I was asked to review some products from TerraCycle, and to my joy found it to be stationery. I’m a Gemini, I love stationery. I collected stickers, paper, erasers, pens, in fact any type of stationery as a child, and still do have those tendencies, but I digress.

Item #1 is an Eco-Binder, made out of 100% recycled paper and 90% recycled steel. An attractive and sturdy binder. And once you have finished using your binder, Terracycle takes them back for further recycling.

Item #2 is Banana Paper. Yes, you guessed it… paper made out of recycled banana peels. There is none of that classic banana smell or to us scientific folk, no isoamyl acetate odour. The paper is compatible with ink jet and laser printers and copy machines. Save the rain forests, eat bananas!

Item #3 is a newspaper pencil. A whole sheet of newspaper is rolled around good quality graphite to form a trunk as hard as wood. Approximately 4 pencils can be made form each sheet of newspaper. I think the fun part of these pencils is that over time the oils from your hand will highlight the newsprint visible on the pencil surface.

Item #4 is definitely the coolest item of the bunch: A corn pen. Everything, but the ink refill, is made from material derived from corn starch, and will degrade within 12 months of being discarded.

And last but not least, item #5, the paper pen. Like the corn pen, everything but the ink refill is made from 100% biodegradable materials. In this case, the materials are used newspapers and 100% recycled paper.

Such fun items, and all can be used with a clean conscience.

This is a guest post by Carolyn Algar, our correspondent in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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This is a guest post by Carolyn Algar.

For the past few weeks, I have been taking an ECOBag along with me on my shopping sprees (unfortunately these days shopping sprees involve a lot more window shopping). I have their standard wide natural canvas tote, but they do carry a wide range of other bags, from book totes to beach totes, made from organic canvas, recycled canvas, hemp blends and recycled plastic bottles.

All bags have double stitched seams and stress points for durability and are strong enough to hold 30 pounds (about 13kg). My tote is not at all bulky, so folds up easily to fit into my handbag or car glovebox for convenient storage. The standard wide tote has 22 inch handles, so it is easy to slip over your shoulder and is comfortable to carry. And since it is manufactured from natural cotton canvas, it can be slipped in with your laundry with no specialized cleaning instructions.

This particular bag is good to take along for walking around a mall, slipping in small items as you go, but I didn’t find it large enough for my grocery shopping. The base of the bag is not wide enough to layer items properly, and I was afraid of crushing fragile items. Their grocery totes or totes with larger bottom gussets would be more suitable.

The “fun” girl in me did find this bag a bit boring, but they have introduced a line of bags called “Totes with Quotes”, a fun alternative to the plain tote. Their colourful prints and quotes look fun on the sides of the natural canvas. Another fun product is their classic string bag. They carry them is so many fantastic colours – classic colours, jewel tones, pastels, earth tones. My favourite product from ECOBag is definitely their Milano style string bag. It has a 2 inch strap for added carrying comfort, but it is a really stylish looking bag. I’ve got to have one!

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The Big Earth Book by James Bruges, published by Alistair Sawday
Don’t miss our Big Earth Book giveaway below!

As we see massive changes rocking our planet, James Bruges takes us step by step through how we got here. In what is surely going to be considered the layman’s environmental reference book on the state of the planet, Bruges breaks the subject matter of The Big Earth Book down into four main sections: The Elements, Money, Power and Life, explaining and illustrating in easy to understand chunks how we got to be where we are today. Bruges documents the “exploitation of the weak by the strong” in our society and draws attention to “thinkers who define profound changes”. He considers real change essential, the sort of change that is considered impractical by realists, for us to save our planet and continue as a species.

Bruges explains how the earth’s atmosphere works, and how we’ve gone into an Anthropocene Age, where human activity is impacting significantly on the ecosphere to the extent that the planet is warming far faster than scientists expected. He also points out that the success that we had back in the 80′s of healing the hole in the ozone layer could be replicated with the fight against global warming if society will stand together to avert this major disaster.

The book goes on to look at climate denial and how governments aren’t acting on scientific research, as well as a brief history of climate change, including how good intentions like Rio and Kyoto just haven’t gone far enough. Bruges summarises the solutions that have been put forward to cut emissions and discusses their pros and cons. What really stands out for me here is the point made that while governments are trying to cut carbon emissions, they are still mining coal, gas and oil in ever increasing quantities. Bruges points out that it’s easier to “limit the supply of fossil fuels that to control demand for them”, an approach that has not yet been adopted anywhere. We will only survive in this changing world by changing our expectations of how we live.

So what are our options going forward? Bruges details how planting trees to usuage our guilty consciences and carbon offsetting is just making the problem worse, how natural gas isn’t the solution having only a 40 year future until that’s all gone, how hydrogen technology is still very uncertain, how biofuels have the potential for creating famine and how oil and nuclear energy are both limited fossil fuels. In light of this, it seems renewables are the only way to go?

Bruges looks at how as our natural world is impacted by climate change, drinking water is disappearing, forests are disappearing and glaciers are retreating. And in the world of man, the economy still maintains priority over environment. He makes an interesting point here that the charging of interest is destroying the planet’s ability to support life, with additional interesting points about religion and usury/green and how the modern banking system creates money out of nothing.

Bruges puts forward the case for a global eco-currency with the aim of eradicating poverty, adding “… could anyone have seriously imagined, or wanted, the world we have created today? It is a world in which just 220 people own more that the joint income of half the world’s population.” And all the while huge numbers of people live with crime, desperation and the threat of starvation. It’s interesting to note that Bhutan, a country where the inhabitants live very simple lives, is the world’s happiest country, while in places where money, religion and power are considered priorities, our lives become complicated and we become increasingly insular.

Reading this book from cover to cover will change the way you view mankind, our lifestyle, and how we treat this planet and our fellow man.

We’re giving away 3 copies of The Big Earth Book by James Bruges to EcoStreet readers. If you’d like a copy, please leave a comment below telling us why you’d like it. On the 1st December 2008, we’ll choose our favourite 3 reasons and send the book to those readers.

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