The recent Green Products Expo in New York was chock-full of ecofriendly goods, from bright and cheery lawn furniture mostly made of recycled milk jugs to biodegradable doggie poop bags (as a pooper-scooping dog owner, this is a product I could get behind). Some products didn't wow me—the Pocket Purifier, though, a clunky and none-too-petite handheld UV light that supposedly zaps germs, didn't make me want to ditch my purse-size Purell—chemicals and all!
But there was lots to like. Here are some of the things I liked best from the show:
Gro-pak shopping bags with carbon-footprint labels. This isn't just another reusable shopping bag, it's a whole system of lightweight, collapsible bags—six in all—for hauling groceries and general shopping. There's a ventilated style for fruits and veggies, too. And they're very cute. Plus the nifty carbon label reminds you that in toting one of these, you just saved three plastic shopping bags. Using even one style of bag for a year, says the company, could mean you don't use up to 200 plastic bags. Also, I liked that it was a do-gooder purchase: 1% of the company's income is invested in women micro-entrepreneurs around the world; www.blueavocado.com
Cool lawn furniture. It's 100-percent recycled, mostly from milk jugs, comes in fun colors like cherry red, apple, and chocolate, as well as classic black and white, and has a clean, modern-meets-Adirondack-design; www.lolldesigns.com.
Biodegradable plastic bags. The makers of Flush Puppies say their bags are 100-percent biodegradable and flushable too. If you live in a place where you have to clean up after your pooch, this is worth checking out; www.flushpuppies.com. Perf Go Green kitchen trash bags are made from recycled plastic treated with biodegradable properties which supposedly helps them break down in landfills. If it's true (and we didn't test them), they're worth a try; www.perfgogreen.com.
Nifty energy-saver. The Sensor Plus looks sort of like a night light, but it's a motion-sensing outlet that plugs into an ordinary electrical socket to turn appliances on and off automatically. Though we haven't tested it, it seems like a pretty good energy-and-money saving idea; www.sensorplug.com
Ceramic nonstick cookware. Xtrema cookware is good-looking in sleek jet black, and it's made of a new patented ceramic material with a ceramic nonstick coating, so if you're Teflon-phobic but like the nonstick convenience, consider this alternative. Another plus: It goes from stovetop or oven to the table, but again, we didn't test this product in our labs; www.ceramcor.com.
