Video is the latest new feature on the ECOutlet website and for some easy to digest product information you can now view a number of short films on several of the product pages.
So far we’ve added videos for the Ecoflap, Pedalite Bike Lights, Presso Coffee Maker and several of the recycled glasses including the Sol Beer Bottle Glasses.
Over the coming weeks and months we’re looking to make this is a regular monthly feature so keep checking back here for updates on all the latest new additions.
We all love to treat our Mums once in a while and if youre planning a little gift for yours this coming Mothers Day how about something with a lighter footprint on the environment or which might inspire her to live a little greener? Here’s a few of our favourites from across the store:
Gardens will soon be springing back into life and if your mum’s the green fingered type, the gift of a Tree is something which will give pleasure for years to come, our two favourites at this time of the year – the Plum Tree and Grape Vine Gifts will make a special gift for any Mums who love spending time in their garden and appreciate growing their own fruit.
Mums who garden will also love the ever-popular Paper Potter which makes biodegradable paper pots for seedlings whilst the floral and vegetable shaped Forget Me Not and Grow Recycled Plant Labels are a pretty way to organise vegetable and flower patches. For the disorganised Mum in the garden, this Garden Planner made from recycled coffee cups should help ensure all those little jobs get sorted.
Alternatively the Pocket Garden plant range make a thoughtful gift for Mum’s with no outdoor spaces and are an easy, attractive way to grow house plants such as Lavender, Marigold, Poppies and Sunflowers. Or for the Mum with a windowsill full of plants, these Pot Plant Holders add a big cheery, splash of bright colours using recycled vegetable sacks.
If you’re a practical gift giver, perhaps you’d like to help your Mum save some money on energy bills and for this we’d suggest the Eco Kettle which helps ensure only the correct amount of water, energy and money is spent each time the kettle is boiled.
If Mum’s living with draughts, then one of our vintage Snake Draught Excluders will keep chills at bay, heating bills down and will have her reminiscing of the psychedelic 70’s when these were a familiar site in everyone’s home.
Finally if you just want your Mum to have a little ‘me-pampering-time’ then something from the Figs and Rouge Bodycare range will be perfect. Combining natural and vintage inspired aromas with organic ingredients, this gorgeous range moisturises and nourishes from head to toe. Choices include the Sweet Geranium Gift Set, Rambling Rose Hand and Foot Set or Rambling Rose Facial Toner, Facial Cleanser and Day Cream.
If you fancy giving your loved one a treat on Valentines Day, check out our top ideas for eco friendly gifts this year from ECOutlet.
Wheatgrass juice anyone? If youre detoxing in 2010 or just looking to be a little healthier then this one might be for you – the Easy Health Seed Sprouter, one of the latest additions to the shop here at ECOutlet.
This manual seed sprouter is used to grow wheatgrass and sprouts on windowsills, kitchen tops or anywhere with indirect light. It packs in two trays for growing barley and wheatgrass and two separate sprouting trays divided into four segments so you can grow up to eight different varieties of sprouts including alfalfa, mung bean, beetroot, cabbage, fennel or sunflower.
We like the idea of helping people to grow more of their own produce at home – you know exactly what goes into it and it helps to avoid all the packaging and transport miles associated with supermarket purchases. It’s generally cheaper too – for the cost of a shot of wheatgrass juice in your local juice bar you can grow enough sprouts and wheatgrass to last a week with this device.
Sprouted seeds are highly nutritious and can be eaten with salads, sandwiches or as an accompaniment to other meals whilst wheatgrass has been praised for its numerous health benefits due to a seriously high chlorophyll content. Chlorophyll oxygenates the blood and organ tissue, impedes the growth of harmful bacteria in the digestive tract, neutralises toxins and helps purify the liver. Regular intake of wheatgrass is said to improve blood sugar disorders and digestion and reduces blood pressure.
Wheatgrass juice is generally taken in small shots but not all juicers are suitable for making it. The Easy Health Manual Wheatgrass Juicer is however perfect for the task as it cold presses the wheatgrass which helps preserves all the natural nutrients. It does’nt just do wheatgrass, if you’re tastes are more traditional you can still get healthy with some homemade orange, lemon, grapefruit, carrot or apple drinks.
