Results for product reviews

Product Review: Outside Baby Mini Messenger Bag

STACY LARSEN / Tuesday, December 9, 2008 07:26 PM

I admit it: I expect my children to reflect how cool I am, how urbane, how out-of-the dreary-mainstream.  At least I expect them not to reveal how I sometimes fall from that grace into the plastic, mass-produced quagmire or cave in to unreasonable demands for inappropriate toys or accessories.  

Enter the Mini Messenger bag. The perfect opportunity for my eight-year-old daughter to carry around her wanna-be-tween flotsam and jetsam in an ultra-hip bike messenger bag rather than the transparent pink plastic petrochemical Tinkerbell nightmare from which everyone can see the bottles of nail polish and trainer lip-glosses that she has accumulated against my better judgment. A rugged, unisex bag suited to the collection of stones, cones, and sticks; sturdy enough for a water bottle and a hearty snack on one of our urban explores.  A bag to reflect well on mama’s tastes and choices.   More...

TAGS: PLAY, kids, lowcarbonmama, outdoor activities, product reviews

Top 6 Low- or No-Cost Green Marketing Strategies

ECOMETRO EDITORS / Friday, December 5, 2008 04:02 PM

-By Eric Loebel

We are living in challenging economic times. This is true for nearly every business, and it may be particularly true for those with retail locations. However as a green and local business, this is an opportunity to embrace the challenge and engage in new ways of attracting customers and generating sales. I detect a silver lining in this economic mess: As consumers slow down their purchasing habits it is a chance for green and local businesses to demonstrate the unique value of the innovative products that we sell. More...

TAGS: LIVE, "green business tips"

Running Around with Re-Run, Water Bottles Recycled into Bags

baby greens
HILLARY RYAN / Wednesday, April 16, 2008 04:36 PM

Here's the concept.
The US consumes 50 billion plastic bottles a year. 86% of US plastic bottles end up in landfills. Plastic bottles are made from oil and take 1000 years to breakdown.

Fleurville, a company "focused on creating compelling solutions for modern parents" and based in Northern California, has just come out with a new diaper bag made from Re-Run fabric made from plastic bottles. Known to many a hip mama as the maker of the MotherShip-- a ginormous diaper bag that can possible fit a whole baby's wardrobe and maybe the baby too (although I am certain that is not recommended) this new diaper bag comes in beautiful new designs and with the added cache of being "green". So how does the Re-Run measure up?  More...

TAGS: LIVE, babies, product reviews

BYOB - A User's Guide to Reusable Grocery Bags

EcoConsumer
TOM WATSON / Monday, March 3, 2008 01:17 PM

Will this be the year reusable grocery bags go mainstream? Let's hope so, because most major grocery stores in the area are doing their part. Nearly every grocery chain now sells a nice reusable bag (with their name on it) for about a dollar. Now it's up to us, the customers. So far, most Americans have not gotten into the mindset - prevalent in Europe - of bringing bags back to the grocery store. It doesn't have to be the store's bag, it can be any reusable bags, or even disposable plastic or paper bags that you reuse a bunch of times. Somehow we just need to remember to do it. So let's take a look at some of the great options now available here in the Seattle area if you want to Bring Your Own Bag. More...

TAGS: LIVE, accessories, grocery, product reviews

Some Thoughts on Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food"

Honest Food
DEVRA GARTENSTEIN / Friday, February 1, 2008 01:12 AM

I just finished reading Michael Pollan’s (http://www.michaelpollan.com) new bestseller, In Defense of Food. It’s a simple, informative guide to eating well which also tells part of the story of how we came to eat so badly in the first place. Pollan wrote the 2005 bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which raised awareness about the importance of local foodways.

The culprit in this book is the ideology of “nutritionism”, or the idea that foods are simply collections of nutrients, rather than complex biological systems whose combined effect is greater than the sum of their parts. If you subscribe to the philosophy of nutritionism, then you believe that the richness of whole foods can be replaced with chemical additives which put back the vitamins, macronutrients and micronutrients which have been lost to food processing and overworked soil. More...

