Green Products

Reducing waste and promoting environmental resposibility in their children is a priority with many parents. One way to help with this is to use a product like Fabkins, cool reusable cloth napkins for kids that are perfect for a child's lunchbox and at-home use, too. Fabkins were created and designed by Marin mompreneurs Joyce Raffo and Paige Rodgers. (We interviewed Joyce and Paige in 2008 about their product and business; you can read that article here.)

Useful as both napkins and placemats, Fabkins encourage good table manners, and help reduce waste by eliminating the need to use paper napkins both with school lunches and meals at home. They are made of 100% certified organic cotton, and embroidered with fun designs in themes ranging from Prima Ballerina and African Safari to Xtreme Sports and Beach Bound. Fabkins retails for $10.95 for a starter set of two organic napkins, or $19.95 for a set of four, and can be purchased at numerous retail locations throughout the Bay Area or online at www.fabkins.com. Marin Mommies readers who order online can take 20% off their Fabkins purchase with the coupon code MM20 through August 31.

We just got our hands on one of this season's coolest back-to-school accessories—the Yubo lunchbox. Some would argue that a good lunchbox is a necessity for the well-equipped student, and the Yubo should make any kid or parent happy.

What makes it different from your garden variety lunchbox? Several things, actually. Yubo can be personalized with interchangeable faceplates in a wide variety of designs. Cute dinosaurs, flowers, and fairy princesses will make younger children happy, while older grade-school kids will like the cool shark, surfer girl, and skater designs. To make your Yubo truly unique, you can add your child's name to selected designs, and even upload a photo or your child's artwork to make a custom faceplate.

Yubo lunchboxes are made of BPA-free, anti-microbial, and recyclable plastic. The whole thing is dishwasher safe, so if your Yubo gets grubby the way kids' lunchboxes do, just pop off the faceplates, snap off the rubber handle, take off the lids, and put the whole thing in the dishwasher. Yubo is truly a well thought-out and designed product.

Send your kids back to school with eco-friendly, non-toxic lunch kits from Kids Konserve! Through August 31, 2010, Kids Konserve is offering our readers 15% off their orders using the coupon code school.

Kids Konserve offers some great products to help make school lunches greener, cleaner, and waste-free:

While reusable bags are a great idea that cuts down on waste, not all of them are created equal. Local Marin company AAH HAA! Inc.'s line of Clean Conscience bags don't just take the place of disposable shopping and lunch bags, but are made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles, and are (amazingly, in this day and age) made in the USA! Also, unlike many eco-friendly bags out there, Clean Conscience bags are available in fun designs and colors, not just the plain-vanilla unbleached look.

AAH HAA! Inc. was founded by Corie Thornton, the company's "Clean and Green Designer." She's passionate about her mission to not only help clean up the environment, but to provide affordable, good looking, and functional American-made recycled products. “Trash is a terrible thing to waste,” says Thornton. “We’re un-wasting, recycling, and up-cycling plastic trash to convert them into beautiful and durable products that consumers can enjoy. Otherwise, all of the plastic we use in our products would end up in landfills, and plastic remains in landfills for hundreds of centuries before it even begins to decompose.”

One thing that I'm trying to do to help the environment is to use fewer paper and plastic grocery bags when doing my shopping. I've managed to amass a sizable collection of Trader Joes reusable shopping bags (although I haven't yet won that $25 gift certificate), but the big problem with them is forgetting to bring them with me when I go shopping. I think I actually only have them with me maybe 30% of the time. Otherwise they're at home or in the other car.

That's why I was so excited to get a sample of Waste-Less shopping bags. Waste-Less bags are large, lightweight, reusable shopping bags that fold into a very small size—small enough that a set of three fits into a nifty little carrying case that you can put in a purse or jacket pocket. Keep a set on you and you'll never have to worry about forgetting your reusable bags again. The design is pretty stylish, too, and more designs are apparently on the way. Of course, you don't have to use them just for groceries; they make nifty tote bags for beach gear, books, and school stuff as well.