Couronne Co Eco Product Review

Couronne Co make glass bottles, vases, jars, bowls and candle holders from recycled glass. I was sent some fantastic products, a gerbera bud vase, a blue glass ball vase and a diamond red bottle.

From their website they explain that Couronne prides itself on offering a vast selection of glassware and home décor products that are both eco-friendly and affordable. They recognize the importance of recycling glass, because it not only conserves the environment but it also saves energy. The process required to produce glass is quite simple as it is composed of sand, soda, lime and a lot of heat. The obvious benefits of recycling glass is to reuse and save our natural resources but the most important benefit of recycled glass is that it requires considerably less energy than that which is needed to melt raw materials.

As you can see I didn’t take the photos myself (their website already had them), but I do personally have them and they’re sturdy and stylish. They have some great other products on their website, some of which would make a perfect gift for the eco-aware birthday girl (or boy).

Nalgene Plastic Water Bottles Eco Product Review

Nalgene sent me a lot of their bottles to test, seven in total. Reusable bottles are a great alternative (we’ve previously looked at SIGG) and these plastic bottles represent many different styles and uses so it was great to test them.

From left to right in the image below we received two 32oz wide mouth HDPE Retro bottles; Oasis Loop Red Top; Loop Top - Sunny Yellow; pink ATB Bottle; OTG bottle; and a Loop top.

As you can see the bottles vary quite a lot. All are extremely durable, resistant to staining, resistant to retaining odors, dishwasher safe (top rack only) and guaranteed leak proof. The wide mouth bottles didn’t really appeal to me, though are much easier for getting ice into them, and can be hand washed easily. The other narrower bottles really have to go in the dishwasher to get properly clean. Our favorite is the OTG bottle that does not leach any taste, is a handy size and very sturdy. It probably looks the best out of them all, and can be opened with one hand.

It’s a tough choice to choose a reusable water bottle these days. Which ones leach, which ones don’t, is plastic reusable OK, or are aluminum or steel bottles better? What is the cost of manufacture compared to “disposable” plastic bottles? I think it comes down to a personal choice, and depends what you use them for - the plastic ones are lighter and more ideal for sports (such as fitting in bicycle cages or graduations for measuring energy supplements), whilst I think for walking/hiking the metal ones are perhaps sturdier. For day-to-day work and the like then pretty much pick whatever you’re comfortable with. Nalgene certainly have a massive range of styles, shapes and colors from which to choose and see what you like.

The bottles range from $6 and more and are available in many, many different styles and colors from Nalgene.

LetsGoGreen Eco Product Reviews

LetsGoGreen is a business that believe their products can make a positive difference one home at a time. They’re environmentally friendly, and are selected specifically for use in every room in the house.

We were sent a few items to take a look at. Their 100% Recycled Toilet Paper is free of dyes, inks and fragrances and is recycled without chlorine or bleaching. Frankly, as far as I can tell, this was the same as the non-recycled type, so there is absolutely no reason not to switch from the non-recycled type which are cutting down ancient forests. If every home in America changed just one roll for a recycled roll, then it would save a million trees a year.

Another no-brainer is to switch to Ecosafe degradable trash bags. We have the 13-gallon Tall Kitchen Bags. Ecosafe bags are just like regular plastic bags, except that they will totally degrade and compost in 12 to 24 months. They contain an additive called DCP which remains dormant until triggered by sufficient UV light, heat or mechanical stress. The bags leave no toxic or harmful residue.

Finally, I’m getting quite good at looking at reusable bags. Their canvas totes are made in the U.S.A. and are grocery-sized and sturdy. Dimensions are 18″ L x 7″ W x 17.5″ H (with 13″ handles), and carries quite a lot. I actually also use it to carry other reusable bags around in

A four pack of 100% Recycled Toilet Paper is only $2.39 (on sale), Ecosafe kitchen or trash bags start at only $2.99 and the reusable canvas tote $9.99 from LetsGoGreen.biz. Plus they have a 25% off FRIEND discount on!

Gerhard van den Heever’s Eco Egg Pots Product Review

Pottery isn’t my strong subject, but when Louisa from Adila (just & fair) suggested we take a look at these Eco Eggs we couldn’t resist. And we’re glad we didn’t. We got a set of four Eco Eggs and they look lovely.

