360 Paper Bottle

We can’t tell what’s cooler about this bottle: the neat detachable cap, the clever design, or the fact that it’s made from 100 percent renewable resources and fully recyclable. The company says it can stand up to any kind of liquid, so imagine the possibilities. Tea, organic juice, soy milk – these bad boys can be used to package all kinds of beverages. They’re also designed to be sold in six or 16 count packages, so they’re perfect for keeping water on hand in disaster kits or in the fridge for those grab-something-and-run hectic mornings.

Volute Wine Bottles

We’re not wine snobs, but we do love, love, love sipping a good Bordeaux from a pretty single serve bottle. Volute amps up the class factor with their gorgeous line of wine bottles made from 100 percent recyclable aluminum. At around $4 each, they won’t break the bank and they add a touch more luxury to a long soak in the tub with a good book. Sure, you can open a full size bottle the next time you want a little tipple, but if you don’t drink it all you’ll be pouring grapey goodness down the drain.

Andrew Kim’s Coke Bottle Redesign

If sneaking a soda now and then is your guilty pleasure, you’ll at least look like a million buck swigging from this fancy Coke bottle redesign concept. Chucking the curvy bottle we all know and love, Kim went with a square shape for better stacking on store shelves. The bottom has a recessed area to accommodate the cap from the bottle underneath. And when you’re done drinking, the bottle’s built-in ribbing lets you quickly collapse it before chucking it into the nearest recycling bin. Shrinking the bottle size before disposal means less space is taken up in the recycling truck – just another thing you can feel good about while indulging in a tall, cold one.

1800 Tequila

Yeah, so we’re circling back to the booze again. What can we say, we like a good cocktail, especially a frosty margarita or cool mojito from 1800 Tequila poured from eco-friendly containers. Each pre-made beverage mix package is chillable, lightweight, and crunchable when empty so you can flatten it before it hits your recycling bin.

Vapur Reusable Flexible Water Bottle

Speaking of crushable, Ampac Packaging company has developed a water bottle that you can smash flat to stash in a purse or gym bag, then perks back to life when you fill it with water. It holds up to 16 oz. of liquid and rolls up to the size of a compact mirror. The BPA-free co-polyester bottles come in a set of four and can be cleaned in the dishwasher between uses.

The post 5 Bottle Designs We Love appeared first on EcoSalon.

Let’s say you have a terrific natural liquid fertilizer, courtesy of healthy llamas and alpacas. It’s free of additives, preservatives and pesticides, and it’s available in virtually inexhaustible quantities. Green? You bet – in the gardening sense, and also in the way you’re selling it in reprocessed plastic bottles. Your product has Win written all over it.

Now all you need is a catchy name to hook the greenest green thumbs. How about…Llama Brew?

At first I wondered: is it just me that feels a shudder of horror? After all, I’m British, and “brew” is a word that we Brits have bonded with at the molecular level, as evidenced by our universally applicable panacea, “Fancy a brew?” We’re hardwired to associate it with drinking. So, just a personal bias? I did a little digging. Check out this eccentrically-phrased “review” of Llama Brew, and have a look at the Google Ads on the left. As I write this, they’re all selling coffee beans. So Google agrees with me. And if it’s not hot beverages, it’s the cold variety – as this DIY beer recipe demonstrates.

It’s agreed: something with “brew” on the side is probably meant to be drunk. (Just look at this headline. Case closed.) When you add the fact that Llama Brew is sold in plastic bottles and therefore looks like a darker variety of iced tea…well, you can imagine how wrong it can all go on a hot summer’s day. And yet it’s so easily remedied by adding, for example, the word “poop” in there somewhere. Poop is a word that it’s impossible to miss with even the most cursory glance. Llama Poop Brew. You’re safe.

This is a great product for gardeners – but of all the things that shouldn’t look like other things, surely fertilizer’s at the top of the list? Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a nice hot brew.

Image: law keven

The post Llamas Aren’t For Drinking appeared first on EcoSalon.

Starbucks: people either love ’em or loathe ’em. My husband likes their coffee and admires their business brains. I, on the other hand, can’t stand them for their homogenized, yuppie style. Having grown up in grunge-era Seattle, once a land of artsy coffee shops crammed with kitschy sofas and local color, cookie-cutter Starbucks look to me like a department store: void of soul and chock-full of useless merchandise.

But how bad is Starbucks, really? I decided to find out.

1. Clean water is such a precious commodity in the world these days, but Starbucks didn’t seem to care. Their “leave the tap running all day” policy created an eco-scandal to the tune of 23 million litres wasted every day. Less than a year later, they’re installing water-saving faucets which purport to reduce water wastage by 150 gallons per day, per store. Note, they only changed their wasteful ways after they got caught.

