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Blue Avocado Bags

We all know that we should use reusable shopping bags at the grocery store and when out running errands, but sometimes it can be difficult to remember to bring them with us.  If you do forget, it is always better to ask for paper than plastic, but I recently found something that will help me remember to bring reusable bags every time I shop: Blue Avocado bags. Reusable grocery bags don’t need to be boring mesh-like bags with the logo of the convenience store or grocery store where they were purchased; Blue Avocado provides a stylish fun alternative. Blue Avocado bags come in all shapes and sizes and can easily be folded down to fit inside any purse for unplanned errands or impulse buys. The bags are cute and come in a variety of colorful designs. In fact the bags have been praised in some major style and living magazines, such as Real Simple, InStyle, and Parade.


Another reason to love Blue Avocado is that all of their shopping bags are made from recycled plastic. Not only do these reusable bags prevent more plastic bags from entering the waste stream, they also take some already-used plastic out of the waste stream. 1,000 plastic bags can be replaced by reusable bags per consumer per year, which empowers every individual to have a huge positive impact.


Blue Avocado also provides other tools to help people make a positive impact. They actually have an entire portion of their website titled “Impact”. There you can find a carbon footprint calculator and links to Green Mountain Energy where you can offset your carbon usage. Blue Avocado also has a partnership with Kiva.org, which provides micro-loans to people that need them the most around the globe. Blue Avocado donates 1% of all proceeds to Kiva. This shows that Blue Avocado is not only environmentally sustainable, but socially and ethically sustainable as well. That is reason enough to remember your reusable shopping bags every single time you hit the stores!

Recycled Leather by Ashley Watson

Do you like the look of leather but feel guilty about its rather large carbon footprint and potential animal cruelty issues? Well, like our new Veledo recycled leather flooring, Ashley Watson products are the perfect compromise! Ashley Watson is a Vancouver-based designer who specializes in recycled leather items. Watson started with a line of un-dyed recycled leather handbags in 2005. The eco-conscious and innovative styles quickly became popular and the company grew to also include lines of wallets, belts, make-up bags and other accessories. Her bags and accessories are sold around the world through various high-end environmentally focused retailers like Vert & Vogue in North Carolina, Glore in Munic, Germany, and The Green Life in Vermont. There are also a few websites where you can order the bags (which is what I will probably do since there isn’t a Ashley Watson store in Massachusetts):

beklina.com
candystorecollective.com
ecomom.com
ecoutrement.com
grasshopper510.com
shopfatal.com

The bags are beautiful and a great way for eco-fashonistas to still get a cute leather bag. I particularly like the Tote Bag with Leather and Fabric because it has a very chic, clean look that is perfect for summer.

And since fall is right around the corner, I might also consider purchasing the Tern Bag because its darker, but still fun, color will look great with autumn browns, yellows, and reds.

Who knew that someone’s old leather jacket could be recycled into something so fun and new?! The insides of the bags are also a highlight of Ashley Watson’s designs because they are lined with some of our favorite eco-fibers like hemp and organic cotton. The bags are a little pricey, but are high quality and will last for a long time. Plus, leather bags are classic and will likely never go out of style. Ashley Watson bags are the perfect way to have your cake and eat it too!

Red, White, Blue & Green: Eco-Guide to the 4th of July

The 4th of July holiday is always filled with family, fun and BBQ’s. This year, make your favorite summer holiday a little more green by following these easy suggestions:

1. Green Activities: July is a great time of year to take advantage of the weather and do family activities that bring awareness to sustainability issues. Go to a local farm and pick your own strawberries, go on a nature hike, or plant herbs in your yard that you can use later in cooking.

2. Offer Vegetarian Items at your BBQ: If you are hosting a BBQ, make sure to stock up on veggie burgers to give guests the option for a more eco-friendly meal. If you’re also going to be cooking traditional burgers, try to purchase grass fed organic beef. Grass fed beef is more sustainable because a grass diet doesn’t produce as much greenhouse gasses as a traditional cow’s diet of soy and corn. Furthermore, grass-fed cows aren’t exposed to as many chemicals, hormones, and antibiotics as other cows. For more about the Grass-Fed Revolution, check out this article from Time Magazine: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1200759,00.html

3. Stay in Town: The 4th of July is a long weekend, which tempts people to travel, but traffic is likely to be worse than usual which means more car emissions! See what is going on nearby, many towns have their own fireworks shows, parades, and block parties. If nothing seems to be happening, it might be a great opportunity to host your own Go Local 4th of July Party.

