One of the great things about this time of year is the fact that you can light candles to add mood to your home. If you are uncomfortable about buying those blocks of cheap tea-lights from major retailers, you might like to think about ethical ones.
How about hand-made soy wax tea lights which are non-toxic, GM-Free and don’t use materials from deforested rainforests?
Most ‘normal’ candles are made using paraffin, a by-product of crude oil, and many people are concerned about the environmental impact of oil based processes and products. Soy wax, on the other hand, is made from soy beans - a renewable resource.
HapiBean, based in Watford, is offering a selection of ethical tea-lights which you can order online. Have a look at
http://www.hapibean.co.uk/ where you will also find an interesting section of the comparison between paraffin and soy wax.
Might be just the thing for your ethical seasonal decorations.
Ethical Candles
Eco Shop Worth a Look
The Internet is awash with eco shopping sites offering everything from the sublime to the ridiculous! Some are simply ‘on the bandwagon’ others have quality good with ethical values.
A site well worth a look round is BigGreenSmile.com. Set up by three friends who each had a specific view on what eco-friendly shopping should encompass. It is now packed with products to put a smile on your face and in some way help towards a greener lifestyle that is more in tune with eco-friendly living.
Their aim is to provide us with an informative and friendly environment in which to browse a wide range of products including energy saving products, natural beauty products, natural cleaning products, organic baby products, water efficiency products and eco–friendly gift ideas.
One value they aim for is that the green products featured should perform as well as, or better than, their contemporaries which are not environmentally friendly. They should offer great quality, be efficient, offer good design, be value for money and be as stylish as is humanly possible.
At the moment they are offering free shipping on orders over £50.00 and, with Christmas on the way, this might be the one stop shop for some early, stress free, present buying!
At the moment they have a pink version of the Sun Jar (which we love) reduced to £16.95 - cheaper than many other eco sites. Go on, grab a bargain!!
Visit them at www.biggreensmile.com
Bamboo Brilliance
The things you can do with bamboo!! We just found this lovely website which sells a wide selection of bamboo items ranging from towels and clothing to fabric and baby items.
At Well Cultivated they concentrate their efforts on eco fabrics and textiles and the luxury products that can be produced from them. So, if you are looking for something which is good for your health, good for the environment and the workers who create the products take a browse round their website.
Well cultivated has been set up by Dave and Dora who both decided they didn’t want to have to work for anyone again and avoiding long, tiring commutes into London. So they moved to Nottingham to try to achieve this.
Their ideals are direct and simple - to make living more ethical and by selling products that they use themselves every day.
The site is easy to move round, has some great products and is well worth a look.
www.wellcultivated.co.uk
Trolley Dolly
Not another item about plastic bag replacement!!! - Well, this is slightly different. If, like us you really want to do your bit, not use plastic bags and have invested in bags for life, canvas bags of some other replacement, have you noticed you never have them handy when you need them?
This might help. The Trolley Dolly is a bag which fixes onto your shopping trolley. Inside it are 14 strength-tested, washable nylon bags and 10 sealable net fruit and veg sacks. As you shop you just pull them out, fill them and then have an easy way to move the shopping into the house. Empty the contents and stuff the bags back in the Trolley Dolly for next time.
Each nylon bag can hold 30 tin cans or 20 bottles of wine (quite who shops like this we have no idea) but it means they are strong and, for the uber organised, they are colour coded so: green for fruit and veg, blue for frozen.
They are on introductory offer at ZPM for £24.95
Eco Shopping Site with Points
Just launched is a new eco shopping site which aims to bring you items from smaller, independent, green retailers. As you spend you earn points to redeem against gifts. In addition, for each 10 points you earn moreeco.com will offset one kilogram of CO2.
Have a look round www.moreeco.com for food, energy, department stores and insurance.
[Via: techdigest.tv]
Summer Gathering a Hit
If you were in the West Bridgford area of Nottingham on Saturday you will have seen just how successful the Summer Gathering was, despite the drizzle.
Hundreds of local people turned out to wander round the huge variety of community, sustainable, eco and green stalls. So why are we mentioning it here? Well, apart from being able to get a taste of ‘green’ and eco projects it is worth shouting about because it was organised by a single individual.
So many events are corporate or commercial, organised by masses of people. It makes it difficult to imagine that you could ever do-it-yourself. But you can.
The West Bridgford Summer Gathering was organised by one local individual (the EcoList’s Karina Wells) because she wanted to find a way of celebrating ‘the local community’ and offering visitors a chance to see that there are groups and individuals in the area doing some brilliant (and sustainable) things. Obviously, a lot of people helped out on the day, but this is a clear demonstration that you don’t have to wait for your local council to organise something like this - you can celebrate, inform and do-it-yourself.
