National Consignment Day Event At The RealReal

Today is National Consignment Day and you can celebrate with The RealReal by attending a sustainability workshop at one of their brick and mortar locations. Click here to lean more.

Online Consignment Shopping: Where to Go For The Best Home Goods

Photo by Steve R. on Flickr

I had so much fun writing about online consignment clothing sites I decided to continue the trend and write about consignment home goods this week. Buying previously owned merchandise is a great way to recycle and repurpose. Plus, it’s easy on the pocketbook and easy on the environment. And while craigslist and eBay are great places to find staples from stores like IKEA, Ethan Allen, and West Elm, there are some great sites for upscale home goods at prices considerably less than retail.

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Online Consignment Shopping: Where To Go for the Best Clothes

photo by Santiago Cancinos

Finding clothes made in an environmentally sustainable way can be difficult. Buying previously owned clothing makes it easy.

 

Recycled Stuff You’d Actually Want To Buy

‘Fresh Morning’
Recycled Paper Dangle Earrings

I’ve been wanting for a while to do a post about recycled things that are attractive. So many recycled products are not very pretty and, although we may want to buy them to support companies or artists who use recycled products we don’t buy them because we don’t actually like them.

So, here are some products made with recycled materials that, at least in the eye of this beholder, are esthetically pleasing.

in.gredients The First Package Free Zero Waste Grocery Store in US

My aunt told me an amusing story once. She and my uncle were living in London about 35 years ago and the first time she went to the grocery store she took her cart to the cashier, checked out and looked for bags to load her groceries into. There were none. She wound up making several trips to the car.

At the time I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea of we did that here in the U.S. Now many of us do but there is a new grocery store opening up in Austin called in.gredients that is taking things one step further. In.gredients is opening a package free zero waste store.

What does that mean exactly? It means a few things. One, you bring your own containers to fill with food. Many products such as grains, spices, oil, vinegar – even wine and beer (some locally produced) will be offered in bulk. You buy as much as you want, label your container and pay. Easy.

The store will also source food and other products locally whenever possible thus reducing the amount of energy used to transport food over long distances. And the store will not carry processed foods.

You can follow their progress toward opening day on their web site at this link.

Design, Recycling and Inexpensive Cross Paths At This Living Wall

CInder Block Vertical Wall Planter

THE ONCE A WEEK POST FOR FEBRUARY 22 2012

I found this Vertical Wall on Urban Garden‘s site and chose it for the first Once a Week post because, well, not only do I love it, but it is made from cinder blocks which can often be found at construction sites; it is easy to build; won’t cost a fortune and is cool looking but not so hip it will make the rest of your garden look immediately out dated.

Zac Benson built the wall (and took the beautiful photographs of it) in his California home. He is a succulent collector and felt this would be a great way to display them.

You can read the full article here which has instructions on how to build it but it’s not that difficult. Plus, with this design you can start small and add on; either up or out.