Wallets From Recycled Ties

I need a new wallet. The one I have now is busting apart at the seams. It only has four slots for credit cards and identification; however I've managed to cram ten cards in it. It's getting pretty ridiculous. I need more slots.

While shopping for a guffly wallet online, I found a company called Narwhal Co.. They sell wallets that are made from recycled ties, and they look pretty sweet. They are unique. You can buy one and be pretty confident that you wont see any one else with the same one. The wallet that you purchase is the only one of it's pattern in stock; and unless the company receives another tie of the same design yours will not be duplicated. That's great for those who pride themselves on being different. Narwhal also sells wrist wear from recycled ties; and cases for your iPhone and iPod.

Green Tube

The first television channel dedicated to eco-related topics will be launching June 4th at 6pm. Planet Green, the latest venture within the Discovery Networks family of media, will feature 24 hours of content relevant to the eco-concious lifestyle. Although I usually don't have much time for television, I'll be sure to check this out when I do. Here are a couple of shows that will be featured on the channel that I think look pretty interesting:

Wa$ted!
"This eye-opening half-hour reality series makes shrinking your ecological footprint appealing and virtually effortless. What's an ecological footprint? It's a way of describing the scope of the damage that each household does to the planet. Annabelle Gurwitch and her charming co-host Holter Graham are out..."

Greenovate
"Saving over 40% on energy bills while also increasing property value by 25% sounds impossible, but Greenovate shows viewers just how to make this lofty dream a reality in their own households."

G Word
"Being green is no longer just for granola-loving hippies. It's a lifestyle, an attitude, a state-of-mind, and it's shaking up the pop-culture landscape. Forget what you think you know about what being green means and get ready for G Word..."

I Want a P.E.T. Messenger Bag

I want to buy a new laptop bag. The one I have now is nice, but it isn't very guffly. It's time for an upgrade. So I searched and found this cool company that sells bags made from our kind of materials.

The company is called Green Guru Gear and they sell great products. Some of their products are: wallets made from billboard signs and repurposed bicycle inner tubes and tires; and tank tops and t-shirts made from bamboo. However, the product that I really want is the recycled P.E.T. Large Deluxe Messenger Bag.

This bag is made from old soda and water bottles; which assists in reducing the amount of plastic bottles in our landfills (something our landfills desperately need). It sells for $109.95 and can be purchased directly from the Green Guru site.

Big Ol' Green Party

Don't freak out, dear friends, we haven't posted anything new in the last few days because we went to the Green Festival in Chicago this weekend. It was an exhausting but great experience. The festival was this past Saturday and Sunday at Navy Pier. There was some great speakers and over 350 vendors there - anything from green clothing shops, to green restaurants, green builders, and everything in between. Plus, the 31,000 people who attended are a testament to the fact the guffly lifestyle is alive and kicking.

The Festival travels throughout the year, and the next ones will be in Washington, DC and San Francisco in November. Watch this video about the Green Festival to learn more:



One of my personal favorites of the Green Festival was Majora Carter's speech called Green the Ghetto. I've admired her for some time now, and was super excited to hear her speak about Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx), the organization she founded. SSBx is a non-profit that provides "environmental justice through innovative, economically sustainable projects that are informed by community needs." Check out the website for more info on the fantastic work SSBx does.

Re-Jean Your Wardrobe

Those of you who love your jeans, and invest a lot of time in finding the perfect pair, can probably understand the disappointment I felt when both my denim jacket and my favorite pair of jeans got crazy holes in them this past week. Okay, it didn't happen overnight, but now the holes are certainly past the point of public wearability, at least for me. No lie, my whole arm can fit through the massive elbow hole in my jacket and there is now an inappropriate amount of thigh chub that can be seen when I wear the jeans. Not good.

There's a way to give life back to these precious items. Of course I could sew a patch in myself, which is a smart, guffly kind of option indeed. But because I am not much of a seamstress, or tailor, or whatever the title would be, I'm thinking about sending my stuff to Denim Therapy. This company takes your worn jeans, evaluates the material attributes (like thread weight, fade, wash, grain, pattern, weave, and wear), fixes the problem with closely matched materials, and sends them back to you like new. You'll be happy, you're jeans will be happy, and you're save the earth some resources by not running out a buying a replacement.

The service sounds expensive, but it's pretty reasonably priced. Their site notes that the estimated repair cost is $7/inch, but an estimate will be offered upon their inspection of the garment. You will have to pay for shipping charges as well, so if you're far from Cincinnati you might want to go with the neighborhood dry cleaner's classic old-man patch.

Recycled Beer Glasses are Guffly

What's your favorite beer? Mine is Hacker Pschorr Weisse; and now I can enjoy it and be guffly at the same time. I was searching through a great website called Uncommon Goods and found this product that got me pretty excited. It was a set of 2 beer glasses that are made from recycled automobile windshields. As the picture shows, the glasses have a blue tint to them because of the dye that was added to the original windshield to block the sun. I think they look sweet.

Two 15 oz. beer glasses retail for $20 at Uncommon Goods. If you love beer you should definitely check them out. Much guffly love:)

Trashy.

