Fashion, Product review

Sustainable Travel Bags Created by a Fellow Perkins

18 Comments

For those of who you don’t know, my surname is Perkins.  When I came across the Hamilton Perkins Collection (HPC), I was excited to discover a fellow Perkins in the world also advocating sustainable fashion.

I love exploring and travelling and eco-friendly travel gear has been on my mind.  My luggage is made up of hand-me downs.  I hadn’t found companies that make sustainable travel bags apart from Patagonia whose bags have a more rugged aesthetic than I’m going for.

Hamilton Perkins

Hamilton Perkins is the founder of HPC whose bags are made from plastic bottles and repurposed billboard material in the USA.  According to HPC, billions of plastic bottles are thrown away each year.  The average person discards as much as 180 pounds annually and it takes 500-1,000 years for plastic to degrade.  HPC works with Thread International to source the main body material of the bags.  Thread’s aim is to make the most responsible fabric on the planet and they work with people in Haiti turning waste plastic into fabric.  Discarded bottles are collected, stripped, and cleaned.  Once clean, the bottles are turned into a material called flake by crushing them.  The collection and manufacturing process creates jobs and helps remove plastic bottles from the streets and canals of Haiti.  Hamilton Perkins estimates that for every 1000 bags sold, 16,000 plastic bottles will be diverted from landfills.  The lining of each bag is also special because it comes from billboard vinyl that would otherwise be dumped into a landfill.

The Earth Bag

The bag I’ve been using is the Earth Bag Lite in Natural and is approximately 18” x 10” x 9” which is a good size for weekend trips.  You can see below the recycled plastic inner lining of mine.  I like that each bags lining is different.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love thrifting and the phrase “One man’s rubbish (trash) is another man’s treasure” applies to these bags very well.  We’re heading to my husband’s tenth reunion soon and I’ll be proudly sporting this bag on my shoulder as I board the plane.

Click here to check out more styles by Hamilton Perkins.

Special thanks to Hamilton Perkins Collection for sponsoring this post.  As always, all opinions are my own.

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18 Comments

  1. Very nice. Lovely looking bag. I am very happy all the water bottles are going to use. Beautiful.

  2. I love it when companies used recycled goods. I’m not a huge fan of plastic, but agree that this is better than nothing. Besides that point, that bag its beautiful 😀

  4. This bag is pretty cool and I’m thankful that HPC exists. As for you, English Lass, bravo to this blog post and all the information you provided.

    Ps. You look great as always 🙂

    1. Aw thank you! Right? It’s great isn’t it! We’re going away for the weekend in two weeks time and I shall be taking it with me then 🙂 Much love to you! xx

  6. Hey, babe!!! I love the bag, and I love even more because it is made of from plastic bottles. This bag definitely is the perfect size and color! would love to have one myself. will be checking this brand soon. I used to have a friend who also made clutches from recycling materials, and they were also very beautiful.

    Happy week Jess! :)))

    love, Gina

    1. It’s a pretty darn cool thing to do with used bottles and billboards, isn’t it! Your friends clutches sound lovely, I hope she’s doing well selling them 🙂 Have a lovely weekend xx

    1. Aw of course! I love catching up on your blog! We will be heading to Pennsylvania for my hubbys 10-year school reunion. I’ve never been to a reunion or that state before. I hope you have a lovely weekend! xx

  8. Ok it´s clear that you had to have a HPC bag 🙂 What a great coincidence, especially since it´s a sustainable fashion label, something that´s important for you. You look cute on this pictures btw. 🙂 xoxo

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