Green Me

I am seriously the last person you'd expect to care about being eco-friendly. Don't get me wrong. I don't think that we should trash the earth, but I do think that the earth's resources--oil included--are here for us to use. It is important to be responsible in how we use our resources. Plus, and this could be the liberal part of me coming out, I'm not going to run around and tell people that they should be eco-friendly. I just think that this is one of those issues where people need to make decisions based on their conscience.

Just to be clear, I don't seek out eco-friendly products, unless that product directly impacts the amount of chemicals going into my body. If one happens to jump out at me that is also economically viable, then I'll consider it. And today something jumped out at me while I was shopping at Target.

I went there to get a notebook to put blog ideas in and found one that I liked in the eco-friendly section. It had an odd feel to it, but I did like the cover. The price wasn't too bad ($2.99 for a 100 page composition book). Because I prefer something with an attractive cover, I checked the prices on the other notebooks to compare the price. I decided the price was pretty good.

So what was so special about this? Here are the features of the notebook:

• It is completely tree-free. The paper was made with "all natural" stone.


• The production of stone paper uses much less water than virgin paper and creates no air pollution.


• It writes with ink and pencil very nicely. The only downfall with pencils is that very sharp tips are not good with the paper. Otherwise, I love how it writes.


• It is virtually water-proof! I carried it out in the rain today, and it left no water spots. The stone does not absorb water the way that fibrous paper does. This is a huge benefit with kids around that are prone to spilling things.


• It does not tear very easily. Actually, what it really does is stretch a little and then tear apart. I have a picture of that to the right to show you how it looks. You can see at the top that the paper stretches a little before tearing.


• It is recyclable.

So it's a unique product that is not ridiculously expensive but is still a quality product. A google search revealed that this has actually been around for at least a year. You can get invitations and other stationary online made by stone. I think that this is one of the better eco-friendly options for paper. Besides the benefits that I listed above, I absolutely love the feel of the paper! It feels kind of soft.

So the next time you're at Target, if you've never seen stone paper before, check it out.