Every now and then you stumble upon a “why didn’t I think of that” idea. Today it’s the Ethical Superstore.
With so many fair trade and carbon-offset products on sale these days, there’s only one excuse for not buying ethical products. What reason is that? The fact it can sometimes be frustratingly difficult to find them in your local shops.
Well, not any more. The Ethical Superstore sells gifts, gadgets and groceries from over 50 countries, but only if they are eco-friendly or fair trade. The range of products is impressive indeed, spanning the full gamut from wine to DAB digital radios, and books to bubble bath.
It’s British-based, so you get UK pricing, and you can even optionally offset the carbon cost of delivery for a totally green shopping experience.
Not all of the products get an unconditional recommendation. The Solio charger, which promises to top-up your iPod or phone battery using the power of the sun was wholly under-whelming when we tested it in the office, and the wind-up digital radio runs for only 3 – 5 minutes after 60 seconds of winding, so unless you switched to FM (missing the point) you’d have three or four interruptions in a single episode of The Archers.
On the whole, though, the choice of products is impressive, and we’ll be adding the Ethical Superstore to our personal list of regular online destinations.
We’re also pinning Nigel’s Eco Store to that shopping list, as it delivers earth-friendly products direct to your door from its home base in Brighton.
Again, the range on offer is impressive, taking in everything from recycled tea light holders at £5.35 to cardboard furniture, custom-made at well over £1000. That latter category includes a groovy set of rocking chairs made from re-claimed cinema seats.
As I plan on pulling out the electric and gas fires when I finally move into the house, though, and replacing them with solid-fuel fireplaces, what really caught my eye was the Logmaker. As the site explains, this £24.95 item,
The Logmaker quickly and easily turns your household and garden waste into free fuel for your open fire, wood burning stove, chiminea, barbecue or camp fire.
Produce compact newspaper encased ‘logs’ in minutes and burn them straight away. (The ‘logs’ will burn for between 10 minutes and 1 hour depending on the contents.)
The Logmaker enables you to recycle up to 30% of your burnable household waste, and so is an eco and environmentally friendly way of producing logs for your fire.
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