OR: Tents Take on the Recycled Materials Frontier

Tents have represented the final frontier for recycled materials: We've seen clothing, packs, even shoes all made with recycled content, but not tents--until now. Two manufacturers, Nemo and Big Agnes, are introducing tents featuring recycled components for Spring 2009.

Nemo's 2-person OZ is like a greened-up version of the Nano: A three-season, single-wall, freestanding tent made almost entirely of recycled stuff. The fabric and mesh boasts 100% recycled content, and the zippers also claim some earth-kindness, since the zipper fabric--but not the plastic teeth--is also reincarnated fiber. The company is even experimenting with bamboo poles!

Bamboo is an incredibly fast-growing fiber that requires no pesticides to produce lots of strong, flexible material. So Nemo consulted with a maker of bamboo fly rods to produce a bamboo tent pole prototype: A shock cord runs through each segment, so they assemble and collapse just like aluminum poles, but instead of cold metal, they have a warm touch and an attractive wood-grain look--kinda retro. Bamboo poles won't debut with next year's OZ--they won't get the green light until 2010--but the prototype looks plenty nifty.

Big Agnes also has a recycled tent comin' our way: The Salt Creek, which comes in 2- and 3-person versions. Freestanding, lots of livable interior space--a sweet-looking tent, and it's made almost entirely of 100% recycled materials. The fabrics, mesh, zippers are all experiencing a second life, and only the poles and pole clips are first-generation (Big Agnes says that DAC, its pole manufacturer, hasn't yet found recycled materials that meet his stringent quality standards).

Kudos to you, Nemo and BA, for bringing us recycled tents! Hopefully other companies may follow suit in the future, but for now, thanks for your pioneering efforts.

--Kelly Bastone