In the ongoing drive to reduce our carbon footprint here at chez ECOutlet, we recently acquired a wonderful wood burning stove. Our mission was to heat the office through the cold winter months as sustainably as possible and burning wood is a great way of achieving this goal. Wood is a carbon neutral fuel source in that it only releases as much carbon dioxide as it absorbs when the tree is growing. So long as we replace the fallen tree with a new sapling it’s sustainable too.
We’ve been getting our wood deliveries from Certainly Wood who source it from sustainable, well managed British woodland and they also kiln dry their wood (to make it more efficient) using wood to power the kilns.
Choice of stove is also crucial, as the more efficient it is, the more heat you get for the smallest amount of fuel. Most of urban Britain is also a ‘smoke control area’. That means its legal only to burn wood (or smokeless fuel) in a stove that meets the requirements of the clean air act.
After a consultation and visit from the experts we opted for a Scan Anderson Multi Stove which was installed by a really nice team from Embers Fireplaces and Stoves. We’ve been saving up for this one for a while, they don’t come cheap but after a couple of months of use we’ve already seen a considerable drop in our fuel bill and the place is much warmer than the last few years even in this cold snap.
If you want to know more about Wood Burners there is a good article on the Channel Four site, the only thing it fails to mention is how lovely (and occasionally distracting) it is to have a warm, flickering fire at work.
PS That’s one of our Recycled Planters in the pic which we’ve found is the perfect vessel for storing wood and it looks really cool next to the wood burner too!
Chilly, wet and windy…thats the weather round-up for the next few days and now that winter seems to have settled in, this list of Top 10 products may be some assistance in keeping homes warm and energy efficient over the winter months.
It’s that time of the year again, September is just around the corner and it’s time to start thinking of those Back to School supplies. When I was at school, apart from recycling our funky kitchen wallpaper to cover my exercise book, the idea of recycled or eco friendly school supplies were unheard of. Nowadays though, the opportunity to choose recycled or eco friendly school supplies covers all the bases – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!
Reduce:
With the Eco Stapler, metal clips become a thing of the past as this clever little gadget will attach up to three pages together by cutting and folding the paper in one action thus avoiding the need for paper clips.
If everyone in UK offices saved one staple a day that would be 72 tonnes of metal saved a year – Wasteonline.
Reuse:
Most of the rubbish we generate in the UK comes from packaging and school lunches are no exception. It has been estimated that the average disposable school lunch generates 30kg of waste per school year. That’s the equivalent of up to 8.5 tonnes of waste per average sized school per year.
One way to avoid the packaging from lunches is with a re-usable Wrap-N-Mat – an innovative solution to cling film and plastic sandwich bags which has been designed to last for many years. Simply fold around sandwiches, fold the cotton wrapper closed and secure with the Velcro strap!
Recycle:
Recycled school supplies now cover everything you could need – from lunchboxes and backpacks to rulers, pens and notepads, everything kids need to get started back at school comes in a recycled version. Bright, colourful and interactive, recycled products such as these send a clear message to a younger generation of the possibilities of recycling and how we can all reduce our environmental impact by recycling.
Second hand books can also be found on websites such as Readitswapit and Green Metropolis whilst Uniform2 is a free online community for exchanging second hand school uniforms.
Earlier last week, Boris Johnson joined forces with several celebrity chefs to urge Londoners to use leftovers from meals for tasty recipes rather than letting this perfectly good food go to waste. An important message as in the UK alone 6.7 million tones of food is thrown away every year and wasting this food costs the average family around £420 per year. If we all stopped wasting food that could be eaten, the CO2 impact would also be the same as taking 1 out of every 5 cars off the road!
If you’re looking for inspiration on reusing leftovers, the Recycle for London website has all the celebrity chef recipes for cooked food which we often end up chucking out like bread, meat, fish, rice and potatoes. In our home, leftover risotto balls are a tasty regualr at meal times and I’m very intrigued to have a go at Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstalls Roast Potato Gnocchi next time we go a little overboard on the Sunday roasties.
