The New ´It´ Bag Is Solar…?
Now here is a bag all South African´s should have with the amount of solar energy we receive naturally and they provide a remarkably easy way to help live the liveeco lifestyle!
Noon Solar bags incorporate flexible solar panels to keep cellphones and iPods charged. Each bag is designed to be able to sit in awindow at work or in the car to collect charges. The solar power isstored in a lithium-ion battery pack, weighing about 114g, found insidethe bag. Because the solar power is stored inside a battery pack, cellphones and iPods can be charged day or night.
Noon Solar bags are made from biodegradable materials so that thebags can skip the landfill and go directly into your backyard withouthurting the earth. The bags are safe and non-toxic, and most of thematerials will actually nourish the earth if buried. The othermaterials such as the solar panel and hardware can be removed andrecycled or reused.
Another great thing about Noon Solar bags is that no two bags are the same as the founders personally hand dye, with natural substances such aspomegranate and weld, the organic hemp and cotton fabrics that comprisetheir bags. Noon Solar is one of a very small number of designcompanies using natural dyes on a production scale in the US.
To create textures and patterns on their bags, Noon uses the ancient Japanese dying method, Shibori, making each bag unique. Noon bags use German leather that is tanned in similar ways topeople tanning leather from hundreds of years ago. The leather is heavymetal free, and tanned and dyed with sustainably harvested materialssuch as rhubarb and walnuts.
How It All Began
The two founders of Noon Solar, Jane Palmer and Marianne Fairbanks, have backgrounds in fibers and textiles. They met in the graduate MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Their company began as an art project in early spring of 2002 as a response to the impending war in Iraq. They were feeling powerless in the country´s decision making process and felt the US was largely going to war for oil. They came up with a solution to give people not only personal power, but to integrate renewable solar power into daily life.
Anyone got a charger?
Have you ever been caught without your cell phone charger and need to take that urgent phone call and you ask your work colleagues if they have a charger that will suit your phone, but no one has your specific make or model? With your Noon bag this would never be a problem!
On the outside of your bag, there is a paper thin, flexible solar panel. This solar panel charges a battery pack located inside the bag to supply power for your cell phone or iPod, day or night. Simply place the solar panel in the bag towards the sun to collect usable energy. Put it in your window at work, home, car, or on the train; face it towards the sun at a café; or walk/bike around town with the panel exposed. Even on cloudy or rainy days, energy is collected through the UV light of the sun. On a bright, sunny day the battery should be fully charged in 6-8 hours. On a cloudy day the battery will require a bit more time. The battery pack will hold the sun´s energy for several days.
