Ethical Consumer website gets revamped & sets out to challenge "Green Wash"

The new Ethical Consumer website gives FREE access to some of their ethical buyer reports. Ethical Consumer has been researching the facts on companies and looking at just how ethical they are since 1989.

“We’re awash in greenwash,” says Rob Harrison, editor of Ethical
Consumer magazine. “Our guides cut through the spin. For example,
Nouvelle, the most popular brand of recycled toilet roll in the UK, has
just launched “Nouvelle Soft”. It’s touted as “a recycled product that
offers ‘conscience without compromise’”.

But you’ve got to look beyond the brand, argues Harrison. “What our
researchers found is that the company that owns Nouvelle,
Georgia-Pacific, also makes toilet roll for its other brands from virgin
forests. In fact it was the main US importer of wood from Indonesia and
it came out worst in a WWF report on sustainability in the toilet roll
sector. There’s plenty of greener choices – check out the genuinely
ethical options in our Buyers' Guide.”

Check out the full report on toilet roll - click here

we are delighted the Traidcraft & SUMA's toilet paper got the thumbs up - check them out in our shop

Food Waste is now a political "Hot Potato" (ho ho)

It feels at some point that we are entering strange times as we hear directly from the Prime Minister about his concern about how much food we throw away in our kitchen bins each day. We like his concern, particulary as in the same week, this topic is featured on the fabulous One Show where we discovered that 1.5million yoghurt pots are thrown away every day.

Yes we all should harder & we've found some interesting initiatives to tackle the problem.

Thanks to the lovely Martin Money Saving Expert, we have found a great website - Cooking By Numbers. The idea is that you let the website know what food you have in the cupboard & fridge - & then by magic it suggests recipes - it might be a bit basic in its recipes - unlikely to be useful for Mastercheck but we liked the idea :) click here

The Scotsman newspaper have just reported that the Scottish Government is looking at whether they could ban certain supermarket offers such as 2 for 1 offers & also they are looking at putting a levy on disposable products such as throw away razors & cameras. As the article says, this will cause controversay as we are in the middle of the credit crunch & we are all concerned about rising food prices. The Scottish Government are publishing their household waste strategy report in the summer as Ministers want Scotland to be a zero waste nation. click here for full article.

If you are making every efforts to reduce your waste then don't forget the Love Food Hate Waste website - lots of handy tips.

Also we are please to discover a great new waste campaign that attempts to stop junk direct mail :)

register with the mail preference service - visit www.mpsonline.org.uk - or call 0845 703 4599

or register to opt out of the Royal Mail's Door to Door service - email optout@royalmail.com - you must include your name & full postal address

check out the Fife Council/ wasteaware pages to get more info: www.fifedirect.org.uk/wasteaware

Radio 4 Food Awards

We are becoming ethical award junkies - it seems its the season for them.

Its the Food & Farming Awards 2008 and its time to get voting - deadline is 10th August. The range of awards is great - from diner lady to farmer, to best takeaway to food personality. Click here & get voting!

The CARDBOARD Bike :)

It's good to hear that there are students that work hard & come up with fabby ideas! The cardboard bike is the genius idea of Phil Bridge from Sheffield Uni's product design course.

The bike is made from structural cardboard AND its water proof! It is designed for a 6 month lifespan & then metal parts can be recycled into a new bike again. Read full story here

Love design and sustainability?

Check out the highlights of the GreenEnergy Exhibition at Milan this year. It combines great designs & green energy structures - & has contributions from the likes of Philippe Starck & his lovely new wind turbine :) click here

And Finally...

Desmond Tutu meets a Fairtrade chair

The Fairtrade Furniture Company donated Fairtrade chairs for Desmond Tutu & ITN's Mark Austin. They were conducting an interview at the Salisbury for Peace weekend - read on