Lisa, at the Interbike Pedros booth, was explaining how many cyclists, after a number of years have a seat bag collection sitting in a cardboard box in their garages or basements. My first thought is call kind Marilyn at Trip for Kids and donate that ton of useable bike stuff collecting dust.
In the rare case that Marilyn and her helpful organization can't use your old but perfectly good seat bags, you might throw them away. Unfortunately, these bags are not good landfill fodder. The special outdoor technical fabrics do not readily decompose.
Pedros new Ethik bag is expected to last for 10 years. It is made from HDPE in co-op shops in Quebec, Canada and printed with soy-based inks. When you are sick of it, you can pitch it into landfill where it will breakdown. The HDPE feels like a very thin, reinforced banner material. The Ethik seat bags are super light and have dry-bag closure buckles to protect your cargo from the elements. They attach around the seat rails and come in black and a peace sign black-gray-blue-white flower print.
A big winner for 2008 bags may be Pedros Ethik Metro Market bag. It looks like a grocery bag; it is really light, and it folds down super flat and thin. (My deep thought: Keep it folded flat on your rack under a bunge, and use it as a fender.) It has a couple of light alloy rack clips attached to it. You fill it with stuff from the farmers' market, clip it to the rack on your beater, and ride home happy. Some different colors and pattern would be cool.
(Pedros was doing the recycled inner tube bags thing with the Pedros Blow Out bag. But paying for shipping old tubes to China for processing and then paying for the shipping of recycled bags back was not so logical. And rubber dries out over time.)
