Ecoscene: Ecoscene | Reusable Dry Cleaning Bag Review

When thinking of green businesses, dry cleaners generally do not race to my mind. Dry cleaning is an energy intensive process and the hazardous chemical solvents used by most professional cleaners are anything but eco friendly. Thankfully, a growing number of

green dry cleaners have opened shop in my city. And now, Dry Greening has designed an eco friendly, reusable dry cleaning bag to help reduce waste associated with my dry cleaning routine. The dry cleaning bag converts between a tote for collecting items to be cleaned and a garment bag to transport clean items back home, eliminating the need for those flimsy single-use plastic or paper bags that usually encase your clean items. It all sounded like a great idea, but I needed to scratch test it first.

The Cat's Pajamas (+)

The bag's packaging was simple and efficient, wrapped in a twine bow and bearing a single paper label.
The bag is made of recycled content (though not natural material, which I address below).
Converting this bag from tote to garment use and back again is about as easy as unfolding and re-folding a bath towel; the process took me less than five seconds.
The bag is very durable. After a two month cycle of me shoving the bag into my closet, throwing it in the trunk of my car and pulling it back and forth between tote and garment bag use, the bag has maintained its shape and form and shows no visible signs of wear and tear.
The bag can be spot cleaned with antibacterial wipes or a wet cloth. The bag is also washing machine safe (no drying necessary) if a more thorough cleansing is required.
In addition to carrying my dry cleaning, I can use the bag as a laundry bin at home or unfold it for use as a storage bag for out-of-season clothing.
The bag's reusable design inspired me to further reduce my dry cleaning waste by returning my old hangers to my dry cleaner for reuse (everyone has a few of those wasting space in their closet).
The bag can be recycled at the end of its lifespan.

Hissy Fit (-)

Instead of natural material, the bag is made of a non-woven polypropylene fabric. The website states that polypropylene was used in order to avoid the use of harsh chemicals needed to make natural fibers water repellent. As a positive, however, polypropylene is a highly durable and resilient material, which should increase the life span of the bag, and thereby reduce waste.
The company currently is not using eco friendly dyes to color the bags.
The bags are produced in China, increasing the product's carbon footprint.
More items fit inside the bag as a tote than as a garment bag. As a result, I would often tote 10-plus shirts and a few suits to the dry cleaners, but, once cleaned, all the items could not fit inside the narrow garment bag, forcing me to use the flimsy single-use bags I wanted to avoid in the first place.

The Bottom Line

This is a great product. The bag's design is simple, it is very easy to use and at $7.99 per bag, it provides a cost efficient way to reduce waste. Perhaps some people still don't know about this smartly designed product, but I suspect the cat will soon be out of the bag.

Be sure to also look for a green dry cleaners in your area.