This Backpack Travel Bloggers Swear By Is Now Being Made Entirely From Recycled Water Bottle

When it comes to travel backpacks, not all carry-ons are created equally. Just ask travel bloggers, who jet from continent to continent and live out of their packs. One thing many of them agree on is that Tortuga is top of the line, and now Tortuga backpacks are becoming sustainable. The brand just announced that its award-winning Setout Backpack will be made from recycled water bottles, and it is Tortuga's first sustainable design.

For those who are unfamiliar with the brand, Tortuga creates some of the best backpacks, daypacks and duffels for business travelers, road trippers, and travel bloggers. Each pack is thoughtfully designed for organization, ease of use, and style. Bloggers like Indie Traveller and Never Ending Voyage travel exclusively with Tortuga. Chase Reeves and Pack Hacker are also huge fans. Part of the reason the bags are so revolutionary and convenient is because the founders are world travelers.

The founders, Fred Perrotta and Jeremy Michael Cohen, came up with Tortuga while on a backpacking trip through Europe. The two friends realized most luggage failed when it came to city travel, so they decided to make their own. The entire Tortuga team is also 100% remote, so every employee has firsthand experience with what makes a good piece of luggage.

The Setout Backpack packs like a suitcase and carries like a backpack, giving you the best of both worlds. The pack is so great that it won Best Carry-on in 2018 by Carryology, an online community and review site that discusses bags, cases, and luggage.

"If you’ve tried dragging a suitcase with cheap plastic wheels over the cobblestone streets of Paris, you know why rolling luggage doesn’t work in a city," the product description reads. "Cylinder-shaped packs for 'backpackers' aren't much better. Since you pack them from the top, like a garbage bag, they leave your stuff a jumbled mess. They're also too big to be carried onto a plane, so you’re stuck with checked bag fees, the hassle of baggage claim, and the stress of lost luggage."

The Setout Backpack nixes all the hassle from backpacks and suitcases, and instead combines all of their conveniences. The Setout Backpack is the size of a carry-on, comes in either 35L or 45L size options, is weather resistant, has a padded, removable hip belt, a hideaway shoulder straps, and a suspension system that keeps your bag feeling light on your back, even when you’ve packed it to the max.

Now Tortuga is going one step further and making the pack sustainable in the black and navy colors. "There’s enough plastic in the world already. Too much. We don’t need to make more. Instead, we should give new life to old trash," the brand shared on its blog.

“We’re proud to expand our use of sustainable fabrics. We’ve used a fabric made from recycled plastic in the lining of our backpacks for a long time. We’re thrilled to find another way to integrate sustainability into our supply chain without sacrificing the durability and quality we’re known for.” Taylor Coil, Tortuga’s Marketing Director, shared in a release.

The Setout originally just came in a heathered gray color, but since Tortuga expanded the Setout's range to include navy and black, Tortuga took the opportunity to upgrade its fabric to one that is made from recycled goods.

The recycled fabric technology Tortuga uses is created from 100% recycled plastic. The entire Setout backpack is made from that material, which is a weather-resistant polyester made from recycled plastic bottles. Polyester that is made from non-recycled materials is brand new plastic, so the brand decided to go a more sustainable route.

Tortuga is also working on transitioning the original gray version of the backpack to a recycled material as well. That will take some time though, because a fully recycled heathered gray fabric doesn’t currently exist.

With all the information that we have about the state of the environment, it's important to start using more sustainable products and brands. Tortuga's Setout backpack lets you expand that goal into your travel life.