Making green choices accessible
Award Winning Re:Cycled Collection
Eco-Friendly
FSC Certified
All packaging is bio-degradable
Global Recycled Standard Certified
Made from recycled PET Bottles
Bags are a necessity, especially for people who lead busy lives. If your job requires you to commute, or if you are a fan of outdoor sports and activities, you need a bag that can keep up.
Usually, to make a tough bag, you have to use brand-new materials. This process of gathering materials and modifying them for manufacturing depletes resources. With our Re:cycled Collection, though, you get durability and sustainability all in one.
Breaking Down the Re:Cycled Collection
We first conceived the Re:cycled collection in 2019 and launched it in early 2020. This line uses discarded plastic bottles as the base for its bags, and there are currently ten backpacks, totes, and cases in the collection. Our team developed the material for this line by turning water bottles into chips and melting them into a material to spin into a fabric. The fabric this process produces has been certified by the Global Recycled Standard.
Initially, we launched the collection with three bags, and it expanded to ten bags in August 2020. There are various products in collection, from the Re:treat Carry-on to the Re:focus Sleeve, catering to various lifestyles. The products are priced from $24.99 for the sleeves and small backpacks to $129.99 for the carry-on.
We consider the Re:cycled Collection as the first step in a long-term plan of making affordable and environmentally sustainable bags. As part of the initiative, the team is changing the packaging for its products. They used FSC-certified recycled paper for the tags and are in the process of replacing their polybags with biodegradable ones made from non-GMO cornstarch.
Recognition for Re:cycled
Recently, we received the 2020 SEAL Business Sustainability Award. SEAL, which stands for Sustainability, Environmental Achievement & Leadership, is an organization honoring and celebrating sustainable business practices. We received the SEAL Environmental Initiative Award for the Re:cycled Collection—besides producing eco-friendly bags, the company aims to remove 40 million plastic bottles from landfills by 2024.
There are several ways to find discarded plastic, but here at Solo New York we make it a point to find landfills or other sources bound for oceans and waterways. According to Vice President for Marketing Serkan Anders, "From a business standpoint, sustainability isn't an option anymore, and we've demonstrated that it's possible to develop more sustainable products at prices that are accessible to a broad group of consumers." He further added that we believe to be the only company of our size and type integrating eco-consciousness to our strategy.
Besides the SEAL award, we also received the 2020 Sustainability Initiative of the Year award from the Business Intelligence Group. The Business Intelligence Group holds annual Sustainability Awards in honor of teams, organizations, and individuals committed to creating sustainable business practices or initiatives. What sets this award apart from others is its judging panel, composed of business executives with experience and knowledge in the field, and its proprietary scoring system for measuring performance across multiple domains.
We aim to strengthen the drive for sustainability further, partnering with the National Forest Foundation for its reforestation efforts. We as a company helped plant thousands of trees across the U.S. to help mitigate the impact of runaway global warming.
Today, consumers demand corporate social responsibility. People expect brands and businesses to live out their values and implement systems that protect the environment or foster social justice. Our Re:cycled collection represents a shift to more mindful consumption, one that has been gaining momentum in the past few years.