Eco-Spirits Extremely Affordable

On a recent trip to the liquor store I came across 360 Eco Friendly Vodka. It was priced at $19.95 and I decided to give it a try.

The packaging includes a lot of useful information about the company’s environmental impact. It claims to be the first and only true eco-friendly premium vodka and has received awards in taste, quality, packaging and marketing. I am no vodka coinsurer, however I thought it was good and better than the similarly priced Skyy Vodka.

The store only had the regular 360 Eco Friendly Vodka, but after researching on the Web I discovered that 360 also distills cola and double chocolate flavors.

The vodka comes in an 85 percent recycled glass bottle and 100 percent recycled eco-friendly paper products are used in the labeling, packaging and promotional materials. The shipper uses 100 percent recycled cardboard. Environmentally friendly water based inks are used for printing of all materials. A program called Close the Loop was developed for the metal bottle closures with the purpose of enabling infinite reuse which reduces waste and conserves resources needed to produce new closures. The vodka came with an envelope with prepaid postage to return the closure.

The vodka is four times distilled through an energy efficient process, with every bushel of grain being fully utilized and nothing going to waste. The vodka is also five times filtered at a facility that has improved its eco-footprint measurably over the past five years. All grain is locally grown to significantly reduce fossil fuel consumption in transporting raw materials to the distillery.

According to an Eco-Audit with calculations based on research by Environmental Defense and other members of the Paper Task Force, the Earth Friendly Distilling Co. saved the following resources in the production of 360 Vodka’s labeling:

• 193 fully grown trees
• 82,766 gallons of water
• 9,255 pounds of solid waste
• 139 million BTU of energy
• 18,052 pounds of greenhouse gases

Magic Soap

Have you ever wondered if the same soap you use to wash your clothes could be used as toothpaste and shampoo? Sounds outrageous right? Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap does just that, in fact, it has 18 different uses. The soap, which has been made for decades, is also certified under the USDA National Organic Program and Fair Trade.

Below is a list of just some of the soap's uses, according to the product Web site:

1. Always dilute for Shave-Shampoo-Massage-Dental Soap-Bath!

2. Peppermint is nature's own unsurpassed fragrant Deodorant!

3. A drop is best Mint Toothpaste; brushes Dentures Clean!

4. A dash in water is the ideal Breath Freshener & Mouth Wash!

5. Peppermint Oil Soap for Dispensers, Uniforms, Baby, Beach!

6. Dilute for ideal After Shave, Body Rub, Foot Bath, and Douche.

7. Hot Towel-Massage the entire body, always towards your heart.

8. Pets, silk, wool & body tingles head to toe - keeps cool!

9. 3 dashes in water rinse most Sprays Off fruit & vegetables!

10. 1/4 oz in qt H2O is Pest Spray! Dash, no rash Diaper-Soap!

All of Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One liquid and bar soaps are completely biodegradable and vegetable-based. They are made with Certified Fair Trade and Organic oils. Both the bar and liquid have 18 uses and there are no synthetic foaming agents, thickeners or preservatives in the soap. The cylinder bottles and paper labels used in the packaging are 100 percent post-consumer recycled.

Dr. Bronner’s is the number one selling natural soap brand in North America. Although I have never used it, I am eager to try it out. A classic bar of soap costs $4.19 and an eight ounce bottle of the liquid version is only $5.99. Not bad at all when you consider all of its uses.

Dr. Bronner must have been an interesting character. This is evident when reading the soap bottle label, and is demonstrated in a 2006 documentary, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox. Click here to see the movie trailer.

De-code Green Labels

Marketers have jumped on the green bandwagon. Furthermore, they're trying to steer it by utilizing a wide array of labels to boast a product's eco-friendly feature. Educate yourself by finding out what the labels mean and which are essentially meaningless. Consumer Reports teams up with Greener Choices to provide an eco-label search engine and evaluation.

For example, the label Free Range scores very poorly. According to the report, Free Range is not a meaningful or verified label. In poultry, the USDA requirement for free range chickens is that they have access to the outdoors, but there is no guideline for the duration of access.

There are some meaningful and verified labels out there. A highly rated label is Fair Trade Certified. It is rated highly meaningful, the meaning of the label is consistent, the standards are publicly available as is information about the organization.