GreenYour.com

The green camping gear market is really taking off, and sleeping bags seem to be at the head of the pack. There’s an excellent selection of eco-friendly sleeping bags available, boasting a range of features and temperature ratings.

Find it! Green sleeping bags

These eco-sleepers are made with a variety of green materials, including CoCoNa (a coconut husk fiber that’s said to provide UV protection and odor management, while being quick-to-dry); post-consumer recycled content like plastic soda bottles in the shells and insulation; and even bamboo fill.

Before you buy

Green claims may not mean real-life eco-friendly products, so dig a little to be sure your recycled-content or renewable-fiber purchase is truly green. A recent study by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing found that of the 1,018 products examined, all but one committed at least a few sins of greenwashing in an attempt to convince consumers that it was greener than it actually was.

Need a little help distinguishing the true thing from the fakes? Check out this Responsible Shopper guide which'll give you the skinny on the social and environmental impact of major corporations. And check out What's Green? to find out how GreenYour performs product pickin'.

Choosing a green sleeping bag helps you go green because…

• Natural fibers like hemp, cotton, coconut husks, and bamboo reduce our dependency on non-renewable oil products.
• Recycled-content products keep recycling programs alive, which make use of post-consumer materials, thus reducing resource and energy use.

The debate over which is eco-superior—natural or synthetic—has lead some to conclude that it’s a wash.[1] The entire lifecycle of any fiber must be considered when evaluating it’s eco-friendliness—how it’s produced, processed, and recycled (if at all), it’s lifespan and ongoing care, and so on. Ultimately, the greenest sleeping bag choice may be the one that’s treated least with chemicals, is longest-lasting, and the one best-suited to the task at hand.

Recycled dreams

Recycling turns an object that would otherwise need to be disposed of into a usable resource. Recycling is a more sustainable way of dealing with solid waste than incineration or putting it in a landfill.[2] A key factor in the viability of recycling programs is demand for recycled products. When consumers purchase products made from recycled materials, they are not only saving valuable natural resources and energy, but are also supporting necessary markets for recycled materials.[3]

Natural fibers

Cotton farming uses only about 3 percent of the farmland around the world, but consumes 25 percent of all chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Conventional cotton production relies on vast amounts of hazardous synthetic chemicals, including pesticides, fertilizers, fixers, and dyes.[4] Conventional wool production also involves the use of pesticides on pastures and chemicals in the feed.[5]

Insects are quickly becoming resistant to recommended rates of pesticide application, and ever increasing amounts are needed be effective.[6] Billions of pounds of nitrogen synthetic fertilizers are also used, resulting in runoff that can create aquatic "dead zones" in waterways. Due to cotton's natural resistance to dyes, roughly half the chemicals used as dyes or fixers end up as waste in rivers and soil.[7] Chlorine bleaching releases carcinogenic dioxins. Permanent-press and stain- and water-repellent finishes can offgas formaldehyde, and their manufacture releases perfluorochemicals (PFCs) into the environment.[8]

Organic cotton is pesticide-free, [9] while hemp yields two to four times more fiber per acre than trees.[10]

Synthetic solutions?

Many outdoor gear manufacturers add chemical treatments such as GORE-TEX and Teflon to fabrics in order to help repel insects, water, and odors. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), fabrics treated with such chemicals can break down in the environment or in the human body. [11][12] Scientific studies have identified 15 PFCs in human blood, and one 2001 industry study of six PFCs in human blood identified four PFCs at higher levels in children than in adults.[12]

One PFC[13]—sometimes known as “C8”—has been found at low levels both in the blood of the general US population and in the environment. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is used to make fluoropolymers, substances used in breathable, all-weather clothing. Although the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not currently believe there is any reason for consumers to stop using products containing PFOA, it has called on companies to reduce facility emissions and product content of PFOA and related chemicals by 95 percent by 2010, and to work toward eliminating emissions and product content by 2015.[14]

Polyvinyl chloride PVC—a soft plastic used commonly in consumer products—poses severe environmental risks throughout its life cycle.[15] The manufacture of PVC creates toxic pollution, threatening the health of both factory workers and the communities surrounding factory sites. When disposed of, lead, phthalates—which are industrial compounds used to make plastics soft[16]—and other toxic additives can leach into the ground and drinking water supplies from landfills. Ninety percent of the phthalates used today are used to make PVC,[17] and lead levels in the environment have increased by 1,000 times in the past few hundred years.[18] Incineration of PVC products produces dioxins and furans, which are among the most toxic environmental contaminants and are known carcinogens.[17] Recycling is not an option with PVC plastic: one PVC item can contaminate a batch of 100,000 recyclable bottles.[17]

Controversies

Down controversy

While the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that feathers and down are removed from geese and ducks after they are killed for meat,[19] reports of live-plucking of these birds persist.[20] Additionally, down and feathers are blamed for allergy symptoms. Yet, studies show that less than 1 percent of the population is allergic to down and feathers.[21] Rather, people are more likely to be allergic to the dust and dirt that can accumulate in bedding over time.

Wool worries

Many individuals and organizations, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), take issue with how wool-producing sheep are treated—even those subject to a pesticide-free, environmentally sound production process. A particular act of sheep mutilation that has caught the attention of animal rights supporters is the “mulesing” of Australian Merino sheep. Merinos are bred to have wrinkly skin that, in turn, results in higher yields of wool. These characteristic wrinkles attract flies that lay eggs in the folds of skin, resulting in fatal maggot infestations. To prevent this, ranchers perform mulesing—the sheep are restrained without painkillers and chunks of flesh are removed from the area around the tail, resulting in smooth skin that discourages fly egg-laying.[22]

Mutilation and organic certification aside, another environmental danger of the wool industry is enteric fermentation—or livestock belching and flatulence—a major contributor to global climate change. In New Zealand, for example, 90 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions (methane, in particular) result from enteric fermentation, primarily from sheep.[23]

Consumer quandaries

There’ll be downsides regardless of the bag materials employed, but some argue that the advantages of so-called “green” materials like organic cotton and hemp are minor, if present at all. For instance, organic cotton, although grown without the exorbitant pesticides employed in conventional crops, still requires a lot of irrigation in its production, and enormous quantities of dyes during the processing stage.[24] Hemp and bamboo are also naturally tough resources, requiring chemicals to soften them into fibers suitable for fabric products.[25] Some argue that natural fibers such as organic cotton and bamboo have shorter lifespans than synthetics (especially when tumble-dried) and require more water and energy to wash and dry.[26]

Polyester, on the other hand, is produced using less water, resists stains (thereby requiring less laundering), and dries quickly (can even be air-dried in humid climes). It can be recycled, but few facilities exist. The downsides? It requires more wood and oil to produce, which adds to the growing climate change problem.[24] Many poly-products can’t be washed, but require dry cleaning instead, a process rife with eco-concerns.[1] And though products made from recycled pop bottles keep usable products out of landfills, their production often involves shipping spent containers from the US to far-flung countries to be processed, only to then be shipped back to the US for sale, racking up loads of air miles and carbon emissions in the process.[27]

Glossary

• methane: A greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere from both natural and man-made sources, including landfills, agricultural activities, wastewater treatment, and coal mining. Once introduced into the atmosphere, methane can exist for 9 to 15 years. It’s more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere (global warming) than fellow greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.[28]
• phthalates: A group of chemicals used as plasticisers in PVC plastics that are known to be testicular toxins and can disrupt hormones.[29]

External links

• Travel Gear Blog
• Organic Trade Association
• Sustainable Cotton Project
• Sustainable Style Foundation
• North American Industrial Hemp Council