Here’s a great DIY gardening tool for spring.  The PotMaker will have you transforming those back issues of The New York Times into biodegradable plant pots in no time flat.  Great for starting your plants from seeds or seedlings.  When you’re ready to plant just put the paper pot right in the ground and your plant is good to go.

$13.95 @ seed and garden

via: re-nest

I think my fixation with solar gadgets has officially turned into an affliction.  Do we really need a solar-powered bug zapper that packs 300 watts of insect frying power?

The zapper is marketed as “efficiently eliminating over 100 varieties of flying insects.”  Not all bugs are bad.  How many of those 100 varieties are harmless or beneficial?

Perhaps a better tagline for this product might be, “The Shock and Awe Bug Killer”.  A grate surrounds the bulbs to keep fido and fluffy from getting a surprise.  Oh, you can flick a switch and turn the zappers into handsome accent lights.

a set of 4 will cost you $99.99 at the original, purveyor of high-end gadget and gizmos Hammacher Schlemmer

• Funny how the EPA’s message has changed…EPA Poised to Declare Dangers of Greenhouse Gas – reuters
• Solar Finds it Hard to Squeeze Water From Desert - myway
• Key Role of Forests “May be Lost” – bbc
• Will mainstream overexposure kill Twitter? Oprah tweets, Twitter Arrives – cs monitor
• This sounds degrading to me…Man Trains Foxes to Stand on Two Legs – ananova

1. Reality television.  If you’ve ever been exposed to tripe like Real Housewives of NY you know the wasted time, energy-loss and psychic damage that can result from watching it.  Please don’t get me started about the toxic emissions spewed forth by programs like Project Runway or that unwatchable, faux-green turd, Battleground Earth starring Tommy Lee and Ludacris.
2. All manner of recreational vehicles and yuppie outdoor toys.  Ever try reading a book while some bozo on a jet ski keeps brainlessly churning up the same patch of lake?  Or, how about getting forced off a hiking trail by some cammo-clad lard-ass on an emissions spewing ATV; or better yet, try appreciating a bucolic winter’s scene as you’re surrounded by avalanche-inducing snowmobiles…
3. Suburban lawns and the machines that maintain them.  Why is it, the only people you see on the beautifully manicured, 4-acre lawn encircling your neighbor’s suburban mcmansion are the 20 foreign gentlemen on ride-mowers it takes to give it its weekly haircut?  Did you know that an hour of gas-powered lawnmowing use creates the equivalent emissions of a 100-mile car ride?
4. Green, sustainability experts’ book tours and speaking engagements.  Write a book on saving energy and using sustainable products, and then rack-up the commensurate frequent flier miles and airline emissions selling it to the masses.  I look askance at their buying of guilt…I mean, carbon offsets.
5. Almost anything made in China.  Sure, you saved $1.99 at WalMart buying that Chinese space heater but what have you just done to the environment?  China produces more electricity from coal-powered power plants than even the U.S. (unfortunately, it’s close).  Follow the dotted line – pack thousands of ‘Made-In-China’ Barbie doll knock-offs onto an emissions-spewing container ship bound for a 5,000 mile journey to L.A. or New York, when you get to the docks, put those containers on a diesel burning 18-wheeler truck to get them from Chicago to Omaha where the dolls will hit the shelves of your local big box store.  You’ve just created a Shaq-sized carbon footprint.  Did you really save $1.99?

UPDATE:  April 25, 2009, 10pm

It’s official.  Congratulations to our two lucky winners selected at random, Vanessa T. of Wisconsin, and Betty C. of Nebraska.  Thanks to everyone for participating.  Didn’t win this one?  Try your luck by entering our next giveaway, just look in the center column of our site, under Green Giveaways.

(Original post follows…)

Here’s another Great Green Giveaway of eco friendly lawn tools, generously sponsored by Black and Decker. Our First Prize Winner will be able to spruce up their yard by using this eco friendly, 18 volt automatic feed, rechargeable GrassHog Feed/Trimmer/Edger (weed wacker). The Second Prize Winner will receive an 18 volt rechargeable, cordless HedgeHog Hedge Trimmer.

