A Few of My New Favorite Eco-Friendly Things!

Ok, I know I’m not Oprah, and I don’t have a talk show, so I can’t hide amazing gifts under your seat, but I still want to share some things I’ve been loving that are good for my family and for the environment!  And while I’m an Amazon shopper too, I love that these products support smaller companies with a common mission of sustainability.  I hope something here resonates with you too!

1.  Jungle Straws Coconut Bowls – I recently got on the smoothie bowl train and decided to step up the fun factor by looking for beautiful bowls to enjoy them in.  I wanted a non-toxic material that was sustainably sourced, and I found these gorgeous coconut bowls, which are made from (you guessed it) coconut shells, and are hand-etched with geometric and tropical designs.  They’re from a company called Jungle Straws, which makes straws, bowls, cutlery and razors (randomly) from material sustainably sourced from Vietnam.  They’re also part of the 1% For the Planet global organization, which means they pledge 1% of all sales to the restoration and preservation of the environment.  I love that purchasing from this company means supporting local communities and our environment.  And from personal experience I can tell you these bowls make breakfast feel like a vacation!

2.  Bamboozle Nesting Bowls – Another bowl suggestion! While I love classic stainless steel mixing bowls, these lovely, colored bowls just make cooking more fun.  They come in a set of seven, in pastels, grays or earth tones (I’ve got the earth tones, which appear to be unavailable from bamboozle now, but you can find them at food52.com).  But what I love most is they’re made from biodegradable bamboo fiber, so even at the end of their lives they won’t be an environmental burden!  One downside is they aren’t quite as solid as stainless and they aren’t sold individually in the event one breaks.  So just don’t drop them on hard wood and you’ll be ok! 

3.  Hamama Microgreens – I’m a huge fan of sprouts.  Talk about tiny but mighty!  They’re nutrient powerhouses!  While mature broccoli has the most sulforaphane of all veggies (sulforaphane is a phytochemical antioxidant), broccoli sprouts have twenty times as much sulforaphane as broccoli itself!  Sprouts mean business.  So I like to incorporate them in my diet on a daily basis, but I don’t love buying them in their little plastic containers at the store.  Enter Hamama!  You purchase a bamboo container and can choose from an array of sprout varietals, which come in a thin bed surrounded by a sheath of biodegradable paper that you simply place into the container, water, and watch them grow fully within a little over a week!  So fun for the kids to participate and watch too!  Like modern, edible chia pets!

4.  Who Gives A Crap toilet paper – Toilet paper.  Mysteriously the most coveted quarantine item (for reasons that continue to elude me).  Now that the hoarding is over, why not bring tp back with some flair?  This toilet paper is made from bamboo (loving bamboo right now!), so it’s a super sustainable option for something we use so much.  Almost as exciting as the sustainability factor is it’s official description as being “as soft and strong as a unicorn’s mane.”  So there’s that too!  And they come individually wrapped in cute wrapping, so it will make your extra-tp basket look so chic.  Winning all around on this one!

***

The global population is truly surging.  If every family made a few choices toward sustainability that reduced their collective footprint, we would be on our way to preserving our beautiful planet.  And these choices are definitely not sacrifices!  They’ll beautify your life in more ways than one.