I very recently came across some cool eco-friendly products available at Home Hardware stores (Canada). It was actually my wife who told me about them after hearing an ad on the radio. (she definitely earned herself some eco brownie points with that one!)
Natura’s tea tree oil all-purpose cleaner has actually been a favourite of ours for some time now, but the timing of their two newest products couldn’t have been much better!
One of our lingering bad habits is the frequent use of paper towels. At one point I thought I had a solution in making rags out of old T-shirts, but sadly my skimpy rags just didn’t cut it in the end. Needless to say, when I learned about the Natura “Wonder Cloth” and it’s “8 layers of soft, supple, super absorbent cleaning power”, I was pretty excited!
The wonder cloth is apparently made from 100% natural wood fibres (a little odd, but interesting nevertheless), and resists bacterial growth, thus making it (hopefully) an ideal multi-use cloth. It feels pretty stiff straight out of the package, but I’m hopeful it will mellow out a little with some use!
The other new product is the Natura static-free, re-usable dryer sheets. It’s funny, I’ve recently been looking at our big ol’ box of Bounce sheets wondering if there was some better alternative out there - I’m certainly glad to know there is!
Each box contains 2 re-usable sheets and claims they are good for more than 500 loads. I’m not sure if that is 500 each or combined, but either way this is not only more eco-friendly but also quite a bit cheaper. The box cost $12.95, so even if it was only good for 500 loads total, thats 5X more than the 100-sheets of Bounce (which probably cost $4 or $5).
Also, one other thing worthy of mention - it looks as though some money is donated to the Tree Canada Foundation for any Natura products (or at least the Wonder Cloth) purchased.
So, if you happen to live in Canada be sure to check out Natura products the next time you are at your local Home Hardware. Unfortunately I don’t think they are available anywhere else, but I imagine there must be similar products out there.
Technorati Tags: natura, tea tree oil, re-usable dryer sheets, paper towels, green products, home hardware, green cleaning, eco-friendly
Written by Bentley on April 2nd, 2007 with 8 comments.
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It appears Toronto wants to take part in the Live Earth concert for global warming. Toronto City officials are currently looking for a local promoter to host the event. I think it is extremely important for Canada to get involved in this event. We need to demonstrate to the rest of the world that we are serious about climate change and we are prepared to take action. Once a location is determined I am sure it wouldn’t take long to secure the musical acts. The Canadian performers I would expect to see at the concert: Bare Naked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Harmer, Bryan Adams, Our Lady Peace, The Tragically Hip.
Finding the talent shouldn’t be an issue. Agreeing on the venue location and constructing the venue in a sustainable way, not that is another story. I was at the SARS concert in Toronto and remember the amount of trash and waste that filled the venue site. I could barely find a piece of ground that was not covered with plastic water bottles. The clean-up from that concert was an enormous task. When I left that concert, I felt like I needed to be hosed down, as the trash was disgusting. I had a chance to go over to the Live Earth website, and according to the site, each venue will be designed to maintain a minimum environmental impact and will showcase the latest state-of-the-art energy efficiency, on-site generation, and sustainable facilities management practices. I am excited to see what new technologies will be showcased at the various venues.
More about Live Earth
Live Earth will use the global reach of music to engage people on a mass scale to combat our climate crisis. Live Earth will bring together more than 150 of the world’s top musicians for 24-hours of music from 7 concerts across all 7 continents. Live Earth will bring together an audience of more than 2 billion at the concerts and through television, radio, film, and the Internet. That audience, and the proceeds from the event, will create the foundation for a new, multi-year global effort to combat the climate crisis led by Vice President Al Gore. Kevin Wall, Worldwide Executive Producer of Live 8, is producing Live Earth.
If you are interested in learning more about Live Earth, head over to their website.
To read more about Toronto’s plan to join the concert, read the article here.
Technorati Tags: Live Earth Concert, climate change, global warming, Al Gore, climate change awareness, Toronto
Written by steve on April 2nd, 2007 with no comments.
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