Eco-Baggeez: Marist Alum Keeley Race Pilots Earth-Friendly Snack Bag Alternative
When Keeley Race graduated Marist’s School of Management in Spring 2019, she expected to land a finance job in Manhattan. Now, she’s Director of Sales and Marketing at Eco-Bageez, a new eco-friendly sandwhich bag company piloted out of her family’s kitchen in Upstate New York.
After 10 years of the product’s development and production beginning in June, the company has sold to over 20 retail stores throughout New York State, including grocery stores in Binghamton, Brooklyn and Long Island.
“I believe in the product and what a difference it could make, so I decided to move back to Upstate, New York and help out my mom,” Race said. “The product is more of a front-end solution to the problems that plastic creates.”
The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year, according to the NRDC. No more than 5 percent of plastic grocery bags were recycled across the country in 2005, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“The bags are made of a sustainable paper that have a secure, edge-to-edge resealable flap that allows them to be reusable,” Race said. “They are recyclable, backyard compostable, biodegradable, and microwavable, and even our adhesive is recyclable.”
Eco-Bageez are also available for purchase at Adam’s in Poughkeepsie.
The Race family lives close to nature in their hometown of Cazenovia, New York, and have been committed to protecting the environment for years. When Race’s mom, Beth, realized she couldn’t find a reusable or biodegradable snack/sandwhich bag — she decided to design an alternative product herself.
Race graduated Marist in 2019 as a business/finance major with a minor in global studies. “I had other job opportunities in the city, which is obviously where I would like to be,” Race said. “But this company has already been such a big part of my life — it’s like my mother’s third child.”
She attributes much of her dedication to environmentally-minded business interests to her time at Marist. “A lot of the classes I took at Marist definitely gave me a good background on how the corporate world works, on a domestic and global scale,” she said. “Along with the understanding of how the world works on various social, political and economic levels.”
A portion of Eco-Bageez profits go to 4ocean.com, a global non-profit ocean cleanup and advocacy organization
Eco-Bageez production takes place at a facility that employs citizens facing physical and mental challenges near their hometown at the ARC of Madison Cortland. “We believe in giving back to the community as well as the planet,” Race said.
“My parents have always emphasized the importance of giving back to the community and the environment, and I know Marist values that a lot as well,” Race said. “I’m so glad to be working for a company that does just that – it just seems natural at this point.”