A new METHOD for keepin' it clean

I just cleaned my kitchen and bathroom, something everybody does and not something I'd ever given much thought. I do now though. I don't think I ever thought about what happens to the E-Z Off, the Ty-D Bowl, the Comet and the rest of them after I flush them down the drain. But the fact is, these products and most cleaning and household products carry some pretty dire warning labels on them and they contain some pretty dangerous stuff. You can't throw away E-Z Off without sending it to an approved Hazardous Materials Disposal site for example. A manufacturer couldn't use it or keep it around without a permit from the EPA. But I, as an ordinary citizen; can buy it, use it and dispose of it down the drain with impunity.

However, just because I flushed it down the drain with impunity doesn't mean that I'm off the hook by a long shot. The poisonous ingredients in my household cleaners don't get rendered non-poisonous through the act of my using them or my flushing them. They remain toxic as they go down the drain, as they enter the sewer system and as they make it through the sewage treatment plant and then into the Bay.

Once in the Bay, the ones that don't degrade end up in the food chain. They work their way up the food chain and then back onto my plate when I order a grouper sandwich or a bucket of blue crabs in a restaurant.

So everybody else and me gets a double serving. I ingest and inhale this stuff while I'm using it and when it's good and concentrated. Then a couple of weeks or months later I get to ingest it again in its diluted form. This is madness.

It's the height of naivete and anthrocentrism to think that I can save the earth by avoiding E Z Off. The earth will be here long after I and we're gone. However, to try to preserve some semblance of human habitability is a noble and achievable cause.

Enter my friends at Method.

Method cleaning products are non-toxic, price competitive and attractively packaged. They are cleverly named, pleasantly scented, responsibly produced. Most important of all, they work.

They just added a toilet cleaner and a scrubbing liquid to their product mix and I used them for the first time today. They work and they smell fantastic. Method products are available at Target and on line and are well worth exploring. I found them originally about four years ago and I fell in love with their packaging and product design. I didn't really get the whole sustainability thing when it comes to household cleaners until a couple of months ago.

The answers to the environmental and human needs challenges that confront us as a species don't lie in trying to turn back the clock and ushering in a non-technological era. The answers come from our collective intellects. It's human innovation and ingenuity, it's technology, that will enable our species to continue to thrive on an increasingly stressed planet. The kids at Method are a living , breathing example of that.

Cool tile, not from Italy but from SPAIN

I am slipping and my post frequency is declining. Trust me, it's not due to a lack of interest but I'm rapidly becoming one of those loathsome people who's "too busy" to cook at home, exercise, pay attention to my kids, get enough sleep, write timely posts in my blog, ad nauseum. It will get worse before it gets better, trust me.

I'm still reeling from my tile and stone trade show from last week, and still sorting though the mountains of material I brought home with me. I spent some time talking to three guys from Vidrepur. Vidrepur is a large glass tile manufacturer from Spain and they make glass mosaic tile just like so many other companies do. The stuff's gorgeous of course but what Vidrepur represents made me stop cold. All of their mosaic tile is made from recycled glass. All of it. Even their unique-in-the-market glow-in-the-dark glass tile (I'm not kidding, there really is such a thing and it's COOL).

So the photos I'm peppering this post with tonight are images of rooms made with recycled glass. What a brilliant idea and it's something that needs to catch on. Vidrepur found a way to make a beautiful product that competes on price AND aesthetics with its conventionally-made competition. Sustainable building practices needn't be boring and they need not represent some kind of sanctimonious suffering for a greater good. Sustainable practices and materials can and should be a smart move economically and aesthetically and Vidrepur proves that. So imagine covering the walls in your bathroom, your shower floor, your kitchen back splash, etc. Imagine covering anything with something that's beautiful today but was destined for a landfill before Vidrepur gave it another chance at life. Imagine!

More wall tile fabric patterns

I cannot get this fabric pattern stuff out of my head. Here are some more images from Iris Ceramica. These are a little more detailed than the ones I posted yesterday, so you can see the level of detail involved.

