Category — Green Products

A crisp Autumn evening and a comfortable porch swing make for a truly relaxing evening.  Here’s a 100% recycled plastic porch swing with a classic Nantucket look.  It’s large enough for two adults and it holds up to 500 lbs.  You could hang this swing from your porch or gazebo, or hang it from a frame in your backyard to add more seating around a copper fire pot or a patio set.

This recycled porch swing measures 49W x 30D x 23H and there are optional springs available to make it more comfortable.  What I like the best about this recycled porch swing, available at Patio Furniture USA, is the fact that you can just hose it off when it gets dirty.  If your house is like mine, there’s already plenty of painting and other home maintenance to keep up with.

Is it environmentally friendly furniture or is it art? Perhaps both. This custom-made rocking chair is made from surplus stock of car seat belts, and certified sustainable wood . Clean lines and simple design give this sustainable wood furniture a look that would complement nearly any green home decor.

Made by Atmos, the rocking chair is available in three wood finishes including oak, ebony, and mahogany. You can also choose the color of the seatbelt straps which are stretched across the frame of this rocking chair like webbing.  Color choices include red, tan, silver, black, and olive. Atmos makes other styles of sustainable wood furniture including arm chairs and side chairs.   I found this eco-friendly chair at Green and More.

If you’re new to green living, here’s an idea to help you get started in purchasing green cleaning products and recycled household products. It’s a green cleaning starter kit filled with a variety of non- toxic cleaners and recycled paper goods. Here’s what the green cleaning kit includes:

Phosphate Free Household Cleaner: An every day non toxic cleaning spray for cleaning the bathroom sink, kitchen appliances, and counter tops.

Biodegradable Dish Washing Soap: Plant-based soap for dishes and cooking pans.

Recycled Paper Towels: 80% post consumer waste.

Recycled Facial Tissues: 100% recycled, 20% post consumer waste.

All Natural Hand Soap: Biodegradable hand soap made with essential oils.

I think the Starter Green-kit available at Green-kit looks like a convenient way to take some of the initial confusion out of selecting green products, and choosing the ones you like the most.

Don’t forget about your wardrobe, especially your blue jeans, when it comes to household recycling. There are dozens of things you can do to recycle blue jeans just when you think its time to toss them in the trash. Here are just a few ideas:

Make a Reusable Shopping Bag: Ditch plastic shopping bags forever by making recycled shopping bags with your old blue jeans. Here’s a recycled denim bag pattern that looks fairly simple for someone with basic sewing skills.

Insulate Your House: Recycled denim insulation is becoming popular for green building projects and environmentally friendly remodels. Read more about recycled denim insulation at Idaho Blue.

Make a Recycled Area Rug: Need some environmentally friendly area rugs or a door mat for around the house? Clean out your closet! You can reuse your old jeans with this recycled denim rug pattern.

Make a Purse: Who needs a designer handbag when you can make your own one-of-a-kind! Make a recycled denim purse with this pattern.

No one likes the thought of parting with their favorite, ultra-comfy pair of blue jeans, but when yours have reached the point of no return, keep them out of landfill by finding ways to reuse them.

Anyone who’s ever lugged home a jumbo jug of laundry soap, and then lugged the empty jug to the recycling center might be interested in trying Ecoballs. Apparently, you just toss a couple of these into your washing machine and the ionized energy between the balls creates an oxygen reaction which cleans and softens your clothes without laundry detergent or fabric softener.

In addition to reducing your household waste, reducing pollutants in the environment, and saving money by not using laundry soap, you can also save water by skipping the rinse cycle with Ecoballs. Depending on which ones you choose, Ecoballs can last from 100 to 1,000 wash cycles. Ecoballs are manufactured in the UK, and they were voted one of 10 Best Green Household Products of 2005 by The Independent, a British newspaper. According to EcoGadget, Ecoballs are also antibacterial and hypoallergenic.

If you’ve tried this green laundry detergent alternative, post a comment and tell us what you think. Ecoballs are available at EcoGadget.

With all the recent publicity surrounding CFL light bulbs, it’s easy to forget about LED lighting as a green choice for environmentally friendly homes. Thanks to advancements in technology, LED lighting is becoming more affordable and used in more household light fixtures. Here are just a few of the benefits of LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes).

