What: Bamboo Veneerwear  by Bambu

Features: Available in sets of eight, these single-use plates come in three sizes (appetizer, salad and dinner plate) and are far sturdier (and more attractive!) than their disposable counterparts

Green Factor: While simply washing regular plates is the greenest option, if you require something disposable or less fragile, Veneerwear plates are made of 100% organically grown bamboo, peeled right from the stalk. They’re also compostable, biodegrading within four to six months, and FDA approved food-safe

Bonus: Veneerware was named Best Product Design by Fortune Magazine in 2004!

Find It Here: re:modern

What: Bamboo kitchen set

Features: Bamboo’s got a lot of good stuff going for it–it’s durable, lightweight and stain resistant. This six-piece kitchen set comes equipped with five handy utensils and a crock for storage

Green Factor: Sustainably grown without pesticides, fertilizers or chemicals plus it’s natural water resistance helps inhibit growth of germs and bacteria

Bonus: BuyGreen has slashed the list price by over $10, and offers a one-year manufacturer’s warranty

Find It Here: BuyGreen

What: Bamboo E-Plane

Features: Up, up and away! This wooden toy airplane from Hape is stylish, modern and built to last.

Green Factor: The environmentally-friendly E-Plane is made out of sustainable bamboo and is decorated with non-toxic, water-based dyes

Bonus: All of Hape’s products meet international safety and quality standards

Find It Here: Amazon.com

What: Baby wipes made from bamboo fiber

Features:  Natural ingredients, scented with non-toxic, all-natural essential oils with antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties

Green Factor: Bamboo is highly renewable and sustainable, wipes are 100% biodegradable. Bum Boosa is also a signer of The Compact for Safe Cosmetics.

Bonus:  Bum Boosa plants a tree for each package of 80 count wipes sold. Trees are also planted to offset 100% of their carbon emissions.

Find It Here: Bum Boosa

Win It: We’ve partnered with Bum Boosa to give away three 80 count packs of Bum Boosa bamboo baby wipes and one container of Bum Boosa bamboo diaper rash ointment. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter BB11 as the giveaway name and name one of the ingredients in Bum Boosa wipes (besides bamboo!) Enter by 11/27/09. $25 value. Open to residents of US and Canada. Winner to be notified by email. Contest Closed.

Remember floppy disks? Yeah, the plastic ones that stored about a megabyte of data… These days, we have nifty USB drives to store data and about a thousand times more of it, which is cool, but how about USB drives made from something a bit more natural than say, plastic? Earthimprints takes a greener approach by offering them in walnut, maple, bamboo and redwood finishes. These pocket-sized drives are great not only for consumers, but for businesses, too. They’re an item that computer users either rely on now or will eventually need. With that in mind, they’d make great (read: useful) promotional items—I mean does anyone really need another keychain? Instead of giving away a bunch of plastic junk, entice potential clients & customers with non-plastic 1, 2, 4 and 8gb USB drives they’ll not only appreciate, but will actually use, too.

Find It Here: earthimprints

On Our Blog:  Bite on This: More Grocery Store Secrets

What: Bucky’s Woopsies Kids Soothing Packs

Features: Can be warmed up in the microwave or chilled in the freezer

Green Factor: Made with machine washable bamboo terrycloth and premium whole buckwheat seed filling

Bonus: These creatures, with their bright colors and funny faces, are sure to distract kids from their owies!

Find It Here: Amazon.com

On Our Blog:  Bite on This: More Grocery Store Secrets

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a web site chock full of organic baby wares at wholesale prices? A site where each product has been researched and reviewed, with a wide selection of organic cotton and bamboo items at discount prices? (Basically, a web site that does all of the legwork, and finds the good stuff for you?)

As it happens, there is a site just like that and it’s called Babblebabies and you need to check it out if you’re looking for organic baby products like bedding, clothing and toys at really great prices.

Babblebabies offers unique products from organic brand names like Sckoon, Speesees, Bumkins, Generation Baby and more. The site is informative and easy to navigate, and the products are cute. Very cute. I’m quite taken with the jumpers (like the Speesees one above), and the Sckoon Organic Cotton toys are absolutely adorable—they’d make fantastic gifts and great lovies for little ones.

The folks behind Babblebabies are always looking out for new, organic products, and they want to hear about your favourite green companies. They’ve even got a Facebook page—post a picture of your wee one wearing gear from Babblebabies and receive a $5 discount. So what are you waiting for? Shoo!

Find It Here: Babblebabies

Because we know just how nasty and toxic a lot of toys can be, we love to feature natural, organic toys, especially those that are handmade with love by someone who truly cares about what they’re putting out there. Our most recent awesome toy find are Swaddle Babies. Each 9″ Swaddle Baby is crafted by mom Priscilla Rose, with organic cotton knit, natural eco-friendly bamboo fiber filling, and a variety of natural and organic handspun yarns. These sweet dolls are custom designed to your specs and personalized with the child’s name embroidered on the tag. A Swaddle Baby is the kind of toy that a child will love and keep long after all the made-in-China junk is gone. And it’s organic. Did I mention that???

