Gene Pool is no ordinary household recycler.  Check out this video:

While there’s no need to take recycling to this extreme, it remains an excellent idea to recycle everything you can.  To maintain your recycling habit in a neat and organised fashion, get yourself some recycling bins or organisers, there are loads of different types to choose from.

Ethiscore.org is one of my favourite websites for checking out which brands perform best in animal welfare, positive environmental features, fair trade, organic and other sustainability categories.

To mark the end of Fairtrade Fortnight 2008, here is ethiscore.org’s top 20 Fairtrade products. You’ll be pleased to see that a number of them are featured right here at Pricegrabber.co.uk.

1. Broughton Pastures Coffee Liqueur

2. Ascension Clothing

3. Equal Exchange raw cane sugar

4. Hug fair trade organic cotton jeans

5. Qi fairtrade organic green and herbal teas

6. Union Coffee Roasters organic fair trade ground coffee

7. Cafedirect organic decaffeinated instant coffee

8. Divine Mini Chocolate Eggs

9. Dubble Bar Fairtrade chocolate

10. Fair Deal sports balls

11. Infinity Foods brown organic basmati rice

12. Teadirect organic tea

13. Vegan Organica Chocolate Bar

14. Traidcraft jam

15. Alara Active Muesli

16. Utkins Fairtrade white rum

17. Doves Farm Lemon Zest Cookies

18. Windwards Islands Fairtrade bananas

19. JP Juices fruit juice

20. Meantime coffee bottled beer

There’s little help in removing chemicals from your cleaning regime when you’re still slathering them all over your skin. Skin easily absorbs chemicals like parabens from our cosmetic products. Parabens (usually found in the cosmetics as methylparaben and propylparaben) are preservatives that are thought to be possible carcinogens. A good reason to avoid them, don’t you think?

What are the alternatives?

Fortunately these days there are plenty of natural alternatives to cosmetics with parabens, and other dubious chemicals. Here are examples of a few of them.

The Organic Pharmacy Carrot Butter Cleanser

“Carrot Butter Cleanser dissolves grime, dirt, pollution, make up including eye makeup in one easy step. Antioxidant carrot is blended with skin softening shea & cocoa butter to leave the skin incredibly soft and smooth. Chamomile, rosemary and lavender soothe and decongest the skin leaving it radiant.”

L’Occitane Organic Lavender Shower Gel

“Turn the “in a hurry” shower into a luxurious and relaxing experience. Ideal for sensitive skin, this gentle formula makes taking a shower an occasion. Its unique, fresh fragrance of Lavender essential oil gently wakes you up, while its 100% vegetable-based soft foaming base, it gently cleanses and leaves a fresh and light scent on the skin, without drying.”

Modern Organic Products C-System Hydrating Shampoo

“Cleanse your hair and scalp with an antioxidant-rich blend of vitamins and fruit extracts. This sulphate-free formula leaves hair soft and manageable while adding a healthy shine. High in vitamin C, E and carotene infusing the formula with powerful antioxidants.”

For more natural and organic cosmetics, browse ShopGreen’s Health and Beauty area.

March has arrived, and with it the urge to spring clean our homes. The bulbs are appearing, the sun is out, and it’s time to wipe away the grit and grime of the year and start over all fresh and clean. Take spring cleaning a step further this year and spring clean the way you clean too. Switch all the chemical cleaners in your home for natural and eco-friendly alternatives, and you’ll be cleaning up your act in more ways than one.

Many chemicals found in regular household cleaners are known to have a detrimental effects on the environment, but did you know that they’re not very good for your health either? With the increase of allergies, asthma and damage to the environment, now’s the time to make some changes.

The old-fashioned eco-friendly way

Our grandmothers used to do it this way. With vinegar, baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) and lemon, you can clean just about anything.

The new-fangled eco-friendly way

Replace your chemical cleaning products with eco-friendly products, like Ecover. If you want to try a variety of eco-friendly products for a discount price, check out this Eco-Household Cleaning Supplies Kit. The hamper includes fabric softener, non-bio laundry liquid, bio washing powder, degradable swing bags, Squirtco all purpose cleaner, recycled kitchen towels, luxury white toilet tissue, washing up liquid with aloe vera and multi-surface cleaner, and Ecover’s Healthy Homes book which clearly explains the impact that each of us plays in using up the earth’s resources and gives useful advice on how we can take simple steps that will collectively have a positive impact.

Whether we like it or not, we live in a consumer society, and all of us, to some extent, are consumers. However, we can choose to be conscious consumers and by making our purchasing decisions consciously, we can minimise damage to the planet and to people in developing countries who are exploited so that we can have what we want at a price we like.

What’s involved in being a conscious consumer?

The first step in expanding your consumer consciousness is to look at the products that you are buying and asking questions about them? How are they being made? How do they get to the shops? How do you use them? And what happens to them when we don’t want them anymore?

7 easy ways to expand your consumer consciousness

1. Stay informed: Keep your eyes and ears open for information about products. Find out about how Fairtrade works, what carbon neutral means, why organic is better for people and planet, and what chemicals are harmful.

2. Spend a little: Our consumer society puts a lot of emphasis on cheap food and cheap products. Bear in mind that producers may need to spend more to make a product that is eco-friendly, so if you can afford it, spend a little more when necessary to make the ethical product choice.

3. Location, location, location: Look at where your food and other purchases are coming from. It’s better for the environment for them to be made closer to home. It’s often better for the local economy too.

4. Check the ingredients: It’s not just for food products that we should be looking at the ingredients. Electronics and household goods containing substances like lead and mercury can damage the environment in production and when disposed of.

5. Reduce packaging: Almost everything we buy these days comes in some sort of packaging. Reduce packaging by buying in larger quantities (rather than individually wrapped portions), and give up your plastic bag habit in favour of a few canvas or reusable bags.

6. Recycle: With the number of local authorities doing doorstep recycling collections these days, I hope that most of us are stepping up to the challenge of recycling our household waste. But there’s a chance that you could be doing more. If you have a household item that isn’t suitable for doorstep recycling, take it to your local recycling centre to see whether they’ll accept it. White goods, computers, batteries, metal and garden waste is all recyclable. Many electronics companies are taking back old goods for recycling these days, including Apple, Dell, and others.

7. Close the loop: Recycling is all fine and well, but it’s important to close the recycling loop by buying recycled products. Look out for recycled content in products that you buy, and favour them over products made entirely of new materials.

If you’re shopping online and want to be a more conscious consumer, try ShopGreen for eco-friendly and ethical product purchases.