Billed as the world’s “first all-in-one, highly eco-friendly tent made from recycled plastic”, the eye-catching Qaou Beluga 6-in-1 tent is making waves on Kickstarter. It’s attracted over €75,000 in pledges from 356 backers, smashing its original target by 700%. But why is this tent from a French start-up proving so popular?
Firstly, it’s the impressive eco credentials. The tent is made from 125 recycled plastic bottles, which are transformed into small plastic beads, spun into the thread and finally woven and sewn into the fabric. No polluting textile dyes are used to colour this fabric either (as seen elsewhere in the Mountain Hardwear Lamina Eco AF sleeping bag, for example), so the tent is a plain white colour. This undyed approach gives the tent its name, in honour of the endangered white beluga whale. A final eco innovation is the use of an ‘ecological type of anodisation using an alkaline solution instead of dangerous chemical products’ applied to the aluminium tent poles, a process which uses less water and energy and produces less toxic fumes.
