New Choices for Affordable, Sustainable Gifts

With the holidays looming around the corner, eco-friendly consumers are on the lookout for companies selling sustainable and environmentally conscious products.

Featured in Good Housekeeping, Time and The Wall Street Journal, Eco-Artware.com’s unique products make cool gifts for environmentally conscious people. Earth911.com spoke with Reena Kazmann, founder and director, to learn more about how her company takes green art to the next level.

From Used to New

Eco-Artware was founded in 1999 with the notion of creating a place to showcase earth-friendly gifts made by artists who factor the environment into their work.

Products sold by Eco-Artware are created from recycled or natural materials. Funky items like sweaters or Scrabble tiles are used to make unique trinkets like children’s toys and cuff links, created by a diverse range of over 25 artists that believe in sustainable living and using eco-friendly mediums. They even feature high-back dining chairs made from retired traffic signs.

“We appreciate the imagination and creativity of our artists who take used or discarded (but perfectly good) materials and transform them into exciting, innovative designs,” said Kazmann.

She believes there is a greater shift toward eco-friendly products because companies are becoming more conscious of the “green” movement, and that consumers are now looking to buy environmentally friendly products.

Doing their best to leave a small carbon footprint, the company tries to limit its own waste by using packaging made of recycled materials, like their jewelry boxes composed of recycled paper.

Seeing the Light

For Kazmann, the best part of her job is “discovering a wonderful design that is eco-friendly and seeing the creativity of people who create eco-friendly designs. To these artists, it is not trash they are dealing with, but rather a work of art. As the saying goes, ‘one man’s trash is another’s treasure.’”Kazmann said she is “thrilled” to offer a unique selection of gifts that allow people to “live well, while lightly living on the earth.”

In the future, Kazmann plans on expanding Eco-Artware’s newsletter, the Recycling Rag, to include more on recycling and making products from trash. They also hope to create a series of videos on how you can make and use products from trash.

Favorite R

Kazmann’s favorite “R” is recycling. Due to the recycling industry, it has become much easier to find products that have been made from recycled material, creating more materials for the artists featured on Eco-Artware.com

If jewelry made from typewriter keys or tea lights from recycled bicycle freewheels and cassette cogs ring your bell, Eco-Artware.com has a host of perfect gifts for all the people on your “good” list.

by Brittany McNamara

http://earth911.com/blog/2008/12/08/new-choices-for-affordable-sustainable-gifts/