One of the most innovative companies in the green space is TerraCycle. Initially producing natural fertilizer from worm poop, and bottling it in old plastic soda bottles that they pay schools to collect, the company has now branched out into all kinds of innovative products made from trash.

Cleaners
In addition to their lawn and garden products shipped out in refilled soda bottles, TerraCycle is now shipping household cleaning products in the same refilled bottles. Everything from an all purpose cleaner to a drain cleaning product. All the cleaners go beyond eco-friendly and have in fact been certified as environmentally responsible by Environment Canada.

Bags & Office Products
More recently, TerraCycle has begun to make reusable bags from plastics that would normally find their way into the landfills simply because they are too costly to recycle. Calling this upcycling, the company is collecting cookie wrappers, drink pouches, yoghurt containers, corks and more. Better still, they pay for each one you send in (as long as you send in enough in each batch). This makes a great project for schools or other groups to participate in.

For the office, there are a couple of garbage/recycling containers made from e-waste, more bag options and even binders and folders, all made from stuff that was heading for the landfill.

Mowers

First up, the most expensive of your lawn care products will almost certainly be the lawn mower. There are three green options for cutting your grass, and which you choose will probably depend on the size of lawn, and the amount of effort you’re willing to put into it:

• Human powered classic reel mowers like the Scotts 20-Inch Classic Push Reel Lawn Mower;
• Electric mowers that plug in to the standard household electricity supply, like the Black & Decker Lawn Hog Electric Mower (the mower I chose to maintain our front lawn here in Alameda);
• Cordless electric mowers like the Neuton models or the Black & Decker 19-Inch Cordless Mower.

Any of those options will help make your lawn mowing simpler (no need to worry about buying fuel; no back-breaking cord pulling to get the mower started). They also help reduce air pollution and noise pollution. The folks over at Neuton Power provide these statistics comparing electric mowers to conventional gasoline powered ones:

• Mowing for 1 hour with a gasoline mower produces the same pollution as driving a typical car 50 miles.
• Over 17 million gallons of gas are spilled each year refueling lawn and garden equipment – more petroleum than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
• According to the EPA, gas mowers are responsible for nearly 5% of our nation’s total air pollution.
• Over 800 million gallons of gasoline are used mowing lawns in the US every year.
• If you operate a gas mower for more than 15 minutes, experts advise you to wear hearing protection.

Still not convinced? Just remember next time you’re walking behind that conventional mower that your basically breathing its exhaust!

Edging

Much like the lawn mowers, there are several green options for lawn edging too:

• The manual options ranging from half-moon edgers like the WOLF-Garten Half-Moon Edger to more sophisticated rotary edgers like the Flexrake Lawn Edger;
• Electric edge trimmers like the Black & Decker Edge Hog;
• Cordless edge trimmers like the Black & Decker Cordless Grass Hog String Trimmer/Edger.

The Neuton cordless mowers also have an optional edge trimmer, so if you went with the Neuton for mowing the lawn, why not use its edge trimmer as well.

Fertilizing & Weed Killing

Aside from cutting and trimming, feeding and weed management are also things you’ll probably need to think about. Rather than using chemical fertilizers that can burn your lawn, causing more harm than good, why not try some organic lawn care options.

• Garden Way “Nature’s Touch” Organic Lawn Fertilizer
• Espoma Organic Lawn Food
• Ringer All Natural Lawn Restore

For the ultimate in green lawn care, check out the TerraCycle Lawn Fertilizer which is made from liquified worm poop, and then bottled in old 1 litre soda bottles collected by one of TerraCycle’s Bottle Brigades.