Check out the pic of this lovely Cardboard Palace sent in to us over the weekend by Ruby and Rosa. The girls opted for a very appropriate shade of pink which we agree looks very smart and should attract any lonesome Prince Charmings in the neighbourhood to come a-knocking.
Guaranteed to provide hours of creative play, the Cardboard Palace is currently available for £11.99 and for the boys check out the rather menacing looking Pirate Fortress for some swashbuckling adventures.
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.
My TV debut has come and gone…yes eagle-eyed viewers watching last nights episode of The Apprentice may have spotted me pitching the Eco Cradle to the fiery Deborah and yes, the one with the Sandhurst scholarship….Ben! (I’m being nice seeing as he was fired!)
The Eco Cradle was selected by the producers as one of around ten products which the teams had to consider before taking two each to the Baby Show in Earls Court. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and the Eco Cradle was not selected for the final stages of the challenge but it was an exciting process to be involved with.
Deborah and Ben opted for a luxury rocking horse instead and lost the challenge failing to sell any. If only they had paid better attention to my pitch and chosen more wisely!
Since we introduced it last year, the Eco Cradle has consistently received lots of positive feedback from happy customers and remains in our opinion a truly innovative and intelligent piece of design with real environmental credentials.
Oh well, maybe next time!…If you missed the episode, it can still be viewed on the BBC iplayer for the next week. I’m about 14 minutes in 
Over the past few weeks we’ve introduced a great new range of cardboard toys to the kids section. Ranging in price from just £2.99 up to £49.99 there’s something to cater for all budgets and occasions.
We’re really charmed by these new additions as cardboard is such a fantastic material for childrens toys. It’s light and flexible yet very strong and durable. A lot of the models also come as blank canvases so kids can put their own stamp on them and let their artistic imaginations take over when decorating them.
Best of all though is the recyclability of cardboard. As we all know, at some stage everyone grows out of their favourite playtime accessory and when that happens, unlike plastic which usually ends up in landfill, cardboard is easily and fully recyclable.
Visitors to our kids section may be familiar with the Paint Your Own T-Shirt and Make Hats activity packs which we added to the site towards the end of last year. These arts and crafts projects have been designed by an old friend of ECOutlet’s, Kerri Sellens.
Kerri went to art college with Marco, my co-founder so we’ve all been friends for a long time now and last week we were delighted to hear from Kerri that one of the packs in her range, the Rainy Day Box had been awarded the overall winner in the Practical Pre-School Awards 2008 Toys and Games Category.
This is an amazing result considering it’s less than a year since Kerri took the plunge with her own business and shows how with some creative thinking and hard work good things can happen.
The Rainy Day box is now available to purchase from our kids section where you can find more details on the contents. We love Creative Charlie’s range not just because our clever friend makes them but because they stimulate engagement, co-operation and creativity in young children and have been designed with the environment in mind containing wherever possible recycled and reusable materials.
Don’t just take our word for it though, here’s what the testers at the Practical Pre-School Awards had to say about the Rainy Day Box:
The children loved following the work sheets and began to implement ideas of their own into their creations. Its value as a creative resource is immense and it incorporates flexible and enjoyable activities, as well as helping to teach children about the environment.
Everything in the box was great. The Rainy Day Box had a charming sense of simplicity and my five-year-old was able to use it independently as well as being encouraged to play co-operatively and share. It has fantastic educational value and appealed to children throughout the trial. Adaptable, original and a lot of fun!
It’s probably got something to do with approaching 35 and the fact most of my friends are up there with me but whatever the reason almost simultaneously over the last year or so everyone seemed to decide that this was the time to start having babies. Pablo, Alfie, Poppy, Gulia, Finn, Stella, Rosa, Mila and Mia……they’ve all shown up recently and said hello for the first time.
Having seen the impact new arrivals can have on a household and the amount of requirements they have; nappies, clothes, buggy, car seat, toys and furniture, we were very impressed when we first laid eyes on the Eco Cradle, a sustainable sleeping solution for a new babies first few months in the home.
