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Eco-Friendly Backpacks for Your Back-to-School Shopping

In this post on Planetsave, Zachary Shahan talks about an awesome company that makes eco-friendly backpacks out of recycled materials. Oh, and it was founded by a sixteen year old!

Eco-Friendly Backpacks

Caribou Camping Co.*, founded by a 16-year-old last year (making him 17 now), has a pretty straightforward aim: help stop pollution. Of course, being a camping company, it aims to do so in the realm of camping equipment and such.

The latest product the company is offering is a backpack made from recycled water bottles, or recycled polyester if you want to get precise. Actually, to get more specific, Caribou Camping Co. founder Ben DeBlois tells us that each backpack is made from 25 water bottles. Pretty cool, eh?

Caribou Camping Co. notes that all of its products (backpack included) “have been rigorously tested to handle the harsh conditions of the outdoors.” Its products are also supposed to enhance your comfort and enjoyment while camping. The new backpack looks like it fits the bill:

green backpack

green backpack 2

green backpack 1

I’ll admit it: I’m a bit picky when it comes to backpacks. So many are designed with what seems to be little consideration for comfort and practicality. Additionally, I try to always buy “greener” products. Of course, this new eco-friendly backpack already has my attention since it is produced from recycled plastic bottles, but what about the actual design of the product?

I love the heavily padded shoulder straps and top strap. The top strap, in particular, doesn’t seem to get much attention from many backpack manufacturers, but I actually tend to carry my backpacks by that strap fairly frequently, and having nice padding while still being easy to grip is the exception rather than the norm — so I’m very happy to see that.

Of course, the backpack has the standard pockets. It looks like enough of them (but not too many) for my tastes, but that’s really a subjective matter. Overall, the backpack seems to be on the smaller end, which works well for some purposes but obviously not as well for times when you want to stick half your kitchen in the backpack. I’d actually find this backpack useful for trips around the city with my laptop and a few other necessities, or for camping trips where I’ve got everything else packed away in a larger bag or bags, but also want a smaller backpack for relatively short treks on location.

Reposted with permission from Planetsave.

Written by Zachary Shahan

is the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular cleantech-focused website in the world, and Planetsave, a world-leading green and science news site. He has been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and he has been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, and wind energy since 2009.

Aside from his work on CleanTechnica and Planetsave, he's the founder and director of Solar Love, EV Obsession, and Bikocity.

To connect with Zach on some of your favorite social networks, go to ZacharyShahan.com and click on the relevant buttons.

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