Tomorrow, millions of Americans will take to the shops and just think of all the plastic bags that don’t have to be used. Plastic bags have never been so un-fashionable.  And for good reason!  There are so many stylish options available for reusable bags these days. Here’s a round-up of three fabulous reusable bags…

Maggie Bags

We love these Maggie Bags made from Recycled Seatbelts. They come in a range of single colours, or multi-colours like the Autumn Leaves bag pictured here. These bags are made to last with four nickel plated feet on the bottom and internal zip pockets for your purse, keys or cell phone.

Rebagz Tote Bags

These Rebagz Cinchy Tote Bags are made from recycled rice sacks. The one pictured here is called Honeybee, and there are other fresh and funky styles available. These Cinchy Tote Bags are not only eco-friendly and stylish but they are human-friendly too because they are made under fair labour conditions. Makes a great shopping bag, handbag or even a briefcase!

Flip & Tumble

Finally, the Flip & Tumble Reusable Shopping Bag. Gorgeously designed in loads of colour choices. Reusable shopping bags that folds up into a tiny pouch when not in use, it’s so easy to take it along when you go shopping. This bag can hold 25 pounds and has a comfy fit felt shoulder pad.

Click here to join me and take the pledge to make plastic bags history!

Farai is a member of the Mother City Craft Collective, a collective of traffic-light crafters who you can see selling their wares as you drive through the streets of Cape Town.   This group of Zimbabwean crafters have joined forces to expand their market and create an alternative outlet for their crafts, an online shop.  This has brought a new set of challenges for these artists, because the traditional wire & bead and wirework crafts that they produce are pretty heavy, which results in very high postage costs.

To reduce the price of postage (and consequently the carbon footprint of the piece) Farai has come up with an interesting solution.  He’s using recycled materials that are a lot lighter than the materials that he usually works with.

These recycled Coke can animals and more are available from the Mother City Craft Collective’s recycled range, and as you’ll see, both the cost of the products and the postage costs are considerably less than the traditional.  While buying crafts from this store makes a huge difference in the lives of these traffic-light crafters, by choosing from the recycled range you will be making a huge difference to the environment too.

So while necessity is the mother of invention, isn’t it great when it also leads to recycling, reusing and a greener way of doing things?

Organic cotton green bean

Message to mummies! If you are looking for fantastic teethers I would like to share with you some of the best I have found. We are delighted to be stocking the vegetable and fruit collection from Under the Nile they are just so cool. The green bean is a firm favourite because it’s easy for babies to grasp, lightweight, colourful and soft but with enough firmness to ease aching gums. No chance of babies bashing themselves in the eye either. Or what about this fruit tote which comes complete with 4 different fruits watermelon, banana, pear and grapes.

Lovely tote basket of organic cotton teethers

Rapanui eco clothing from the Isle of Wight, UK is green right from the top of its head to the tip of its toes.

What makes it green?

The majority of our range comes from India, and we use quite a famous factory there which is powered by Vestas wind turbines via a wholesale power purchase agreement at the factory. The factories are all fair wear foundation audited, and that means everyone in the factory and in the fields gets a fair wage and clean working conditions. Down the road is the organic cotton plantation, the fields are hand worked, then the cotton is put on a camel and goes up to the factory, there it is spun and turned into a jersey. Then it is embroidered and put into a container on a truck. We never air freight stock so we ship it to London.

What about the dyeing of the fabrics?

The factory we use is OEKO-TEX 100 standard certified, which means there are no harmful inks, dyes or chemicals resident in the fibre of the garment. A three-phase (reverse-osmosis) water filtration system cleans the water and means that 90% of the water used in the dyeing stages can be reused. This system is closed-loop. (This helps prevent harmful inks or dyes escape the factory circuit into local waterways.) This also is true of the 100% organic products – these systems meet the Global Organic Textile standard and Soil Association Certification criteria set out for these products.

You’ll find men and women’s t-shirts, underwear, jeans, jackets and more at the Rapanui website. All organic and made in an environmentally responsible fashion.

Giveaway… Rapanui is giving one reader a pair of spotty organic bamboo socks
To enter, please leave a comment below.
For a 2nd entry, tweet about this giveaway and leave a separate comment.
For a 3rd entry, follow @wildishwoman or @rapanuiclothing on Twitter and leave a separate comment.
For a 4th entry, “like” the Rapanui Facebook page and leave a separate comment.

A winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday the 16th June 2010.

**This giveaway is now closed.**

And the winner is Stephanie.

I’ll be emailing you Stephanie.

Remember the good old days, when you went out on an adventure and took along extra batteries (if you were thinking ahead) just so you wouldn’t run out of lighting. Well, not only did those batteries cost money and added bulk, they also ended up in a landfill, creating pollution.

But today you will find that a wind up flashlight in place of a battery powered light makes great sense… and the technology just keeps getting better. In fact, getting 30 minutes or more of illumination after only 1 minute of winding is almost commonplace. You could hardly hunt down the batteries and change them in that time.

So, let’s take a quick look at 10 of our favorite eco-friendly wind up lights. If the want hits, you can find these lights at Nigel’s Eco Store and other green retailers.

1. Woodpecker Shake Light

While technically not a wind up flashlight (you shake it), the concept is so close that we wanted to include it in our collection. The Woodpecker incorporates a double generator to grab all the power it can from a repeated simple up and down gesture. An ultra bright LED provides the illumination.

The light weighs in at 183g, and shaking for 1 minute gives 20 minutes of constant light or optionally 30 minutes of flashing operation. The woodpecker is waterproof down to 2 meters, so you can use it pratically anywhere outdoors, camping, or at the beach. It will even survive a rainstorm in case you get caught out in it – and you won’t have a dead battery.

2. Puma Windup Light

The Puma wind up flashlight is small in size but tough in performance. One minute of winding will give you 20 minutes at standard brightness (1 LED) and 10 minutes at maximum brightness (3 LED). There is also a three LED flashing mode so you can use the light as a signal. With a measurement of 47 x 35 x 76 mm you will find that the Puma fits in most pockets without a problem.

3. Dolphin Caribina Light

The Dolphin wind up light sports a unique design in that it can be clipped onto almost anything thanks to its integrated Caribina clip. Not only is the Dolphin a handy light, but it it can even power your phone thanks to a built in charger outlet and included cable. One minute of cranking gives you 30 minutes of light or up to eight minutes of phone time.

The Dolphin weighs 250gm and is 15cm in overall length. The included cable is for Nokia phones, but other adapters are available. The illumination is provided by three ultra bright LEDs, assuring that you will not be out of battery, bulb, or even a dead phone when you need it.

4. Owl Wind Up Lantern

Sometimes it’s just handy to have a lantern instead of a flashlight, and that is where the Powerplus Owl comes into play. The Owl is a rugged camping lantern (just like you remember), but it winds up. Six LEDs provide the light, and one minute of charging gives 25 minutes. You can fully charge the unit and have 100 minutes of steady illumination.

The Owl is encased in a tough rubber outer shell, which makes it a perfect camping companion on those less than perfect excursions. You know, the ones we all tend to have at some point in our camping experiences.

5. Barracuda Wind Up And Solar Light

The Powerplus Barracuda combines two forms of green power to keep you illuminated – wind up and solar. The tough rubber protected light is waterproof down to five meters, making it durable enough to handle the outdoors as well as the vehicle’s trunk. 3 LEDs provide the light, and you can select one, three, or flashing LEDs as needed

How well does it charge up? One minute of winding gives an impressive 80 minutes on 1 LED, 60 minutes on 3. As for the solar side of things, an hour basking in the sun gives you light for 120 minutes on 1 LED, 90 minutes on 3. This would make the Barracuda a great device to have soaking up the rays during the day and working at night.

6. Bat Wind Up Head Lamp

When you are working and have both hands in the mix, then it is nice to have a light that is head mounted. The Powerplus Bat is exactly that, a head mounted wind up light that leaves your hands free for uses other than holding a flashlight. The Bat allows you to change the angle of shine, and a comfortable headband keeps the light firmly yet comfortably in place.

The Bat gives up to 90 minutes of light for 1 minute of crank time (40 minutes on all three LEDS), and if needed the unit can even be mounted on a bicycle thanks to the included bicycle clip.