To reduce the amount of leftovers at meal times a few simple steps such as planning meals, shopping in advance and keeping meal portions to the correct sizes will all help. We also have a few products on the website which can help keep food fresh for longer and out of the bin.
The Ethylene Gas Guardian (£3.99) absorbs the gas given off by fruit and veg which in turn helps to keep them fresh for longer. The Count On It food freshness labels (£1.99) are designed to tell you at a glance if food is still fresh and safe to eat helping you to get the most out of it whilst the Eco Cooler (£69) uses natural cooling properties to store fruit and veg at the optimum temperatures keeping them fresh for longer.
To pick up a few more tips on keeping food out of the bin check the Lovefoodhatewaste website and for some more tasty recipes like these simple banana bread ones (great for blackened bananas!) take a look at MyDish, a new website which some people might have spotted on last weeks Dragons Den.
Summer has well and truly arrived this week and with the warmer temperatures comes an increased pressure on water resources across the country. Here in the UK, the average person uses around 150 litres of water per day in their homes, much of which is accounted for by wasteful and inefficient practises.
Taking a few simple steps to increase water efficiency around the home however will not only save more of this precious resource, it will also lead to savings in energy bills and the CO2 emissions associated with them.
There are numerous items you can buy for the home which will help save water such as Water Butts, Shower Timers or Water Saving Shower Heads but there are also plenty of ways to save water which cost nothing so we’ve put together our Top 10 Water Saving Tips so everyone can do their bit over the thirsty summer months.
1. Don’t leave the tap running while brushing your teeth, shaving or washing your face.
2. Take a short shower rather than a bath.
3. Only use a dishwasher or washing machine when it’s full. A half full machine wastes water and energy.
4. Fill a saucepan of water for washing vegetables rather than leaving the tap running.
5. Once it has cooled down, use left-over water from cooking to water plants around the home and garden.
6. Check the toilet for leaks by putting a little food colouring in the toilet tank. If colour appears in the bowl within 30 minutes and after no flushes, there is a leak which should be fixed.
7. If you are on a water meter, use it to check for leaks. Take a meter reading, avoid using water for 2 hours and if after checking the meter again there is an increase, you have a leak.
8. Use a bucket of water and sponge for washing the car rather than a hose.
9. Water outdoor plants and gardens early in the morning which will slow evaporation of moisture and is also a good defence against slugs and garden pests.
10. Place a layer of mulch around trees and plants which will slow evaporation of moisture and reduce the need to water them.
We recently added the new Efergy Elite Electricity Monitor to our energy saving category which is a device that allows you to track how much power the electrical devices in your home or business are using. This in turn helps users to adjust their electricity usage by learning which devices are power hungry and where electricity is being wasted or can be saved.
For me, this is one of the best energy saving devices on the market as it educates users on the relationship between switching on electrical appliances and the electricity, cost and carbon emissions associated with that action. Over time you soon learn where to make savings and how much savings you are making, the average user knocking between 3 and 15% of their electricity bills.
There are other, simpler and free ways we can all save energy and below is a list of our Top 10 ways to save energy in the home for free!
1. Let the sunshine in – clean windows and pull back curtains during the day to benefit from as much natural light and warmth from the sun as possible.
2. Defrost your fridge and freezer for greater energy efficiency.
3. Descale your kettle so it will boil faster.
4. Cleaning the coils at the back of the refrigerator will also help improve efficiency.
5. Leave the car at home and walk or cycle to work – saves energy and allows you to enjoy the warm weather.
6. Clean your oven door – you’ll be able to check on food without opening the oven door.
7. Adjust your thermostat to account of the warmer weather or better still switch it off altogether.
8. Check the arrangement of furniture so that they don’t block any heating sources and waste energy.
9. Take a shower rather than a bath. It saves water and the energy associated with transporting and heating that water.
10. Turn off the tumble dryer and let clothes dry outdoors in the warmer weather.
