Photo of a Sail Being Cut with Scissors

Recycle Your Sail With Sea Bags

Every Sea Bag is handcrafted from recycled sail material. Without our network of devoted sail traders, Sea Bags could not have kept 1.5 million lbs of sail cloth from the landfill. Through our various Sail Acquisition channels, we make the process of trading a sail easy for you. Give new life to an old sail and recycle it with us.

 

Easy Ways to Recycle Your Old Sails

1. Get in Touch with Our Sail Acquisition Team

The Sea Bags Sail Acquisition Team is a critical part of our supply chain and is led by Carrie Mack, one of our first employees and an expert in sail material and sail acquisition. All with sailing experience and well known in the industry, the Sea Bags Sail Acquisition crew travels throughout the US to obtain unusable sails in need of repurposing. There is no sail too small or too far away for our team to collect–we will pick them up from most anywhere. You’ll receive a Sea Bags product in return for your trade.

Handling of Recycled Sails in a Bin

2. Stop into One of Our Retail Stores

You can trade a sail in person at any of our more than 40 store locations with one of our friendly and well-versed sales associates. They will assess the condition of your sail and take care of getting it to Portland, Maine where it will begin its Sea Bags journey. A sales associate team member will arrange your trade based on the size and quality of your sail, and we will offer you a Sea Bags product to take home as a thank you.

Bag Assembled Under Sewing Machine and Female Model with Vintage Tote Bag Next to Water

3. Visit Our Sea Bags Women’s Sailing Team at a Regatta

Bring your sails to any of the regattas our Sea Bags Women’s Sailing Team will be competing in, and they’ll take care of recycling it with us. In return, you’ll receive a Sea Bags Women’s Sailing Team recycled sail cloth tote. Or you can donate the value of your trade to support their race season as they strive to enhance women’s prominence in the competitive sport of sailing.

Sea Bags Women's Sailing Team on a Boat

Other Creative ways to trade your sails with sea bags

Child Steering a Sailboat in the Water
  • • Donate the value of your trade to SailMaine in support of children’s sailing scholarships
  • • Host a sail drive as a fundraiser
  • • Contact your local sail loft and see if they have a relationship with Sea Bags

What our sail trade customers are saying

We were looking for an opportunity to share the memory of our sailing adventures with our family. Sea Bags made this happen by allowing us to recycle our old sails and in return create memories for our family through their great products. Thank you so much!” – Charlie

Great product, great company. We were so very happy to find a place that would re-purpose our old sails. Sea Bags made the process a breeze from start to finish. We are extremely happy with the bags we received in trade for our sails. Sean was super to work with! Could not be happier!” – Erica

It's awesome and eco-friendly that a worn and well-loved sail can be donated to us and traded for merchandise that we can utilize to help raise funds for our sailing school. All the while, Sea Bags turns our old sails into beautiful, upcycled, and useful items that will last for many years.” – Diane

 

Featured Sail Trade

Ben Ford, born and raised in San Francisco, and a longtime lover of sailing and boats, came to our Sail Acquisition Program through a chance encounter with a Sea Bags employee. He purchased his first sailboat, a Santana 22, at age fifteen and couldn't bring himself to get rid of the sails even though the boat had been retired for some time. He saw our Sail Acquisition Program as a way to hold onto a little piece of his first boat, while giving its sails new life and purpose.