Oscar USB Hub Eco Product Review

The United Pepper Oscar USB Hub is another device that attempts to take an eco-friendly approach to electronics in addition to their Lili webcam we’ve previously reviewed.

Designed in Belgium, and made in Vietnam the Oscar USB hub is made from 70% Fair Trade components. Removing as much of the plastic as possible, the usb hub is made from paperboard, cotton and kapok, and comes in red, blue or green (we got a green one of course!).

There’s not much to say about it, it looks cute, came in 100% PET recycled packaging, is only just over 6cm (about 2.5″), and has four USB sockets. It connects to your computer via a USB lead that connects to the hub via a mini-USB socket, so if you need a longer lead they’re easy to find.

Available for $30 or €25 from United Pepper it’s a nice sustainable approach to electronics.

Green Link Love - Other Great Green Sites 5

You can read the previous editions here: one, two, three and four.

Thing That Make You Go Green is a site that is dedicated to chronicling the progress of a few ordinary folks called JB, Paul, and Hendrick, as they try to go green. I liked the style of the site such as global warming will make you less fat, and how, in their opinion Best Buy should be ashamed of itself.

This month I also liked Green Me’s Ecological Cooking book review which has a few recipes I might try.

Reader, friend and contributor Trisha sent us this site about Hypermiling. That is “a method of increasing your car’s gas mileage by making skillful changes in the way you drive, allowing you to save gas and thereby have an easier time withstanding the rising oil and gas prices”

Billy Warden sent us an email about his Greening the Generations blog. He spent a decade contributing to L.A.’s smog and now he’s trying to raise a green family in Raleigh, NC. He shows helpful green discoveries, such as this one focusing on sexy summer sustainability.

Swap Tree was another site sent to us, that like the much missed Swango allows users to swap books, CDs, DVDs and video games for free. All users have to pay is the shipping and handling cost. It’s actually pretty cool, and shows you what you can swap for your unwanted stuff, or what you need to offer in order to get that wanted item. I hope to have given it a trial run by the time you read this.

Real World Green is a new site from For Your Imagination. It’s a new video series that are a collection of tips that, being followed, will make apparently your life style more environmentally friendly. Some interesting videos are available, such as “donuts are not green”, and “how to green your dishwasher”.

Greenzer is a new shopping portal site that is exclusively for “green” products, offering people the chance to shop at online merchants including Patagonia, Zappos, eBags and GAIAM. Products are offered across ten categories, and must meet a minimum green requirement. When I asked what this requirement was, their answer was “Greenzer.com decides if a product meets the requirement for the site by judging a product’s overall impact on the environment (i.e. does it run on rechargeable batteries?), its green attributes (is it made from recycled materials? Does it use organically grown materials?), green labels/certifications and the manufacturer’s overall green practices”. Not a bad idea, I like parts of it such as the water bottle cost comparison

Marilyn, from the excellent Intelligent Travel blog sent us this link from The Green Guide on how hair clippings can be used to remove oil spills.

Finally Greener Cars is a very handy guide for comparing the “greenness” of vehicles. It’s the official website for ACEEE’s Green Book is a unique consumer resource providing Green Scores rating the environmental friendliness of every vehicle on market.

If you have an interesting site you would like to be featured here, just let us know.

The Great Bag Reusable Shopping Bag Review

The Great Bag is another addition to our reusable comparison chart. And what an addition it is.

More expensive than some other reusable shopping bags at $19.99, The Great Bag proves to be worth the price. Made from 100% quilters quality cotton (which apparently has a higher thread count and increased durability - I’m not sure if it’s organic though), the bag is strong enough to carry up to 40 lbs. The 18″ handles make the bag easy to carry over the shoulder.

What the picture won’t tell you is how soft the cotton is. It feels high quality and it is, hand made in the USA. A nice feature are the three hooks is has, made to fit in US grocery stores bag holders to make it easier to fill up. At 13″ high, 11″ wide and 7″ deep it still folds up neatly but can carry a lot of shopping.

There are a variety of bags designs available and being handmade look great. They’re available from The Great Bag.

To compare bags, check out the other bags in our reusable comparison chart.

Are You Confused By Eco Labels?

I know I am, and with all the competing voluntary and compulsory labeling schemes in existence it’s likely to get worse.

A website that aims to cut through all this confusion is http://ecolabelling.org by being an independent database of ecolabels. Just check the database and see if the label is in there and learn more information about it. It’s as simple as that.

They also have a Label Geeks blog.

