By Sarah Toler
January 23, 2009
The shelves of my favorite stores seem to be stacked with more and more green products lately. And they’re getting cooler and cooler. One that caught my eye recently was the Solar Fusion Messenger Bag from Current Energy. This messenger bag from Eclipse Solar Gear sports a flexible solar panel that converts solar energy to charge your laptop, phone, PDA, etc. with a 12 volt adapter. Not only does the bag do some good for green, but it’s a power source on the go if you’re not close to an outlet. The solar panel itself is pretty fly looking, too.
This is the kind of “must-have” product I’d normally snatch up off the shelf just based on the sheer coolness factor, but in my effort to make more conscious shopping decisions, I asked myself a few questions:
• Is that adaptor recyclable? What about the bag? The solar panel?
• Was the bag made from a renewable source?
• What about my current laptop bag? Do I know anyone who would want to use it or will it sit in my closet and go to waste until I donate it to the Salvation Army the next time I clean out my closet in five years or so?
• Is the $190 I have to drop for this bag a justifiable expense or could that money be better used purchasing other green products I might actually need?
• Living in Dallas, how often do I find myself walking around in the sun?
Based on my answer to the last question alone, I decided this bag was not the one for me. Should I find myself packing up and relocating to a more pedestrian city any time soon, I might reconsider.
© 2009, Sarah Toler. All rights reserved.
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excellent topic. reminds me that even though a product is “green” or “sustainable” or something else noteworthy, it may not be the wisest purchase.
when will i EVER spend enough time outside to charge up my laptop via solar? i can’t see my screen in the daylight, so why would i walk around with it all the time.
granted, if i lived in downtown Boston, New York, Chicago, etc, i might walk to and from work, making this a more worthwhile consideration.
i’d still buy that beast. that’s sweet.
I don’t think we can know the answers to all of your questions before making a purchase, or if we could, we would be spending hours researching (time which some of us don’t have). Just my thought!