The Eco-Friendly Boarder

By Dawn Marie Fichera

Are you are stacking up an impressive pile of plastic soda bottles? Feeling guilty about it? Wondering what happens to all those soda bottles you manage to recycle? Fret no more. All those soda bottles and other containers with the number one on the bottom of them are turned into something useful, like the Voltaic solar bags.

Voltaic solar bags use fabrics made from recycled PET, polyethylene terephthalate, or what you would know as plastic Coke bottles. The solar panels embedded into the bags use high-efficiency mono-cristalline cells to charge electronic devices. Not only do these bags use less energy to produce, but they increase the demand for recycled material.

Voltaic solar bags are durable, light weight, water resistant, and can charge virtually any handheld electronic. The Voltaic Backpack, Converter, and Messenger bags each produce four Watts after an hour in the sun, providing three hours of iPod play time or one and a half hours of cell phone talk time. Not bad if you spend your lunch hour tearing up a slope or surfing a wave. It’s especially good news if you spend your lunch breaks boarding on asphalt.

And if you are feeling adventurous, head to the beach for the afternoon and bring your bag. Let that puppy sit in the sun all day. They have a bag, The Generator, that can extend the laptop runtime by two to four hours after five hours in the sun. So you can play longer while you are supposed to be working.

Don’t feel bad if you don’t use all the juice. The removable battery pack  that comes standard with all Voltaic solar bags store all surplus energy ensuring no energy is wasted.

So, if you find yourself out on the trail, lodging by a fire, at a road-side surf stand, or anywhere in-between that sells soda-type beverages in plastic bottles, buy with confidence and keep recycling. You just may be contributing to some cool solar-powered green swag.