Organic Surge Handwash Eco Product Review

We’ve reviewed a few handwashes at Life Goggles and it amazes me how popular they are. Handwash is something you don’t really think about but end up using it everyday. Thinking about yesterday (as I write this) I think I used soap twice and handwash three times to wash my hands so it’s great there are so many eco-friendly choices.

This Organic Surge Handwash is made by a company called Thinkhappy which is a great name. The ever helpful Big Green Smile sent me the lavendar and geranium version that promises that it “cleanses, refreshes and moisturises” and has a “delicious natural fragrance”.

And it seems to do the job exactly as promised. Despite the opaque bottle, the handwash is clear and smooth. With damp hands it soaps up nicely without needing to use too much. It’s lavendar fragrance is noticable straight out of the bottle, but isn’t overwhelming.

Once washing off, the lavender smell stays on your hands which is as it should be, but smelling it every time I went to drink a glass of water after started to put me off it it, but five minutes later the smell had gone – I must remember not to wash my hands when I’m very thirsty!

Buying Organic Surge products also helps African children as the company donates to various projects there: “Our donations go towards creating educational scholarships in schools, helping the Kenya Children’s Home Orphanage in Kenya and supporting the Watoto children’s charity in Uganda.”

The handwash is made with 99% naturally derived ingredients and some certified organic ingredients but does come in a plastic bottle – but they all do to compete with mainstream brands and I’m safe in the knowledge that I can recycle it easy enough. I would like it if companies paid more attention to the bottles though and started using recycled bottles.

That slight complaint aside, I’ve found this handwash really nice to use and it’ll adorn my bathroom for many months to come.

Organic Surge Handwash costs £3.91 from Big Green Smile.

70% of Us Want an Opt-In System for Phonebook Delivery

The “us” in this case is British people who were the target of the survey. 192.com backed by environmental charity Global Action Plan have launched an e-petition to go alongside the ‘Say No To Phonebooks’ campaign to demand that the UK government give people a choice about whether we have phonebooks dumped on their doorsteps every year.

A quick 1 minute video gives some interesting stats about the production of phonebooks:

You can sign the e-petition on the Downing St website and visit www.saynotophonebooks.org.

Method Steel For Real Wipes Eco Product Review

As regular readers will know, here at Life Goggles we’re big fans of Method products. The latest one we have in for review is Method Steel For Real Wipes for cleaning stainless steel.

The first obvious thing to raise your eyebrows is that these are disposable wipes – not very eco-friendly is it? Will yes and no really. These are made from bamboo and will biodegrade unlike mainstream brand disposable wipes that sit in landfill for millions of years. It’s important that the eco world offer alternatives to mainstream products, people who use wipes will not want to move back to cloths and spray so these are a eco-friendly alternative.

That out the way it was time to test the wipes. But first I had to get into the packet – and for some reson I found it a joy. There’s a little plastc pop up lid that I’ve never seen before. Maybe lots of products have it but the last time I used wipes they had an allegedly resealable sticky cover that doesn’t work. This little plastic lid is genius. Although it doesn’t say whether it’s made from recycled plastic but hopefully people who buy these will recycle this bit.

Right, now to try out the wipes. The smell is exactly the same as the Method Stainless Steel Cleaner spray I reviewed a while ago, which is probably as it’s the same stuff! But using the wipes is a different experience that the spray and cloth. I immediately thought I preferred the spray as that worked brilliantly but I struggled a little with the cloths, but after a while I realised as that’s because I don’t clean my sink and draining board very often so need to use a more abrasive cloth that these disposable ones. These wipes work really well, I just need to use them more regularly than I have been!

I did find I needed to use another cloth after the wipes only after I got one wet. If you’re cleaning your sink I’d advise you to wait until it’s dry before cleaning it as once the wipes are wet it leaves a milky residue on the surface that you need to wipe away. Not a big problem, but something to look out for.

I think these are a really good alternative to buying other disposable wipes, although I might stick to the spray version and a cloth. Or maybe I’l clean more often with these, hmmm.

Method Steel For Real Wipes cost £3.50 from most supermarkets and online shops such as Big Green Smile.

