The rice stuff: Keen recycled bags a green dream
By Bostonherald.com staff

The KEEN Harvest Collection – a line of attractive totes, packs and messenger bags – feature a pleasing crinkle that calls to mind the bags unusual history.

The main material is reclaimed rice paper, which gives the bags splashes of color from the colorful graphics and lettering that once spelled out rice company logos and designs.

The largest bag in the line, the Cornell ($70), is a messenger bag large enough to carry a 17-inch laptop inside a special sleeve. The bag, like most in the line, is white, beige and brown – with splashes of color on select panels.

The bottom of the bag is made from 100-percent recycled inner tube rubber while the metal zipper and fastenings are recycled aluminum components. The bag features an interior zippered compartment with organization pockets.

Other highlights of the line include two totes, the Dunthorpe ($60) and the Irving ($40), which is mostly white with flecks of color woven into two panels on the sides. There’s also a wallet in the collection.

While supplies last, KEEN will donate the proceeds of all Marshall wallets ($10) sold on its website to 1 KG More, a China-based non profit organization that works to bring school supplies to remote, impoverished areas of China, including those displaced by the May 12th earthquake.