The Budget Ecoist- Eco Living on a Budget

Many people already know that Nellie's Dryerballs has a fan in The Budget Ecoist. So when we heard about Nellie's All-Natural Laundry Nuggets we thought we might as well give them a try.

Here's the deal: These little pre-measured "nuggets" come wrapped in a dissolvable coating, allowing you to simply throw one in with each load. The nuggets are made of soda ash, sodium silicate, and coconut oil derived detergents. They are safe to be used with HE, front-loading washing machines.

What we like about them: Oh so easy, just toss them in! Pre-measured nuggets prevent us from using too much detergent (or spilling all over the laundry room). They leave no residue and are hypoallergenic so they're perfect for babies or people with sensitive skin. They clean well and the ingredients are natural and biodegradable. Combined with Nellie's Dryerballs, they give you clean, unscented laundry you can feel good about.

What we're not so thrilled about: We're not scent people. But if you are (we remember one reader who felt tortured by her love of the smell of Tide), your clothes are not going to come out smelling like a spring meadow. And while the cost might be worth it if you love the product and the convenience, it's not the cheapest product. (If you are all about price and scent, check out our review of Purex).

Your best deal is going to be to purchase the sixty nugget package (sixty loads) for $14.95.

A note of warning: We've seen these nuggets greatly vary in price. While Nellie's website sells the sixty nuggets for $14.95, Gaiam sells the same package for $28.00. What gives? We're not sure, but let this serve as a stern budget warning: do your homework before making a purchase!

There are some things that are just awkward to recycle. Water bottles, easy. Pizza boxes, not so much. Some city recycling rules don’t allow items that have held food, others do. Lucky for those of us who are easily confused, some innovative designers are making use of some of those borderline waste products.

CB2 is exclusively selling this mosaic recycled placemat made from shredded juice boxes and milk cartons. Isn’t it fab? The mats are tan and cream with various colors of bright bits depending on if you got the Mott’s or the Sunny D version, which is one thing we love about recycled products. They’re rarely alike due to the nature of the materials, so you get one of a kind finds while doing good.

True to its rep, CB2, the hipper, younger, (cheaper) sibling of Crate and Barrel is selling these cool pads for only $6.95. You can get a whole slew or a select few. Either way you can pull these out and celebrate the beverages of your childhood, while sipping something a little more age-appropriate as this mat is water- and moisture-resistant. The mosaic is also designed not to chip or crack under the weight of your adult fare, so display the placemat during summer funner times or your multi-course dinner party. The mosaic is at home at either.

image courtesy of CB2.

Following up on Thursday's video post on the Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's stance on the environment, here is Republican Presidential-hopeful John McCain's position on the environment.

Here are ten great things to do with all those old magazines cluttering up your home:

1. Donate them to retirement homes, libraries and doctor's offices. (Be sure to remove your mailing address first, if you have a subscription)
2. If you have recipe magazines (hello, Rachael Ray!) that you can't bear to part with, try these options: cut out the recipes you want to keep, hole punch and pop into a binder for safe keeping amongst your other recipe books; or roll them up and fill an old wine rack with the recipe magazines. Suddenly that old wine rack doesn't seem so useless anymore.
3. Peruse the magazines for images to help you create a goal collage. A collage is a powerful reminder of what you want to accomplish. Travel magazines might unearth that old desire to visit the Egyptian pyramids. Finance magazines might remind you how to save for that summer home you've always wanted. Whatever the dream is, visualizing it will bring you one step closer.
4. One word: Decoupage. And one definition for those who don't know what that word means: a decorative technique in which a design is made of cut-out pieces of printed paper glued onto a flat base and then varnished. Check out this how-to video from Expert Village or this fun family craft for the kids.
5. Host a monthly exchange with friends. Last year we got a subscription to Paste Magazine for one of our friends. He's boring and usually only gets things like programmer magazines (sorry, programmers). So we hear that Paste is his one coveted magazine in the monthly swap!
6. Origami. Don't let your Japanese friends have all the fun!
7. Wrapping paper.
8. Funky placemats that make a statement. Start with a 12x18 piece of construction paper. Center the magazine cover on the construction paper and paste down. Laminate it. You've got yourself some pretty sweet placemats!
9. Roll a couple of magazines and insert them into wet boots. The magazines will help the boots maintain their shape as they dry.
10. Recycle them. For real. Just throw them in the recycler. This one's for the lazy folk!

Recently the Budget Ecoist took a beach vacation and marveled at the amount of disposable products needed on said vacation and the lack of recycling bins in convenient (read: on the beach, at the motel) places. Short of taking your green and blue bins with you, (which would certainly take up precious trunk or overhead space) we thought there had to be an answer to this summertime dilemma for the socially conscious.

We went to the source and....

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Suede doesn’t usually make one think “eco-friendly” – the suede-based thought process is generally more along the lines of “pleasing and fashionable by-product of that very tasty cheeseburger, with a side serving of guilt.” But no longer. August marks the launch of the first line of eco-friendly suede jackets. From the beast to your back, Bernardo Green’s line of women’s outerwear is created following a process designed to be as environmentally....

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Using a clothes dryer isn't the greenest way to dry your laundry, but they haven't been phased out yet, and even with increased usage of clotheslines and drying racks, dryers are not going anywhere anytime soon. So when you do use your dryer, and remove a fuzzy layer of lint from the catcher, can anything be done with this lint instead of throwing it away? The answer is yes, and not too surprisingly, many suggestions can be found on the....

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