This holiday season has consumers searching for a variety of gifts, including kitchen gadgets. Take a look at some of these red and green gadgets, all designed to be the perfect holiday gift.
Going back to school means a lot of people buying a whole lot of new things. Teachers, students, parents; we are all consumers. With so many designs keeping the environment in mind during planning and manufacture, it would be nice to see a few students sporting green with their back to school gear. Here are a few products to get you started.
Newton running shoes are more than just green. The shoes laces, webbing, insole top and outer sole rubber are made of recycled materials. And there is more; the package is made of the same post-consumer paper waste as egg cartons. And to get greener than green, the shoe is stuffed with a pair of new socks and a reusable bag to avoid useless tissue paper that would normally get tossed after opening.
Every new school year sees last year’s trends moved aside for the hottest new items. Well, try going green with this 100% recycled material backpack. The cost of the backpack even includes a donation to American Rainforests, so chances are you will be helping to add a tree or two for your money well spent.
Radiohead, noted to be one of the greenest bands out there has extended its line of apparel to raincoats. The nice thing about their designer coat (other than it is made for Radiohead) is that it took 15 recycled PETG bottles to create it. Look cool, feel cool and be cool with this post-consumer jacket this fall.
And speaking of rainy fall weather, if campus life has you traveling by foot from class to class, be sure to pack an umbrella. This umbrella has a canopy made of 100% recycled PETG bottles with a frame made of 70% recycled steel, aluminum and ABS plastics.
Pack up your pencils, pens and markers into this recycled supply pouch and feel good knowing that the world has one less tire in its landfills. And while you’re at it, stuff in the ruler made of, “read it together class: three plastic cups.”
Who goes to school without a notebook. If you are going to have to take notes, you might as well write onto something worth writing on. This recycled material notebook will have you daydreaming and doodling in no time, thanks to recycled juice cartons and plastic boxes.
Highlighters are a must for most note-takers and young scholars. Why not go green when you go yellow by using these Zebra-Eco highlighters made from 74% post-consumer waste. Go ahead, stuff it in that pouch you just read about.
Packing your lunch is a must for some students, by choice or necessity. Do it in style with this second-life juice pouch bag. This ECOutlet bag is made from materials once known as trash, but now known as green.
I would have to say the biggest complaint about going green, is all the green you spend in doing so. Although it can be costly to buy environmentally responsible products, sometimes I think it is worth it to do so, as with this computer. With an 80% smaller size, using 70% less energy and 75% less printed paperwork to go with it, this Dell desktop computer is definitely getting greener. You can even recycle 95% of the product after it becomes obsolete.
You are probably gazing at your screen thinking this is the next Apple product. You think this is a pre-pre-release image, leaked out to verify the latest rumor. Well, this just happens to be a TV tuner plug-in for your iPod Touch or PC. The Seg Clip, from Japan, for Japan, is due to come out later this month, in Japan. I hope this makes its way across the pond because it seems to be a cool idea for a low price of $70.
I have compiled a few kitchen gadgets reminiscent of those brightly colored, action-packed kids toys we all grew up loving. Bon appetit!
This is the Gyoza Maker, a dumpling maker from Bandai. Very similar to the rolling machines many of us used as kids for molding Play-doh, this kitchen gadget is targeted for 8 to 12 year old girls. Looks cool and makes cooking with mom and dad fun.
Eating cherries with the pit is like eating a watermelon with seeds; who wants to do that! This fun cherry pitting gadget makes pressing out pits easy as ever using the same action as an old-school Swingline stapler. And to top that, you can see through it via the clear acrylic design.
Stamping out robots has never been easier. This revolving cookie cutter gadget lets you twist the features of the shape until you create the ultimate cookie robot. You can create up to 64 unique robot shapes.
Another brightly colored, toy crazed kitchen gadget – this machine, Pasta Pasta, transforms your dough into a variety of fun, homemade shapes. Yeah, not such a great idea to run pasta through the kid’s Play-Doh machine, so I would upgrade to this gadget.
Safety orange is a good color for this cheese shredder. This gadget looks a lot safer to operate than any other shredder I’ve used. Its almost hands-free design makes it easy to grip, press and push-pull your way to turning any block of cheese into a fluff of shredded cheese goodness.
These fruit and vegetable savers are what every kitchen needs. Save the other half of any fruit or vegetable by placing them cut side down onto these strap down freshness savers. Consumers can use these to cut off exposure to oxygen in the hope of buying more time, rather than more produce.
Homemade is always better than store bought, so why not create your own frozen fruit treats? These nesting frozen fruit and juice molds look quite similar to the mini candy rings we all remember from growing up.
As we have seen, extruding shapes can be fun. This is another way to squeeze out creative shapes for any of those soft foods you can’t resist playing with. The multiple heads create ribbons, ropes, and ribbed extrusions.
Why cut food into favorite shapes when you can actually grow it in that shape? This cucumber mold makes it possible to grow your cucumbers into hearts and stars. Yeah, it may take a while, but who else is going to be able to serve up heart-shaped cucumbers at the family picnic?
The Pet Rock, Slinky and Rubik’s Cube: three toys we all grew up loving. How better to close out this post than with a Rubik’s Cube themed pepper mill. Oh yeah, you know how it works; just twist, twist and twist some more. And no, it does no good to peel off the stickers and rearrange them to make the pepper fall out, that trick doesn’t work on this one.
Popcorn has had many products made for popping it, but not like this. Cuisinart’s EasyPop Popcorn Maker has a 100% see-through design, which makes for an entertaining encore to any movie. The see-through dome even looks like an upside-down popcorn bucket. With so many gadgets to store and so little counterpace, this is one appliance worth displaying on the counter when not in use. It is so cool to see the evolution of the popcorn popper design.
