The Fresh Ideas Group’s 2009 Consumer Trends Forecast is worth checking out if you’re interested in what’s hot and not on the green scene for 2009.
They sent me a nice little chart with the basics:

While I can’t say that I agree that recycling is out of style, and I’m so not jumping on the boxed wine train, it’s an overall good list. The actual forecast piece goes into much more detail and it’s an interesting read.
Check it out.
Source: The Fresh Ideas Group

Reusable bags make awesome holiday gifts. You can stuff them with candy treats or cookies, and this is a gift that can be, and actually will be used for years and years. You can help your friends and family stay green or go green with a great bag.
I found some really nice reusable bag options – pretty ones that would make great gifts this year…

Wild Flowers Organic Cotton Eco Lunch Bag from Art And Philanthropy

Tomorrow is Black Friday and Buy Nothing Day. I already know what I’m planning on doing. Have you decided? If you’re leaning toward Buy Nothing Day, but still need a little help deciding what you can do, here are some activities you can try tomorrow…

Find a BND event.
Do the obvious – hang with the family, have a cookie baking day, play games, go for a walk, plant a tree, play dress-up, sing, make some crafts, it’s a great day to find a family activity.
Go to a store, but not to shop, instead stick one of these up quietly.
Get started on …read more

You may remember the popular BYOB Challenge – the bring your own reusable bag challenge and the Paper Towel Challenge. In any case, we haven’t had a green challenge in a while here at Tree Hugging Family, but this month, it’s on.
Your green challenge, for November 2008, should you choose to accept it, is…
To buy nothing on Buy Nothing Day 2008.

Steps to take:

Our month-long June theme was the hefty topic of reusable shopping bags. We blogged and blogged bags, and yet there’s so much more we could have blogged. Bags are a big deal. We’ll likely revisit this feature at some point. If you missed any bag goodness, here’s a round-up of all things reusable bags…
The BYOB challenge:

The challenge kicks off
First BYOB challenge update
BYOB Challenge Update!!!
CHANGE: A Summer Surprise Contest
Reusable Bag Challenge Update – How Did Your Entire Month Go?

Reusable bag basics and overcoming issues:

How Many Reusable Bags Do You Need?
Overcoming Reusable Bag Shyness
Pros and Cons of String Market Bags
Reusable …read more

This month we’ve all been working hard on the reusable bag challenge. Now is your chance to tell us how you did.
Myself: I did pretty good. I only ended up with the one lame video store bag. Thankfully, I averted some clerks during the month, who were trying little sneaks, like re bagging my fruit into plastic. One bag is not so bad. I worked really hard to take my bags with me everywhere. I basically always kept them in the car, which worked well for pet store trips, and other quick stops.
Now, how did you do? Also, look for …read more

Bag month has been a little hectic. Too bad, because there’s just oh so many bags to see. In any case, I’m going to try and fit in a few more bags before we kick off out cool July theme.
I saw these bags originally at Eco Friendly Driver, and fell in love, because Hil had posted the light olive green darling carry bag – I’m a sucker for light olive green bags. I wanted to post it here, forgot, and then one of the store owners emailed me with some info.
Stephanie, co-business owner of Olive Smart notes the following about …read more

Inexpensive is relative; one person’s inexpensive is another person’s not so much. However, for the sake of this post, I’m naming right around $10 and under as a decent inexpensive bag. Yeah you can get store brand non-washable bags for 99 cents, but I’m more on the fence of folks buying a decent washable set. One, you can wash them. Two, they hold up better (in my experience). Three; and I’ve noted this before, but research shows that not everyone recycles those store brand bags.
So some inexpensive choices:

[Biome Lifestyle’s reusable bag – £6.00 – only downside is that this one …read more

This bag!
In wildly expensive bag news (Julie will love this one) I present you with this adorable, but WAY too expensive bag option…
The “Think Green” Organic Cotton Kermit Tote:

Pros:

Totally adorable
Organic
Comes with buttons – if you’re into that sort of thing.
It saves plastic bags

Con:
Um, almost $40 PLUS $8 shipping, for anything, even a hand spun by the queen, organic bag, is frankly, INSANE. I’m sorry, but here’s the deal; if people really want to make a difference and create change, they’re going to need to make nice organic items accessible to all of us, not just rock stars and others with …read more

Go me… Go me!
So far, I’m only in for one bag – my previously mentioned lame movie store situation bag. I haven’t used that one bag for anything yet though. I decided to place it by the door to the garage. This way, when we’re on the way out, I see it and think “LAME” – which has been great for reminding me to always grab a bag, if I know there’s not one in the car.
Other than that, I’ve got nothing to report because I rock. I did look up some basic stats on bag use – none are …read more