Eco Friendly Product Guide

I like them, don’t you? I like especially that you can buy just one light and get all these colors. It changes dreamily from one color to the next all on its own.

The blurb describes these lights as “an ever-changing rainbow”. I’ll say.

If you feel like “adding a special accent to your nighttime garden, yard or walkway” then this is the product for you.

Solar Star Lights have the following features:

• Color shifts gradually from red to green to blue
• They are sold individually
• Each light includes one stake and three decorative finials (starburst, lily and hummingbird)
• 29″ stake, finial approx. 3″, overall height 32″
• Made of acrylic, plastic and steel
• Light runs from dusk to dawn with full charge
• You can place multiples in a cluster for dramatic effect
• On/off switch
• Solar panel and battery pack built into stake

Order now from Gardeners.com for $24.95 for one, $20.50 each for 2 or more, $18.00 for 4 or more.

Why should you buy something you can get for free? Fair question — in fact a Frequently Asked Question.

The company Baggu that makes these things reckons that free plastic shopping bags are far from free. “The costs are paid for by our environment and our society.”

They also make the point that many grocery stores give you a 10¢ credit for bringing a reusable bag so a Baggu will pay for itself in only a few months.

Check out the colorful pics and persuasive arguments at Baggu or make the call and order right now from Clean Air Gardening where you will get 4 reusable bags for $19.99.

These lights are like something from a retrospective movie about the 1960′s. I bet my grandma really had lights that looked just like these.

America really is the land of opportunity. An outfit in New York calling itself Scrapile and comprised of two chaps called Bart Bettencourt and Carlos Salgado has as its sole mission to recover discarded scraps of wood from New York’s woodworking industry and create things out of the scrap. They make benches, dining tables, accessories, stools, side tables and whatever you want custom-made. Of course, nothing matches, everything is unique.

There are outlets for Scrapile products in Seattle, Brooklyn, Houston and Los Angeles.

I am here today to tell you what a billboard clutch is, in case you do not know.

Perhaps you think it is related to the clutch of an automobile. Perhaps you think it is related to the billboards that are to be seen from the highways and byways of our great land. On both counts you would be wrong.

In fact a billboard clutch is a sort of flat handbag or underarm fanny pack constructed from a recycled movie poster.

No, really it is.

Now showing at an armpit near you

You may well ask if your new billboard clutch is going to smell of popcorn and movie-houses. I really could not say. The best would be to purchase one of these “repurposed, true one-of-a-kind” items with a “detachable wristlet” (next lesson: what is a wristlet?) in which you can safely store your “lipstick, cash, keys, phone, cards” and, of course, your movie ticket, and find out for yourself.

For something as unique and creative as a 12in. x 6in. Billboard Clutch you are going to have to invest a goodly sum.

Natural Territory is asking $52 for just one of these American beauties.

Call these what you will — hanging patio lights or solar lanterns or eco-friendly Chinese lanterns or paper tree lanterns or Shoji Japanese party lights — they are beautiful no matter what name you choose.

The manufacturers are not so far wrong when they implore you to “hang these Japanese-inspired solar lanterns from a trellis or tree and enjoy their moonlike radiance”.

It works like this: yellow LED lights (the best type when it comes to solar power) are encased in paper-like weatherproof nylon. The light automatically switches on at night after being powered by the sun all day. The set includes an AAA rechargeable battery and a metal hanger. The shade folds flat for storage.

These beautiful imports are available from Real Goods individually ($29.00 each) or in sets ($79.00 for 3).

These are nice, don’t you think? Bear in mind that recycling glass is just a temporary measure really. All glass eventually ends up in shards in the garbage dump. Recycling it is merely a stay of execution.

Apart from the fairly violent cobalt blue color of these vases and glasses, they are well made. Prettily shaped they most certainly are and the schools of fish are a nice touch.

Go to Green Home to see all the details about the reasonably-priced Sets of 4 Tumblers and Goblets, and the Spring and Wall Vases.

NOTE: The spring referred to in the Spring Vase is not a reference to the season before summer. It is a reference to the disused bed spring used to hold the vase. In case you were wondering.

Of all the crazy “eco-friendly” products available now, these cute little solar lights are certainly among the least offensive.

It is a bit hard to see just what those little lampshades are made of (I am afraid they are constructed of some unnamed recycled garbage) and yet these lights have a certain whimsical charm about them. Each of your five lights has a differently shaped lampshade – hummingbird, dolphin, star, dragonfly and butterfly. The one featured here is the hummingbird, I think.

You should consider buying a set of these if you want to introduce your children to sustainable energy (these lights are solar-powered and turn on automatically when the light levels drop) and want them to think you are in touch with your inner child. The nice part is that the lights are so small they will fit even in a container garden. Each Solar Animal Light is only 33 in. high.

You can say that again

The blurb says “You will surprise your friends when they suddenly light up in your flowerbed”. There is no cause for concern: it is not your friends who will light up in your flowerbed but the little solar power animal lights themselves.

Buy a Five Pack of Solar Animal Lights from RecycleWorks for £37.10

I like this watering can although it is as ugly as beached cat entrails.

I like it because it was invented on the back of human folly, i.e. the love that manufacturers have for making tin cans adorned with all manner of logo, graphic and blurb. It also makes no claims to be lessening the effects of global warming, reducing the carbon footprint and saving polar bears.

As the marketers at VivaTerra put it, “This news may come as a shock, but not every can comes out of the sheet metal factory bearing a perfectly legible logo on its sides.

“The numerous rejects used to be destroyed, but our designer prevailed on a few factories to give her their colorful misprint remnants, and she transformed them into our super functional watering cans. They move with liquid grace from patio to interior to become decorative flower containers. No two are exactly alike.”

I do not agree that there is anything graceful about these cans, liquid or otherwise, but it is a nice idea. It beats a lot of things. Like eating food out of a tin can, for instance.

Order one now for $48 from VivaTerra. P.S. What a great gift for someone with a sense of the absurd.

Just what the world was short of — until now –a tote bag with a built-in solar panel so your phone, iPod and camera “stay totally charged while you are on the beach”.

As the manufacturers say with a breathtaking lack of self-consciousness: “We have built the world’s first heavy-duty solar beach tote that incorporates our high-tech flexible solar panel. With the Juice Bag Beach Tote, your phone is good to go, and your camera is always ready for that one great shot — no matter how far you are from a power outlet.”

Obviously, you’re a deeply environmentally aware person, which makes you intelligent and sensitive, not to mention clued-up and sensible. I therefore ask you to consider whether a Reware price tag of $249.99 for this piece of insane vanity can be justified in any way.