Disposable plastic bottles = bad.
A hat made from 100% post-consumer recycled water bottles = Good Green Hat by renowned green-designer Susan Todd.
Just in time for winter and the holidays, a very nice and soft fleece hat that not only will keep your head warm, but also give planet earth a hug. Plus, it’s only $14.95, making it an affordable gift. The waterproof hat also fits all head sizes.
Amazingly, it only takes two recycled PET bottles to make one of these hats. With 100,000 hats, 200,000 bottles were recycled to a better life instead of sitting in landfills. Visit GoodGreenThings.com to …read more

For the handy DIYer, Remake it Home provides projects and inspiration on reusing just about anything to make a new item for the house. (I received a free copy for review.)
Remake it Home: The Essential Guide to Resourceful Living by Henrietta Thompson includes 20 step-by-step projects revealing how to make things like a freezer from terra cotta pots or a layered cupcake stand from plates and cups.

At 272 pages, the emphasis isn’t really on the step-by-step projects. The book serves as more of a visual and inspirational showcase of products remade from items that have served their purpose — junk. …read more

During all of this SIGG has BPA in the liner drama going down, maybe one of the most peeved individuals I’ve run into about it has been our own Peggy – aka, ex-Tree Hugging Family co-blogger extraordinaire. At Blisstree Green I posted about the SIGG issue as well and Peggy left an interesting comment about looking for glass water bottles. She posted a link to one type of glass water bottle, but didn’t love the reviews. It got me wondering if there was a better glass reusable water bottle out there, one Peggy might like, and after a little search …read more

My pal Julie recently launched a shop, Autopia, that carries some green goods for those in the Autism Spectrum, those that care for them, and anyone that wants to show their support for the Spectrum.
Julie’s daughter is autistic and she created the site because as she notes, “Too many people stare when kids on the spectrum act up, but the kids can’t help their actions. So, I thought…there are kids and adults that act ‘bad’ and /can/ help it, why is that ok and why should they think they’re better than the ASD kids? We taught our daughter to say …read more

Yesterday I posted some eco-lunch kit choices and said that my son Cedar was going to have to choose one. Then I said I’d be back with the results. I had an idea about which he’d choose, but instead, like a typical kid, he decided to TOTALLY surprise me.
I showed him all the choices, and he looked them up and down, and sideways, and made me read him the stats about them. He’s eight, and he’s saying, “So what does that bag measure?” For pete’s sake. Anyhow, his decision…
You won’t believe it:

He says, “I think I’ll just stick with the …read more

So, Cedar’s lunch sack died this summer. He’s currently using the Bamboo lunch sack for camp, but it’s not appropriate for a kid all year at school I don’t think. One recent con I’ve found is that because it’s cloth, ice packs act badly in there (see an updated review).
In any case, Cedar my son is super picky about stuff. Clothes, toys, books, and so on, so I knew choosing a lunch pack wouldn’t be easy, but it’s actually been harder then I thought. He’s snubbed some eco-lunch kits as not cool enough already and our options are wavering. Of …read more

Now that fall is quickly coming up on us, you’ll need to find your kids a nice lunch bag or lunch box. Preferably a sustainable option. Today I’ve got a review of one option…
Product: Environmentally-Friendly 100% Bamboo Lunch Bag from New Wave Enviro Products

Basics: 100% Bamboo Lunch Bag; reusable, good for kids or adults.
Cost: $17.79
Eco-perks:
Waste-Free Lunches notes on average one school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year. That’s about 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size elementary school. Reusable lunch sacks cut down on this incredible waste.
Bamboo is one of the …read more

Cloth napkins are one of my favorite green tips for green newbies. They’re easy to start using, cut consumption, and save trees. Plus for a family they’re very cost affective. Then today I saw that posted the following:Treehugger
Are Paper Napkins More Environmentally Friendly?

This piece notes that the footprint may be smaller if a big business (think restaurant) uses paper. They’ve got calculations to back it up. While they do err on the side of cloth still being better for home use, they got their calculations by factoring in typical cotton napkins not organics or other fabrics (although they do …read more

With kids, you end up with a lot of gear. I’m a minimalist pretty much and it’s obnoxious because after Cedar, my son was born, we started accumulating all kinds of nonsense items. People give you TONS of baby and kid stuff, plus, it seems like there’s always some new item they’ve outgrown or out-smarted, thus new ones are in order. First of all you can try to minimize kid gear (easier said then done), secondly you can donate or recycle items, and thirdly, if you get creative you can re-purpose old gear into new gear.

Here are some ideas:

Pants that …read more

You can recycle magazines – even glossy mags, just toss them in your bins after checking with your local recycling center. However, since it takes energy and trees to make magazines and because it also uses energy to recycle them, you may as well get some good mileage out of them first. Following are some goods ways to reuse the magazines you’ve got…

Donate – many schools, community centers, homeless shelters, and other organizations would be happy to take your magazines. Don’t forget about your pals and family members too.
Make a nice full color cookbook on the cheap.
Help your kiddos to …read more