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The Facts:
Today while strolling through my local Target store, an isle display of green paper products caught my eye. A company called Greenroom Eco makes a line of eco friendly gift wrap products – like gift bags, gift boxes, and other goodies for the holidays. The first item I picked up to examine was this take-out style box (taken with my cell phone, please excuse the blurriness).
Greenroom Eco Recycled Gift Box
It’s a pretty good looking product, for a box anyway… I was totally down, until I read that it is made of only 35% post consumer recycled materials. Bummer. I was about to go about my business and forget all about this company but for some reason I picked up another item. This is of their 100% recylced paper gift bags.
Greenroom Eco Recycled Gift Bag
I thought it was funny that the two products were both sold and packaged as green items in the same exact way, but the fine print showed how they were much different. If I hadn’t been in investigative mode I probably would have missed it. In the end, I didn’t end up buying either of them. Partly because I know of some fabulous independently owned eco paper companies I’d like spend my money with, but also because I wasn’t sure about their true greenness after seeing the 35%. But they did get me thinking, “when is something green enough?” Is 35% better than none at all? Or, is it just not enough?
What do you think?
O'bon Pencils made from Recycled Newspaper
Last weekend I went to the Green Festival in San Francisco California. My goal was to find and talk to the retailers of cool Eco-friendly products. Luckily for me there was a huge turnout for the event and I was able to talk to many.
One unique company that I found was called O’bon. They sell these cool and creative pencils that are made from recycled newspaper. When you sharpen the pencil you can see the letters from the original publication. Obon also sells colored pencils that are made from the same material.
The company also utilizes a material called bugasse which is essentially sugarcane. They use it to make notebook paper. Throughout the history of the spiral notebook there has never been one this unique. At least not one that I’ve seen anyway. These colored notebooks are a perfect way to express your creative flare.
Gourmet & Guffly…Pencils Made from Recycled Materials
Yep, that’s right, a gourmet pencil that is also Guffly. The Smencil is made from 100% recycled newspaper. The papers are tightly rolled around the #2 graphite, soaked in a scented liquid, and dried so that they are hard just like a regular pencil. They come in scents like watermelon, root beer, cherry, and many more. If you happen to be a huge dork like me (or under the age of 13, I suppose), you can buy a pack of 10 for $12 at Target. Fun.
Watch this cool video on how these brushes are made:
Last night I talked with one of my most favorite people, my Aunt Kelley. Other than being totally awesome in general, she has been eating organic food, using organic products, and been an all-around guffly individual for some time now. She asked me if I knew anything about eco-friendly trash bags. This got me thinking. A lot of green people are using reusable bags for groceries and shopping, are recycling what they can, but are still throwing out their trash in icky, regular old plastic trash bags. I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought about this before. Turns out there are some pretty simple options. Check ‘em out:
1. BioBags – 100% Biodegradable and Compostable. “BioBags are GMO free, certified for use in organic agriculture and certified for restricted use of metals in our vegetable-based inks and dyes. Their products meet the ASTM D6400-99 requirements, which is the gold standard for compostable plastic. BioBags are shelf stable, just like paper towels, yet biodegrade quickly when exposed to nature’s elements and micro-organisms, leaving no harmful residues behind.” These bags can be found at Drugstore.com, $6.19 for 12 count 13-gallon bags.
2. Nature Value Eco Safe Bags – biodegrade in 12 to 14 months. They are made from 10-20% post consumer recycled materials, are certified Kosher, and the box they come is also made from recycled materials. You can find their various products on Lets Go Green where they are very reasonably priced in comparison; only $2.99 for 15 count 13-gallon bags.
Recycled Cardboard makes for good childrens toys. Who would have thunk it?
Did you know that nearly half of the world’s original forest cover is gone? Also, there is only 5% of the United State’s natural forest cover remaining today. This tells me two things: 1.) the growing demand for paper is negatively affecting our Eco-system; and 2.) we need to be more responsible about using wood pulp for products. Cardboard Design understands this too. The company is truly innovative and responsible when it comes to making their wood pulp based products.
All of the cardboard crafts that Cardboard Designs makes are made from recycled post-consumer materials. Materials like old cardboard boxes, newspaper, kraft paper, and even straw. These products were once used by consumers and thrown away. Cardboard Designs collects these materials and make responsible and innovative products.
Cardboard Designs’ cardboard structures can be classified into four categories:
1.) Kids Products: These products consist of doll houses,playhouses, cardboard chairs, and forts for kids to hide out and play in.
2.) Furniture: You can buy tables, desks, space dividers, and shelving.
3.) Vases and Placemats
4.) Liquid Cardboard: This product is truly innovative. A single piece of liquid cardboard can move freely–flowing easily from one shape to another. Each item can transform into many different shapes from vases, bowls, platters, candle holders, a stress cardboard toy, or even stylish table-top decoration.
For every one ton of scrap paper that Cardboard Designs recycles they save: 17 trees, 4200 kilowatt hours of electricity, 7000 gallons of water, and 3 cubic yards of landfill space. Not one tree is cut down to make any of the products. The glue that is used to adhere the products is vegetable based; and does not contain any harsh chemicals or animal products. Finally, not one person or country is exploited when making Cardboard Designs’ products. In fact, everything the company makes is manufactured in the United States.
And that is truly guffly.
No, not cheapo jewelery that turns your skin green after wearing it. I’m talking about fine jewelery with an eco-conscious and people-friendly purpose.
There’s been a lot of engagements and weddings going on around me lately. So, as with most things I don’t feel like thinking about, there’s been this constant stream of wedding and engagement info going on around me that I otherwise wouldn’t have noticed. It always happens that way, right? I’ve seen TV segments on how to be a “green bride” and how to have a “green wedding,” and lately I’ve even found some guffly engagement and wedding rings.
Using these guidelines, greenKarat gives each of its pieces a rating called a Green Assay Record. This allows the customer to view the characteristics of his or her jewelery, and understand how green it is. While they understand that each piece isn’t ecologically perfect, because the system isn’t yet perfect, greenKarat does pledge to be open and honest with customers about what goes into each piece of jewelery. Plus, the primary metal is every greenKarat design is recycled from another piece of jewelery. 
greenKarat also has a section on their site called myKarat that allows customers to recycle their gold for store credit, to reuse their gold to make rings, or to donate their gold to benefit the environment. And with gold at premium value lately, now is the perfect time to start exchanging.
I found this company called Littlearth family of brands. The company is truly innovative and responsible when it comes to making their products. All of their products are made from recycled license plates, bottle caps, and car seat belts and tires.
What Littlearth does is simple: Old or obsolete license plates are donated to them; and the company transforms them into the shape of a handbag, or photo and CD holders, which are bound together by recycled automobile tire rubber. Littlearth also sells belts that are made from bottle caps and automobile seat belts, which are also donated to the company.
There are many variations of each product like Fender, Superflair, and Cyclone handbags; and you can buy a belt made from vintage soda, beer, old west, or classic soda bottle caps. You can also customize your own handbag, CD and photo holder, or belt. You can send in your own license plates–or bottle caps–and have the product of your choice made especially for you.
There is one more great thing that Littlefield does. They sell all of the products–minus the belts– in a sports theme. You can buy the product of your choice with logo of your favorite sports team from the NHL, MLB, and NFL.
Littlearth has been in business for 15 years and is headquartered in Pittsburgh PA. According to the website, Littlearth is the company that is responsible for introducing the world to the term eco-fashion. I don’t know much about that, but I do know that they have very innovative, stylish, and responsible products. And to me, that’s guffly.
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