A crinkled green tote bag on a white plinth.
Courtesy Lost Explorer

A Waterproof, Washable Bag That’s Actually Environmentally Friendly

By Aileen Kwun
November 23, 2019
1 minute read

If, while tunneling through the depths of your closet during a good Kondo-ing session, you’ve ever had the experience of unearthing a Russian doll of tote bags—that is to say, a tote bag of many tote bags crammed with, why yes, more tote bags—likely the last thing to come to mind is, “I need another bag.” A recent study from Denmark’s ministry of environment and food determined that an organic cotton tote bag may even be worse than a single-use plastic shopping bag, requiring more than 20,000 uses to negate the cumulative impact of the water and energy expended to make it (unintuitively, a conventional cotton bag requires 7,100 uses). The mandate of “shop less, buy fewer” certainly applies here. But the temptation occasionally re-emerges, as it does with Lost Explorer’s durable and cheekily named Another Bag. If you must buy or gift another tote, this might be a more conscionable choice: The waterproof and washable paper bag is somehow both soft and durable, boasting an artful wrinkle and patina that softens with time, and is made from sustainably sourced pulp, non-toxic dyes, and natural latex. Profits go toward one of four causes, ranging from reforestation of the Amazon to the Rwanda Women’s Collective, and the company has also partnered with One Tree Planted to have 20 trees planted for every bag purchased.