Reusable Bags NewsReuse & Recycle Eco Community

I’d like to introduce American Natural Products to our eco friendly community.  Here’s an excerpt from their “About us” page.

Since 1983 American Natural Products has been a pioneer in the development, manufacture and marketing of biorational pest management and plant growth promoting products used in agricultural and horticultural crop production.  Our product line has been proven effective through many years of University trials and customer experiences. These products have been used across the United States and in many countries, by homeowners, lawn-care companies, turfgrass managers, landscapers, greenhouses and nurseries, vegetable growers and grain farmers.  Our continuing commitment to produce only ecologically safe and effective technologies makes American Natural Products an unparalleled resource in today’s rapidly changing agronomic world.

Through the success of our products in extensive commerical applications, we have been inspired to continue expanding our offering of safe environmentally friendly solutions to the  homeowner and small business owner.

Those interested in large commercial applications may wish to visit our other website: http://www.soiltechcorp.com.

I’d like to introduce ahhNatural.com to our eco friendly community.  Here are some excerpts from their site:

As people become more aware of the health hazards associated with harsh chemicals, and the environmental hazards associated with releasing chemically treated spa water into the environment, they have begun to seek out “green” alternatives.

ahhNatural was developed as a people safe, environmentally friendly alternative to traditional toxic chemical sanitizers.  ahhNatural is an easy-to-use natural hot tub maintenance product based on the same advanced technology commonly used in the water purification industry. ahhNatural has been perfected in over ten years of research and development.

I’d like to introduce Alchemy Goods to our eco-friendly community. I came across their recent blog article about seat belt harvesting and their creative methods for obtaining raw materials.  AlchemyGoods.com has been featured in Business Week and the Seattle Times because of the way they think outside the box to turn seemingly useless materials into useful and stylish bags and accessories. Here’s an excerpt from their “about Ag” page on their site:

Our mission is simple: “Turning useless into useful.”

Alchemy is the medieval science of turning lead into gold. More generally, it means magically turning something of lesser value into something of greater value. For us, the value isn’t economical so much as ecological. We look for materials that are normally discarded that might have value with a little bit of imagination and some hard work.

Every Alchemy Goods bag purchased represents one less part of our world destroyed. That’s why all our products should have the highest possible recycled content, but also be superbly functional and aesthetically pleasing.

NO WASTE PAPER PRODUCTS: RECYCLED BY ESSENTIAL – Households work their way through hundreds of toilet rolls and kitchen towel sheets every year, hardly sparing these commodity paper items a thought. But they are worth thinking about because the recycled alternatives don’t only save raw materials – they also save energy and reduce air pollution compared to making new products. In fact, recycled paper production uses 40% to 60% less energy than making new paper from trees, and reduces contribution to air pollution by 95%. Now there’s a thought.

Ecologically-aware, ethical brand Essential has introduced Essential Recycled Toilet Rolls and Essential Recycled 2-Ply Kitchen Towel made from 100% washed recycled, unbleached, undyed materials. The toilet rolls are soft, strong and very ethical: they cost £2.49 for four rolls. The 2-Ply kitchen towel is both strong and absorbent and costs £1.49 for two rolls. Both items have received an Ethical Consumer magazine best buy award and are unbrightened and not tested on animals.

The packaging is made from polymers which contain materials from renewable sources such as GM free potato starch. It is 100% compostable and 100% biodegradable. So now you can clean up your act at home, by opting for these Essential ecological household products. Doing your bit for the environment is as easy as tearing paper! Find the recycled Essential Toilet Rolls and Essential Kitchen Towel at good health food shops and at www.ethicallyessential.coop.

For more information or images, visit www.ethicallyessential.coop or contact: Katherine Selby, PR Workshop, 020 8657 4422, Katherine@prworkshop.co.uk

I’d like to welcome Glenda Taylor from Balm Balm to our Eco Friendly Community.  Glenda also has a great blog at http://www.balmbalmblog.com/

Here’s a word from Glenda:

My name is Glenda and I am the founder of Balm Balm.

I am an aromatherapist, perfumer and natural formulation consultant. Together with Haydn, we founded Balm Balm, a 100% organic skincare company in 2005. Balm Balm is the result of my dream to create an affordable 100% organic skincare range with wide distribution and Soil Association certification. In 2007, Balm Balm won The Soil Association’s Organic industry award for Best Organic Beauty and Bodycare product. Alongside Balm Balm we have Enata, a Bespoke Perfume Service making ‘one off’ Perfumes for individuals as well as ready to wear scents. One of our perfumes ‘Angel Water’ has recently won critical acclaim from Rocca Dove, both in The Mail on Sunday and The Green Beauty Bible, as one of his favourite natural fragrances. A thought sharted by Vogue UK, who rather sweetly declared me to be one of their favourite aromatherapists!

