Beautiful candle light decorations for a patio or deck that don’t actually need candles! These solar powered votives capture the sun during the day and give soft illumination through beautiful artisan crafted glass for a kaleidoscope of color. Ideal for those who love candlelight, but who don’t want to waste the earth’s resources by burning them night after night. Available in three colors, sapphire, amber and garnet, these are some of the most attractive solar powered candle alternatives out there, with not a hint of plastic in sight!

Costs $42 from Real Goods

Out and about and needing to charge your gadgets? This cool eco backpack will charge things as you walk about in the sun with its solar charging panel on the back. Any gadget that plugs into a DC outlet can be charged here and the battery can be charged via a wall charger too on less sunny days to give you ample backup. To make this backpack even greener, the fabric is made from recycled soda bottles and is water resistant and tougher than regular nylon. Cables are included with seven common pin plug connector options. This is a really cool green gadget in itself and would make a great gift for older kids and young adults, as well as any green techno-geek. Available in black or yellow, but the yellow is currently on sale for $149.99 (down from $270) atReal Goods
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If you are looking to replace the toxic petrochemical fumes of regular firestarters with something greener, these fun firestarters do the job and are made from recycled materials too. Ever wondered what happens to the leftover stubs of all those church candles? Here they are recycled, mixed with wood fiber and shaped into efficient firestarters, so you don’t even need to burn newspapers and breathe in their inky fumes either. The church candles used for these firestarters are said to be an ecumenical blend from Catholic, Lutheran and other churches and a donation goes to Habitat for Humanity with every purchase, so you can give your halo a little polish when you use these green alternatives to firestarters! One package contains enough firestarters for approx 30 fires.

Costs $16 from Real Goods
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Modern non-stick pans stay well away from Teflon, with all its dangers of toxic fumes being released at high heat. If you are replacing old Teflon pans and still looking for a functional non-stick surface, these omelette pans by Calphalon provide a great alternative cookware solution. Sold as a set of two with a 10” and a 12” pan they will be used regularly. Heavy-gauge haerd-anodized aluminium construction means that they are not the lightest pans around but hold the heat well and are quite sturdy. The non-stick coating is completely safe and non-toxic and oven safe up to 450F. Best hand-washed, the surface can be damaged by over-zealous dishwashing machines and by metal instruments, like most non-stick pans.

Costs $45.10 for the set of two at amazon
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Bamboo is the very latest green material to have hit the headlines. Sustainable and eco-friendly to produce, it has so many uses. But did you know that you can now get a bamboo laptop?! OK, so it’s not totally made of bamboo, but the bamboo exterior reduces the amount of plastic used in the production of this laptop by 15% and gives it a sleek and sexy finish that will appeal to the green among us who are still devoted to their technology. Stylish and light enough to make this a really useful Notebook, it has Windows 7 and all the latest functionalities and boasts 10 hours of battery life. All in all if you want your technology to come with eco-styling that does away with the plastic, this would be a good new laptop to choose.

Costs $999 from amazon
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