Green Your Desk With A USB Powered Greenhouse

Gaaa!!!

Don't you fools get it?

stop advertising this cheap, unsustainable garbage

with all your articles about e-waste, you're becoming very hypocritical by promoting crappy throwaway products like this

want a greenhouse? Use the sun, or ambient lighting.

Aj

I guess I was dumb to take the name of the blog at face value -- what is green about this piece of plastic, energy wasting junk?

Artificial soil?

Eww. What in the world is wrong with good old fashioned clay flowrpots? I have several pants scattered around the office and they grow just fine without some cheap disposable plastic home. Why people feel they need something like this to grow plants I don't understand anymore than I understand why it was featured on this site.

So, we should use more energy and buy this cheap pieve of ugly looking plastic instead of buying an actual plant for half the price??? There are plants that dont require much light....would work perfect in someones cube. This isnt a very good idea, and like everyone else said, it causes more waste.

not to mention the cheap throw-away plastic, this thing uses up electricity, pumping greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

WTF? It's like having an add for a hooker on abstinence.org.

I don't think the authors realize that USB power is probably LESS efficient than wall power, because you have to convert it into the 5v your computer uses.

Just because it has a weird plug doesn't mean its free energy!

Yes, we can all use these cheap plastic greenhouses in our high rise condos so we don't have to depend on the lowly farm workers being successful in getting their crops to our specialty stores down on the first level.

I'm constantly amazed at the negativity of the users of this site. Yes, I acknowledge that there are some flaws to this product, but it is definitely eye catching. I can easily see one on my desk (I'm an Environmental Officer on a major construction project) and I can see it being an excellent conversation starter. Surely creating interest in growing your own food or getting people talking about environmental issues is of far greater value than any small amount of plastic used in its construction? I also doubt that the extra electricity drawn from the computer would be of any great volume compared to the usual currents it runs.

Notice the 'untreehugger' tag. I think someone just wanted to let everybody know how many ridiculous forms of waste there really are. Treehugger may some fluff to it, but by no means are they trying to get people to buy stuff like this.

Ever heard of a terrarium? Yeah, you can get your high humidity and if you put it in a room with sunlight.... whoa free energy. Not that hard people.

useless, wasteful plastic gadget...

"is of far greater value than any small amount of plastic used in its construction"

no. as posted above, a clay flowerpot would generate attention just as well (maybe even more visible without the plastic shielding). And the plastic waste is just one of the problems, the pointless energy waste and transportation from china are two greater ones.

"by no means are they trying to get people to buy stuff like this"

Whatever their intention may be, they're giving a terrible product free advertising on a high-traffic site. They fluff it up heavily, without discussing any of the negatives, and justify it with a tiny "untreehugger" tag that 98% of readers will skip over.

One: I completely agree with the other comments about this being a complete waste.

Two: I am disgusted by the Author of this Article, Lloyd Alter, for continuously post articles about non green useless junk.

Three: I am even more disgusted with Treehugger.com for allowing him to continue to represent the green movement in such a poor way.

If you need any more examples of Lloyd's great deeds to the cause check out his article on Cucumber Pepsi

After that last comment I feel I must jump in and defend myself. In this era of greenwashing there are so many products that are marketed as green, and some are quite funny, like the tie with a usb fan in it, or idiotic, like the cucumber coke.

Treehugger is not here just to lecture but also to entertain. There are too many boring websites that lecture. Perhaps I am too subtle or ironic and should headline WARNING THIIS IS STUPID AND UNTREEHUGGER. I thought a tag would be enough.

I cant believe how many people have complained about this product. I bought one for my cubicle and it has been wonderful. Maybe I'm not as liberal minded as the rest of you, but from a from a "green" perspective... who cares! It is an aesthetic piece that is fun to watch grow, takes virtually no power (LED's take no power to run), and is a great conversation piece for promoting gardening. If we could take the amount of energy that you complainers expend whining about everything, we could power a 3rd world country (literally)!

I agree with this last comment, the 6 LEDs in this product run for a year on what it costs to run a 60 watt for an hour. Gimme a break about the plastic and transportation, they don't send a whole boat to China for a load of these things, if one's already going over, why not throw a few on.

All the negativity here does the greeny community a disservice. Stop whinging so much! Although not entirely stylish I would enjoy having this on my desk not least of all because I am a crap gardener and I really could use the practice! I am too busy at WORK (i'm looking at you, hippy :P) to get out in the garden and I think that my work space is not designed to support life. Everything I bring to grow on my desk summarily dies. I think I would need the 0.5 Watts of power to support the plants' synthesis. I could always offset my greenhouse emissions by holding my farts in!

Also If the plastic was made into something like the life pod from the movie Wall-E or ETs' spaceship it would be even more attractive as a desk ornament and a talking point.

Chill, folks. It's a cool toy for those interested. Some people aren't green thumbs and inadvertently kill every single plant they try to grow in a clay plant jar. If you'd nix the lectures and go do some recycling, public information awareness campaigns, etc., you'd save yourselves time and the risk of a coronary.

I find it funny that this product has offended so many people. I got one today as a gift from a mate of mine and I think its brilliant. I was never inclined to want to grow anything before and now I cant wait to see what springs up.

I have to agree with the last few posts as well. People need to take this product as it was intended. It is a novelty item, its not a long term sustainable way of growing things, its a laugh and there are far worse things out there causing more greenhouse emissions that you could be putting your time and effort into instead of bagging out a toy.