Blogs & Ecology

Italian Grayhound, At Earthwatch Tree Planting Project, "Roxbury", Boston, USA

By: Jeanine Pfeiffer

We all have choices. As we fill our lives with things or creatures or experiences, we have an astonishing array of options. Bling or plain? Doberman or Chihuahua? Whale watching or poolside tanning? Paper or plastic or bring your own gosh-darn bag?

We consumers are demi-gods of the Universal Supermarket of Life, setting off a cascade of repercussions with our choices, all the way up and back down the production-consumption-disposal chain. Do we recognize our extraordinary collective power?

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Reuters had an interesting piece recently on Bangladesh's thriving Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) recycling industry. The South Asian country exported more than 20,000 tons of PET flakes, the shredded version of plastic bottles, last year sorted from the 3,000 factories across the country dedicated to recycling. The industry generated about $10 million in 2007 and has grown annually at a rate of 20 percent.

Cleaning products from method are simple, effective and modern in their branding and eco-packaging. Do they work though? I’m no chemist, but the Go Naked line seems to clean just as well as method’s other lines that we have tested in the past.

Some people have severe allergies when it comes to scents. Method developed this formula for you guys. The clear, odorless, green dish soap and all surface cleaner work really well.

image by Petra Karstedt

A man was charged with violating India’s wildlife laws after he ran off with his pet bear, despite local police demands.

The story began when Ramesh Munda was out in the jungle gathering firewood. There he met a two month-old, female sloth bear and soon enough, their friendship became inseparable. Munda named the bear Rani and she was quickly assimilated into the family: she slept in the family home, followed them to the market and guarded their home when away.

My MacBook has never been more eco-friendly inside a notebook sleeve made of 100% recycled materials. The sleeve hugs the 13-inch MacBook perfectly and keeps out unwanted damage, however, it is not the ideal choice for protection.

Both the internal and external fabrics are made of recycled plastic known as PET. The lightweight sleeve fits nicely into my Timbuk2 Hemp/PET bag and stays secure while traveling.

Timbuk2 has made amazing bags for years and this year they decided to step up the game and use some green materials. Now, I’m not going to lie, I have been a fan of Timbuk2 for many years. I actually own a laptop messenger and a gadget case (for my iPod) but when I saw they offer PET and hemp bags, I was more than excited!

Timbuk2 always has fun and unique bags, but they have a few distinctive features. Notably is the three-panel design on their messenger bags and their spiral logo.

Flavored waters are gaining popularity and Carpe Diem is doing it the all natural and herbal way. Carpe Diem’s Harmonizing Water adds herbs that are meant to refresh your body with subtle berry and herb flavor flavors. Did it harmonize my spirit? Well, not right away and I’m not sure if it actually harmonized anything. The flavors were decent but too subtle for my tastes. The light carbonation is a bonus. Carpie Diem seems to use the carbonated water as a base for all their drinks.

When the cold weather turns into sunny, warm days, there is really nothing better than sitting down on the balcony sipping an ice cold beer from an ice cold glass. Not all glasses need to be made of glass, however. From the makers of The Chillster, Stop Global Beer Warming created a Chillster pint glass made from PET (recycled plastic) that actually contains the same proprietary ice crystals that The Chillster does but inside the base of the pint glass.

Based on strong pro-environmental beliefs, Envirosax was founded to try to eliminate the use of plastic bags. They also promote moving to a much more environmentally friendly direction. This direction shows in their product. The bags that I used are sturdy and fold up nicely into a larger bag for easy storage. They are cute too.

Cloud Star Tender Jerky Strips were a product I received at the Green Expo last month.  They boast, select first-quality cuts of beef, chicken, or pork  that are lightly seasoned then slow baked to seal in all of the natural flavors. The treats are naturally high in protein, grain free and have no byproducts.  As their website says,  the treats are irresistable to dogs!

Every dog loves a bone, but your pet will love it even more when it is an environmentally friendly Eco Bone from West Paw Design.  My dog has been loving this great plush toy for weeks now.

Sometimes we cannot even tell if they know they are greenwashing, or if they are doing it with tongue held firmly in cheek. Like this: Coke is introducing a line of shirts made out of recycled Coke bottles. Their VP of marketing says with a straight face “These fun t-shirts merge trend with consciousness, reminding shoppers that small steps – like recycling a few bottles – can go a long way towards helping to preserve our environment. If the 200 million Wal-Mart shoppers in the U.S. purchase these shirts, they will help us reuse and divert more than 700 million bottles from the waste stream.”

In the UK a lot of kids still have to wear uniforms; now they can wear pure polyester made from PET pop bottles. It would be nice if it was a local industry, with visions of Scottish weavers fishing bottles out of the ocean, spinning them into yarn, weaving the fabric and sending it off to Saville Row, but no, it is made in Taiwan and tailored in Europe "to avoid the use of child labour."

Our cat doesn’t really play with toys. She kind of just plays on her own. Its not that she doesn’t have any toys, she just doesn’t play with the ones she has. We always just assumed she didn’t like toys in general so I never attempted to buy many new ones. Then we got the West Paw Design Fish for Cats.

Since then, she has not gone a day without at least playing with it for 30 minutes or more. It was actually kind of scary how she played so much, only because we’ve never seen her take to a toy like this.