Find It Here: Swaddle Babies

Win It: We’re giving away one custom made Swaddle Baby doll.  Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter SW7 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: What are the 8 hair colors available for a Swaddle Baby? Enter by 7/15/09. $40 value. Open to residents in US and Canada. Winner will be notified by email. Contest closed. Congrats to Sherri!

Until a few years ago, bamboo was, to me, something that grew like crazy in my neighbor’s backyard and occasionally turned up in my Chinese food. These days, however, bamboo is turning up in all kinds of places like flooring, clothing, towels and sheets. Yes, I said sheets. Super soft sheets, in fact, because it turns out that bamboo fibers are very silky and yet strong and durable. But bamboo isn’t just soft and silky and durable. It’s also highly sustainable and renewable, requires no pesticides to grow, is fast-drying, hypo-allergenic and has remarkable natural antibacterial and antifungal properties. I’m thinking bamboo sheets are the ones I’d want to sleep on and the ones we want you to sleep on, too, which is why we’re giving away a set of fabulous, luxurious, awesomelicious Karen Neuburger bamboo sheets to one lucky reader!

Find It Here: BonTon

Win It: We’re giving away a set of Karen Neuburger queen/king-sized bamboo sheets to one randomly selected winner. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter KN5 as the giveaway name and answer the question: Do you have any other bamboo products in your home? Enter by 5/27/09. $130 value. Open to US residents. Contest Closed. Congrats to Michelle!

I admit that I’ve never owned a wipe warmer. But I also admit that there were many, many times when I wished I did, such as when my little newborn baby would let out  painful howls of protest when touched by a cold, wet wipe *hangs head in shame*  Yes, I used disposable wipes back when being green meant you were probably going to yack all over someone’s shoes. These days, however, I know about all sorts of groovy green things, including reusable, chemical-free wipes made from non-toxic fibers like organic cotton and bamboo. And that cold, wet part? Not so much of an issue with a Warmies Wipe Warmer made especially for reusable wipes. And by using those reusable wipes, you’ll keep all those chemicals they use in conventional wipes away from your baby’s delicate skin AND avoid the painful howls of protest that come from putting an ice cold wipe on your baby’s tush. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Find It Here: Warmies Wipe Warmer

Win It: We’re giving away a Warmies Wipe Warmer for reusable wipes. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter WW5 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: How many bamboo wipes come with the Warmies Wipe Warmer? Enter by 5/18/09. $35 value. Contest closed. Congrats to Kaiya!

(Don’t forget to check out all of the great giveaways at Mom Most Traveled’s Giveaway Carnival this week!)

You know I love all things green, right? Green is good. No, actually green is AWESOME. But even better than the awesomeness of green is the awesomeness of green combined with style.  While I love many traditional childhood decor themes, I’m a big fan of nifty modern designs for the wee ones, as well. One shop in particular that makes me swoon is Saplings. They have oodles of  stylish eco-friendly kid and baby decor, all with an emphasis on being chemical-free, organic, fair-trade, sustainably-produced and locally procured whenever possible. Perusing their site is like a little slice of mass-marketed-characters-free heaven, with timeless designs that won’t become embarrassing or uncool as your child grows older. In a culture where everything is designed to break or go out of style in a shockingly short period of time (aka “planned obsolescence“) Saplings is like a breath of fresh, VOC-free air.

Find It Here: Saplings

Win It: We’re giving away a $50 gift certificate to Saplings. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter SAP as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: What is your favorite item in the Saplings shop? Enter by 4/19/09. $50 value. Contest closed. Congrats Katie!

We’ve mentioned this in the past but it bears repeating…even stuffed animals, which look so cute and harmless, can be toxic. Naturally, I find the idea of my children snuggling up to poison very disturbing but luckily non-toxic and eco-friendly plush toys are out there. and right now I’m quite taken with the Eco Stuffed Naturally Bunnies from Celery Street. Extremely soft and totally huggable, they’re made and filled with an eco-friendly alternative to traditional synthetics that is made from 100% soy fiber and the stuffing is 100% kapok, a golden silky fiber known for its hypoallergenic softness.  Additionally, kapok is a sustainable rainforest crop that comes from the seed pod of the kapok tree. Green and yet affordable, these adorable bunnies would look perfect in the center of an Easter basket but little ones (and their moms) will love them long after the Peeps tummyaches are but a distant memory.

Find it Here: Celery Street

Win It: We’re giving away two Eco Stuffed Naturally Bunnies. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter CS4 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: What are the names of the three colors of Eco Stuffed Naturally Bunnies? Enter by 4/11/09. $30 value. Contest closed. Congrats to A.