Last night I talked with one of my most favorite people, my Aunt Kelley. Other than being totally awesome in general, she has been eating organic food, using organic products, and been an all-around guffly individual for some time now. She asked me if I knew anything about eco-friendly trash bags. This got me thinking. A lot of green people are using reusable bags for groceries and shopping, are recycling what they can, but are still throwing out their trash in icky, regular old plastic trash bags. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought about this before. Turns out there are some pretty simple options. Check 'em out:


1. BioBags - 100% Biodegradable and Compostable. "BioBags are GMO free, certified for use in organic agriculture and certified for restricted use of metals in our vegetable-based inks and dyes. Their products meet the ASTM D6400-99 requirements, which is the gold standard for compostable plastic. BioBags are shelf stable, just like paper towels, yet biodegrade quickly when exposed to nature's elements and micro-organisms, leaving no harmful residues behind." These bags can be found at Drugstore.com, $6.19 for 12 count 13-gallon bags.


2. Nature Value Eco Safe Bags - biodegrade in 12 to 14 months. They are made from 10-20% post consumer recycled materials, are certified Kosher, and the box they come is also made from recycled materials. You can find their various products on Lets Go Green where they are very reasonably priced in comparison; only $2.99 for 15 count 13-gallon bags.

Good Stuff for Bamboo

I'm a softy for animals. I regularly find myself feeling depressed after seeing a sad story on TV about an animal suffering. The only good part about this is that my dog Bamboo brings me more joy than I could ever express. That's why I only buy him good stuff.

Last weekend I visited the Green Street Fair in Plymouth Michigan. At the event, I found a woman named Pam selling sustainable pet products. Her company Purrfect Play sells collars, leashes, chew toys, catnip toys, and pet bedding to name a few. However the one product that Purrfect Play sells, that really got me excited--for Bamboo--was a wool ball.

Bamboo's favorite thing in the world is a ball. He loves it so much that he's completely submissive to the very sound of the word. In fact, whenever I really want him to listen, the only thing I have to do is yell "Ball"; his ears perk up and he's at my feet waiting for a command (a trick that I try to use sparingly). He's so addicted to his balls that he'll stay up all night playing with them, if I were to let him. Bamboo has lots of balls, however he doesn't have a wool ball. So I listened to Pam as she explained why I should by one.

She told me that her balls are handmade from sustainably produced dye-free wool; which has only been processed with gentle non-toxic soaps. The wool is sustainable because it can be shorn from sheep annually, with no harm to the animal. It's biodegradable and has less negative impact to the environment--and ourselves--than oil-based synthetics.

So I bought a ball and brought it home to Bamboo. He loved it! He's been annoying me for the last few days with it, because he can't put it down. Here's a picture of him loving on it.

The Goodness of Crocs

This past weekend, Jordan and I went to the Green Street Fair in Plymouth, MI where we learned some new stuff and met some great people. Amongst the many small independent vendors (which was great) were some of the larger corporations, including the beloved shoe company, crocs. Though I'm not a participant in the crocs craze myself, I was pleased to hear about a great initiative the company is taking part in, called SolesUnited.

It's pretty simple. A crocs owner can take a pair of crocs that are on their way to croc-heaven and mail them in to a crocs recycling center or drop them off at a participating retail location. These old crocs will be ground up into tiny pieces and made into new, SolesUnited recycled shoes. These new recycled shoes are sent to approved non-profit organizations all over the world. This year, SolesUnited anticipates donating a total of 2 million pairs of shoes to Armenia, Cambodia, Chad, Darfur, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Philippines, Romania, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

Watch this info for more information on this guffly initiative:

Guffly Designs

Did you know that nearly half of the world's original forest cover is gone? Also, there is only 5% of the United State's natural forest cover remaining today. This tells me two things: 1.) the growing demand for paper is negatively affecting our Eco-system; and 2.) we need to be more responsible about using wood pulp for products. Cardboard Design understands this too. The company is truly innovative and responsible when it comes to making their wood pulp based products.


All of the products that Cardboard Designs makes are made from recycled post-consumer materials. Materials like old cardboard boxes, newspaper, kraft paper, and even straw. These products were once used by consumers and thrown away. Cardboard Designs collects these materials and make responsible and innovative products.

Cardboard Designs' products can be classified into four categories:

1.) Kids Products: These products consist of doll houses,playhouses, chairs, and forts for kids to hide out and play in.

2.) Furniture: You can buy tables, desks, space dividers, and shelving.

3.) Vases and Placemats

4.) Liquid Cardboard: This product is truly innovative. A single piece of liquid cardboard can move freely--flowing easily from one shape to another. Each item can transform into many different shapes from vases, bowls, platters, candle holders, a stress toy, or even stylish table-top decoration.


For every one ton of scrap paper that Cardboard Designs recycles they save: 17 trees, 4200 kilowatt hours of electricity, 7000 gallons of water, and 3 cubic yards of landfill space. Not one tree is cut down to make any of the products. The glue that is used to adhere the products is vegetable based; and does not contain any harsh chemicals or animal products. Finally, not one person or country is exploited when making Cardboard Designs' products. In fact, everything the company makes is manufactured in the United States.

And that is truly guffly.

Greenzer Goes Live

Last week, Greenzer's public beta site went live. Greenzer, like Evo, lists thousands of green products from several retailers and puts them in one place. After finding the product you want, you can click to be linked to the retailers website, where you can make a purchase. The site seems to have a limited amount of retailers so far, but they seem committed to making the shopping experience richer over time. What is great about both sites is the rating systems they use to score each product. These allow for simple understanding of how guffly the products are. Pretty cool.