4. Skip the Streamers: Many holiday decorations are one-time use items which aren’t very sustainable. They create unnecessary waste, and the decorations don’t make the party, the people do! Instead add flare to the party by serving red, white and blue snacks in small bowls around the venue: try strawberries, blueberries, M&Ms, peppermints, white chocolate covered raisins, raspberries, cupcakes with colored frosting, etc. Or purchase decorations that you can store and use year after year.

5. Provide directions to your guests. If your party is accessible by public transportation, make sure your guests know! And I don’t know about you, but I’ve probably wasted a lot of gas driving around when I’m lost. Many people have GPS systems these days, but it can never hurt to provide invitees with detailed driving directions.

6. Clearly label recycling bins: Even if attending someone else’s party, be a good guest and remind people to separate their recyclables from the rest of the trash.

7. Leave the Fireworks to the Professionals: Fireworks use a lot of gunpowder and usually release heavy metals in the atmosphere. These metals can leave toxic residues in the soil. See if you can find any nearby fireworks shows that use more eco-friendly fireworks like compressed air technique  fireworks.

Happy Fourth of July!

Eco-Fashion for "Tweens"

At MeridaHome, our goal is to make sustainable products both desirable and easy to purchase. While we focus on area rugs and textiles, there are now attractive sustainable options for other everyday items on the market - like clothing. Disney Superstar, Selena Gomez, is coming out with her own clothing line. With this teen’s star power, the line is sure to be a hit, but what separates her clothes from all of the other starlet-inspired clothing, is that Gomez’s line is all either made from recycled materials, organics, or earth-friendly fibers! Her line is called “Dream Out Loud” and will launch at K-Mart stores across the country on July 15, 2010. By combining K-Mart prices and prevalence with Selena Gomez’s star power in the “tween” market,  eco-fashion will hopefully see a huge boost this summer. Her line goes beyond clothing to include eco-responsible shoes and accessories for juniors, and still, everything in the whole line is under $25. Who said eco-fashion was too expensive?
Gomez has been praised by the media for her efforts, and she has been called a great role model for teens by K-Mart executives. She always knew she wanted to start her own clothing line, but Gomez said that it was her recent work as an ambassador to UNICEF and her visit to Ghana that inspired her to make her clothing line organic and recycled. Helping people become aware of the environmental impacts of their purchasing decisions at a young age is a fabulous idea, and Gomez’s bohemian clothing line is a great way to do so. She is the first to create a major organic/recycled line for “tweens”. Hopefully Dream Out Loud customers grow up to become an even more eco-conscious generation. Maybe they will fall in love with sustainable decor and become the next series of MeridaHome fans!

Factory Scrap Furniture

Recently in the “Architecture and Design” column of Treehugger.com (one of the best environmental blogs on the web), there was an intriguing article about coffee tables that were made almost entirely of wood scraps from door and window frame factories in South America. The tables were designed by Chilean design students for Remade in Chile. Remade is a South American program in seven countries that promotes the reuse and recycling of everyday waste to create new desirable and fashionable products.  Founded by Marco Capellini, Remade in Chile encourages aspiring artists and designers to use waste materials in their work by hosting international design contests. Most recently, the Animal Gallery in Santiago, Chile held its third Remade in Chile Contest in the heart of the city’s capital.  By the deadline on March 17th, 2010 the contest received 250 entries! Other projects included a line of dresses made from old Puma sneakers, waterproof sheaths for electronics made from wool and fiber wastes, and children’s’ chairs made from tights and nylons just to name a few.

These scrap-based coffee tables are beautiful examples of Merida Home’s mantra “sustainability with style”. While the coffee tables are chic and polished, owners can rest easy knowing that they prevented more materials from ending up in landfills or littering Chilean streets. Marco Capellini says projects like these that use waste materials also help keep end costs down which make eco-design affordable, since raw materials would have been more expensive. I look forward to see more innovative products that come out of Remade in Chile.

Trashion

Trash Fasion!