Longer-Lasting: LED lights blast the competition when it comes to longevity. According to some reports, LEDs last 10 times longer than CFLs, and last more than a hundred times longer than incandescent light bulbs. In addition, LED light fixtures can help you save money by conserving energy in your green home.

Cool to the Touch: LED lights, including LED flashlights and LED Christmas lights, operate on very little power, allowing them to burn cool and reduce the risks of children being burned and accidental fire.

Compatible with Solar Panels: If you’re making the green energy switch to a solar-powered home, you may want to consider LED lighting. Because they use such little electricity, LEDs are a great option for use with solar panels.

See more information about LED lighting.

Here’s a quick fix for conserving water and power in your home: switch to a low-flow shower head. If you’re one who relishes a long, high-pressure shower, the thought of a reduced flow shower head may you a little nervous. Don’t worry! Shower heads, like almost everything else, have come a long way in the last decade. Fans of reduced flow shower heads claim that technology now allows for better showers using less water.

If your bathroom fixtures were installed prior to 1992, you could be sabotaging your green living efforts with very wasteful showers! Before 1992, some shower heads flowed at a whopping rate of 5.5 GPM (gallons per minute). These days, that number is federally regulated to no more than 2.5 GPM with 80 PSI water pressure or 2.2 GPM at 60 PSI (pounds per square Inch). If you have an old shower head, you could save more than HALF your usual shower water consumption just by switching to a newer green shower head. And, you’ll reduce energy use by easing the load on your water heater.

Want to go even greener? If you want to go lower than a 2.2 GPM shower head, try a reduced flow 1.5 GPM shower head or one that uses even less water! I found a 1.0 GPM shower head at The Natural Abode.

Need to replace your shower curtain soon? Before you head to the store for the usual vinyl/PVC variety, take a look at these green shower curtains made from natural and sustainable materials.

Hemp Shower Curtains: Shower curtains made from hemp are naturally mildew resistant and they’re machine washable. Hemp is a sustainable natural resource, as it has a short growing cycle, requires little water, and yields more per acre than cotton. Hemp shower curtains absorb water, but will not leak through.

Linen Shower Curtains: Organic flax linen shower curtains are a beautiful alternative to vinyl/PVC shower curtains. Organic flax linen is grown without the use of pesticides or other harmful chemicals, and the material is machine washable.

Organic Cotton Shower Curtains: Organic cotton shower curtains are another green alternative to vinyl shower liners. Like hemp, the all-natural fabric will absorb water but not leak through and they are machine washable.

Why switch? Choosing an all natural, non toxic shower curtain is a smart choice, because PVC and vinyl are associated with emitting toxic gases which reduce the air quality in your home and the world around you. In addition, PVC and vinyl do not recycle well, so vinyl shower curtains often end up in land fills where they hang around for decades, or end up being burned-which releases even more toxins into the air.

There’s nothing quite like bamboo area rugs to add texture and warmth to a green home. Bamboo rugs are increasing in popularity and are available in more colors and prints than ever. The area rug shown above is made from Anji bamboo, which is harvested from the Anji Mountain region in China, known for producing some of the world’s finest bamboo for furniture and other household items.

Whether you need an outdoor area rug to compliment a new patio set or an indoor rug to complete your green living room furniture, bamboo will fit the bill. Made from one of nature’s most plentiful and sustainable resources, Anji bamboo area rugs like the one above are kiln dried to prevent warping and cracking due to climate change, and are treated with a UV sealant to reduce fading.

Bamboo rugs are easy to clean; simply wipe with a damp cloth. I found this all natural area rug at Backyard City priced between $29 and $299 depending on size.

After all the household recycling and composting is done, most of us still manage to have some trash for disposal. So, when something must go in the trash, here’s a green living alternative to traditional plastic trash bags. BioBag trash bags are available in a variety of sizes which are biodegradable and fully compostable. Made from corn-based material known as Mater-Bi, the environmentally friendly trash bags begin to biodegrade after just 12 days outdoors and will completely decompose in 45 days in a controlled compost environment.

Biobag biodegradable bags come in standard sizes including tall kitchen trash bags, lawn and leaf bags, and smaller sizes for food scraps and pet waste collection. In addition, these biodegradable bags meet the specifications of California law SB 1749 which regulates manufacturer guidelines regarding post-consumer recycled goods and biodegradability claims.