7. Freeplay Indigo Wind Up Lantern

Similar to the OWL above, the Freeplay lantern is great for camp outs and table usage. The Freeplay boasts a great three hours of light (at the lowest setting) for a single one minute winding charge. Better yet, fully charge it for three hours of continuous light at the brightest setting. There is also a small directional light, great for reading, that will last 40 hours on a fully winded charge.

8. Penguin Wind Up and Shake Light

Don’t forget about the little campers when you go on your next adventure. The delightful Penguin wind up light is perfect for the 5 and up adventurer, and it gives a lot of fun while remaining eco friendly. In fact, the LED light works with either a quick wind up or they can just shake it for more light.

9. Blue X-Ray Wind Up Light

The Blue X-Ray wind up light is a great light to have with you in the dark. A quick 30 second wind gives you about 20 minutes of light, and you can choose between ultra-bright and normal light mode. The colorful Blue X-Ray weighs in at 370g, and measures 55 x 60 x 160 mm.

10. Shark Wind Up Light

We wanted to end our look at eco friendly wind up lights on a powerful note, and so the choice is obvious – the Shark. The Shark is a waterproof wind up light that has two light settings – 5mm LEDs for normal use, and a powerful 1W LED for those times you really need something bright. The 1W LED is rated to be visible for up to 10 km.

What time you are not blinding your enemies with the Shark, you can also use it to charge your phone – a Nokia cable is included, but other adapters are available. You won’t spend all your time winding it either, since a one minute wind up gives 60 minutes of shine in regular mode or 20 minutes on full brightness.

With any of these 10 eco friendly lights I am sure you would find them welcome tools on your next outing (or emergency). The good news is that you will never be out of battery power, and the LEDs are going to continue to shine, well after you need the light.

Rescued Paper Notebooks are made entirely from discarded paper that has been collected and assembled by hand in India. Papers are folded and bound in a direct form of recycling which enables the owner to write on the reverse of the printed pages.  They come in three sizes and a variety of colours from Sukie.

Attention New Yorkers, check out this cool pop up shop that’s going to be featuring some amazing events and showcasing some awesome products during Earth Month.

Terracycle will be selling their amazing eco-friendly products, and hosting some fabulous events, like a green workout session every Wednesday in April, and (if I was in NYC, I’d definitely be going to this one) a DIY Scraptacular on Thursday 8th April from 7-9pm.  Check out all the events here.

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I love the industrial look of these nesting tables by So’mace and Wuttke Werks. They’re made of reclaimed whitewashed Douglas Fir and recycled rebar in Hawaii.

Recycled rebar nesting tables [design*sponge]

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In central London on the evening of Tuesday 27th October, 8 green leaders will present their view on the future of their industry. To those in the know, it’s quite a star-studded occasion. Green Tomato Cars will give their view on the future of sustainable transport, Ed Gillespie from Futerra will speak about ethical communication and consumer attitudes, and Terra Plana will comment on how its ethical footwear will evolve. Sam Kimmins, Sustainability Adviser at Forum for the Future, will give his take on the future of sustainable construction. Other presentations will be from Germination (a cutting-edge event company furthering social progress), innovative web community Project Dirt, The Hub (a shared workspace concept for social entrepreneurs) and sustainable lifestyle magazine Sublime.

Each of the 8 presentations will last no more than 8 minutes, and to keep things highly visual, no more than 5 words per slide are allowed. It means that 80% of the ideas in a normal presentation can be communicated in 20% of the time. The evening will be held at St Giles Cripplegate Church in Barbican, EC2. Further adding to the creative spirit, guests are invited to help reduce waste and bring their own reusable vessels for wine.

Inspiration and insight won’t just come from the presenting businesses either. Up to 250 keen, green thinkers and doers are expected to attend, so there’ll be food for thought in the conversations and networking, too.

Want to know more and book your ticket? Here are the details you need to know:

When: Tuesday 27th October
Start time: 6.30pm for a 7pm start (drinks will be available – you’re encouraged to bring your own cup for extra green points!)
Where: St Giles Cripplegate Church, Barbican, London, EC2Y 8DA (for map click here)

Tickets are limited, costing £9.50 in advance or £15 on the door.

You can buy your ticket here: http://futureofgreen.eventbrite.com

To find out more, click on http://www.insider-worldwide.com/trend-evening-green-futures/