Have a look at the website for a list of all the people who took part on Saturday and, if you are thinking of organising something like this yourself, get in touch with Karina (via the EcoList) for some tips and advice.
Wind-up lantern
Remember Trevor Baylis? He invented that wind-up radio 15 years ago. Well, his company has been at it again and has come up with a wind-up, weather proof, lantern just in time for those long summer evenings outside and the camping/festival season.
It contains 5 LEDs and is charged by you ‘winding’ the device. One full wind will give around 4 hours of continuous light. It also has a standby mode which illuminates just two of the LEDs for some gentle ‘night light’ action and will last for 48 hours.
You can stand it on a surface, use the included folding handle to hang it or fix it with recessed lugs onto a wall.
If you don’t have the energy to do any winding you can also recharge it by plugging it into the mains or a car.
Available from a number of eco suppliers for around £24.95. Have a look at www.the-green-apple.co.uk
Selling Green and Fairtrade
If you are in the Newark-on-Trent area of the UK there is a new shop which which has been built on eco and ethical standards to sell Fairtrade, Green and Organic products.
Fair and Green is a small independent ethical shop situated in Newark, Notts. They stock a wide range of Fair Trade, organic, and environmentally friendly products and prides themselves on their having ethical values.
Their eco products are either recycled (e.g. Remarkable Stationery), organic, from sustainable sources (e.g. Ethletic shoes made using FSC latex), or environmentally friendly (e.g. cleaning products).
And, apart form their selection of products they are green in other areas;
They uses electricity from Good-Energy which is made from 100% renewable resources.
Their shop insurance if from CIS which is more ethical than many others.
They don’t encourage use of plastic bags and use recycled paper for their stationery.
They travel to work by public transport and only use a care when they really have to.
Even their website is powered by solar energy!
They might not be just around the corner for many EcoList readers but their website is packed full of useful information as well as highlighting their various products.
Visit: www.fairandgreenshop.co.uk
Eco Freeview
If you are thinking of buying a Freeview box to plug into your old TV, so you can receive digital broadcasts, then you might like to look at these new ones from Segem which are being promoted as eco-friendly.
There are two versions both of which are small and unobtrusive so, if you already have a selection of boxes under your TV, you will probably be able to find space for one of these.
Their eco-friendlyness comes from the fact that they use only 5 watts of power when on and 2 watts in standby. Both have electronic program guides built in. The ITD58NG ECO can display information about the current and next program for each channel and the slightly more expensive ITD59NG ECO will provide a full 7 day guide.
[Via: Techdigest]
Available from many online retailers including Pixmania.co.uk
New Eco Store Online
A new eco store has just been launched by three mothers from East Sussex, UK, who’s concern for, and interest in, the environment prompted them do actually do something.
While helping with their children’s homework project they started to become more aware of the variety of environmentally friendly products out there in the market place. Family and friends began asking where they could get hold of these things and My EcoStore was born.
The site features a wide variety of eco products including bags, calculators, light bulbs, energy saving devices and notebooks to name a few. They also offer practical tips and a whole section of facts and figures on eco issues.
My EcoStore is easy to use and you can order products directly from them for delivery in the mainland UK. There are a variety of delivery options and pricing is well explained.
You could spend hours hunting around the Internet for a specific eco product or you could support a new project set up by these energetic and very professional women.
Visit: www.myecostore.co.uk
Reusable Shoulder Bag
A while ago we highlighted the collapsible crate as a way of saving plastic bags when you go shopping. If you thought that was a good idea you’ll love this. Retail chain Wilkinsons are selling a ‘pack flat’ reusable shoulder bag for the enticing price of 45 pence!
There aim, selling this so cheaply, is to encourage you not to use their (or any other shop’s) plastic bags. This is a sturdy number, remains closed when not in use, has a reinforced base and might be just the thing to leave in your car, or a coat pocket, ready to whip out - smile at the shop assistant and say “know.... I don’t need a bag thanks!”.
Helpful Recycling Bins – Barcode Enabled
Sometimes recycling can be complicated. Which bit of that wrapper goes in which recycling bin? Is it paper or foil? Can the plastic bottle be recycled at all?
I know - I’ve had this problem in German where there are multiple bins in public spaces and it isn’t always easy to know which one to throw rubbish into.
There is a possible solution in this set of recycling bins which use barcodes, printed on the rubbish, to work out if they can be recycled and which bin to place them in.
You wave your piece of rubbish over the bin; it scans the barcode and then unlocks the bin’s lid if the item is recyclable. This is a concept design by Woo Seok Park but a very nice idea if it ever went into production. As a way of encouraging the less green among us, this might just be the item. [A]
[Via: Ecofriend]
Chocolate Valentine
And, continuing the theme – the Ethical Superstore has a whole page of chocolate gifts in case your Valentine has a sweet tooth and you fancy giving them something ethically tasty!
