This week I delved into the plethora of products made of recycled glass, and I was seriously impressed by what I found. Glass is a material that can be recycled infinitely. It is comprised of silica, the main component of sand, and I have learned that one application for recycled glass material is that it is being tested as a material to “replenish” beaches that have been worn down by erosion.  I guess that is the ultimate back to nature approach. Glass is a stable, non-toxic material that can be used in a multitude of forms. It has great insulating properties and can be used to create amazing art forms. There are a lot of uses for recycled glass throughout the home and garden, I have selected a few to discuss below. Keep reading →

Many green options cost more than their replaced product – but the SodaStream Soda Maker offers a wealth of eco and health benefits for cheaper than buying sparkling water and soft drinks the old fashioned way.  So you’ll be improving your health, keeping tons of plastic out of landfills and saving money instead of lugging heavy bottles of future trash home from the market.

Some SodaStream Background

As a fan of all things that bubble, from champagne to sparkling water to soda (does beer count?), I’ve found it increasingly difficult to enjoy these great things due the myriad of challenges the conscious consumer faces when looking at purchasing these products.  These range from the health impact on you and your family (hey, only 33 grams of fructose corn syrup in most major single serving soda cans!), to the environmental impact that millions of plastic bottles of mineral water and the impact of transporting mineral water from some remote part of the globe to your favorite posh restaurant table. Keep reading →

These recent super snowy days have led my imagination to the prospects of spring and the possibilities for setting up a spring garden. Aside from the gardening options, I’m excited about the possibility of creating  a hospitable backyard habitat for some wilder critters for everyone’s benefit.

First, I intend to order a mason bee house and some mason bees.  Mason bees aren’t colonial like European honey bees and they don’t sting unless actively provoked.  Since they’re  solitary, mason bees do not build hives.  Instead, females lay eggs within a mason bee house and the new adults hatch from their cocoons the following spring.  These bees are excellent pollinators, so your garden flowers will be pleased. And if all that isn’t enough to get you onto the mason bee bandwagon – mason bee houses make for a unique, attractive addition to any garden.  They’re natural conversation starter, and with lots of funky designs on the market, you’ll be sure to find one that suits your style and budget.  Keep reading →

Down East Doormats are brightly colored, durable and bring a little bit of summer to every doorstep. They actually float as well!  These door mats are produced by the Maine Float-Rope Company from floating ropes that are turned in by lobstermen due to changing regulations.

Lobstermen formerly used floating rope between lobster pots but it has been found that floating rope can cause North Atlantic Right Whales (a critically endangered species) to become entangled in the lobster gear when they surface during feeding. New regulations require sinking rope and all of that old rope would otherwise end up in landfills.

These mats are a great addition to any home and will last for years to come as they are advertised as indestructable. It is rare to get the opportunity to buy a locally-made, upcycled product from a company that donates a portion of its proceeds to protect its local environment.

Enjoy!

During the summer months, there’s nothing better than sitting out on an Adirondack chair with a glass of wine or a nice frosty beer to take in the sights and sounds of the season. However, since this type of outdoor furniture is typically manufactured from wood, wood and more wood, it may bring a nice summer, cottagey feeling to your home in the city or the county; but it comes at the cost of the environment.

Loll Designs offers a solution with their line of outdoor furniture that is made from 100% post consumer recycled HDPE, a high-density polyethylene which is a plastic resin that is used in products and packaging such as milk jugs, detergent bottles, margarine tubs, and garbage containers. Loll Designs Adirondack chairs come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors, and will look fantastic on any deck or front porch of a home or summer cottage. Plus, to get them there, the eco-friendly company uses carbon offset shipping through a partnership with Carbon Fund and packages the sustainable outdoor furniture in completely recycled and recyclable packaging. It doesn’t stop there either, they also produce their furniture locally in the United States, donate 1% of the proceed of their sales to a variety of environmental organizations, and they plant a tree for every harvesting day of the year! Keep reading →

Although the availability of green products for the home is expanding, many of the companies that carry these items are still falling under the radar because they just aren’t part of the mainstream yet. This means that without digging deeper, prospective green consumers just don’t know where to look in order to find affordable, eco-friendly items to decorate their homes with. It’s really nice to see some of the big name companies coming on board with green alternatives, because it increases everyone’s exposure to products that are sustainable, eco-friendly and affordable. Keep reading →

Whether mattresses are typically made from goose down, or other synthetic foams and materials that take a toll on the environment with the manufacturing process or through the cultivation of the materials themselves; they generally don’t do any favors to the environment.  Of course, everyone wants a comfortable place to lie down at the end of a hard day, so purchasing a mattress should never be taken lightly, and if you don’t want to be kept awake at night as a result of choosing a mattress that’s anti-environmental, you might want to look at an alternative. Keep reading →

Greeting cards are a nice gesture for your loved ones on birthdays, holidays, and any other occasion where you want to let them know they’re being though about. But let’s face it, even for those that hoard their greeting cards for their memories, eventually they’ll only be discarded, and with their toxic dyes, they are anything but environmentally friendly when being recycled or sitting in a landfill. Keep reading →

Cookware and cooking utensils tend to be anything but green and sustainable; they can break down, releasing toxins into food so diners end up with secret ingredients like phthalates (yum) in their eggs and they rarely last longer than a handful of months or years if you’re lucky. High end cooking utensils sometimes claim to have less terrible effects than their cheaper counterparts, but often they just use misleading marketing tactics to claim that they are eco-friendly, such as using recycled packing to sell the fact that they’ve gone green. Keep reading →

Cork isn’t just for topping wine bottles anymore; it’s becoming one of the trendiest materials in sustainable home furnishings because it’s a material with minimal environmental impact, it can withstand the tests of time, and it looks pretty cool too. After your next dinner party, or the next time you have one of your own secret drinking binges; save up your corks, you might just be inspired to create your own sustainable piece of furniture like the latest design by Iannone Design.

The Cork Media Console is a modern, minimalist design ready to house your flat screen TV and the rest of your home entertainment center. Made of cork which delivers the unique texture and look of the furniture, as well as bamboo plywood, you can focus on your green furniture and stare at it for hours on end while you fall into zombiedom in front of the TV every evening.

While some may hold the misconception that cork is a precious commodity that is on its way to extinction, it’s in fact one of the most sustainable materials that comes directly from nature. Cork can be extracted without killing the entire tree that it comes from, so within a 9 to 10 year period the tree is still trucking with a whole new outer layer grown back. Cork will also last longer than most other materials, so it needs little enhancement beyond the low-VOC water-based topcoat applied by Iannone to outlast your design tastes. Cork is watertight, easily recycled, as well as shock and fire resistant; it’s properties are so sustainable that it might hang around so long that you might just be finding ways to get rid of it!

Get your hands on the Cork Media Console, but now that you know all about the sustainability of cork, take a moment to appreciate all it has to offer next time you uncork your favorite bottle of wine.

Via: Nature Repurposed