I’d like to welcome Lucy O’Callaghan and Cancer.Org.uk to our eco friendly community.  Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research. Their groundbreaking work has saved millions of lives and their websites have a wealth of information about cancer, their research, how to donate and more ways to support them.  They also have a charity gift shop where 100% of the profits go towards lifesaving research, check it out:

http://www.giftshop.cancerresearchuk.org/

What’s even more impressive is to go along with all the other great things they do, Cancer Research UK is also seriously committed to going green. I’ll let Lucy elaborate:

Cancer Research UK published our Sustainability Policy in 2009 to demonstrate our commitments to reducing impacts on the environment through all aspects of our work.

The sustainability policy laid out 6 key goals for the charity to work towards including:

• Eliminate, replace or reduce the use of environmentally deleterious materials where feasible and ensure safe handling and disposal to prevent pollution
• Through following the three R’s; reduce, reuse or recycle we have made a commitment to reducing waste to landfill/incineration by 30% by April 2012

Cancer Research UK is also dedicated to upholding high ethical purchasing standards and include environmental and social considerations as a factor in purchasing decisions – we successfully demonstrated our commitment to this goal by winning won Gold for the London Mayor Green procurement Code in 2009.

Our environmental image and healthy lifestyle focus is something that we are very proud of and is widely publicised and we continually strive towards embedding these aims into all aspects of our work both internally and externally.

Lucy O’Callaghan

Business Support Executive

Gear For My Baby – It is our lifelong commitment to only provide products that secure the protection of our environment for the safety and future of our children. it is our mission is to make a difference in the choices available to parents by offering to you a baby store that provides the best in organic baby clothing lines all made with the best quality organic products and no compromise on the quality, comfort and wellbeing of your child. Our suppliers operate in accordance with a Total Quality Management System to ensure highest quality in the production these organic products, and services offered by our company. Our commitment is purity in all products.

Cleaning Green Maids is a local, family owned maid service in Hinsdale, in the western suburbs of Chicago. We created Cleaning Green Maids due to our own dissatisfaction with other maid services and independent cleaning ladies, we employed in our own home. We were tired of maids who would clean around an object rather than moving it. Maids you had to remind every time to do simple things that should have been second nature to them. If something looked clean to them, they would just skip it altogether. We wanted to feel like our home was sparkling as well, if not better than we could do ourselves. We wanted to feel like we had gotten our monies worth, instead usually we just felt cheated. We tried calling other services but when we would ask about detailed or deep cleaning….they did not want the job. It was then that we realized what was desperately needed in this industry.

I learned to how to clean the “right” way from my Czech grandmother. Polish cleaning ladies are famous for their excellent work, but Czech cleaning ladies are Europe’s best kept secret. I personally think they are the best in the world. I train every maid we employ myself, in the Old World European way my grandmother taught me.

When our son was born in 2004, we naturally took a vested interest in making sure our home was as healthy as possible for him. We started learning about ‘green’ cleaning. We read everything we could about indoor pollution from toxic household chemicals. It was then we realized that we could take our service one step further and offer not only freedom from housework, but freedom from toxic poisons as well. Along with the gift of time, would be the gift of health. We knew that there were many families just like ours who wanted the best for their children too, as well as many people who just wanted to feel better themselves. A wonderful bonus was that the environment would be benefiting right along with it. Thus, Cleaning Green Maids was born. We hope you will allow our family to be of service to your family.

I’d like to welcome Dan from Green Earth Print and Design to our Eco Friendly Community.  Here is a very interesting message from their team, I love how they’ve incorporated the idea of collective consciousness with our individual efforts to go green.

We all play a part in the consciousness of the planet. Our individual thoughts, words and actions affect the “Collective Consciousness” of humanity. Our collective consciousness of consumption has brought us to a point in time where climate change and global warming have become  serious issues on the planet. Individually and collectively we can help minimize and eventually even reverse the effects of climate change.

We all need to “Bloom Where We’re Planted”, and for us at Green Earth, it’s in the industries of Graphic Design and Print. While the print industry may never be totally “GREEN”, there are major steps being taken to limit the carbon footprint left on the planet from this industry.  Among these improvements in the industry are soy based and vegetable based inks with very low VOC’s, 100% recycled papers and even tree-free papers. Read more about Green Printing

We see it as our responsibility to our local community and the planet to help educate our clients, to the best of our  knowledge on what’s available in terms of new, earth friendly technologies and resources in the Graphic Arts and Print Industries, as well as further educating ourselves in the process.

A Few of The Things We Do
Brochures, Letterheads, Envelopes, Business Cards, Corporate Collateral, Presentation Folders, Posters, Large Format, Carbonless, Postcards, Specialty Printing, Books, POP Displays, Prepress, Graphic Design, Bindery, Foil Stamping, Embossing, Die Cutting

It’s my pleasure to welcome Simon and the team from Green Woods Furniture to our Eco Friendly Community.  Take it away Green Woods:

Green Woods Furniture is a unique, Bristol based, independent retailer, supplying homes throughout the UK with a superb range of quality furniture, beds, organic mattresses and accessories. Using only materials from sustainable and reclaimed sources, all of our furniture and mattresses are handmade in the UK and include many exclusive pieces from specialist, low volume makers.  We only sell the finest, natural organic mattresses, all are handmade by Abaca in South Wales and all are certified by the Soil Association.