Green Options

For the past two years, founder Monica Ralli of UrthBags in California, developed strategies to inspire people. Her goal was to create a stronger sense of eco-consciousness on our overly-disposable planet.

Monica also planned how to stimulate the job market. She intended to provide work that would benefit local craftsmen and women’s organizations worldwide. Simultaneously, waste would be reduced significantly.

The handbag materials are milk cartons, juice boxes, telephone books, and newspapers. The craftspeople are artisans from across the globe. Designers are both staffed and sourced.

Rock Angelina Jolie’s leather look without the guilt by exploring eco-friendly alternatives and how to wear them with sophistication for a sexy fall ensemble.

In the past, when you’ve thought about helping the environment, things like recycling, using rechargeable batteries, cutting back on your power and water usage, and carpooling or bicycling to reduce pollution probably leapt to mind. 

I doubt that carrying a chic, designer bag topped your list. 

But with all of the eco-minded designers popping up, using alternative materials to craft high-end, contemporary creations worthy of a runway romp, you can do your part to save the planet, and look stylish doing it.

Here is a list of the must-have sleek and sustainable haute couture handbags available for the eco-savvy shopper:

Since their launch in 2006, Noon Solar has sold out of every product line within weeks after manufacturing. Based in Chicago, Noon Solar creates bags for those who are both eco and fashion conscious. Now you can enjoy that lunch in the park or drive to your next appointment all while charging your cell phone, PDA or digital camera using the sun’s power!

As the founders say “you can bury this bag in the backyard, but you’ll never want to”. Made of biodegradable materials like organic hemp and cotton these bags can skip the landfill (after you’ve removed, reused or recyled the solar panel and hardware). Although I’d likely give it away when I was done with it rather than throwing it in the compost, it’s nice to know it can be done.

Raise your hand if you’re like me and have an overflowing bag of plastic shopping bags?

Ok, good. That’s just about everyone.

Raise your hand if you try and reuse them for random things like other trash bags and carrying lunch to work?

Great! I think that’s still a good chunk of you.

Now, raise your hand if you still have all these bags and still don’t know what to do with them but refuse to throw them away?

Yup, that’s what I thought.

Well you’re in luck because this week I am going to explore a bit about what to do with all those plastic bags. I’ve already told you about Conserve, a wonderful company that employs rag pickers in India to pick up plastic bags and then uses the bags to create the most amazing purses and totes. I’ve always wondered how to make bags out of plastic and knew that it involved fusing plastic together, but that’s about it. So I started to do a bit of research into what it take to do it yourself.

From the looks of these three tutorials it seems pretty simple. All you really need to fuse plastic are your plethora of plastic bags, an iron, freezer paper, parchment paper or other scrap paper, and a well ventilated area.