to. The soles seem very thin and you feel every stone. But they are puncture resistant and don’t seem to get worn down very quickly at all. After a few test walks where I was unsure, but I gradually got used to wearing them and like them a lot. Supposedly they’re ideal for playing sport in, but maybe not the Dharma, there are other shoes in the range which are probably more suitable.

I was a little worried about them starting to smell as I don’t wear socks but they are treated with an anti-bacterial lining and seem fine so far. They’re pretty unusual too so I get lots of nice comments and my next footwear purchase will definitely be an eco one.

Act2 GreenSmart Messenger Bag Review

Finding alternative green materials to the most commonly used synthetic materials out there is often a challenge. I was delighted to be sent a Act2 GreenSmart horizontal messenger bag. The bad also comes in a vertical version and in Storm Blue.

I’ve put together a quick video of the bag so you can see all it’s features. If you can’t see the video please click here.

It features front and back zipped pockets, magnetic snaps on the front, three smaller inside pockets, two large inside pockets, with the second one divided into two and padded for your laptop. Using 30 16 ounce PET (plastic) drink bottles as the material, this is the easiest plastic to recycle (symbol 1).

The bag is great, certainly large enough to contain everything, er, a messenger bag should contain. It’s stylish (my wife loved the colour!), strong in my tests, and it certainly looks like it’s durable and tough enough for day to day use.

My only slight concern is the price. At around $70 - $75 it’s not the cheapest bag out there, but looking at ones of similar style, build and quality (as far as I could tell) it is only about $10 more than comparable “non-green” laptop messenger bags that I could find. Of course you can get bags for $30, as you can for $300, so although it may seem expensive it’s a matter of getting what you pay for, and in this case I think that’s a lot.

Made by Act2 GreenSmart they are available from a few places including agreenplace4u for about $74.99. The vertical version is $69.99.

The Great Bag Reusable Shopping Bag Review

The Great Bag is another addition to our reusable comparison chart. And what an addition it is.

More expensive than some other reusable shopping bags at $19.99, The Great Bag proves to be worth the price. Made from 100% quilters quality cotton (which apparently has a higher thread count and increased durability - I’m not sure if it’s organic though), the bag is strong enough to carry up to 40 lbs. The 18″ handles make the bag easy to carry over the shoulder.

What the picture won’t tell you is how soft the cotton is. It feels high quality and it is, hand made in the USA. A nice feature are the three hooks is has, made to fit in US grocery stores bag holders to make it easier to fill up. At 13″ high, 11″ wide and 7″ deep it still folds up neatly but can carry a lot of shopping.

There are a variety of bags designs available and being handmade look great. They’re available from The Great Bag.

To compare bags, check out the other bags in our reusable comparison chart.

Organic Cotton String Bag Eco Product Review

Going organic and being environmentally friendly can be seen to be going back in time before all the chemical fertilisers and modern equipment we use now. These organic string bags from Natural Collection demonstrate that in vivid colour. My parents (well, my mum) were using these bags back in the 1960s to carry their weekly shopping home from the local grocers, butchers and bakers.

You can get them in normal string colour but I like the bright bags. Made from 100% organic cotton, it’s tough to measure them as they’re so stretchy, but they’re around 30cm in width and depth. Unless you pull them and one way goes longer and the other shorter. The real test comes when you put your shopping in and they hold a huge amount. Seriously you can keep stuffing oranges in there until you get tired. It also seems to try and tell me to eat healthily too as putting a rectangular ready meal in tends to get caught up in the string a bit and can be awkward to fit other stuff around - I got the message and went to get some apples.

And they fold up nicely too, well less of a fold, more of a stuff in the pocket, but they’re great and I like the retro feel to them. I’ve used them for a few weeks now and there doesn’t seem to be any wear or tear so hopefully will last a long time. For one of the coloured ones it’s £4.50 at Natural Collection, £12.50 for the three colours which I’ve got, or you can go simple and get the plain ones - £3.95 for one and £6.95 for two. Marvellous.

Autonomie High-Top Shoes Eco Product Review

As well as trying out their ethical flip flops, I also have a pair of Autonomie Project Black & White High-Top Sneakers. A really short video of them is below (if you can’t see the video please go here). Autonomie Project is a new Fair Trade fashion company offering stylish sweatshop-free & eco-friendly footwear, clothing and accessories.

The soles of the sneakers are made from 100% all natural FSC-certified rubber. The FSC-certification guarantees that the rubber was tapped from a sustainable forest in which the trees are taken care of in balance with their natural surroundings without any major clear cutting. In addition, the FSC ensures that no indigenous wildlife or people were displaced during the production of our rubber. This rubber is the only kind like it in the entire world. (Most other rubbers are man-made in a chemical factory).

The canvas and shoelaces of the sneakers are made with 100% organic cotton canvas and the dyes are water-based and PCP and AZO free. They also came with a little story about Shiran Gunadasa who is a rubber tapper on the Frocester Estate in Sri Lanka (who supply FSC certified rubber for the Ethletic range), and what their estate did with their Fairtrade Premium.

Also available in all black and olive green, I really like the trainers. Comfortable and smart they are a great ethical alternative. Plus they came in recycled packaging that I always like to see.

Autonomie Project also sell some ethical flip flops that I’ve reviewed here and also sell bags and purses, so why not take a look?

Next Page »