2. Although some people claim that having a Starbucks in the neighborhood is actually good for local mom & pop cafes, the long-running belief is that Starbucks turns the uniquely local neighborhood vibe into cookie-cutter corporate…well, crap. Perhaps it’s really just a matter of taste, but most of your dollars spent at a Starbucks location will end up in the pockets of distant executives – and not circulate in your local economy.

3. Ever keen to new marketing strategies, Starbucks has decided to co-opt the unique neighborhood vibe. What you think is your local indie cafe might actually be a Starbucks in disguise. To try and get the business of economic locavores, Starbucks has sent out scouts to cop the look and feel of various neighborhoods, then create a “unique” coffeeshop under a different name. Some might call this a brilliant business strategy, but I think it’s pretty underhanded.

4. Then there was the Ethiopian coffee debacle. In 2006, the Ethiopian government attempted to trademark regional coffees such as Sidamo and Harar because these specialty brews sell for up to $26 a pound, with only about $1 getting back to the Ethiopian coffee farmers. Starbucks, working through the National Coffee Association, blocked Ethiopia’s trademark bid, helping ensure the continuation of poverty in an already impoverished region.

5. Did you hear about the tip scandal? A former (and clearly disgruntled) Starbucks barista successfully sued the corporation on behalf of all California baristas in a class action law suit. Starbucks was ordered to pay $100 million to baristas to make up for tips that had been given to shift supervisors. It sounds like the ultimate low blow, but there is a grey area here: although California law prohibits managers and supervisors from receiving tips, Starbucks’ shift supervisors do help customers and make coffee. They’re paid much more than the baristas; do they also deserve a cut of the tips?

6. After years of customers haggling them for recycling bins, or at least recyclable cups, Starbucks has finally launched a recycling pilot program. Puh-lease…coffee shops the world over have already had recycling and composting systems in place for years. Starbucks should have been able to do better, and faster – why has it taken them so long to jump on the greenwagon?

7. Starbucks has decided to increase their purchases of Fair Trade coffee – but that’s only after years of pressure from Fair Trade groups. Considering that the worldwide coffee trade is a huge source of oppression and poverty in third world countries, buying Fair Trade goes far to support better wages and working conditions for coffee farmers. So far, only a small percentage of Starbucks coffee will actually be Fair Trade Certified, but they’ve still created a marketing campaign around it. I’d expect better from a large corporation; since Starbucks is large enough for the world to pay attention to its products, they could push some powerful change by using their influence for the greater good.

8. No matter what they do to be a little more green, if Starbucks won’t pour coffee into a reusable mug, they’ll never win my heart. My husband informed me of his own infuriating Starbucks experience where they refused to fill his travel mug, instead handing him his latte in a disposable paper cup and telling him he could fill his travel mug himself. He’s not the only one who’s had eco efforts thwarted like this at Starbucks.

9. And besides, McDonald’s beat Starbucks in a coffee taste test. Ouch!

So what do you think? Personally, I think Starbucks can do better and set a positive example for the coffee business in general, but they won’t do that unless they feel the heat from customers.

ALSO CHECK OUT

15 Reasons Not to Go to McDonald’s

Why You Should Never Buy from a Pet Store

The 11 Dirty Little Secrets Your Grocery Store Is Hiding

Image: D3 San Francisco

The post 9 Reasons to Stay Out of Starbucks appeared first on EcoSalon.

Chemical-free water disinfection is less harmful to the environment and to workers in plants of industries that depend on ridding water of pathogens – such as food and beverage, dairy, aquaculture and municipal drinking water providers. In other words, why use chemicals to get rid of chemicals?

A Hydro-Optic Disinfection system, developed by the Israeli company, Atlantium, appears to offer a more efficient method for industrial-grade solutions to water micro-organism purification, along with significant cost savings health protection. Filtration and ultraviolet light replaces using chemicals with great results.

The method, using quarts crystals, is able to achieve a uniform distribution of a high intensity ultra-violet light throughout a water sample. The crystals ensure that UV rays are lengthened and bounced back and forth, repeatedly, while engineering a hydraulic flow to make sure water flows in a controlled pattern that is timed to match the UV light distribution.

Sounds complicated, but according to Clean Technica, it all means it is impossible for any micro-organisms to escape detection and being dosed and eradicated.

Experts tell us the aquaculture industry is pursuing  pathogen-free water because high water quality means healthier fish, higher survival and growth rates and a reduction in the use of antibiotics.

Alantium was founded in 2003 with the goal of  contributing to the environment by providing safe water disinfection solutions. Its customer base using the water purification installations extends to Europe, the U.S. Latin America, the Middle East and Australia.

Images: Eyeneer, Rob Wakefield

The post An Improvement for Ultraviolet Water Disinfection appeared first on EcoSalon.