TAGS: FOOD, book reviews, csas, farmers markets, grocery, local/organic food

Nokia's Eco Sensor Concept - Dreaming of a Greener Cell Phone

Technically Green
WILL VILLOTA / Monday, January 14, 2008 09:18 PM

Thanks to companies like Credo Mobile (formerly Working Assets) and recyclers like CollectiveGood.com, environmentally conscious consumers have long been able to choose a socially responsible cell phone plan and recycle their phones when they’re ready for a new one.

But consider that worldwide cell phone subscriptions surpassed 3.3 billion last year (equivalent to about half the world’s population). That’s a lot of cell phone handsets. And when you think about how often people upgrade their phones without recycling that’s a lot of handsets heading to the trash. In fact, more than half a billion cell phones are already in landfills.Nokia Eco Sensor ConceptSo it’s a relief to hear that Nokia, the world’s largest maker of cell phone handsets, is trying to create a greener cell phone. At last weeks Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas (nirvana for any tech junkies like me), Nokia debuted a non-working prototype of the Eco Sensor Concept they announced last year. The concept is a hybrid of eco friendly materials, energy efficiency and - get this – “a wearable sensor unit which can sense and analyze your environment, health, and local weather conditions.” Now that’s allotta phone. More...

TAGS: HOME, e-waste, green office, product reviews

Green Clutter and Junk: Magic Stapler and H-racer Product Review

multi-colored aliens
JEFF MARKWARDT / Saturday, January 5, 2008 10:26 PM

Is marketing of what really is just green clutter and junk on the rise? Are we as green consumers being targeted and, more importantly, is it working? These are the questions that arose after I had the opportunity to review TLM International’s Magic Stapler (around $10 on Amazon.com) and Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies’ H-racer (around $100 on Amazon.com). If you’re considering purchasing either the “eco-friendly” Magic Stapler or H-racer toy car—don’t. The Magic Stapler will not replace your stapler on your desk—even though that’s what you hope it will do. The H-racer—though it looks like and is packaged like a remote control car—is not a remote control car. It doesn’t even come with a remote. More...

TAGS: HOME, LIVE, eco toys, product reviews

Green Clutter and Junk: Magic Stapler and H-racer Product Review

Multi-Colored Aliens
JEFF MARKWARDT / Saturday, January 5, 2008 10:26 PM

Is marketing of what really is just green clutter and junk on the rise? Are we as green consumers being targeted and, more importantly, is it working? These are the questions that arose after I had the opportunity to review TLM International’s Magic Stapler (around $10 on Amazon.com) and Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies’ H-racer (around $100 on Amazon.com). If you’re considering purchasing either the “eco-friendly” Magic Stapler or H-racer toy car—don’t. The Magic Stapler will not replace your stapler on your desk—even though that’s what you hope it will do. The H-racer—though it looks like and is packaged like a remote control car—is not a remote control car. It doesn’t even come with a remote. More...

TAGS: HOME, LIVE, eco toys, product reviews

Chew on This..... Non-Toxic Teethers

baby greens
HILLARY RYAN / Thursday, January 3, 2008 11:08 PM

With all the toy recalls of late and a drooling infant screaming in pain as his teeth come in, I have begun my search for a non-toxic, preferably non-plastic, teether. According to an article in Consumer Reports, I am in search of a teether that has...

“ ...polyvinyl chloride (PVC), commonly known as vinyl. PVC's soft texture is imparted by "plasticizing" chemicals. The plasticizer most widely used in teethers is DINP, a member of the phthalate family of chemicals. Administered to lab animals at high doses, DINP has caused cancer and damaged the liver, kidneys, and other organs.”
                       

But since most teethers, alas most baby items don’t list specific ingredients, I am going to avoid plastic all together, if I can. As usual, the local stores aren't of much help, so it's on to the web for some help. I found quite a few options, you just have to be prepared to pay upwards of $10, compared to the old plastic teether from the drug store that runs $3. Anyhow, here are some options. More...

TAGS: LIVE, babies, product reviews

The Kill a Watt Helps Kill Watts

The E-Word
CHARLES REDELL / Friday, December 14, 2007 06:14 PM

Kill a WattAccording to a post from fellow EcoMetro blogger Scott Thomsen, a whopping 7 percent of my electricity use comes from items I'm not even using. For someone who bores his friends talking about clean coal and how it isn't really clean that's bad. So in an effort to find the worst phantom power offenders in my house, I decided to get a Kill A Watt EZMore...

TAGS: HOME, energy, energy efficiency, product reviews
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