Eco Friendly Product Guide

Fire & Light is known for it’s vast array of dinnerware, glassware, and other assorted products geared towards entertaining your guests. Since the start of the company in 1995, Fire and Light has manufactured products with over 91% recycled glass, turning it into raw material.

The glassware made through Fire & Light is aesthetically pleasing to the eye, and provides the eco-friendly consumer with a nice piece of mind when entertaining guests. Having unique dinnerware and household accessories is one thing, but serving drinks in an eco-friendly tumbler made of recycled glass is what we like to call entertainment on a clear conscience.

You can buy the glass tumbler set through such retailers as Greenfeet.com, starting at $22.95. You can check out the variety of products available through Fire & Light’s website.

Cell phones, Mp3 players, digital cameras…all of these have become pieces of everyday life that we are now used to. They are convenient, and many of us cannot picture life without them. Good for convenience’s sake, but bad when it comes to using energy.

No need to fear, with these advances in technology comes advances in saving energy. Now there’s the Hymini, a charger that stores energy collected from wall plugs, renewable DC inputs, wind, and sun. As a result, you can use this energy to recharge an array of electronic devices, from your Mp3 player, to PDA, to cell phone…any 5V device.

That’s right, you can now rock out to (insert hipster band name here), while knowing that your battery was charged in a green, eco-friendly manner.

The price of the Hymini ranges, typically $59.99 for a solar powered device, or $49.99 for a hand held device.

Either way or, it’s a great way to do something positive for the environment while enjoying the convenience of modern life.

Have you ever looked around at your house and said to yourself, “gee whiz, everything here is plugged into an outlet. Do I even need all of this stuff to be plugged in? In addition, what stuff is taking up the most energy?” Well, the good news is, you are asking all of the right questions. If you answered yourself back, there may be a little bit of a problem, but if you are looking for a solution, the staff over at P3 international has the answer you are looking for.

P3 International has manufactured the Kill A Watt, which monitors how efficient your electronic devices really are. All you have to do is plug your household device in question into the Kill A Watt, and the LCD display measures how much energy is being used by the Killowatt-hour. From there, you can try and figure out how much energy each device uses per day, month, year…you get the idea.

You can purchase this innovative device from Clean Air Gardening for $39.99, a small price to pay for figuring out how much money, energy, and resources you could save with your home energy consumption

Here’s a neat idea: how about a Solar Powered Laptop Bag? Available through ETS ENERGY, the Voltaic Generator is the first solar bag on the market with enough power to charge your laptop!

The solar panel on the bag generates up to 17 watts of power, and comes with a battery pack. In addition, other devices can connect to the bag via USB or car chargers. In keeping with the eco-friendly nature of the bag, the fabrics are all made from recycled soda bottles…so not only are you saving batteries and power, but you are keeping those plastic bottles out of landfills, where they take close to 1000 years to decompose!

Keep in mind the bag isn’t cheap, it will set you back $599. However, when you think of it, it’s really a small price to pay in the long run. You will be cutting your energy costs in half and doing something really good for the environment.

The Consumerist is typically a very cool, trendy website. Sometimes there are very informative stories, while other times there are collections of articles by you non-conformists out there who hate everything. However, you should never shy away from checking the site out, it has some really great information available.

One article in particular that sticks out deals with Macy’s using biodegradable packing peanuts when shipping their orders. As more companies jump on the green bandwagon, it is good to see retailers like Macy’s doing their part. With every purchase you order, it is mailed with biodegradable packing peanuts, which you can dissolve in water, and then pour in the garden, yard, neighbors yard, compost heap, or even just throw them away, they will naturally just dissolve.

It’s a good trend and needs to be recognized. Macy’s should be commended for stepping up and doing their part to help the environment.

The bath towel is a necessity, there’s no escaping it. When you get older and your college days consisting of “oh no, i haven’t done laundry, well…i guess I’ll just dry off with this shirt” are over, you find yourself making sure a)the laundry is always done and b)the house is always stocked with towels.

As you gain more awareness of the need for eco-friendly products, you may be pleased to find that you can combine the love of a soft towel with your love of the earth. From Viva Terra, these Hand-loomed Organic Cotton Towels are a perfect balance of comfort and environmentally friendly products.

These towels are made without the following: heavy metal dyes, chlorine bleach, synthetic finishing agents. That’s right, just hand loomed and soft organic cotton in place of any non-natural fabrics or dyes you may find in other towels. As far as pricing is concerned, the Bath towels are $39, the hand towels are $16 and the wash cloths are $7. Go organic. It’s good for you, great for the earth.

When it comes to products such as shower gel, soap, and anything of the like related to grooming or simply just pampering oneself, it’s nice to hear that there are good products out there from all natural ingredients.

The Plum Island Soap Company has a large selection of 100% all natural products from shower gels, to lip balm, to face products…the list can go on and on. For example, the Lemon Lime shower gel is made from the essential oil from both lemons and limes. For $10.75, it’s a wonderful, all natural shower gel.

Other products, like the all natural Peppermint Lip Balm will cost $3.50 a .25 oz. jar, and are a great way to keep those lips from chapping. All natural ingredients and chemical free will be a way to set you apart from your peers.

You can view all of the Plum Island Soap Company products at their online store, or if you are in the area, feel free to stop by their retail store (location and directions are on the main homepage).

All natural products good for you, and good for the environment.