Klean Kanteen, the popular maker of stainless steel water bottles, has long plopped a plastic top on its containers.
There’s nothing terribly unhealthy about that for the person using the water bottle. But the impact of plastic waste on the world, notably in giant garbage patches in the ocean, is becoming increasingly noticeable and problematic. It seemed time for Klean Kanteen to come clean and offer a completely defensible water bottle.

[Read more →]

Want to put your kitchens scraps to work? You’ll need to start with a kitchen composter or compost bucket.
We’ve found many petite compost crocks or pails that hold a modest amount of egg shells, peelings and coffee grounds — and they’re soon overflowing. The gallon-sized compost pail below will carry you for longer. It’s made of a decor-friendly and odor-containing stainless steel. It comes with a charcoal filter, a must for controlling odors. But you may be surprised, indoor composting can be surprisingly hygienic and unnoticeable.

[Read more →]

From Amazon.com
Making your own compost starts in the kitchen by collecting all your organic waste and adding it to your outdoor composter. As much as 30% of household waste can be composted and should not be sent to a landfill. Composting is the answer and using the Kitchen Compost Collector is a most practical way [...]

[Read more →]

Samples of inexpensive jewelry tested by a consumer group found that more than half of the products contained high levels of either lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury bromine or chlorine — all toxic metals or chemicals that carry health risks.
HealthStuff.org tested 99 pieces of jewelry from 14 different retailers, Ming 99 City, Burlington Coat Factory, Target, Big Lots, Claire’s, Glitter, Forever 21, Walmart, H&M, Meijers, Kohl’s, Justice, Icing and Hot Topic. The samples were collected from six states — Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Vermont.

[Read more →]

Adele’s lovely pipes may have charmed the Grammy judges this year.
But its her skin care that has natural body products maker Weleda crowing.

[Read more →]

Recently, I found myself haunting boutiques and natural food markets, looking for a perfume that didn’t float on a raft of toxic ingredients.
This has never been an easy mission. Even though many organic and natural body products have ditched the phthalates, parabens, triclocan, sodium lauryl sulfate, PEG and other unhealthy compounds with names requiring acronyms, many colognes and perfumes remain stuck in chem-land.

[Read more →]

This week electronics makers are unveiling their latest innovations at the annual geek fest in Las Vegas, known as the Consumer Electronics Show or CES. As always, manufacturers are launching a flotilla of faster, glitzier gadgets, appliances and design ideas into the world.

And while most of these inventions offer more functions, more style, more bling, with only some homing in on efficiency — green offerings have crept into the mix. That’s because the show’s focus on performance inevitably yields overlap with sustainability. The two can go hand in hand. Here then, are five new greener products being featured at CES destined to brighten our lives…

[Read more →]

Non-profit Green America has named Sustainable NYC the winner of the 2011 People’s Choice Awards for Green Business.
The New York store sells green gifts, from organic clothing to Fair Trade jewelry and many other products, both online at at its store at Avenue A and 9th Street in Manhattan’s East Village.

[Read more →]

Non-stick cookware, once hailed as a space-age wonder, has fallen into disfavor, as those wondrous non-stick coatings have been revealed to be unhealthy for humans and the environment.

Teflon, and similar non-stick coatings that relied on perfluorochemicals (PFCs), were safe when used as instructed, according to their makers. But these slippery products, which provided a marvelous landing pad for fried eggs, turned out to be amazingly sticky in less positive ways in the outside world.

Scientists say that the PFCs used in these coatings persist as pollution in waterways and landfills. The chemicals have been found in human blood samples and implicated as carcinogenic. No one knows when, if ever, they’ll biodegrade.

[Read more →]

If you’ve got a bird lover on your holiday list, there are many great ways to feather their nest this season.
And we’re not just talking about bird motif coasters or dust-collecting figurines. No, there’s much more you can do to satisfy the bird lovers desire to honor and save our avian friends. Here are a few ideas:

[Read more →]

It’s the most wonderful (shopping) time of the year.

Grow your own gourmet mushrooms with this kit by Back to the Roots.

[Read more →]

Holidays in the winter mean over-crowded malls and expensive wish lists that are hard to fulfill when trying to keep a green holiday season. One way to keep Christmas green is to try out some recycled shopping.

Trade in clothes for store credit or cash at recycling retailers.

Stores such as Buffalo Exchange pride themselves on offering high quality, designer merchandise for less money.

[Read more →]