Scott Naturals. Image credit:KC/Scott.
KC has received plenty of criticism for marketing only toiletries produced with virgin pulp from old-growth forests. Recycled content was low. That has changed, now, on a large scale. The company has just introduced the
Scott Naturals line of toiletries (as pictured).
It's a first in this sector to have a full line with relatively high recycled fiber content in all entries.
Reuters reports that competitors such as Charmin and Procter & Gamble Co lack multiple product offerings with high recycled content. This could be a transformational debut.
Details and discussion below....
Moen's Envi Eco-Performance Showerhead uses about 30 percent less water than a normal-flow showerhead. Image supplied by Moen.
I went to a press meeting with
Moen this week and came away with a ton of green facts about the well-known company who produces bathroom fixtures. Was I taken in by the allure of a shiny presentation? Did the swag make me want to praise the company to anyone who will listen? Nope. I'm tough to please when it comes to eco-issues, and I'm not afraid to out
greenwashing. But the science and math geek in me can't deny the company's impressive quantifiable eco-results (i.e. hard figures). So what do those numbers add up to? It's an equation for all-around green goodness....
The biggest downside of having a tankless water heater is that it never runs out of hot water, and my daughter's showers can run forever and often do. Trevor Murphy in Queensland had the same problem, and invented the Aqualim shower head to deal with it: the thing shuts off after a set amount of water flows through it. My daughter would be hitting me over the head with a shampoo bottle, not smiling....
TreeHugger loves ideas that let you live with less space, but they can be hit or miss. Here is an interesting idea from a designer named Pavel, who calls it the Oneself, a bathroom for someone who lives by themselves....
Source
There used to be a big debate about which is better-paper or plastic bags; now we know the answer is neither- bring your own. Perhaps the debate going on now about
virgin vs recycled toilet paper is similar- the best solution is to use neither.
Christian Wolmar writes in the
Guardian that "If everyone in the world used as much toilet paper as people in the UK, let alone Americans, there would not be a single tree left." He notes that in most of the world, people don't use it, and in fact we don't need it at all.
...
Image via: Jaboneras Banus
Sure you could just toss the
soap on the counter, or if you're lucky your sink has a little cut-in indentation for holding
soap. But it's inevitable that that
soap will end up a slimy mess as the water pools under the
soap and just turns the hidden half of the bar into goo, just waiting for you to grab it - you know what I'm talking about. Well designer
Marcos Shayo of Buenos Aires, Argentina has taken that goo to task and designed a minimalist
soap dish -
the Soap Holder Banus - that can be installed anywhere, uses minimal resources and also keeps the
soap fresh....
Swedish no-mix toilets
Over a hundred years ago, Teddy Roosevelt noted that
“civilized people ought to know how to dispose of the sewage in some other way than putting it into the drinking water.” We still don't get it right, building huge networks of pipes that dump everthing together into one pipe, when both bodily waste products are considerably more useful if kept separate.
Rose George does an op-ed in the
New York Times that expains why. ...
Toilet paper aisle. Image credit:
Flickr, Noricum
You know that feeling when you walk into the paper product aisle at the market and you’re overwhelmed with choice? Being a green consumer, you naturally want to make a green choice, but how? And, maybe more importantly, why? Need help? Well, viola! Greenpeace has released its
Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide, a credit card-sized shopping guide to help consumers find the greenest household paper products....
Photo via Coroflot
Those shampoo and soap commercials that always show people being transported to exotic outdoor bathing locations when they start using the product just might become a kinda sorta reality with this intriguing bath mat idea that brings a bit of the swampy outdoors inside. ...
Photo via RelentlesslyOptimistic
We've all been in bathroom stalls where poetry (at least by a loose definition) has littered the walls. But who'd have thought that poetry in the potty could make you use less toilet paper? A study by the research center Japan Toilet Labo showed that it can make a big difference - cutting down paper use by 20%....
all illustrations via Bathroom Design Awards
The
Reese Bathroom Innovation Awards "recognise creativity and excellence. These are two things we can never have too much of." Especially in Australia, where water is in such short supply. Michael Trudgeon was a professional finalist with the Cirrus MVR, which folds a complete bathroom into a wall unit. It recycles, too....
TreeHugger has pretty well gotten its
fill of gifts for the year, but it's never too early to start looking forward to next year's festive holiday season. And we've already found what we want: the
Indulgence Shower.
