This chair is made from 100% polywood, which is a recycled plastic wood substitute. It resists rot, insects, and weather of all types. You can purchase this chair from greenhome.com for $296.00
This binder is made form 100% recycled products. This product contains no dyes and is natural in color. You can purchase this binder from greenhome.com by the case of 30 for $85.00
These decorative bowls are made from real vinyl records. You can use them for dry snacks or decorative pieces. They can be purchased from Amazon.com
Yesterday the NYTimes had a great article on how American’s preference for using soft toilet tissue is terrible for the environment. The soft, fluffy toilet paper like Charmin can only be made from tree fiber and not recycled paper. Toilet paper made from recycled paper works fine and is used in many European countries. The NYT article quotes Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resource Defense Council, saying “No forest of any kind should be used to make toilet paper”
Each year we use billions of rolls of toilet paper in the U.S. which means at least 15 million trees cut down,including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests. This also involves billions of gallons of water to produce the paper and hundreds of thousands of tons of chlorine for bleaching purposes. I’ve read that it takes approximately 13 gallons of water to make one roll of toilet paper.
Here is an eco-friendly shopper’s guide for home tissue products by the The Natural Resources Defense Council. On this chart it shows 365 (Whole Foods) brand currently you best green option with it’s 100% recycled paper with greater than 80% post-consumer content.
We should put pressure on tissue manufacturers to stop using virgin wood for toilet paper but in the mean time we can start by learning to adjust using more eco-friendly toilet tissue that is more important to be easier on the environment than our bums.
Greenciles
10 pack (100 pencils) $29.99 atgreenciles.com
Another way to help keep yet a little more paper from the landfill. These pencils are made with 100% recycled paper with a graphite core, no wood used at all. Could be a good idea for a fundraiser, it would be even better if they had some way to custom print your organization or company name on the pencil.
Urban Art Flower Pots $9.99 TerraCycle
A few more plastics from computer and electronic parts aren’t going to make it to the landfill this year due to TerraCycle’s Urban Art pots being made from 100% e-waste. These pots can either be plain or with colorful designs. The green-thumbed folks may be happy to plant even more greenery.
Presumably, any toxin’s from the e-waste have been safely removed but I probably would avoid growing anything I will eventually put in my mouth.
Forget the toxic plastic artificial trees and the pesticide laden live trees. Here is nn excellent way to remove some of the consumerism out of Christmas and make your holiday’s a tad greener is to make your own Christmas tree. This video (and the book they promote) shows how you can make a Christmas tree shaped plywood constructed and drilled holes to be a holder for live pine branches that you can gather from discards at nurseries, your own back yard or local woods. (just don’t take enough branches that might actually harm the tree) If you make it sturdy enough you can use this for many years.
Freewebs Sunny Cooker has an interesting article on how to go about making a sun powered oven-cooker for basically free, essentially just using cardboard, aluminum foil and a patient knack for following detailed instructions. This would be perfect for adventurous epicurean green cooks, homeless people, frugal types and maybe freegans cooking up a yummy pot of fresh dumpster diving treasures.
Price: $435.00 at the Living Echo.com Other designs and colors available
This gorgeous wall-art fixture from Fire and Water features dimmable compact fluorescent bulbs which when turned down increases the energy savings of the CFL as well as setting the right light for your mood. The shade is made from Environ ( a soy flour and recycled paper mixture) and recycled glass the base is also treated with low-VOC finish.
They have 2 other versions, just as exciting as the one shown here. The size of the one we show here is 4″ Long x 12″ Wide x 9″ High
Think Chair designed by Glen Oliver Low for Steelcase $769.00 (varies options and pricing)
from Unica home.com
If you want the absolute best Green office/work chair then consider not buying anything and just go to the thrift store or fix up an older chair. They won’t result in any new pollution from manufacture, probably won’t off-gas any toxic crap and will keep one more thing out of the landfill a little while longer. The more people get serious about reusing stuff the better. However, you might be in the position to want your business and/or persona to put out a more “professional, stylish, successful and contemporary” aura as well as being a comfy chair that is also eco-friendly. If so, then you might want to consider the “Think” chair by Steelcase.
An ergonomically design-based chair that is also has some serious green cred. This “Think” chair has up to 37% recycled content and is 99% recyclable. Weighs 32 pounds which saves energy in shipping and the energy used in manufacturing this chair is reported to be much less than as similar chairs. Also the chair is shipped fully assembled to reduce packaging and they manufacture these chairs closer to their markets in Europe and North America to reduce shipping and energy use. While this chair is designed to make recycling simple, I doubt you’ll need to anytime soon due to it being built exceptionally well and generally cool and comfortable chair to keep around. The chair has won varies certifications, labels and declarations on its green design, see Steelcase’s website for more info.
