T is for Twist

Twist my arm and I'll gladly tell you a new green secret!  I've discovered a few new green products by Twist LLC out of Boulder, Colorado at WholeFoods.  The 100% biodegradable* products are now part of my green cleaning routine.  I've been using them for a few months now, and one of my favorites is the Naked Sponge. 

First of all, the name is catchy in and of itself :)  And I admit, I chuckled when I read the product description for the Twist, Naked Sponge.  It reads, "Naked Sponge - Normally things with nudity might not be appropriate for all audiences.  In the case of the Naked Sponge, that couldn't be further from the truth.  Because by naked, we mean without colors and any of the adulterating stuff you might find in traditional sponges.  So please feel free to show these to your family and friends without risk of offending anyone."   So based on the description alone, and the promise of green cleaning, I decided to give it a try.

I like the fact that the Naked Sponge 100% biodegradable, and it can be sterilized by boiling it, popping the damp sponge into the microwave for 1 minute, or running through the dishwasher on the top-rack.   Compared to other sponges it has held up very well, hasn't gotten smelly, and since they come in a two pack, it's easy to keep rotating one into the dishwasher while still having one available for use.  http://www.twistclean.com/ 

So, whether you like nakedness, cleanliness, green-ness, or all 3, give this "green" sponge a try (as you can see from the picture, it's actually white and matches all decors :)

* biodegradable -  A biodegradable product can dissolve easily in the environment without destroying nature.

Back to School Supplies

Wow, back-to-school prep and activities have been keeping us pretty busy!  We are finally settling into the schedules for 4 different schools, homework, sports, and other activities...as soon as September comes, it's like the pulse of the family starts to race!

The back-to-school supply lists that come home are usually pretty classic, including scissors, pens, pencils, notebooks, crayons and markers.  Even before my family had school supply lists, in fact as soon as each child was old enough to hold a pencil, they've been scribbling, doodling, and creating with Crayola products.  I guess you could say, they've always been a family favorite.  This year when it was time to sift through the supply lists for my kids, it brought a smile to my face and warmed my heart when I learned about Crayola's new "Eco-Evolution" and the greening of their products by using renewable energy, protecting the rainforests, and by reducing waste.  http://www.crayola.com/green/

Sweet Pea was the first to notice the new initiatives by Crayola.  She brought me her crayon box and showed me that they now are using solar power to make 1/3 of their crayons, which is equal to about a billion crayons each year made with solar power.  To accomplish this, they built a 15-acre solar farm with 26,000 panels.  Pretty impressive!  Wonder if they'll name a crayon, "solar panel blue"?

To "green" their colored pencils, they produced them with reforested wood which is wood taken from special tree farms grown specifically for harvesting, and not from tropical rain forest.  Crayola plants new trees for every one tree used to make the pencils.  Maybe they should name one of the green pencils "sustainable harvest green"  :)

And black is now in vogue at crayola...you may have noticed that Crayola colored markers have black barrels instead of white. Crayola is now using recycled plastic bottle caps to make the marker barrels.  In addition, plastic scraps from making marker casings are crushed into tiny pellets and put back into the system. The black color of the barrels allows more recycled plastic to be used, in turn keeping 1 million pounds of plastic bottle caps and scrap plastic out of  landfills.


During my back-to-school supply shopping, I found a "green" highlighter by Pentel.  It is part of the new Recycology™ the Science of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle program, which Pentel developed "to enhance its mission of helping the environment by creating less waste and increasing recycling activity" through innovative product design and manufacturing.  With this line of products, Pentel's goal is to "protect natural resources and the environmental at all stages of the manufacturing process" and it is accomplished by using a minimum of 50% recycled content (excluding consumable content and refills).   


The Handy-lineS, ultraslim highlighters I found are made from 54% post consumer recycled plastic.  I also like that they are retractable and refillable, creating less waste.  Even the packaging is made from cardstock that is 100% recycled, and the plastic blister front piece is a minimum of 25% recycled material!

There are many outstanding products in this line, including the popular mechanical pencil leads which come in 100% recycled plastic case, many pens, white board marker, and permanent markers made with 50-80% recycled plastic www.pentel.com .  I like that Pentel is recycling products that would otherwise end up in the landfill. 


Paper Mate also has green products that are impressive.  Their line of biodegradable pens and pencils, have barrels that unscrew and are made from corn-based material.  After removing the interior plastic/ink piece that is not biodegradable, the barrel decomposes in the compost or landfill in about a year.  They also have products made from recycled materials such as their correction film (67% recycled material), ball point pens made with 70-80% recycled materials.  I found the Earth Write pencils and added that to our back-to-school supply pile.  These pencils are made from 100% recycled cedar.  They also participate with Terracycle one of my favorite eco-entrepreneurial companies that up-cycling materials using innovative designs http://papermate.com/Pages/terracycle.aspx.   

So while there may have been a tad bit of back to school blues that banished quickly as our daily pace quickened ...we also found some back-to-school green to start the year off write ;)  I'm sure you found many green school supplies in your travels too.  Leave a comment to let me know what you've found! 


Sources:
http://www.crayola.com/canwehelp/contact/faq_view.cfm?id=100
http://www.crayola.com/green/products.cfm
http://www.crayola.com/green/presskit.cfm
http://www.pentel.com/recycology/index.html
http://www.pentel.com/recycology/press.html 
http://papermate.com/Pages/biodegradeable.aspx

who would've guess

So continuing with the Rec Room project (flooded), and the lemons to lemonade, I decided to change the paint color.  I did not end up with a no VOC paint because I already had the color from previous project, and wanted to use that up as well.  

But I was thrilled to find out that there are now biodegradable plastic paint trays, and biodegradable plastic drop cloths!  Who would've guessed!   So of course we went with those options ;) 

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xh3/R-100495893/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Black Mush

Today I inadvertently found something neat while shopping for new shoes for the 4 kids.  Darn it their feet keep growing!  Well, as it turns out when shopping for shoes, I ended up looking too, and got a new pair that I think may become a favorite :)  They are Teva Mush sandals.  The black mush is so soft and cushy, it made me wonder if the rubber is recycled like the rubber on some tracks and courts.  

What I did find out was that the Teva parent company has some green roots!  I figured it out when I noticed an insert in the box (which would be used to hold the shoes up on a rack).  At first I thought uggh, how wasteful, but then I read it, and lo and behold, "this hanger is biodegradable"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I though, NO WAY!!!!  So then I checked out the shoe box that states that the box is "printed on recycled materials, 100% recyclable, please recycle all packaging"   The box also states that the company is also a supporter of Waterkeepers alliance that protects the Earth's waterways (www.waterkeeper.org). 

So, I went to the Teva website to learn more, and found that their parent company, Deckers  has done quite a nice job of  limiting their footprint!  AhhhHAHA, they should market themselves about their reduced carbon "footprint".  Get it?  :) You can check them out at  http://www.deckers.com/esc/distribution.aspx  Wouldn't it be great if all companies walked in their footsteps?