Turning Trash Into Gas

Or “Turning Rubbish Into Petrol” for those in the UK. Recently, Coskata Inc., a leading developer of alternative bio-fuels, announced the successful start-up of its semi-commercial flex-ethanol facility.

Unlike other technologies and facilities that often rely on one primary source of feedstock, the company’s flex ethanol facility will be producing ethanol from numerous sources, including wood biomass, agricultural waste, construction waste and even household garbage. In addition, their patented microorganisms and bioreactor designs will produce ethanol for the same as, and in some cases less than, the cost of producing a gallon of gasoline. This new technology also reduces CO2 emissions up to 96 percent compared to gasoline.

Flex Fuel vehicles that can run on gas, E85 or a combination of both, are already available from Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge and GMC. GM has built 5 million of these vehicles to date, watch the video below to learn more.

An Eco ATM That Takes Your Old Electronics

Sort of a reverse cash machine, the Eco ATM takes your old electronics off you and then credits you what it’s worth.

Available only in America at the moment, the Eco ATM is an automated reuse-and-recycle machine that helps people get rid of old gadgets while making it financially rewarding for them to do so as well. A bit like when you put your old mobile phone in the post and then get either cash or reward points, instead of posting you feed it into the Eco ATM.

The device then analyses the phone and gives it a value – which could be store credit (depending on where it’s situated), you could choose to donate it to charity, or if it’s not worth anything then it will be recycled.

The Eco ATM will soon take MP3 players, digital cameras, computers etc as well as mobile phones. The easier they make it to recycle, the more people will do it, and this sounds pretty easy.

Spotted via Springwise.

JASON Natural Sea Kelp Shampoo Eco Product Review

By it’s very name, JASON’s Natural Sea Kelp Shampoo conjures up images of a sloppy green sunstance, smelling of the sea. But Big Green Smile has sent us JASON products before (which we liked) so I expected it would be slightly different than that.

And it was. It was a see-through yellow colour for a start and it also smelt of pineapple and coconut bizarrely. A quick look at the ingredients doesn’t really shed light on why it smells like that, but I’m not complaining.

There are a lot of plant extracts – there’s the sea kelp obviously, but also such unusual things like kukui nut, awapuhi (Hawaiian ginger), plumeria and orchid. It never ceases to amaze me where they find this stuff, every product I review seems to have some plant or flower I’ve never heard of in. It shows what a diverse planet we have and the need for man made ingredients is getting less and less necessary.

Talking of ingredients, this shampoo is free from lauryl sulfates and has what it calls plant panthenols and proteins to mositurise the hair. I keep my hair pretty short but it’s long enough to see if it works. And it’s quite nice. It’s a pretty thick liquid and I used too much on the first go and it foams up nicely, covering my hair.

I think someone with long hair would get a lot of pleasure using this as it doesn’t just smell nice and foam up, once washed off my hair felt nice and smooth, almost silky which is what all the shampoo adverts keep telling us is a good thing.

The bottle obviously suggests to use JASON conditioner but as I don’t have any, I didn’t, and to be honest I don’t see the point of conditioner that much as my hair feels lovely just after using the shampoo. Maybe if you have longer hair it’s more important.

JASON Natural Sea Kelp Shampoo costs £5.75 from Big Green Smile.

Kate Humble Backs New Water Saving Campaign

Alasdair from Big Green Smile has written a post about Springwatch favourite Kate Humble bfronting, or indeed backing, a new water saving campaign:

“BBC television wildlife presenter Kate Humble has joined the campaign to educate Britons about the importance of water saving measures.

Figures published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) show that the average Briton uses 150 litres of water every day, compared to the 127 litres used by the average German.

It is estimated the water treatment process and the use of hot water creates 35 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year in the UK.

Ms Humble is now trying to get the message across that straightforward water saving measures can save money and help the battle against climate change.

“Simple changes can really add up to a better environment – meaning more water for the wildlife and countryside around us as well as saving on carbon emissions,” she said.

Among the water saving measures recommended by Defra are turning the tap off while brushing your teeth and using a watering can instead of a hosepipe when watering the garden.

Waterwise recently launched a campaign to persuade people to spend less time in the shower, pointing out that an electric shower uses around six litres of water a minute.

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