Made entirely from cardboard, the Eco Cradle is light, it’s flat pack, can be put together and taken apart again in a matter of seconds and it’s completely recyclable. What we like most is the flexibility it offers, it travels well so if the family are off to visit the grandparents for the weekend it can fold away and come along for the journey too. When the little one has outgrown it, unlike a moses basket or wooden structure, the Eco Cradle simply folds away neatly until the next baby comes along or if you’ve decided that’s it no more babies, it can go in with the recycling bringing a whole new dimension to the phrase cradle to cradle.
Making your own Christmas decorations is just one of the ways you can help reduce your yuletide carbon footprint this year. For some top tips take a look at the sweet little video on the top right where friend of ECOutlet, Charlie, shows us how to make paper chains from some old magazines. You might recognise Charlie as he’s the brains behind Creative Charlies Make Your Own T-Shirt and Make Hats activity packs. If anyone is still stuck for some last minute pressies for the kids these come highly recommended.
This year instead of sending the normal type of Christmas card why not send an e-card. These electronic cards are getting better all the time, our current favourite is Elfyourself which lets you superimpose a pic of yourself or anyone else onto a dancing elf! Be patient it takes a little while to load up and dont go for the talking version. For a demonstration you can see ECOutlet’s Paul giving us his own little festive dance here.
First up, a big congratulations to our friends Adam and Nina on the arrival of baby Thumbelina two weeks ago, how cute is she!
Over the next few months they’ll have their hands full and like a lot of new parents have probably spent some time debating the pros and cons of disposable versus reusable nappies.
One of the main benefits of reusable nappies is the cost-effectiveness compared to disposables and a relatively new website is going one step further in helping to increase the efficiency of real nappies by offering an auction service to parents for buying and selling second-hand real nappies.
Back in March, Ebay stopped the sale of used cloth nappies on their site and following the decision, usednappies have stepped in to fill the void by launching their website a month later. By providing such a service, usednappies helps to increase the efficiency of reusable nappies making them doubly eco friendly and giving them a new lease of life once your child no longer needs them. Personally I think it’s a fantastic idea and with 2500 auctions having already taken place and 1700 registered users on the site, it looks as though usednappies have tapped into an eco-friendly, money saving idea which is much needed.
Last year a War on Want report found that Bangladeshi factory workers were working 80 hour weeks for 5p an hour to feed our growing appetite for cheap clothing. You can now pick up school uniforms at ridiculously low prices but at what cost to people in the developing world?
There are some more ethical choices available though. Kids clothing company, Clean Slate recently came top of the list in the Ethical Consumer magazine for school uniforms. They are trying to raise awareness on the benefits of eco uniforms with all their clothing made from certified organic cotton fabrics and produced according to fair trade principles.
Another useful resource is Uniform2, a free online community for exchanging second hand school uniforms. It provides members with an oportunity to buy good-quality second hand uniforms at a fraction of the cost of new ones and once registered you can also sell the stuff your kids have outgrown including uniforms, books and musical instruments.
For more fair trade and eco-friendly back to school items check out our recycled backpacks, lunch boxes or recycled stationery sets.
For a few ideas on how to keep the kids busy during the summer holidays take a look at EcoFriendlyKids. The site is packed full of tips for parents and kids and shows how everyone has a part to play in helping the environment. Some of the activities include an energy and recycling quiz, lessons on how to make your own paper and instructions for making a weather observation chart. There’s also tonnes of articles on green living topics including growing your own fruit and veg, reusable nappies and a section dedicated to incorporating eco practises into schools.
Another good resource is the website Eco Kids. It’s US based and contains lots of games, activities and information about wildlife, science and nature and environmental issues. There’s a great interactive storytelling section where you choose your own story path and a downloadable eco-calendar highlighting important environmental dates, quotes and ideas for seasonal activities.
