10 stylish bags for your everyday lifestyle.

You’ve got tons of them in your car, looped around your bike handles and hanging from closet doors ready to be filled with farmer’s market produce and flea market finds. Come to think of it, you’ve got more than you ever use but when it comes to that special bag that stays close at hand, you want something stand out that says you can be stylish picking up groceries wherever you roam.

Our top 10 most fashionable and reusable bags will have you reconsidering your image and the fact that worldwide 1 million plastic bags are used every minute.

Artecnica

Made from 100% colorful advertising campaign billboards and a clever die cut, this no-stitch shoulder bag is inspired by the strength and symmetry found in nature. The minimal 2-D design stretches into 3-D to form the biggest bag with the smallest amount of waste. Stretch Bag can support up to 33lbs. It’s available in different colors of recycled billboard or in natural brown leather.

Baggu

Baggu’s collaboration with sustainable fashion brand Mociun is a graphically pleasing testament to eco fashion and reusable bag. Send back your expired Baggu and the company will recycle your old bag and give you a $1 credit towards a new one. Not likely you’ll be getting rid of this one for how great it is.

Flip & Tumble

Flip & Tumble’s wide-banded shoulder design feels a little softer than regular reusable bags and with stretch compacting, will fit lots of whatever you want to throw in it.

ECOBAGS

Made from certified organic cotton, this produce bag from ECOBAGS is a shopping necessity to shake the dirt from fresh from the field produce. Stuff away as this bag can hold up to 40 pounds. We love the sexy netting and the fact that it’s black.

PaisleyMagic

How can you not love this graphic from PaisleyMagic? Made from 100% Cotton, this durable, multipurpose canvas tote is great for hauling books, groceries or a change of clothes.

RuMe

Denver, Colorado-based RuMe was launched on Earth Day 2008 to meet the growing need of environmentally conscious consumers who don’t want to sacrifice style and functionality. The flat-bottomed bag stands easily for even the most inept supermarket baggers and with the metallic sheen, makes you the star of the check-out. We love this bag so much we’ll use it for anything really.

Alchemy Goods

Constructed from reinforced vinyl mesh, seatbelt, and inner tube, the Ad Bag is a strong and lightweight carryall. Durable and easy to wash, this bag just might last forever. Try figuring out what the billboard ad once was while you sit on the subway to occupy your travel time.

Envirosax

Envirosax is a pretty recognized name in reusable bags. These colorful, ethnic prints reminiscent of exploring bazaars and spice markets make us want to order more so we look fully sophisticated in a sea of people choosing plastic. That these bags fold up tight and can fit in your purse makes them all the more accessible and easy to carry around.

Sleeping Bags

Founded by social entrepreneur Andy Marks, Sleeping Bags takes retired hotel bed linen and makes beautiful yet practical bags, adorned with artwork from leading individuals in the arts and creative industries. We love.

Gecko Traders

Made from 100% recycled rice bags and handmade in small batches by a women’s co-op in Cambodia, these stylish bags are all one of a kind. The graphics will make you imagine shopping at a Cambodian floating fish market, picking up a sack of rice along the way and spices to create a culinary treat. At the very least, you can come and go from the gym in style.

The post 10 Reusable Bags That Will Keep Shopping Stylish appeared first on EcoSalon.

There’s a lot to learn from the cool UK example of raising funds to share the wealth.

Take Oxfam, for instance, and their ethical and secondhand shops whose funds raise money for relief efforts around the globe. They do great work and offer us one-of-a-kind clothes and jewelry to die for.

Another group, most commonly known as TRAID (Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development) is a UK charity that actively works to divert clothing and shoes from landfills as well as to reduce world poverty by raising funds for development projects.

From TRAID has sprung TRAIDremade, an environmentally-conscious fashion label launched in 2002, giving new meaning to conscious shopping. They recently partnered with Timberland to create Bagsy, limited edition eco bags made from 100% recycled denim and leather (including reconditioned Timberland shirts and jackets).

Bagsy by TRAIDremade and Timberland

Timberland’s role in the partnership is equally impressive with its “Change Your Wardrobe, Change Their Lives” campaign where Timberland customers get 20% off new purchases by donating clothes they no longer need. TRAID then transforms the clothes into “funds to fight global poverty.”

If you live in London, shopping TRAID is a given. But the best resource for Stateside shoppers is to contact the site and see if you can claim your own Bagsy and have it shipped. (Man, but then there’s a carbon footprint to offset. Can’t anyone open a location here?)

The post TRAID to Fight Global Poverty appeared first on EcoSalon.