Lighting A BBQ Without Harmful Lighter Fluid

I received an email this week telling me that BBQs, or barbecues as I like to call them, are bad for the environment. Mainly due to the lighter fluid that’s used to accelerate and help the flame take.

Felipe Correa is the co-founder of One Light Charcoal and he came up with an idea to make a built-in chimmney in the charcoal bag so there would be no need for lighter fluid.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency in the US, charcoal lighter fluid is responsible for the release of some 14,500 tons of volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere in the country alone each year, so alternatives like this are a great idea. All you need to do is open the bag, use the long match provided and drop it into the chimney and then the bag burns from the inside out, allowing the charcoal to heat up before the bag itself burns off, leaving only hot coals.

A bag costs around US$3.50.

Ecover Promotions At Big Green Smile

I’m always looking for deals and there are hardly ever ones for environmentally friendly products, so when I spotted this at Big Green Smile I thought I’d share the good news.

BGS has a 3 for 2 deal on 5litre tubs of Ecover liquid here. It also includes Ecovers 10kg washing powder.

You may think they’re expensive normally for 5litres but they’re not at all – the fabric softener lasted me just over a year and is less than £12! Add that to a 3 for 2 deal, plus delivery of around £5 (or free for orders over £50), and it’s a great deal.

As an addition, Big Green Smile also has 10% off Ecover laundry tablets.

How to Save Money Being Green

This article was written by By Simon Migliano of VoucherCodes.co.uk

A green lifestyle often leads naturally to money-saving but sometimes the green choice can seem to be the more expensive, creating real dilemmas when finances are tight. However, with the help of some useful online resources, clever technology and a little innovation, you should rarely be forced to blow the budget for the sake of the planet.

From fair-trade fashion and organic food to green gadgets, a whole industry has sprung up to cater to ethical consumers. Prices can be higher than at mainstream retailers and while often justified, it can sometimes put such products out of reach.

A smart way to makes this type of purchase more affordable is with online discount codes. Despite the recession, it’s a great time to be a consumer as more and more retailers are turning to discount codes to attract new customers.

Entered at the checkout, these codes offer an instant discount. Popular deals include money off, free delivery and free gifts.

A handy place to look for them is money-saving website VoucherCodes.co.uk. It gathers together all the best discount codes from leading green retailers such as Ascension, Nigel’s Eco Store, So Organic, Abel and Cole, Planet Organic, Ethical Superstore, Green and Blacks, Big Green Smile, Gossypium and Ecotopia.

Grocery shopping presents a tangled knot of green choices that must be unpicked every week, from where the broccoli was grown to how you get it home and everything in between. Most can’t shop at organic farmers’ markets but online shopping offers plenty of environmental benefits. Home delivery keeps cars off the road, cutting carbon emissions and cutting petrol costs.

Food waste is less too. Planning meals and sticking to shopping lists is much easier online than at the supermarket. For the less talented in the kitchen, it opens up the possibility of experimenting with meals based on seasonal produce and discounted products thanks to the array of online recipes just a mouse-click away.

Online grocery shopping also allows you to ensure you get the best deals by using price comparison sites like mysupermarket.com and by searching for discounts, such a Tesco voucher codes, for as much as £15 off or free delivery. Beware of carrier bags however – opt out or you will be swamped in plastic.

A cheap, green alternative to supermarkets are fruit and vegetable boxes. With over 600 schemes in operation in the UK, there are many options. Sites like vegbox-recipes.co.uk can help you find something suitable in your local area. Local councils also run schemes, which are often a bit cheaper.

Another core element of green living involves energy consumption. What many people may not realise is that choosing a green energy tariff can often be slightly cheaper than a mainstream tariff. Green Electricity Marketplace is a dedicated green energy switching site that does the hard work in comparing the options while offering specialist insights into how green each tariff really is.

While buying energy efficient appliances is extremely important, you can go even further with some clever gadgets. The EON Powerdown , for example, eliminates standby on TVs, PCs and peripherals. Free for EON customers and some public housing tenants, it’s £15 new but can be found on eBay for as little as £1 plus postage. It might seem trivial but this can cut 8% from the average family bill.

Transport is another significant green issue. Streetcar is perfect for environmentally-minded city dwellers who want the convenience of a car without the hassle of owning one. Book online and then hop into one of the many cars dotted around British cities. It’s cheaper than hiring car as you pay as you go from less than £4 an hour, which includes London’s congestion charge and petrol, and discourages unnecessary driving.

Alternatively, sites like liftshare are very useful at bringing together people to share journeys.