Items range from Fairtrade Mini Chocolate selection boxes to Organic Peanut Butter Truffle Hearts. There has to be something here that works for you, and them!!
www.ethicalsuperstore.com
Be my Eco Valentine?
It is almost here and there will be a lot of people wondering how to show their loved ones just how much they love them without buying them some redundant, over-wrapped heart shaped ‘token’.
Nigel’s Eco Store has a collection of Valentine gifts which might just help out. They range from Hemp Knickers to organic aphrodisiacs. Have a look and see if there is anything which takes your ‘fancy’. You could, always, just tell your loved one how much you love them!
www.nigelsecostore.com
Recycled Jewellery
There is a lot of it about – recycled jewellery that is – but Touch, an LA based art and design collective, is clearly something above the rest.
Their designers have reused materials to produce limited and unlimited edition items. This green necklace, designed by Mana Bernardes, is made from PET Recycled Bottles. They have also used recycled phone cards, wire mesh and old elevator (lift) buttons.
Touch have retailers in Brazil, Belgium, France, Germany and Japan or you can contact them directly via their website: www.do-not-touch.com
[Via: Inhabitat]
China Bans Plastic Bags
Here in the UK we are getting used to supermarket chains saying they are going to do something about all those free plastic bags they give away. Some have run ‘tests’ some have tried recycling schemes but generally it appears to have been more for ‘green’ publicity. Step in China.
The entire country is to ban free plastic bags from June this year!! Not just a small supermarket chain in a small European country – but the whole of China!
They have a real pollution problem generally but in this case with their “White Pollution” which gets its name from the colour of the flimsy white plastic bags they give away to consumers. China’s State Council commented, "While plastic shopping bags provide convenience to consumers, this has caused a serious waste of energy and resources and environmental pollution because of excessive usage, inadequate recycling and other reasons."
From June 1st all supermarkets, department stores and shops are banned from giving away free bags. They must charge for them and clearly show the price. They are also prohibited from adding the cost to the price of goods they sell.
[Via International Herald Tribune]
Nigel’s Top UK Website
Nigel’s Eco Store has been named as one of the UK’s top websites in Yahoo!'s annual awards for the most interesting and innovative websites of the year.
If you have not visited the site it has a quirky charm, which sets it aside from many of the others in the marked. It also contains some seriously good eco and green products. We have featured many of them here on the EcoList.
Have a quick look round at www.nigelsecostore.com
How Much Food do you Bin?
Off to the supermarket today? While you are there buy an extra bag of groceries and when you get home put it straight in the bin!
It sounds an impressive waste of money and resources but, sadly, this is what we do as a nation! It seems we throw away a third of the food we buy and most of it is still usable. During a week when most of us buy more food than at any other time in the year, we would like to remind you of the reduction of waste. This timely snippet of information just helps to highlight the problem.
A new website has been launched to offer help and advice. "Love Food Hate Waste" is packed full of information, facts, case studies from real people and a mouth watering selection of recipes to help you cook without waste.
Bookmark http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
Biodegradable Tableware
No doubt many of you will be entertaining in the coming weeks and get into the party spirit. One of the drawbacks is all that washing up afterwards. You don’t want to use disposable tableware because it’s just – well – DISPOSABLE! But you still want to invite lots of people and reduce your stress level.
Enter biodegradable tableware – plates, ‘cutlery’, straws and drinks beakers all of which can be recycled on your compost heap. Some of the ‘cutlery’ is made of wood, which biodegrades like any other part of a tree, other products are made of corn start (which looks and acts like plastic but is biodegradable!).
Now, we don’t suggest you use them for every meal but for those festive parties they might just ease your Eco conscience.
We have found a whole collection of these products on a site called ‘Silly Jokes”, which is odd because it is mainly full of jolly party products and not the place you might expect to find eco products. So, you can shop for eco friendly partyware and buy a whoopee cushion at the same time – we live in a strange world.
Have a look at http://www.sillyjokes.co.uk/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=AndyPepper&page=http://www.sillyjokes.co.uk/party/tableware/biodegradable/index.html for their biodegradable products.
Veggie Cutlery
Another simple and easy to use site which sells cutlery and tableware made from natural starch and fibres.
These are made from plastarch material (PSM) and are heat resistant up to 105 c. They also appear to be very robust.
What is brilliant about them is that they are made from annually renewable resources and are 100% biodegradable. Have a look round Vegwar’s site for plates, napkins, bowls and a host of other biodegradable products. They also have a very useful directory of eco and green suppliers and sites. Well worth a visit.
http://www.vegware.co.uk/
