Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Sara Banks, founder of SteamLine Luggage. You've probably seen it at the airport: discarded suitcases, their wheels shredded, their zippers busted, carelessly cast aside at the luggage carousel. This disposable culture — fueled by cheap materials and even cheaper labor — comes at a high cost to the planet.
Broken baggage chokes landfills and decomposes at a glacial pace. But amidst this sea of throwaway carry-ons, Sara Banks and her company, SteamLine Luggage , are trying a different approach: She wants to create sustainable luggage. SteamLine Luggage's Alchemist Collection.
Who needs sustainable luggage? Everyone is talking about sustainability these days, from hotel chains eager to tout their eco-friendly practices to airlines promoting carbon offsets . I spent last year traveling the world in search of sustainability, and I discovered that the travel industry often overstates its green credentials. Sometimes, it even distorts them.
I'll never forget my visit to one Caribbean island that claimed to protect the environment, but where reckless tourists in ATVs were mowing down endangered burrowing owls and hotels were being built on bird sanctuaries. The SteamLine story is a narrative about a small woman-owned business finding its way in a maze of modern sustainability imperatives. But it is also a guide for any traveler who wants to buy sustainable luggage now.
What's sustainability, anyway? I met Banks in a boutique h.