The Curly Light Bulb

I met Joan from SunNight Solar yesterday (she came to the Ladies Who Lunch weekly outing) and thought I had already posted about BOGO lights here on the site; I am always talking about them with friends and have even tweeted about them.  I could not believe it when I came on here this morning and couldn’t find a post about them!  That immediately prompted me to explore their site again and I am still mesmerized by all the good that SunNight Solar is doing with their BOGO product and programs.  The light is a flashlight that runs on 100% solar power.  You can charge it in the sun, even through a window, and they recommend discharging the battery by leaving it on for 15 hours at least once a month to preserve battery life.  According to the FAQ, the battery will last between 3 and 5 years even with daily use.  The best part is when you buy a light, SunNight Solar ships a light to one of a number of non-profit organizations in developing countries. In their own words:

Lighting is one of the easiest things in the world to take for granted, assuming you live in the developed parts of our planet and there is no interruption of the power flow from your electrical grid.  And if you reside in most parts of Africa, much of Latin America, large sections of Southeast Asia – you are forced to rely on kerosene, candles and conventional flashlights when the sun sets – in fact, there are two billion people who still rely on these outdated and expensive options for illumination.  Now, with our SunLight series of flashlights, we are changing the way light is provided and the impact on the world will be immense – with your help.

Right now they are challenging themselves to get one light in the hands of each soldier stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq through their WarLights program.  So far, the results have been great; reading the accounts from the troops is truly heart-warming. 

Also heart warming are the pictures of children in Africa holding up their BOGO lights; and reading Mark’s blog entry about people distributing lights in Kijabe Kenya.  This is the type of company I want to support.  They are giving the gift of light while diminishing the environmental impact.  And you can too!  Buy your BOGO light now; buy one for everyone on your Christmas or holiday list!

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Henry (my potty-training two-year-old) and I have just discovered Imse Vimse training pants.  They are super cozy and made from organic cotton and PUL.  They are also really cute.  I do not know about their absorbency since they just came in the mail. Looks like the Imse Vimse store offers a lot of organic products for baby and mom.  I will definitely be visiting and possibly buying more trainers. Treehugger has a great tutorial on the importance and benefits of purchasing products made from organic textiles.

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Salon.com has an article today about how to use the internet to curb the impact of direct mail. According to the article, the direct mail industry has a yearly environmental impact equivalent to 3.5 million vehicles! But you can help by choosing not to receive excessive direct mail. Groups such as GreenDimes.com will contact direct mail companies on your behalf in order to have you removed from mailing lists. This includes catalog companies and the “current resident” mailings. GreenDimes.com even gives you the option to continue receiving catalogs of your choice. And they will plant 10 trees for every new membership (a $15 one-time fee). I think that is a bargain at twice the price.

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• Disposable diapers take up over 450 cubic feet of landfill per child. That is the size of a studio apartment! Consider cloth diapers. Pocket diapers are easy to use and maintain and with a little bit of help you can start out on the right foot.

• Have friends or family members who refuse to recycle because it isn’t convenient or they claim there is not a center near their area? Send them to earth911.org. There they can search for the nearest recycling center based on zip code. Better yet, go there yourself and draw them a map.

• Kicking yourself at the checkout stand because you left your bulky canvas totes at home and you have to bring back yet another dozen plastic grocery bags? Next time bring your own bags that fold up very tiny so you can keep them with you at all times. You can probably fit five in your purse. Oh, and they are really cute too.

• Barbara Kingsolver’s latest non-fiction, Animal Vegetable Miracle: A Year of Food Life, tracks her family’s culinary adventures over a one-year period. The family of four attempt to sustain themselves through local sources including their own hillside farm. Kingsolver’s usual frankness makes it personal.

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Buying things you love which are made from recycled materials makes you cherish them twice as much. Here is a list of picks to get you started:

• It is easy to get lost on Etsy going through all of the great hand-made things but especially the goodies made from reconstructed or reused items.

• These glasses made from recycled bottles by Green Glass are beautiful. They make you want to invite your friends over for a cocktail.

• Remember those chains and bracelets we used to weave from gum wrappers in grade-school? Bazura is making and selling bags that mirror that look out of recycled juice and drink boxes. Not only do they keep up to 50,000 pieces of trash out of the landfill per day, the company is supplied by a co-op relationship which pays school children in the Phillipines in exchange for collecting the boxes. And local women sanitize and sew the bags. The women actually have a stake in the operation so they are eco-preneurs as well. Ecological, fair-trade and fashionable, what more could you ask for in a purse? Even Amazon is getting in on the action. Anybody got a straw?

• There are a ton of bags out there. These are made from repurposed vinyl billboards. That is huge. No, really, those blown up images look sleek and modern sewn into a bag.

Previously owned goods can make a difference as well. Why buy something new when someone might be giving it away? Reusing doesn’t have to cost you. Whoever thought of Freecycle was a genius. The concept is that you get on a Freecycle email list with people in your neighborhood and when someone is getting rid of their couch, instead of letting it go to the dump on heavy trash day, they send out an alert and you can go pick it up. People offer up everything from canned vegetables to perfectly new sunglasses. Need some baby food jars for that art project? Email the list and you’ll be picking them up in a few hours. They may not be new but they’ll be new to you! For the price of on the house.

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