On the west coast of Africa in Accra, Ghana, 85% of the city’s waste is old discarded plastic bags and sachets. Water and frozen treats are sold in small plastic bags on the city streets, but the city does not have very extensive trash collection and recycling infrastructure so most of these bags end up as litter. But, there is one group that is trying to turn this trash into treasure. Trashy Bags is an NGO (non-governmental organization) that hires people to collect plastic off the streets, clean it, and then sew it or weave it into messenger bags, totes, duffel bags, and more. These items are then sold to consumers for around $12 each. Trashy Bags is hoping to expand their consumer base and eventually export them to sell in stores around the world like Trader Joe’s and Wholefoods in the United States. So far the project has been successful – the group has pulled approximately 10 million plastic sachets off the streets of Accra, and has helped employ about a hundred people, many of whom would not be able to find work in the city otherwise.


Trashy Bags also uses their products to educate people of the dangers of littering and pollution. Along with each bag they sell comes an informative brochure about the trash problem in Ghana. This brochure includes eye-opening statistics like: in Accra 60 tons of waste is produced from plastic products each day, yet only 2% of this plastic is recycled. Organizations like trashy bags are slowly changing these statistics, and I for one am excited to one day purchase a trashy bag for myself!

http://www.trashybags.org/
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ghana/100225/ghana-trash-fashion

5 Easy Ways to Reuse Glass Bottles

1. Create an easy, casual yet delicate tulip vase
Its just about spring which means flowers flowers and flowers! Old wine or liquor bottles are great flower vases because they are long and can prop up a droopy flower for longer. For example, I received a beautiful bouquet of tulips for Valentines Day a couple of weeks ago, and they are just starting to sag. I picked the droopiest flowers out of the bouquet and put one or two flowers in various old wine bottles around my apartment. They no longer look droopy, and the bottles add an elegant (and green) surprise to our decor.
2. Candle holder.
If you have skinny candles, they can fit right into the top of a wine bottle, which create the perfect impromptu candle holders. They can also be quite pretty if you peel all the labels off the bottles. Since wine bottles come in all different shapes and colors, you can create your own arrangement to suite your style.
3. Piggy Bank/Motivation Bottle.
I recently came across a neat idea in Shape Magazine, every time you go to the gym, stuff a dollar in an empty bottle. Like many, I struggle to get myself to go to the gym, but if I can save money by going to the gym it helps create that extra incentive I need. Then, hey, if you go to the gym everyday for a month, you can (safely) cut or break open your bottle and you have $30 to spend on a new, smaller, pair of jeans! Nice!
4. Water Carafe.
Bring a little European style home by cleaning out and peeling the labels off an old wine bottle and using it as a water carafe. I can just picture it – white table cloth, soft candlelight, and a green glass bottle as the water carafe – how Parisian!
5. Spice your own Olive oil.
Clean out a an old wine bottle, but keep the cork. Sprinkle in some of your favorite dried herbs and then fill the bottle with olive oil. The herbs will infuse the oil with flavor over time and add a new delicious taste to your cooking. One important thing to remember is that you should always use DRIED herbs or peppers because anything with traces of water in it could grow bacteria in the oil over time. If you do want to use lemon peel or fresh garlic, or other things that may have traces of water, you have to make sure that you refrigerate it.
Voila, 5 new ways to reduce, REUSE, and recycle!

Recycle your Fleece!

At Merida we are often inspired by other companies and organizations that find unique ways to become more sustainable. I recently learned about Patagonia’s Common Threads Garment Recycling program and was thrilled to see that Patagonia is doing so much to both be a sustainable company, and also help their customers to be more environmentally aware as well. Their Common Threads program, started in 2005, allows customers to send in old, unwanted, or worn out Polartec fleece items. They are then broken down fiber by fiber and recreated into new Patagonia products. Simply amazing! The program was expanded in 2007 to include more garments, even some Patagonia brand t shirts. This helps prevent old polyester or fleece clothing from ending up in landfills or being incinerated, plus, it allows Patagonia to use less virgin materials in their products. Patagonia partners with a company called TEIJIN Ltd., that has perfected the recycling technology so that there is absolutely no difference in quality from the new and recycled fibers. Research shows that clothing made with recycled fibers use between 50% – 100% less virgin polyester. Since polyester is derived from oil, recycling garments helps reduce consumption of fossil fuels and helps decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
Patagonia and TEIJIN are hoping to develop new technologies so that even more different types of garments can be broken down and recycled. We look forward to hearing about it, and until then, we tip our hats to Patagonia.
More information on the Common Threads Program can be found  at http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/environmentalism

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