Photographic: Mountain Smith camera bags

The fundamental principle behind Mountainsmith's philosophy is versatility rolled into an eco-friendly construction utilizing 100% recycled PET fabric. These recycled bags and packs are outdoor-athletics-influenced, designed with comfort and function in mind for those who want one bag to serve a dual purpose between daily urban grind and weekend adventure.

 

Recycled Materials are the future… The bottles used come from all over Asia including Japan, China, Taiwan, and Korea. Those are the countries that have taken the financial initiative to utilize plastic bottles for recycling into fabric. The bottles are processed, cleaned and converted to flakes before being shipped from these countries to Taiwan for actual yarn conversion. 

 

Mountainsmith understands that recycling plastic bottles has the potential to play a role that will lead to less reliance on petroleum resources, the benefit of which is obvious 24/7 by reading the news and watching television. Other benefits include increased employment in the recycling industry and lessened impact on landfills. In the U.S. alone, plastic bottles account for roughly 20% of solid waste and nearly two-thirds of all bottles produced end up in landfills. The recycling process utilizes plastic bottles, grinds them up into small chips and plastic flakes. The chips are spun into a fibre and woven into fabric. The fabric is then coated three times with a protective polyurethane.

 

The material, polyethylene terphthalate, (aka PET) is a thermoplastic resin of the polyester family used to make beverage, food, and other liquid containers and synthetic fibres. It is also one of the most important raw materials used in man-made fibres. PET is commonly used in soft drink bottles and many injection-moulded consumer product containers.