BEEN bags are hand-made in East London from materials which would otherwise go to waste, such as discarded leather trimmings, landfill-bound plastic and pineapple leaves. Taking into account materials, manufacturing, transportation, packaging and storage, BEEN calculated that their Columbia Crossbody bag an 87% lower carbon footprint than the high street equivalent.
Bags will be recycled.
Made from post-consumer recycled materials.
Production
In order to divert waste, BEEN uses only post-consumer recycled materials such as plastic bottles, and leather offcuts and trimmings. The bags have almost zero offcuts because of their rectangular design. Everything is made locally in East London to reduce its carbon footprint.
Use
Seasonless, timeless designs, highly durable materials such as recycled leather, and free repair services all help to keep bags in use as long as possible.
Closing the loop
Bags are generally hard to recycle because they consist of many different materials glued together; BEEN's response is to stitch lining to bags and use water-soluble glues, so that when a bag is so worn out it can't be reused or repaired, it can be sent back where BEEN will dismantle it and recycle the materials.