Made by South African potter Gerhard van den Heever (pictured without his shirt on, like all good potters - I’ve seen Ghost), the Eco Egg Pots is made from clay from the local area - Paternoster on the west coast. Any clay that gets discarded during the production of the pits is dried in the sun and manually wedged till it’s ready to use again.

And that’s not all, he reuses the water needed in making his pieces by watering flowers and vegetables surrounding his shop and studio - lovely. And even lovelier, he gives away the flowers and veg - the flowers go to the local tea garden for decoration and the vegetables go to the locals on a help yourself basis. And even better, the kiln used to fire the Eco Egg Pot is fuelled by waste sawdust from a nearby furniture manufacturer. Splendid.

But what of the pots themselves? Well we received four and they range in sizes and colours - each is unique. They’re anywhere from 6-12cm high and a bit smaller in width - not quite round. They’re a brown and white mix and again it depends on which ones you get as to what colour they are.

However all of them have a neck and a hole in them. The necks are quite rough and look like they’ve been snapped off but that’s the style. I’m not sure if you’re meant to put anything in it but you wouldn’t be able to fit more than a single flower in most of them anyway.

The bases are also rougher, being unglazed. I actually like the unglazed look a bit more that the rest of the egg but that’s just me. Gerhard’s signature and (sometimes date) are inscribed on the bottom. I’ve attached a few pictures and a little video (below) to give you a sense of scale more than anything, but for some more pictures and to buy one or a set, you can go on the Adila website here. They cost £18 each (although in March 2008 they’re down on special offer at £15) and £56 for a set of four (£44 in March 2008).

Disposable Leaf Plates Eco Product Review

Ganesha is an alternative trading outfit that markets the traditional industries of India, working directly with the producers. We’ve more about them in our Paisley Park Jute Shopper Product Review.

The sent Life Goggles a pack of 20 leaf plates to test. But where do you start testing a plate? Kev did an excellent review of some plates made from potato starch so I did what any self-respecting blogger would do and thought I’d copy him.

But as it turns out, these are quite different products. These disposable plates are made from sal and siali leaves, from the forests of Orissa, east India. And as you’d expect, leaves can’t hold that much weight so doing a test like Kev’s weight bearing experiment with apples was a no goer, in fact it struggles with a knife and fork on it. For an easy comparison, think of the leaf plates as a replacement for paper plates at parties or barbecues. But bigger. They’re about 30cm (12″) in diameter.

So how do they fare? Pretty well to be honest, they’re used in India for festivals and weddings and you can see why. They’re flexible and you can hold it with one hand to squeeze it together a little to keep things secure, however your hand needs to be underneath as it will just bend if you hold it by the edge with something heavy on it.

As I said, it’s ideal for snack food, not something to eat your dinner off at the table. A knife will cut through the leaves so a spoon or a fork would be better. The shiny side of the leaves face up (the underside is quite soft) so it does hold liquid to a degree. Things like tomato ketchup are fine, but it won’t hold a thin sauce for long. I tested it using water and while to look at the plate seemed to be holding the water well, moving the plate revealed after a couple of minutes the water had seeped through.

While I was at it, I thought I’d see if they were reusable after a quick wash. Not really. A quick wipe maybe, but once the leaves are wet, they tend to curl up when drying which splits some of the seams and there are a few little pieces of wood which connect leave together, which can come undone in the drying process.

So use them once and then put them in the compost - the ultimate in biodegradable dinnerware.

To see how they’re made, go here for a slide show of leaf plate making and there’s a descriptinon too: “Leaf plate making is a village-based industry, which depends upon the local availability of siali (Bauhinia spp.) and sal (Shorea robusta) leaves from nearby forest. It is a widespread activity in the villages of Orissa, employing thousands of workers. Many of them are home-workers working in an informal way, to increase the household income. There are also some more organised ’self-help’ groups. These are often women-focused or adivasi (tribal)-focused.

“Women appear to be the main collectors of leaves. Later, they sit together in the smoothed mud yards in their village and stitch the leaves into rounds with little sticks. They can be stitched further by machine. The stitched rounds are put out in the sun to dry. Each plate is made by pressing two rounds of leaves together in a machine. This work is done mainly by men.”

Green Tomato Kit Eco Product Review

The Green Tomato Kit has nothing to do with tomatoes. Well sort of. Green Tomato has a simple idea that it’s easy to be kinder to the planet by doing things like not buying those tomatoes on a two for one offer as you won’t eat them all. They’ve also set up a taxi service in London made up of Toyota Prius’(which, thanks to getting this kit has explained a mystery to me of seeing cars with funny looking apples on the side – they’re green tomatoes).

