A duct tape that is completely biodegradable. It degrades back into organic material within 15 years. It’s made of 100% recycled material, which means no trees where killed to make this eco duct tape!

The tape begins to degrade after 1 year which is the same as conventional tape. Remember that duct tape is made for temporary repairs anyways.

The company who produces it, Tape Brothers, also contributes 5% of the cost towards planting trees in the U.S.

ShareThis

Found via, the Alternative Consumer, this device called the Tricklesaver plugs into your computer peripheral power strip and your computer. It will then sense when your computer is in shutdown or standby mode, and then power down the power strip accordingly! Excellent as most of your peripherals use power when your computer is in hibernate or shutdown mode. Power adapters for peripherals waste a lot of energy and have no off switches.

It has been estimated that while there is a small amount of waste energy per household in the U.S., it does add up to 10% of household consumption. Estimates say that there is enough wasted energy in the U.S. from standby power to power the countries of Vietnam, Peru, and Greece!

For now there is still no price, but it will go on sale in January. There will be a model for other electronics such as your living room home theater too or other appliances. Check Tricklestar.

ShareThis

J. Lynne Cosmetics is a young company specializing in all natural cosmetics. The whole line of cosmetics is made in small batches and completely free of chemicals, fragrances and dyes. Plus non of their ingredients are animal tested. They are all vegan-friendly!

Jessica Lynne Miller is the owner and creator of the company. She started developing her own line after years of using traditional cosmetics which caused her irritation, and acne prone skin. She spent a whole year researching and developing her cosmetic line before launching in January 2005.

Try the all natural lip gloss available in lush, juicy colors. Enhances with a blend of sweet almond, avocado, orange peel, beeswax and Vitamin E.

You can find makeup from foundation to blush to eyeliner and eyeshadow and lip balms.

ShareThis

Treehugger had a good article on whether bamboo laptops are beneficial to the environment. Besides the eco friendly looks that wood gives there are benefits to using bamboo.

Bamboo is more biodegradable than plastic, and bamboo can be harvested in a sustainable way since it grows very fast like a weed. Plastic uses too much chemicals and is difficult to biodegrade. You can recycle plastic, but we must develop computer components in a way that they can be taken apart for recycling. Until then we are just going to see these hazardous electronic parts back in the landfill.

Anyways there are more options for bamboo computers such as the:

Asus Eco book is $2000 but only includes 1 GB of ram.

Dell has the Studio Hybrid which has a bamboo sleeve option. Ultra sleek design with power efficiency. Its get just about the same features as a regular pc except its 80% smaller and uses 70% power. These cool laptops are portable and affordable. Go Dell!!

The Fujitsu laptop is actually made with cedar wood. Even the plastics are made of bio-based plastics! It’s only a prototype, but it could be the future for us. In 2002, Fujitsu became the first computer manufacturer to develop corn-based plastic and adopt the environmentally friendly material for PC parts. Original bio-based plastic has been used for a limited number of smaller parts and gradual improvements to its properties to satisfy various manufacturing requirements and increase the percentage used in its notebook PCs. The newly developed bio-based plastic accounts for about 30% of the plastic material in the housings of 2 of their prototype laptops.

ShareThis

Cool looking belts made from recycled bike inner tubes. Very cool for all you bikers to display your eco friendliness.

The entrepreneur from Australia wanted a way to put all those discarded inner tubes to good use and did he find a way! Each belt is unique as they come from different inner tube manufacturers. They are hand crafted too. The only problem I see is that they are $45!

Via Inhabitat.

ShareThis

Sexy pump heel by Terra Plana is made from recycled quilts from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Each pair features unique patterns though. At least nobody will be able to copy you!

You can also go for the all leather look pictured below.The leather is vegetable tanned opposed to chrome tanning which is more pollutant. Vegetable extracts create deep color in the leather.

See more eco friendly shoes at Terra Plana. The company believes in sustainable practices and materials suth as chrome free leathers, vegetable tanned leathers, recycled materials, and recycled foam beds. The even invented something called E-leather which is a blend of leather and textile fibers ‘re-woven’ to make it indistinguishable from real leather. Its produces with less water and pollutants as real leather.

Via Sexy Fashion.

ShareThis

The only problem for most of us is that its $2700. Not exactly budget friendly in these times, but its the future now. The company, Calfee Design, is working to improve their production process. For instance, it wants to grow the bamboo stalks in the right size for the bike frame components. That way they can go directly assembled into the bike. It would be like having “a factory in the field.”

Bamboo is underrated and none as a “poor man’s timber”. But in actuality it has a greater tensile strength (resistance to being pulled apart) than steel. It can withstand compression better than concrete too. Bamboo grows up to 60 feet tall and it has the same width from bottom to top. As a result all the compression strength is needed to hold its own weight and tensile strength to bend in the wind without breaking.

Calfee Design who started making bikes with carbon fiber is gambling bamboo will be the next hot bike material. Its eco friendly as bamboo grows fast like a weed and can easily be sustainably harvested.

Calfee Design is also working with the people of Ghana to help them grow their own bamboo bikes! Perhaps if we give them the knowledge then they can mass produce them for the masses and make them affordable for everyone! The project is called the Village Bicycle Project (VBP). Training on construction, repair, and maintenance is given to Ghanans. The metal components are derived from used bike parts in Ghana.

See Calfee Design

ShareThis

BMW is finally making progress on a hybrid sedan. Its still in concept though so you will have to wait another 2 years? We need more hybrid selections for the masses with only the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic, and Ford Escape being about the only options out there.

This BMW sedan has an electric motor system that helps add to the thrust and the engine stops completely when the the car is stopped, adding 15% to fuel economy. The battery back also gets charged through the breaking system, and also powers the car’s on board electronics. Every little innovation helps!

This hybrid will feature ample power with a 4.4 liter V8 when running on gas, but the final result will still be MPG in the low 20’s! Do we really need that much power! I guess its only about 5 mpg better than a regular 7 series. It will sell because someone who can already afford this vehicle surely has more to afford the hybrid.

The Toyota Prius would deliver 40 mpg if it were not a hybrid because of its aerodynamic design and small motor. So at 50 mpg its not a vast improvement, but its very significant.

Via Autoblog.com

ShareThis

Made from sustainable hardwood and very classy looking as well. Should fit in your stylish bedroom or living room. It fills a small space, but delivers big sound with 15 watt speakers. It comes with 8 iPod adapters and you can hook up with mp3 players too.

Find it at Vivavi.com
Via Furniture Home Design.com

ShareThis