Eco Friendly Product Guide

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 reading about this extraordinary creation is exhausting. It makes you want to sit down in an armchair and never get up.

But not this armchair. Armchairs should be luxury items of indulgence into which you can sink and from where you can empty your mind and dream.

This armchair takes itself too seriously. I mean, eco-furniture designer Jason Streatfield should just relax instead of being so ARDENT. Get this: “This eco-friendly furniture collection is made from local materials to avoid excessive fuel consumption.

“The wood is Forest Stewardship Council certified [no common or garden wood this], meaning it comes from sustainable and well-managed forests. Glues are water based and formaldehyde free, unlike mainstream furniture products. The springs and screws are made from recycled steel and the zippers are recyclable”.

And if that is not sufficient: “Moving onto the cushions… the 100% natural rubber latex cushions are wrapped in 100% merino wool and are biodegradable as well as flame retardant.”

Green Home makes the mistake of asking: “What more could you ask for in your furniture?”

Well, I would like it just to be what it really is, not a walking talking advertisement for political correctness.

If you like that sort of thing go to Green Home to observe this tortured-looking item in more detail. For $2950 this slate gray piece of depression on four feet could be yours.

Girari has manufactured a fine line of products for home living — more things you can use to spice up the look of your loft, apartment, or house.

The furniture from Girari is stylish, has contemporary modern style and is made from 98% post consumer recycled/industrial cast aluminum. That’s right; recycled, contemporary furniture that will make guests and friends alike envious of the great stuff you’ve got in your pad. What a way to save that metal from a landfill or scrap yard!

A nice collection of stylish items are the Bar Stools and Bars. They are completely mod, and are a must for anyone decorating their kitchen. Check out the other products offered by Girari. You will be glad you did.

Check out the list of dealers for the dealer locator and sales inquiry email address.

No need to feel bad about all those PCs you have trashed and dumped, contributing to the world’s growing pile of extinct technological devices. Some bright spark has hit on the idea of using old circuit boards (presumably after the valuable bits like silver have been removed) for you to feature your nearest and dearest on your desk or bedside table.

The Return of the Hulk

The blurb does not say much about this crazy idea. What is there to say after all? I mean, where do old picture frames go to die eventually? They make their way to the same old pile of useless technological bits and pieces, of course.

Anyway, if it will make you feel better about global warming etc. in the short term, then by all means order one of these extraordinary-looking items right away and stick your family right where it belongs — on a disused circuit board. The Circuit Board Frame measures 6in. x 8in. with 4in. x 6in. and includes an acrylic photo holder mounted on the circuit board.

Natural Territory is asking $13.99 for a single one of these creations.

These are quite nice — over-sized vases made from recycled clear glass.

They are described as being melon-shaped. I suppose some melons look that.

I have a question: how do they get all these vases to look the same? In other words, will you get the vases as illustrated in the photograph.

The short answer to that is: Who knows?

You can always order one, or order the full set of three, to see.

They are available from VivaTerra for

• $39 Small 7″ diameter x 12″ height
• $69 Tall 10″ diameter x 19″ height
• $69 Round 14″ diameter x 13″ height
• $159 Set of Three

Instead of just throwing stuff in the garbage, why not make something out of it in which you can store garbage or throw your dirty laundry?

A certain designer was sitting around thinking and came up with this very pertinent question.

I am happy to report that he/she came up with a riveting answer to this conundrum and immediately employed a bunch of disabled and disadvantaged Cambodians to make his/her dream a reality.

The solution? Laundry “bags” and wastepaper “baskets” made out of discarded plastic rice and feed sacks of Eastern origin.

You can like it or lump it but these startling-looking objects are now being manufactured and imported to our dear land so that we can make an environmental statement every time we chuck away a tin can or deposit our dirty jeans in the wash bag … using junk reconstituted and imported from Cambodia.

New junk from old

If you do not mind your place looking like, well, a place where foreign garbage is disposed, then you will probably love these items.

Made from durable fabric used in authentic feed and rice bags (not the other, ersatz type of feed and rice bags) we are told that these containers provide “an unconventional, stylish alternative to standard containers. Handles on the laundry bag make it easy to tote.”

So bear in mind that you will have to tote this laundry bag in public as you wend your way to the laundromat.

If you must have a Rice & Feed Laundry Bag or Wastebasket, then buy one.

VivaTerra will let you have a Laundry Bag for $36 and/or a Wastebasket for $20.

If you are in the catering game, this is an eco-friendly product you might want to consider — dinner plates that you can discard with a clear conscience after use.

Whether these plates end up in the garbage heap or in the compost heap, they will eventually return to the earth. It takes 30 days for them to biodegrade in a commercial composting facility and about 90 days for them to turn to compost in a domestic composter.

You can’t really argue against the manufacturer claim that this is “a far superior alternative to styrofoam and plastic, which is non-degradable, a petroleum product and causes pollution, as well as paper plates made from cutting down trees.”

No more doing the dishes

And this is definitely a product worth considering if you find yourself baulking at the dish washing budget or the act of washing dishes itself.

Each 9″ plate is made of bagasse, the proper name for sugar cane fiber. You can buy the bleached type (white) or the natural-colored plates (pale brown). For some unspecified reason, the unbleached type is slightly smaller at 8 3/4″.

You can order these plates in packs of 20 to 1000s — depending on your requirements.

Order these nifty plates from Ecowise for $11.99 per 50 Pack. Bulk discount: $8.99 per pack for 20 packs or more.

Remember that old cliché about wine, that you will be “amused by its presumption”? Well, you will be amazed by this wine carrier’s lack of pretension.

In times past if you wanted to take a bottle of wine on a picnic, to a friend’s house or to a restaurant you had to convey it in a chichi little wicker basket or a tooled leather holder. These days you go right ahead and carry it in a raw-looking pocket made of factory waste.

The purveyors of this wine pocket actually try to pitch it to you as “a communion of bottle and wine”. Gosh, This pocket is made from stuff that resembles the felt used under wall-to-wall carpets. Indeed, these pockets are made from “grey industrial wool felt made from factory excess (85% wool and 15% mixed fibers)” according to the blurb.

Bottoms Up

Not just any old creation though, we are told. With a straight face the creators say this super-plain bag is “the result of an exercise in reducing the amount of material and labor required to protect wine during transit”.

It does have one huge positive characteristic. The Wine Pocket stores flat (a great space saver for those endless months when you never take a bottle of wine anywhere) and expands to fit most bottles.

What would you expect to pay for this modest little item measuring 6.5in x 16.5in. and made in the USA? I would expect to pay very little.

Well, Natural Territory is asking $29.00.