Welcome to my green products list! My name is Julia “Eclipse,” and you can visit the rest of my web page if you'd like.
When I started trying to shop responsibly, I was overwhelmed. A plethora of new products making a variety of claims about themselves for a variety of prices at a variety of new and different retailers. Many really work. Others are stupid scams (like magnetic laundry disks). A wide fuzzy variety have, unfortunately, not been tested by independent testers under controlled circumstances.
I made this list for myself, so that I would remember what things can be bought more conscientiously and what the best of these are for me in terms of impact and price. (“Where did I see those discounted organic cotton kitchen towels? This site? No. This site? No...”)
Several other categorized lists of places to buy eco-friendly products exist; however I have never seen another that focused on specific items and sources for them.
Products marked with ** are those that I have bought and used. Everything else, I haven't tried yet (and may never).
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, homeopath, chemist, biologist, or certification agency of any kind. I have not used most of these products, or ordered from most of these companies. I have not checked up on any of the claims repeated here, whether about environmental soundness, health effects, or anything else. I have not done extensive background research on any of the products or merchants listed. Use this information at your own risk. I am not the secret love child of Ralph Nader and Martha Stewart.
Problem Items: Please help! I cannot find:
For a really huge list of environmentally sound shopping retailers, see Google's Shopping - Green Living page.
Some rules of thumb: (for rationale, see other sites. I'm not made of time.)
A useful page: The 1998 report on carcinogens.
Note that there are no legal definitions of the terms "biodegradable" or "nontoxic."
(Hey, most stuff is biodegradable after a long enough time.)