Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Tin Can Lights

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by Starre Vartan · 07/30/06

Continuing the recycling theme from the bags, below, are these lanterns are made from used tin cans. Designed by Lennie Kaumzha, and sold at fairs and traveling art shows, each one is unique, created by Lennie in his studio.

That’s Lennie peeking out from his lamps

Using an oxy-acetylene torch with a pencil-thin flame, Lennie burns original designs into tin cans without drawing or stenciling. The cans are then shaped by hand. The action of the heat on the metal turns the tin dark, almost pewter-like.

I think these are such a perfect example of doing something beautiful with what others would just toss in the trash. I also love that this artist has made a living creating these lanterns since 1989! Go to Metal Magic to learn more about Lennie, his art, and where they’ll be next!

bags, design, eating, Recycling, trash, travel

Bazura Bags

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by Starre Vartan · 07/30/06

You may have seen these before- I know I have- but I didn’t know the story behind them. Bazura Bags is a company that makes all sorts of bags (they have so many styles its ridiculous) as well as wallets, sandals,storage boxes, coolers, belts, backpacks and even shoes!

The accessories are made by a women’s cooperative in the Philippines out of (obviously) used-juice containers, which are not recyclable or biodegradable. They would otherwise end up in the landfill, or worse, float around in the water and trash the beaches.

The shoes are comfortable, and the bags are sewn well and are really sturdy, not to mention the fun Warholesque patterns and bright colors.

You can go directly to their shop here, or click the link above for more information about how the project works and who’s involved.

accessories, bags, shoes, style, trash, water, women, women's

On Walden Pond

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by Brianne Goodspeed · 07/29/06

Walden Pond

I was swimming today at Walden, the pristine pond in Concord, Massachusetts that inspired Henry David Thoreau, when another New England nature writer, Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Mary Oliver, came to mind. When I was younger and spent more time at the pond, I liked to memorize and recite some of Oliver’s stuff while I walked the trails around it. By now I have mostly forgotten all the poems I once knew, but as I floated on my back and checked out the clouds over Walden for the first time in years, the words of Oliver’s Going to Walden drifted through my mind:

It isn’t very far as highways lie.
I might be back by night fall, having seen
The rough pines, and the stones, and the clear water.
Friends argue that I might be wiser for it.
They do not hear that far-off Yankee whisper:
How dull we grow from hurrying here and there!

Many have gone, and think me half a fool
To miss a day in the cool country.
Maybe. But in a book I read and cherish,
Going to Walden is not so easy a thing
As a green visit. It is the slow and difficult
Trick of living, and finding it where you are.

I only sort of agree with the point Oliver makes in the poem, and it seems I’m not alone. One of the great things about Walden is how many people do go there, mostly as a getaway from Boston. (You can’t tell from the photo, which I took as the park was closing, but there were hundreds of people there today, as there are on most summer weekends.) These days it seems like everyone is carving out his or her own private plot on the side of a mountain or at the shore, so it gives me a good feeling to know that there are still some beautiful places that anyone can enjoy.

The state and the Walden Woods Project are good stewards and, despite all the visitors, it isn’t trashed. Something makes me think that Thoreau, who was never as hardcore about the woods as most people like to imagine, would have enjoyed hanging out at Walden Pond today.

book, car, fall, liver, summer, trash, water, wood

…next to goddessness

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by Starre Vartan · 05/15/06

I’m not going to go into why using chemical- and toxin-laden products to clean your home is an oxymoron, but if you need some background you can find it here. These days even the EPA is pushing alternatives to conventional cleaning products.

Anything that has the number of poison control on the back doesn’t belong in my house. If it kills you in large doses, it’ll kill you slowly is smaller ones. Not to mention the damage it does to the environment after you’ve washed it down the drain.

Even among Eco Chicks, one of the biggest complaints about ecofriendly products is that they don’t work as well as conventional ones. Clean freaks have become addicted to all the goops, unguents, degreasers, sprays and other heavily advertised products and have grown up with them. For some of us, the smell of clean IS the smell of bleach. 

It’s time for a new smell. Here are a few that I’ve found work as well– or better than– conventional products. Your body, which has to clean out all the toxins you throw at it, and the ducks in the pond will thank you for making the change.

Nothing beats baking soda for scrubbing kitchen and bathroom sinks (in fact nothing gets my kitchen sink as shiny). It’s also good for enhancing laundry soap’s cleaning power, deodorizing cat litter boxes and fridges, and for throwing in the trash can when you don’t feel like cleaning the questionable stuff collecting in the bottom.

I use Seventh Generation’s automatic dishwasher liquid because I’ve tried a bunch of them and it works the best. It’s a little more expensive, but it’s worth it to me not to have to pre-rinse. With this detergent, I just throw the dirty dishes in and fire up the dishwasher.

I use Citra-Solv (I buy it super-concentrated) diluted with a bunch of water to clean my floors and cabinets, and throw a bunch in a spray bottle (also very diluted) to use for general cleaning of the stovetop, countertops, etc. It smells citrusy and clean.

ABC Carpet and Home’s spray cleaner smells like fresh grapefruit, and is a splurge at $12 for one bottle, but it’s like aromatherapy, and I will reuse the bottle (it has a very nifty spray device), so I bought it and use it sparingly.

I love Heather’s products, because they really, really work. And their packaging is ridiculously cute. Not pictured here (because I used it all) is a scrubbing powder that works BETTER than Comet– I use it in my bathroom tub. Their window cleaner is as good as (but smells better than) Windex.

Ecover makes the strongest dishwashing soap (not for dishwashers). It cuts grease, and works just like Palmolive does on pots and pans.

Happy (and healthy!) Spring Cleaning!

baking, bath, car, cleaning, cleaning products, ducks, ecofriendly, epa, fruit, health, Home, rape, reuse, soap, soda, spa, spring, Toxins, trash, water

You Might be an Eco Chick If….

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by Starre Vartan · 04/29/06

…..you feel your blood pressure rise every time someone throws a cigarette butt in the street or out a car window.

….you sincerely wonder if there isn’t something that could be done with lint, vacuum bag fillings and all the old hair from your brush.

….you take home your recyclable items from work because they don’t have a bin for them (and sometimes you surreptitiously grab glass or aluminum from the breakroom trash if it’s on top and take that home too).

car, Eco-Chick, Hair, Home, trash