The collection is called Neobarocco, and the name fits if nothing else. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that wall tile outside of kitchens and baths is a new idea for the US market. It's either that or I just have my usual case of Italy on the brain. If I haven't mentioned it in a few days, I'm vacationing there in less than two weeks. Woo-hoo!



The image above shows a wall done in Iris' Imperiale Moka and and Imperiale Bianco. There is a listello in Imperiale Oro dividing the two colors. Pretty cool.



Above is Imperiale Rose Rosse, with a gold listello dividing them. I can't think of a word other than elegant to describe that wall.



Above is a bathroom done in Miraggio Antico. I have serious doubts that a shower set up like this would actually work, but who cares? As a product photo it's a real stunner. Seriously folks, keep your eyes peeled for this stuff and derivatives of it. You heard it here first, these patterns will be here before you know it.

New directions in tile

I spent Tuesday at Coverings, the tile and stone industries' joint trade show. It was held in Orlando this year and man! Whatta show! I have been meaning to write at length about the many amazing things I saw, but this work thing keeps getting in the way.

Anyhow, the big thing in tile this year is Victorian-ish fabric patterns on wall tile. These fabric patterns show up in metallics like gold and platinum (made with real gold and platinum by the way) and in charcoal gray and blacks. It's pretty neat stuff, and it looks as if it's a 2008 take on the old metallic, flocked wallpaper of the '60s and '70s.

The images I'm including here are from a company called Iris Ceramica. As you can probably tell from their photographs, Iris is an Italian firm. But as you look at these photos, keep in mind that this is wall tile and it's being used in way tile hasn't been used in quite a while, if ever. These are large-size, rectangular tiles and you will not find them at Home Depot any time soon. However, based on the omnipresence of these wallpaper-y wall tiles at the show this week, it will be interesting to see how they translate and trickle down through the market.

Ich Liebe Liebherr!

My brand loyalty to Sub Zero refrigerators is under attack again, and this time it's from a Swiss Company called Liebherr. Liebherr has been in the refrigeration business for 50 years and showed up on my radar about three years ago. I think they've been in the US for about the last ten years and based on what I've seen of their increased efforts to tap into the US market, they are planning to stay around for a while.

Like Sub Zero, Liebherr uses dual compressors (that's a separate motor and cooling system for the refrigeration side and the freezer side). Dual compressors make for a more efficient use of electricity and better temperature control. Better temperature control equals longer-lasting food.

Liebherr is also onto something that caught my eye in their latest product bulletin an they call it their "Active Green Initiative." Active Green means that Liebherr goes above and beyond the call of EPA regulation in the manufacture of their appliances and most notably to me, they comply with something called the RoHS. From their website:

The second key element of ActiveGreen is Liebherr’s RoHS compliance. As of summer of 2007, all Liebherr appliances in North America met RoHS compliance making Liebherr the FIRST refrigeration manufacturer to comply with this practise worldwide. RoHS stands for the “Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment” and eliminates the use of major hazardous substances in the production of Liebherr products such as lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd) and certain types of chrome and biphenyl.

The RoHS is a directive adopted and phased into practice in the European Union in 2006. With the coming change in US administrations, look for something similar to start showing up in the US. But in the meantime, the EU has presented a pretty noble goal in reducing the amount of toxic substances that show up in households.

For the life of me, I will never understand why people have such a cavalier attitude about bad news elements such as lead or mercury in their appliances. Lead shows up in Chinese-made children's toys and people freak out and demand Congressional action. Yet at the same time, these same peoples' US-made refrigerators and dishwashers are awash in the same levels of lead, mercury and cadmium.

Anyhow, a Liebherr refrigerator will set you back anywhere from five to ten thousand dollars, placing firmly in the luxury appliance market. So for the time being unfortunately; lead-, cadmium-, mercury- and hexavalent chromium-free refrigerators aren't available to the middle and lower ends of the market. But as is always the case, upper end innovation works its way down the market until it becomes a standard. I wish it would hurry up.