Half way between
the navy shower and the
low flow showerhead, this smart concept cuts way back on water consumption -- 56 percent less than a regular showerhead; 26 percent less than
a low-flow model -- without sacrificing much warmth or comfort. Anybody who's taken a navy shower -- the kind where you turn the water off while soaping up -- on a chilly December morning will appreciate being able to stay warm the
whole time you're showering, while still saving bucketfuls of water. How does the Indulgence Shower do it?
...
Image credit: GETTY
Thermostat Chicken King
In the game of thermostat chicken,
Turboglacier is holding a lead. The blogger from Portland, Maine, has not yet turned on the heating. The "crackpot" title relates to Turboglacier's penchant for musing on the condition of the unheated human. Hoping not to see his name and the word "crackpot" in the same sentence again, Turboglacier has resigned himself to discontinue posting on the "topic of home-heating/cold-adaptation/practical thermodynamics". But he leaves us with one last thought: on the topic of toilet thermodynamics.
If you ever wanted (or just discovered you want) to learn just how much energy it takes to heat the cold water which comes into your house with every flush, Turboglacier answers. And he provides a handy formula for calculating the case in your own household....
We spend a lot of time worrying about the design of our foreground buildings like art galleries, but give almost no thought at all to the prosaic, basic needs that every city should supply, particularly to those who are not in cars. So if you are a driver and can get from your house to your office at high speed, you don't think much about public washrooms, but if you are a flâneur actually enjoying your city or a tourist attraction, such public utilities become really important.
That's why I love this structure by TreeHugger favourites Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen; it is, believe it or not, a public toilet. ...
at Wikipedia), there is still a proper place in the countryside for a well-designed outhouse. For a small cabin or prefab in the woods, especially with a dwelling occupied a few weeks each year by only a handful of people, it's a cheap solution to a human problem as old as civilization.
The outhouse shown here is made entirely of recycled materials - nails included - except for the roofing. Way cheaper than a composting toilet. At night, a 12 Volt DC bulb provides inside lighting. And, during daytime, the
picture window (inside view shown below the fold) enables the user to read and helps keep odors down. Plus, you get to enjoy the view...and make polite conversation regarding the impact of climate on the landscape, peer reviewed publications on preserving biodiversity, and so on, whilst both holes are occupied.[
Homage to Ben Franklin]...
For a long time this TreeHugger has been
promoting the idea of residential composting toilets, saying that
" If we are truly going to develop a zero waste society and protect our water resources, we are going to have to start thinking about dealing with all of our wastes and not keep flushing some of them down the pipe."
Commenters scoffed, suggesting
"Composting toilets are NEVER going to make it into the main stream market. Debating it is silly." and
"No one will want this inside their house. I know this, because I still have a few teeth in my head and a few friends in town."
Well, I suggest that the scoffers look at the picture above because this is the future and it works. Clivus Multrum is delivering a toilet that is as acceptable as a conventional water flush toilet, together with a support and service system that makes it almost as carefree....
photo ˜psychoactiveme˜@ flickr.
Look over your own bathroom shelves - you are sure to find more than a few bottles that never got used up, or have never even been used! Reducing that clutter was the goal during a
one-week "clay only" challenge taken by this TreeHugger at the behest of Natural Spa Supplies, a UK-based distributor of Rhassoul (montmorillonite) clay. A gimmick on their part, yes, but also a good way to see whether one natural product can meet many needs.
...
James Dyson "is a man who likes to make things work better." He is sort of the Steve Jobs of industrial design, looking at problems and coming up with elegant and effective solutions. The airblade is like that; it uses 80% less energy than a conventional electric hand dryer and wipes the water off your hands in twelve seconds, using air travelling at 400mph. I had seen it on
TreeHugger before but never tried one; why anyone would ever specify a regular hand-dryer again is beyond me, it is amazing....
Eden Home should be a boon to all the eco-enthusiast
online shoppers everywhere. Touting everything from clay cookware to organic bathroom linens to soap made of shea butter and
olive oil, Eden Home seems like a classier, eco-friendlier online version of
Bed, Bath & Beyond. ...
Photo: courtesy Richard Byrd
Got three million and change? Get in line. The hottest eco-friendly home on the market is a $3.5 million,
LEED Platinum, 1920s Spanish stunner recently renovated by Adrian Grenier’s go-to green expert Richard Byrd of “
Alter Eco” fame. The guy may be brand new in the eco-development department, but in this, his first sustainable home, he hits all the marks. Think
reclaimed materials like 300-year-old Spanish roof tile,
CFL bulbs,
solar trees, low-flow sinks and toilets, and a carpet made entirely from
post-consumer waste recycled plastic water bottles. (Check out more pics after the jump!) And that's not all...
...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 07. 8.09
