In an Internet driven, electronic, age, the humble business card still appears to have a place. Now, if you combined our enthusiasm for things online and the opportunity to hand someone a card with your details, you would be on to a winner- which is just what Moo do.
London based printing company Moo are about to launched their new eco business cards which are 100% recyclable and biodegradable, use 100% recycled paper and are chlorine-free. Lots of other printers offer the same, so what makes Moo different?
Every single card can be printed with a different image and you can order as few as 50!!! You simply upload as many different images as you like, directly from your computer, (or photo storage sites), and they print each one onto an individual card.
This seems ideal for businesses with a variety of products - one card for each item - or for domestic use so that you can have cards made of you holiday snaps.
Cost is around £10.99 ($21.99) for 50 and you also get a free carrying case to keep your card collection in. Moo ship word-wide and speak German, Spanish, French and Italian.
If you register for their newsletter they will not only e-mail you the moment they start taking orders for their new eco cards but also give you 20% off your first order!
Their website is simple to use, beautifully designed, has a sense of humour and is well worth a look : www.moo.com
Eco Printing Online
Bash Your Trash
Many of us in the UK now have green bins for garden rubbish, collected every two weeks. A positive step in keeping this type of biodegradable material out of the normal bin but they fill up quickly.
If you are out in the garden this weekend just half an hour of ‘trimming’ will probably fill your bin, so you might like to know about TrashBasher.
This simple metal attachment clips onto your bin and allows you to compress the green contents so you can get more in. If you have a council which fines you for your bin lid being open (or refuses to empty the bin), the TrashBasher can compact your contents and allow you to get the lid closed.
It is easy to store, lightweight, easy to use and costs £19.99 online from Maplin.
DHL Hybrid Trial and go Biodegradable
Delivery company DHL is also on the trail of eco vehicles with the announcement, earlier this year, that they would trial two Daimler hybrid vehicles in the UK. They will also try two Mitsubishi Fuso Canter Eco Hybrid vehicles as part of the company's wider commitment to reducing its impact on the environment.
Bet their PR organisation is in a bit of a ‘flap’ hearing that their rival UPS (see below) has ordered 200 hybrids (not just trying them out for evaluation).
That said it seems that DHL is trying hard by replacing all their delivery bags with recyclable and reusable ones which only take two years to biodegrade. The normal ones take 1,000 years to degrade.
[Via DHL and Hippyshopper ]
Image courtesy of Deutsche Post AG
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/
The Digital Allotment
How about having your allotment inside your computer?
Here at the EcoList we are constantly enthusing about making little steps towards large changes. One of those steps is to “Grow your Own Veg”. Both Andy and Karina, who edit the EcoList, do just that in the Shared Garden Project.
Allotments have changed over the past few years – waiting lists of young people and families are growing across the country and the image of ‘Grumpy old men’ leaning on garden fences is changing rapidly.
Now there is something for the computer literate generation which will help you plan your planting. GrowVeg.com is a new website which allows you to electronically plan where to grow veg, how to rotate the crop, the best way to utilize the space you have and, at the same time, get advice on planting, growing and eating.
One of the GrowVeg.com team is Jeremy Dore. A computer programmer and keen organic gardener who dug up his front lawn in 2004 to plant vegetables. He is the developer of the online garden planning tool – a graphic and very simple to use system.
Take a 30 day free trial at www.growveg.com and if you like it you can extend the service for £15.00 a year.
This might be just the site to engage children and get them more involved in growing their own veg.
[Via Hippyshopper]
Dustbin of Europe
It seems we are living in a dump – The UK throws away more household rubbish than any other European country in the EU according to research from the Local Government Association.
We put over 22.6 million tonnes of rubbish into landfill during the last year figures were compiled. Our closest rival was Italy, which dumps 17.6 million tonnes. What a lot of us do not realise is that as taxpayers in the UK we are actually paying EU fines of £150 per tonne!
A good time to look again at what you throw away - Sort it out!
[Via BBC News ]