[Via: Ecopreneurist]

Echarger Mobile Solar Charger Product Review

Solar charging has almost become the method of choice of charging gadgets on the move. With products like the Solio Hybrid, if you live somewhere sunny it’s an easy decision to make. But what about in less sunny climes? Well in the UK, Echarger has launched theMobile Solar Charger.

Unlike the Solio, it doesn’t have an internal battery so you’ll need to put in up to three rechargeable batteries and then unfold the case to reveal the solar panels. Then it’s up to the sun. You can also use it to charge the batteries through your computer using the USB cable, but I went for six hours in the British sun. And it was a lovely day so I hoped for good results.

It was recommended that I use 1600mAh rechargeable batteries for best performance but as I’ve only got 2700mAh ones I had to make do. The charger comes with a few connectors - Nokia, Sony Ericsson, iPod, USB and one for the Nintendo DS so that’s what I decided to try and charge with it afterwards. I left it alone to charge although you can play it while its charging (but I didn’t) and the three batteries gave one and a half hours of charging. This translated to almost an hour and a quarter of game play on the DS before it died - and that was with full sound and the screen brightness at maximum. Which is pretty good really.

The downside is that although the charger is portable in size, you can’t really use it on the move - it doesn’t attach to a backpack like the Solio Hybrid for example. Also as a piece of electronics it’s not made from environmentally friendly materials, but using rechargeable batteries powered by the sun is better than using the mains or normal batteries.

The Mobile Solar Charger costs £30 from Echarger.

Headonism Organic Haircare Conditioner Eco Product Review

I see myself as a simple soul when it comes to washing my hair - either just shampoo or if the shower gel is suitable for hair then I’ll use that. So when Male Organics gave me some Headonism Organic Haircare Conditioner (scent 2 - sensuality) to test, I was a bit wary.

So I did what goes against every fibre of my being. I read the instructions. It soon became clear that while conditioner seems to be a vital component of haircare I’ve missed for 30 years, it is more useful for people with longer hair than mine. A ‘number 2′ trim doesn’t give much hair to “moisturise, nourish, rebuild and protect”. But despite not having a large toothcomb (to be honest I may have one, I just have no idea what it is) I ploughed on and immersed myself in the world of hair conditioning.

Headonism Conditioner Scent 2 is a 100% organic conditioner (although not certified) that has a combination of herbs and oils including the amazingly-named Goldenseal, Jojoba and Safflower. It seems everyone but me knows how conditioner works, so after being instructed to leave it on for a while I set about it. First of all the bottle is amazing. As I pulled the wooden/cork stopper out of the glass bottle I thought a genie would pop out. Alas that wasn’t the case, but the conditioner is quite thick so I actually had a bit of trouble getting it out at first. I can now do it with a decent shake but portion control is a little haphazard, mainly I end up using far too much.

Anyway it works quite nicely, even on my short hair and it leaves it nice and soft. I’m not sure if it makes much difference on me but my girlfriend likes it and any man with a bit longer hair would benefit from it. It’s scented with organic plant oils to evoke desire, luxury, arousal, sensuality and euphoria but seemed a bit odd to me. Not off putting, just a bit weird.

There’s no mention of whether the wooden/cork stopper or glass bottle is made from sustainable or recycled materials, but it is an impressive bottle and at £14 (or £10.50 on sale) from Male Organics it’d make a good present or why not treat yourself?

Organic Cotton String Bag Eco Product Review

Going organic and being environmentally friendly can be seen to be going back in time before all the chemical fertilisers and modern equipment we use now. These organic string bags from Natural Collection demonstrate that in vivid colour. My parents (well, my mum) were using these bags back in the 1960s to carry their weekly shopping home from the local grocers, butchers and bakers.

You can get them in normal string colour but I like the bright bags. Made from 100% organic cotton, it’s tough to measure them as they’re so stretchy, but they’re around 30cm in width and depth. Unless you pull them and one way goes longer and the other shorter. The real test comes when you put your shopping in and they hold a huge amount. Seriously you can keep stuffing oranges in there until you get tired. It also seems to try and tell me to eat healthily too as putting a rectangular ready meal in tends to get caught up in the string a bit and can be awkward to fit other stuff around - I got the message and went to get some apples.

And they fold up nicely too, well less of a fold, more of a stuff in the pocket, but they’re great and I like the retro feel to them. I’ve used them for a few weeks now and there doesn’t seem to be any wear or tear so hopefully will last a long time. For one of the coloured ones it’s £4.50 at Natural Collection, £12.50 for the three colours which I’ve got, or you can go simple and get the plain ones - £3.95 for one and £6.95 for two. Marvellous.

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