These great Black and Decker products run on electricity stored on a rechargeable battery.  No need for gasoline!  No cords to cut through or trip over.  These lawn care tools emit zero emissions with no spilled oil or gasoline to pollute the environment and your yard.  How cool is that?   Save money, the planet and your hearing, (these are a lot quieter than gas-powered devices).

If you don’t have a yard but know someone who does – these clean and green lawn tools would make great gifts.

1st Prize valued at approximately $99.99 + (plus free shipping, anywhere in the U.S.)

2nd Prize valued at approximately $84.99 + (plus free shipping, anywhere in the U.S.)

To Enter this Random Drawing, simply:
Visit blackanddecker.com. Then leave a comment on this post, telling us how these yard tools would suit your lifestyle.  (Winners must reside in the USA.)
Add the following address to your email address book:
m at AlternativeConsumer.com. (*one entry per person)

The two lucky winners will be selected in our Random Drawing, and notified by email on Thursday, April 23 at approximately 8p (ET). Winner has 24 hours to claim their prize, or offer is null and void. Winner’s name will also be included on this post.

*EXTRA CREDIT
If you have your own blog, you can post about the giveaway with a link back to this giveaway post. To make sure we know, you can come back and leave a comment with a link to your blog post.
If you Twitter, you can tweet about the giveaway, and leave a comment linking to the status.
The more ways you post about it, the more entries you receive.

Time’s ticking, so start clicking, and good luck!

We feature green news, reviews and giveaways all the time; feel free to subscribe to our RSS feed to stay in touch.

As if I don’t spend enough time on the keyboard already…

Designers Bonuccelli and Lamm have created this nifty eco-recliner as a submission to the UMUL 2009 project (Use More, Use Less), a permanent workshop on re-use in design.  The recliner requires a bunch of identical keyboards, which were acquired in partnership with VOICE SYSTEMS, a company offering IT support to users with visual disabilities.  This company develops and produces a machine for the automatic reading of printed texts, known as VOICEbox.  From Lamm, “The device is integrated with a laptop, from which the keyboard is removed, as it has a numeric keyboard that is easier to use for those with visual disabilities.”   The discarded laptop keyboards were then used to create the sleekly geeky Text-ile chair.  No idea what comfort issues might arise if a key gets stuck…

via: mocoloco

A green stimulus package for your eyes, ears and mind…

• About Thin Ice on PBS – Friday, 8:30-9:30pm (ET),  APRIL 17 preview the video
• GO GREEN EXPO in NYC – Fri – Sun., April 17-19, 2009. Get Going!
• This sounds cool – Today, Thursday, April 16th EarthAid.net launches a free online service which measures household energy savings, bundles it to be sold as a carbon credit, and then sends cash payments to consumers. (more…)

• What’s the Carbon Footprint of Email Spam? – cs monitor
• Battle Over Offshore Drilling in Arctic Dwarfs ANWR – npr
• Everyone’s a blogger…Doris Day Blogs About Animal Cruelty – ecorazzi
• Go to school…Finding a Job in the Green Economy – newsweek
• Greenwashing…Most Green Products Seen to Make False Claims – reuters
• Everyone’s going vegan…Vegetarian Cat – ananova

Having designed and produced a WE CARE video for Sephora when they first launched, I was impressed with their commitment to customer service and innovation. They were the first beauty retailer to offer an in-store environment encouraging consumers to “test and try before you buy.”  With successful eco and body friendly brands such as: Juice Beauty, Cargo PlantLove, Josie Maran and L’Occitane on their shelves, they’re now launching their own so-called green line of cosmetics, Sephora PURE.

The first product hot on the shelf is PURE’s Wanderlust Edition Palette, packed with three trendy shadow colors, three basic brown shadow colors and a blush, all encased in sustainable bamboo and recyclable metal, ($36).  Many more PURE products will follow this fall.

Not sure of those product ingredients?  Check out Sephora’s online glossary for helpful info.