One of the principles of sustainable living is reuse. Sites like Freecycle along with council-organised Give or Take Days are a fantastic way to keep things out of landfill and save money at the same time. Many local councils also have furniture re-use schemes.

Clothes-swapping is also on the rise thanks to the social networking capability of the internet. Events can be organised online through sites such as Twiggy’s Frock Exchange or Swishing, or swaps done entirely online through sites like whatsmineisyours.com.

EcoPerks Provides Perks For Being Green

In response to Adam’s post about MoreEco, a UK based shopping site that rewards you for buying green products, EcoPerks does a similar thing for the US.

Essentially the site gives you points in return for buying through their links, and you can continue to earn your other points or miles as normal. It does not restrict you to green products, you can buy almost any products that you would normally buy.

But what do you do with the EcoPoints? Well, use them to get EcoPerks of course! You can use them for such wide ranging things as buying carbon offsets to visiting the set of 24 (a carbon neutral TV show apparently), from a wall shelf drying rack to a Toyota Prius (only 10 million points…). It seems pretty good, getting something for helping the environment, but does require a change in shopping habits.

If you’ve used the site, please let me know what you think. Is it worth it?

Red Robot Organic T-Shirt Eco Product Review

Organic t-shirts and clothing is becoming more and more popular but there is still the challenge of quality and style. I’d not heard of Red Robot before it contacted Life Goggles but the online store sent me a t-shirt speedily and I was eager to give it a try.

And I wasn’t disappointed. Red Robot played it safe and went for a medium but it fits perfectly. Packaged nicely in a paper bag that can easily be reused and recycled, I received a bright yellow shirt with a nice pattern of a wind farm and what I think is a rainbow, but in white. It’s called Mono Turbine and the colour is actually ‘Aspen Gold’. The print is quite thin which means the t-shirt remains flexible; I hate a big, stiff, plasticy print on the front.

The shirt itself is extremely soft and actually quite thick which means it’s warm as well, I think ‘jersey’ is the right name for it. There’s a neat little Red Robot tag on the seam on the left side (not on the right as in the picture) and one at the back of the neck with the little robot character on. Also the Red Robot writing is embroidered into the left sleeve in the same colour as the t-shirt.

Made in Turkey from organic cotton (certified by Skal International), Red Robot’s t-shirts cost around £17.99 and it also sells men’s hoodies and t-shirts and hoodies for women too. The current range is made up of limited editions so take a look.

Green Store News: December

Yep, it’s December already, how fast the year goes eh? Anyway here’s another Green Store News update for you.

Christmas already?
The Eco-Design Fair is in its fifth year and is a great place to do your Christmas shopping. On sale are gadgets, home accessories, fashion, footwear, jewellery, sculpture, books, technology, toys and many more alternative lifestyle products.

I’m particularly looking forward to trying out the edible shoe polish! Details of place and dates are below:
Saturday 13th December – 12pm til 7pm. Sunday 14th December – 11am til 7pm.
The Boiler House
The Old Truman Brewery, 152 Brick Lane
London E1 6RU
Entry: £2. Conc: £1

Kids, kids, kids
Kids love getting presents (who doesn’t?), and Nigel’s Eco Store is doing its best to make it easy to get them something eco-friendly. There’s the lovely Penguin Torch pictured, which is powered by winding up or even shaking.

There’s also the intriguingly-named Mr Robot Head and the Solar Powered Toy Aircraft Kit which I have a feeling is for adults really.

 
 

What’s a Wottle?
It’s the new, designer eco water bottle, that’s what a Wottle is. Available at Ethical Superstore the Wottle is designed by er designer Orla Kiely and BRITA, the water filter company. Made from 100% recycled materials, that’s about all you can say about it really until we can test and review it. Oh, it’s £7.99.

Green Store News: Update

A quick Green Store News update for you following on from November’s article here. One of Life Goggles’ friends, Big Green Smile sent us a couple of updates just in time for Christmas.

Lokta paper
Most online stores offer a gift wrapping service but Big Green Smile now use Lokta paper to wrap its products. Lokta paper is made from the bark of the Lokta (or Daphne papyracea) plant, which grows in the Himalayas and is abundant in supply. You can also get a gift card made from 75% elephant dung and 25% recycled paper.

Delivery offsetting
Again, while not revolutionary but new and most welcome to Big Green Smile, is the option to carbon offset your delivery. While offsetting is often used as greenwash, in this case I think it’s great. You can’t avoid delivery with online shopping so having the option to help others abroad and offset your carbon emissions is a good idea. Click here to find out more about this scheme and the sort of people that are helped by this sort of offsetting.

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