Right before I left for Germany, I was in a desperate search for a laptop bag. I don't have a cute little compact  laptop, I have a 13 inch, bulky laptop. I trolled Staples, Best Buy, Target, etc, and I just wasn't 'feeling' any of those bags. They weren't me. They were either ugly or expensive. Or both.



Four days before my trip (how's that for timing?) I was kindly offered a laptop bag to review from GreenSmart, a company that takes post consumer PET plastic water & soda bottles and turns them into all kinds of green products, such as laptop & iPad sleeves, lunchboxes, wine totes, bottle koozies, and backpacks. Why thank you, yes, I will take it and I will put it to the test.



GreenSmart has a clear set of goals, starting with keeping plastic bottles out of landfills. That's an admirable - and somewhat overwhelming — goal to strive for, since here in America, we use enough crushed plastic bottles to fill the Rose Bowl stadium every two weeks. Does that stop you in your tracks? It should.

GreenSmart takes sorted and cleaned bottles and transforms them into a rough material called PET flakes.  The flakes are then washed and sorted for quality and imperfection. The higher quality flakes can then be made into sheets of polyester fabric equal in quality and strength to virgin polyesters used for similar products. The difference is that GreenSmart products, such as their Neogreene, a greener, non-toxic alternative to neoprene, takes 25% less petroleum products and 25% less energy to produce. Each yard of  Bottle to Bags fabric was made with approximately eighteen 16-ounce plastic bottles line uses  and has saved 10,000 BTUs of energy from manufacturing. Eco friendly and it's keeping tons of plastic bottles out of landfills? Score!

I was worried they wouldn't have a bag large enough for my laptop, but they did. I received the Puku - in green, naturally! — the day before I left for Germany. My laptop fit in perfectly, and there was plenty of room for the cord, a pad of paper, pens (with netted pockets to hold them) and other flotsam you need for your laptop. On the outside there are two pockets on one side, a zipper pocket and a flap pocket, as well as an open pocket on the other side. There is an adjustable shoulder strap.  It filled all the requirements of a laptop bag that I needed.  It held everything.  It looked good. I took it  to Germany, Holland, and Austria.  It was slung around on planes, trains and automobiles. It's strong yet lightweight.  It was easy to pull the laptop out of the zippered top during airport security lines — and I went through my share of security lines. Can't ask for much more out of a laptop bag.



A cool bonus on the messenger bags and backpacks is a tag that tells you how many plastic bottles were used to make your bag. Could be a conversation starter! Getting the word out, piquing some eco/green interest.
If I had to change anything about the bag, I would add an adjustable cushion to the shoulder strap. For a bag that size, to accommodate larger laptops and all that go with it, it should be assumed that it might be a heavier load. I spent hours lugging kids, luggage, and my laptop bag by myself around airports and train stations. Everything gets heavier the more tired you are. I would also add a closure, such as a metal snap or even Velcro to the outside pocket above the zippered pocket. I didn't lose anything from this pocket during my travels, but I would feel more secure if I could close it up.

You might feel guilty about all those plastic bottles of water you used to consume — now you drink from reusable bottles, right? The idea now is to recycle and reuse. A bag from GreenSmart made from recycled plastic bottles can certainly be a step in the right direction, toting around your laptop in recycled style and hopefully not only making a green statement, but also starting a conversation — what does that number mean? — and educating more people about an issue many choose to disregard.



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