Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Guest Blogger::: Piruli

This time is Piruli's turn...yep she kindly agreed to write an article for Bululu's blog.

Here is what she wrote:

::: 5 Ways to Shop Eco-Friendly With Etsy :::
by Piruli




From vintage to re-purposed goods there are many ways to bring eco-friendliness to your home and closet. Creating eco-friendly shopping habits helps to reduce waste by making shoppers not only conscious of how their desired items were created, but also help inspire creativity using many items we already have instead of throwing away.


Vintage Dust Pan and brush from GarageInc

Antiques/Vintage:
The best way to start is to reuse what you already have, but if you are like me, we can’t resist shopping for fun items and love to collect interesting things. The whole idea of antique shopping lends to being an eco-friendly practice, reusing items that will not contribute to a landfill. This goes for clothing as well. Vintage items have proven their durability and relevance. Etsy shoppers know, both are in abundance and are easily found by searching through the Vintage categories.


Upcycled Paper Drunk Owl Hook Organizer by BululuStudio



Repurposed Goods/ Upcycling:
It is a world of its own to see the various art forms crafted from using bits and pieces of everyday items we no longer use. From sculpture to interesting fashions upcycling invokes wild imagination to invent new purpose for items to prevent them from spending their remaining days in a landfill.

Natural & Organic:
Shopping for items made of natural and organic materials helps our Earth since purchasing these items promotes using non-toxic replenishable materials (such as cotton or bamboo) and non-toxic methods for producing these materials (sans pesticides, etc)

Ethical Sources:
Not only are human rights issues a large motivation for companies to look to obtain materials from ethical sources, there are also conditions where harvesting/mining materials can do considerable damage to the environment. Ethical sourcing includes companies that comply with high standards for human rights and are conscious of harmful environmental practices that can cause danger to human life.



Tea Mug Cozy in Blue with Flower by KnitStorm



Recyclable materials:
I concluded with this as a separate section to promote sellers whom use recycled paper and other materials. I commend sellers whom use recycled materials for creating and crafting, or even for packaging, which is often not the most economical choice, but indeed safe for the earth to cut down on chemicals and other various forms of waste used to produce the equivalent at the expense of, for example, cutting down trees to make new batches of paper products.

For a list of Spanglish Team members following these eco-friendly guidelines check out the latest Spanglish Team blog shopping Eco Friendly In Spanglish Team!

If you would like to read more about Piruli check her blog.

8 comments:

Kate / KnitStorm said...

Great write up! I couldn't have covered the ways to shop "green" any better myself. And a big thanks for featuring my upcycled tea mug cozy as an example of recycled materials :)

Lainey said...

Thanks for letting me write for your blog and for your help! This was fun and interesting to put together!

Anonymous said...

What an organized method of eco-shopping!

If I can add one more method is to shop for things that you can replace disposable items with....such as coffee cup sleeves, reusable makeup remover pads, utensil/flatware cases and reusable swiffer mops. This category of items helps cut down on waste since you are replacing disposable items with reusable ones. (I remember these items because I sell some of them in my shop. ;)

Great post!

BululuStudio said...

Thank you Kate...She did a good job.

Thank you so much Piruli for taking the time to do this for me.

Karen, that's the way to go. You have lovely goodies also.

Lainey said...

EcoKaren, that was a great point I should have included in the Recycling section since there are a large number of products on Etsy devoted to cutting down on using disposable items. Thanks!!

Lainey said...

Started a new thread in the promotions section of the Forums:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6278703

De Puerta en Puerta said...

Using the three R's is one way to save the planet...keep up the good work dear artisans.

sikiu perez said...

I like this post, it is so inspiring. I really want to start some recycling art work. En busca de ideas por ahora.