The Green Tomato Kit is pack to help those thinking of going green do it a little easier. As regular readers my know, I get annoyed by the packaging of some of the eco stuff I review - it’s all well and good being made of recycled plastic but it’s wrapped in polystyrene. Well the Green Tomato Kit came in biodegradable packaging made from potato starch and even the label with my address written on is biodegradable - made from corn starch by these guys.

And inside are a host of goodies. It’s all wrapped in a cotton reusable bag (not sure if it’s organic cotton) which is huge actually so good for your shopping. There’s then a water saving thingy to go in your cistern to help save water, two energy saving lightbulbs, radiator panels, some stickers and a thermometer.

Each is quite nifty in its own right. The thermometer, or ‘Thermo-Wobbler’ sticks to the wall and you can easily check if your house is too warm, or indeed if it’s too cold for the old folk or young nippers. The website’s quite good explaining all the stuff (and written in a chirpy tone - “have a cuddle” if you’re cold for example), although it does tell you similar things on the back of the stickers too (check there first, I thought there were no instructions…).

The sticker’s are obvious, but then they’re obvious to me, maybe not someone else. Indeed the pack is aimed at getting people to go green but don’t know where to start. The lightbulbs are nice, the bag, the water saver etc are all good too. The radiator panels are a cool edition too, something a little less obvious.

All in all, the Green Tomato Kit is a nice bit of, er, kit. It does what it says on the tin and as mentioned is a good introduction to the novice, great as a present. It’s not cheap at £9.99 plus postage and packaging, but it’s not expensive enough to make me say it’s overpriced. Go to www.greentomato.org to order yours and also take a look around the site, as I said it’s quite fun.

SIGG Aluminum Water Bottle Product Review

The reduction in the use of plastic bottles in our lives is an aim I think most of us share. It’s all too easy to pick up a new plastic bottle of water rather than carrying your own, over 100m in the US alone are ending up in landfills every day. There are a few schools of thought, using aluminum bottles, steel bottles or corn based biodegradable plastic bottles (with or without a water filter). This review looks at one of those choices, a SIGG aluminum water bottle.

It’s an aluminum bottle. That’s pretty much it, it carries about 1 litre of liquid and does a fine job of it. At about 22.5cm (9 inches) in height, not including the cap (more about them in a minute) it’s a decent size to use on a walk, picnic, or gym, and just about fits in an average car cup holder. The bottles are fully recyclable at the end of their, probably long, life.

Who are SIGG? SIGG Switzerland dates back to 1908 when metal processing specialist Ferdinand Sigg established an aluminum product factory about 30 kilometers outside of Zurich. Still manufactured in Switzerland, they’ve been called the world’s toughest water bottles. Available in 144 designs with 22 bottle lids, some of the bottles are also displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. SIGG is also a member of 1% For The Planet - donating 1% of all sales to helping to preserve our environment.

What about leaching? Steel bottles do not usually leach, that is they don’t make the liquid inside taste of metal. Aluminum bottles do, so therefore need a lining, with SIGG’s being a water-based, non-toxic coating that is baked into the interior walls and remains flexible and crack resistant for the life of the bottle. The lining is taste neutral and resistant to fruit acids and energy drinks, and though it is FDA approved it would be nice to know generally what it’s made out of.

How as the bottle? I’ve had the bottle for a couple of weeks and found no problems with it at all. I like the fact it’s tough and I can throw it if I need to without worry. While using a dishwasher is not recommended as due to the small opening it wouldn’t get clean effectively, it seemed fine to me. The paint might eventually wear off though. There are a variety of caps that can be used, the default screw cap isn’t especially friendly, unless you need to attach the bottle to something, the sports caps are much more convenient for day-to-day use. After refrigerating the bottle can be too cold to hold (being metal and all), though they do sell sleeves and rubber handle grips to help.

An extremely quick video is embedded below, frankly after the written review I wasn’t sure what benefits and features I could show you, so I’ll be honest and say it’s not fascinating, but is short!

Starting at $16.99 to $24.99, SIGG bottles are available from from Amazon and through SIGG themselves. For more eco product reviews, please take a look at our Eco Reviews page.

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