Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.
Simran Sethi and Sarah Smarsh are writing a series on the surprising journeys of everyday things. They will be posting previews on Green Options before launching the posts on Huffington Post. Here’s a sneak peek at the desk you threw away.
How can a mahogany desk, made of slow-growing hard wood plundered from the Amazon, be eco-friendly?
When it’s re-used.
Often, the greenest consumer route is not buying new products made with Earth-friendly methods but rather scoring used products made with traditional, possibly heinous methods. Reduce, reuse, then recycle.
This rule of thumb certainly applies to office furniture. Unlike energy-consuming products such as appliances, furniture is somewhat innocuous to the environment during that period between factory and landfill known as “in use.” The impacts on indoor air quality, however, are like Britney: Not that innocent.
By mcmilker •
April 1, 2008
Parents looking for organic and natural toys won’t have to go quite so far to find them according to an announcement released today. On Earth Day, April 22, 2008 Toys R Us and Toys R Us online will start selling a private label brand of toys.
The toys will be packaged in earth-tone colored boxes that bear a stylized “R” seal featuring a green leaf, encircled by the words “Recycle, Renew, Reuse, Re-think,” and signifies for parents that the toys are eco-friendly. The packaging itself will be made from no less than 70 percent recycled materials, according to the company.
By Max Lindberg •
February 18, 2008
27 year old Joe Harmon and several students from North Carolina State University wanted to see if it was possible to build a performance car out of wood.
It may not be in the showroom soon, but their creation, the Splinter (what else?), with a top speed of 240 mph, should be completed this year.
Source
