Foot pedal faucet controllers allow you to control a faucet hands-free. These devices are efficient and hygienic — they are commonly found in commercial kitchens and hospitals. I’m not sure why we don’t see them in more homes. You can reduce water use by 50% using pedal controllers, and if it’s hot water, you’ll be saving power too.

(more…)

One of the least expensive ways to increase the efficiency of your home is to install low-flow aerators on your faucets. These devices save water, and lower utility bills as well, because less hot water is used. Because of this, low-flow aerators will generally pay for themselves in only a few months. (more…)

I’ve been testing the Road Runner low-flow showerhead, which is rated at 1.59 gallons per minute. Currently, it’s my favorite showerhead, beating out my previous favorites: the 2GPM Oxygenics showerhead, and the 1.75GPM Nigara Earth Massage showerhead. The Road Runner has a unique feature: it has a built-in sensor that detects when the water gets warm enough for showering (95° F or 35° C), and then it “pauses” the shower by reducing the water flow to a trickle.  (more…)

I recently wrote about Filtering Your Drinking Water Very Efficiently, but let us turn now to your shower water. When we shower, we absorb the substances dissolved in water through our skin quite readily. For example, as much as 60% of the chlorine you absorb daily comes from showering in chlorinated water. The chlorine is absorbed directly from the water and from the chlorine gas released into the air.

Ideally, we would filter out all the undesirable chemicals from our shower water. However, unless you have a whole house water filter, this is not possible. This is because filtering water at the showerhead is problematic — the water moves fast, making filtering difficult, and the water is typically hot, which is also undesirable for filtering. (more…)

We consider the Smile Brite toothbrush system the most efficient and sustainable available, for two reasons. First, the toothbrush bristles comes from a natural source, and they don’t contain any synthetic dyes. This reduces the chemical load in your mouth. The bristles are harvested from special breeds of boar which have the fine, soft bristles required for use as brushes.

(more…)

Shea Butter is one of the most efficient skin moisturizers available. It is an organic product that protects against dry skin and sunburn. Shea butter is extracted from the nuts of the Shea Karite tree, found in the tropical regions of West Africa. It is a sustainable resource and it requires no pesticides to grow.

(more…)

Target has begun selling bamboo sheets and towels. They are reasonably priced at $40 for a sheet set, and $20 for two towels. Unfortunately, the bamboo content is not all that high — 60% for the sheets and 40% for the towels, and the rest of the fabric is conventional cotton (which requires large amounts of pesticides to grow). Organic cotton or hemp fiber would have been more efficient.

See more information in this article from the Green Guide.

Hemp is more durable and resistant to mildew than pure cotton. It’s also more absorbent: hemp fiber can absorb 150% of its weight in water (as opposed to cotton, which can absorb about 100%). Yet hemp bath towels are difficult to find.

(more…)

Bonjour of Switzerland has released a towel collection made from Micro Modal, a fiber made with 100% beech wood cellulose. Modal is softer than terry toweling and 50 percent more absorbent than cotton. It dries quicker too. Bonjour of Switzerland uses only environmentally friendly dyes in production. The towels range in price from $12 for a wash cloth to $65 for a bath towel. Bonswit appears to be the sole retailer at this time. Their online store is here.

Well, this year bamboo takes the prize as efficient material of the year. We’ve got to hand it to the grass that is showing us yet another side of its efficiency. Since bamboo products are still sometimes difficult to locate, we had to track down these items from a number of different sources.

First on the list, are two bamboo blankets that we hadn’t seen before: the Perfection blanket and throw.

(more…)

This Marko toothbrush by Ohso holds toothpaste in its handle, and dispenses it within its own bristles, making it a self-contained device for travelers. Last year we reviewed the “Clever Toothbrush” which was similar, but it was made out of plastic, and was not very durable. This toothbrush looks better — it’s composed of chrome and rubber, and has a replaceable head which means less waste. It’s available for $19.95 from Ohso. Story via Josh Spear

We’ve detailed the benefits of bamboo fiber previously, noting the excellent softness and anti-bacterial qualities of this fiber. For those who wanted to try out bamboo fiber, you can do so inexpensively, since bamboo washcloths are being sold for $2 each on eBay in white and pink. Also, Bamboosa, a major bamboo clothing manufacturer in the U.S., has released bamboo fiber crib sheets, seen here. They are available for $25 from Bamboosa.

These soaps by Woodwize Body Solutions are excellent. It’s no wonder really, after reading the ingredients. They consist of: 100% cold-pressed hemp seed oil, unrefined shea butter, saponified oils of olive, coconut and soybean. Then they add fragances like coffee and mint, tangerine and spearmint or cranberry. More than 75% of the fatty acids in hemp seed oil are polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), known for their excellent emollient and lubricating properties.

(more…)

These towels, are made out of 100% bamboo fiber, which means they are soft as silk. Since they come from the fastest growing plant on earth and there is no fertilizers, pesticides, or chemical treatments involved in producing them, these towels qualify as being metaefficient.

Originally we linked to bamboo towels for sale at Amazon and Mad Mod, but they are now both sold out until 2006. So the only vendor left is Natural Fibers.

Available from Amazon for $48 per set.

Have you ever spent time at the sink, judiciously adjusting the hot and cold water, to achieve that happy medium between “cold” and “scalding hot”? Well, we’ve been there too — and we’ve noticed that water streams down the sink in a meta-inefficient manner.

That’s why these faucet restrictors are so handy. They attach like a regular faucet aerator but the have an additional feature — a handle to turn the water off and on. Once you get the temperature right in the faucet, you can use the faucet restrictor to adjust the flow or shut the water off. They also save water because they use only 1.5-2.5 GPM (gallons per minute).

The online store Good Common Sense has selection of these inexpensive aeators. The aerator shown above is from Real Goods.

Green Sage has towels available in two natural Fox Fibre cotton colors “sage green” and “cafe” — each created with fiber straight from the cotton plant — there’s no dyeing involved. Fox Fibre is a little scarce — its good to see the towels available here. The towel set is priced at $55.

Web Page: Green Sage

We previously noted that we consider Vitamin C to be the best way to remove chlorine from your shower water. But what about baths? Surely soaking in chlorinated water is just as harmful. Indeed it is — especially for children.

If you have a shower filter, one way to avoid this is to fill your bath with the water from the shower head.

However, there is also a company that makes dechlorinating tablets called “Vitabath”. Each tablet can dechlorinate 100 gallons of water. The tablets consist of a mixture of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), citric acid and sodium bicarbonate. As Vitabath dissolves, the vitamin C will become effervescent and begin to fizz. When it is done, the chlorine will be neutralized.

You can also use them to dechlorinate spas, jacuzzis and fish tanks.

These tablets are less expensive and more effective than the Crystal Ball, featured previously.

Available from: Vitashower Corp ($20)

This razor is made of 100% recycled plastic (65% from Stonyfield Farm® yogurt cups). It will be available in stores this month (September 2004).

It has a one-piece handle design which reduces resources consumed during manufacture. It is also recyclable, either with #5 plastics recycling or with Recycline’s postage-paid mailer — available at stores or from Recycline.

Home Page: Recycline

Available from: Trader Joe’s, Wholefoods and various other health food stores.

This shower head produces a fine spray or pulsing jet but only uses 1.75 gallons per minute. It work consistently in both low and high water pressures. A “soak and soap” button reduces the flow rate to 1.0 gpm for soaping up and allows for the greatest amount of water savings possible.

Available from: Real Goods ($16)

Toothbrushes made of recycle yogurt containers.

Available from: Recycline, Toothbrushes ($2-3 each)