Sounds Good

Going green, bags and bling

I recently told a clerk I’d let her keep the bag, meaning to recycle it for another customer. She took my purchase out, wadded up the bag and tossed it.
In the ‘70s, kids like me were learning to go green. I’d have thought a teen like here would be all into the amazing “green” bags out these days. I can’t get enough of them and I hope I’m reducing landfill accumulation while being so stylish.
I’m already a Bazura Bag supporter. The company has new styles that are helping the Women’s Cooperative of Manila get life back to normal after September’s Typhoon Ondoy. Crazy cool new styles of bags woven from pre-consumer waste include silvery foil evening bags and lipstick cases, bowler bags and messenger bags fashioned from colorful juice box and rice bag durable material. I love, love, love a rice-doy tote featuring some crazy goldfish and Fruit Chum juice labels. An inside pocket holds coupons and the sturdy bag will hold most all the groceries you’d want to deal with in one shopping trip (me, anyways). You’ll feel very international toting this line.
Earth Day is every day. Read more to find your bag, baby:

Bamboo, abounds
Bamboo takes over Southeast gardens. That’s a good thing for green people out to better the earth while looking fashionable. Mad by Design wholesale handbags is basement-to-big-deal business offering bags you wouldn’t believe are from bamboo. Visit www.twisteorchid.com to see what they also do with shells, animal friendly leather. Bamboo can look like that sofa pattern we all know, like a happy sunflower or like a fine wall of brown weave. I’m toting a round-handled number that reminds me, in all the best ways, of bags my mother’s trendy friends carried in the ‘70s. You can shop from their Facebook page. See for yourselves and love it.

b. happybags
If the name doesn’t get you, the patterns will. b. happybags are billed as bags for the planet. They’re simple cloth bags designed to get your groceries, wine, yoga goodies and dry cleaning from one place to the other and are made in the United States of domestic materials and they reduce plastic bag waste. I’m toting one blooming with big ‘70s-style flowers that remind me of my favorite bed sheets from my youth. Another flowery one looks like my sister would love it for her knitting. Fold up your soft bags in styles of stars and stripes, dots, paisley, etc. and be informed, be smart, be green, be responsible and be happy, makers ask. I think I will.

Sign of the times
I recently spent big chunks of time perusing various bags people tote to airports and I think a new Yak Pack TerraCycle Billboard Bag is a green winner. They’re like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates … you never know what you’re going to get. I can’t guess what my round-bottom bag once advertised, but there’s what looks like a moon on one side and the letters “ent” on a blue digital background on the flip side. I love that it appears to look cooler the more you use it, like favorite blue jeans, and that the “nearly indestructible material” offers resourceful totes, messenger bags, backpacks, laptop sleeves, MP3 cases and wallets.
ddoiron@panews.com