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Our digital and real lives are so interrelated that it is sometimes easy to forget the impact the hours spent in front of our laptop have on the environment. Lucie Goulet picks 5 gadgets and online sites which will save money, energy and more importantly do their bit for the planet.

1. Aster recycled glass crockery sets

These Aster plates are available to purchase as mix and match sets. Made in Spain from 100% recycled glass and shipped to the UK to minimise carbon emissions, each plate is hand finished for a unique touch. Recycled glass never looked so good!

Prices range from £3.99 for a tapas bowl, to £11.99 for a serving plate.
Ecocentric

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20 Beautiful Eco Objects is compiled and written by Lisa Cugnetto. Production by Daniel Giralt.

Picnics

Sandwiches are a picnic staple, but you need to keep the fillings fresh and fun, so stick with a mixture of sweet and savoury to keep everyone happy For sweet, honey all goes down a treat. Rowse honey comes in exotic flavours such as Eucalyptus and Orange Blossom and their organic range is growing all of the time.

Liven up cheese or salad sandwiches with relishes and pickles such as those from Tracklement, which is a family-run company from the UK. Particularly delicious is the Organic Plum Chutney, £3.45, and the Organic Lemon or Honey Mustards, £2.10, which have whole seeds in giving you a satisfying crunch.

One cheese that will satisfy all ages is Primula spreads. Suitable for vegetarians and using no added colours or preservatives, the Deli Soft Cheese with black pepper, £1.99, goes well with most salad sandwich, or even in jacket potatoes when it gets late.

What goes better with a sandwich than crisps? Red Sky is a new luxury brand which contains 100% natural ingredients, and for every bag bought, 10 feet of rain forest will be saved by the company through its work with Cool Earth. Even the packaging is recycled and FSC-approved. Blimey, who thought crisps could be so good! Red Sky are £1.99 from most supermarkets.

The alternative to bread and crisps for those watching their waistlines, Amisa do some great organic garlic and peppercorn Crispbreads, £2.69 and poppy seed Spelt Snacks, £2.29 from Ocado. Do to them what you’d do to bread, but without the bloated feeling which leaves your belt feeling a bit tight.

The Vege Table has some lovely vegetarian picnic recipe ideas.

Next page: Delicious, eco-friendly BBQ food

Victoria Harrison, Picture Editor from mydeco writes:

I was given a sneak preview of the new range of Fired Earth paints designed by Kevin McCloud last week at a talk entitled ‘There’s no such colour as white.’  That concept was quite a scary one for a minimalist like me, but I knew that Fired Earth wouldn’t stray too far from its classic palette of soft muted shades.

Fortunately they didn’t disappoint and there were plenty of soft blues, greys and lavenders to keep me happy and not a harsh garish colour in sight.

They still have the velvety flat surface texture that Fired Earth are famous for and the pretty, muted colours have all been designed to respond well to the UK’s watery Northern light.

Keen to speak to the man himself, I quizzed Kevin on the new range’s eco-credentials and he told me that they all have a low solvent content (low VOC) and for every tin of paint sold Fired Earth make a contribution to National Trust conservation projects.

This collaboration with The National Trust marks Fired Earth’s 25th anniversary and it seems appropriate that sales of Fired Earth paints will help support and protect the  historic buildings and interiors that inspired many of the beautiful colours in the paint range.

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Looking not unlike a giant onion, this golden bamboo vase makes  a statement at the same time as looking smart enough to fit into a contemporary styled home. It’s lacquered on the outside to give it a glossy finish which stops it looking too aging hippie and a little more retro Sixties.

A combination of local craftsmanship and stylishly modern aesthetics sustain the local artisan communities where the vase is made and will urge your friends and family to buy bamboo too, when they see how sumptuous and practical bamboo can be.

Bamboo as you probably know, is one of the most sustainable and renewable sources, so it’s great to buy homewares made of the magic stuff. It grows twice as fast as a tree and releases 30% more oxygen into the atmosphere too, so there’s all the more reason to adorn your house with it.

Usually retailing for £20 at Biome Lifestyle, you can currently get the vase with a 50% discount at £10, which leaves a spare tenner to buy some gorgeous fair trade flowers to fill it with.

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It’s Family Special this month!

1. Bright Sparks

Today’s design-savvy kids are in for a treat with this slick alternative to the plastic glo-worm toys of the Eighties (who remembers those?) The Candeloo, £50, will banish night time monsters and emit a soft glow all night long, lulling little ones to sleep. Already popular in the US, these cute lights are very low power thanks to an energy efficient LED light inside. You can’t change the light bulb unfortunately but stockists Love Eco claim that a bulb will last an incredible 50,000 hours. Illuminating.

Keep clicking to see more kid’s home style products and inspiring eco ideas

Next page: Feathered friends

Grab some strawberries, fizzy wine, your iPod and some good friends and head down to your nearest park this weekend, for some alfresco dining with style.

I don’t need to tell you why you should be out there in the parks and meadows with a big hamper of home made food, a couple of glasses of wine and a few good friends. No, it’s not because we’re planning a Famous Five film. It’s time to partake in some alfresco dining because it’s hot and you can never rely on hotness to last in this country.

Pictured here is the wonderfully lazy picnic kit for eight people at Nigel’s Ecostore. It’s £21.99 which covers plates, cups, glasses, cutlery and napkins all inside a lovely jute bag. Everything as you might expect is sourced ethically and is made from sustainable materials.

On the site they say you can reuse the stuff if you wash it carefully too, but we’re guessing they aren’t as great fans of greasy mayonnaise as I am.

Next page: Pink portable fridge. Barbie’s lifestyle here I come!

Annie writes: Saving the world needn’t cost a fortune. Check out these great value eco buys – all under £5 – and do your bit for the environment. Every little helps… so hop to it.

1. Bowled over by recycling

The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can power a computer for 20 minutes, or a 100 watt light bulb for almost an hour. So, it makes sense to get your head round recycled glass. Ecocentric sell affordable and stylish crockery. Their recycled glass tapas bowls, £3.99, available in many chic colours, are ideal for olives, nuts and sauces.

Keep clicking to see the rest of the top 10 under £5 home products.