Let's Go Eco-Friendly Houseware Shopping

Eco-friendly. Energy-saving. Biodegradable. These are just three terms in an eco-conscious shopper’s vocabulary. And East End retailers have taken notice of the growing demand for sustainable home goods.

Residence recently visited three local stores that offer eco-friendly housewares—Loaves & Fishes Cookshop in Bridgehampton, In Home in Sag Harbor and General Home Store in East Hampton—to find out which green gadgets are in demand right now.

Inside Loaves & Fishes Cookshop, bamboo is all the rage—from bowls and rolling pins to disposable plates and utensils.

“There’s a huge market for bamboo. It exploded about 10 years ago,” said Sybille van Kempen, who has co-owned the store with her husband, Gerrit, for a decade. “In the last five years, they have figured out all the things they can actually do with bamboo. They’re making tabletops and flooring now.”

Bamboo, one of the fastest-growing plants on the planet, is considered eco-friendly because there is an extremely plentiful supply, Ms. van Kempen said.

“Because there’s so much of it, the bamboo grows faster than what you can

actually use it for. That’s what makes it such a great product,” she said. “It comes out of the earth quickly, and then disposed properly, it goes back into the earth properly and quickly. That’s sort of the optimum objective of all of these items.”

Ms. van Kempen picked up a large, tan, bamboo bowl, which sells for $64. “This is one of my favorites,” she said. “It’s just gorgeous. If you have a bamboo bowl and you treat it once a month with mineral oil, you’ll have it your whole life. You don’t have to replace it.”

Similar bamboo products at Loaves & Fishes include a smaller bowl for $28; salad servers, which cost $17; a rolling pin, which retails for $20; and a serving tray, at $49.

“There are designers out there who stay awake at night, thinking of new things to do with bamboo,” Ms. van Kempen said. “Why would you want a bamboo rolling pin? Because it’s cool, and it’s the right thing to do! You’re not chopping down a maple tree, you’re using bamboo. That’s great.”

Ms. van Kempen reported that she just placed an order for bamboo kitchen towels.

“I think that’s fascinating: taking bamboo and making fabric out of it. It’s amazing,” she said.

Disposable bamboo products also piqued Ms. van Kempen’s curiosity. The beauty of them: they can be washed a few times or just thrown away—without feeling bad about it, she said. An 8 pack of 11-inch plates costs $15, she said.

In her own home, Ms. van Kempen said she uses a hefty number of bamboo products. She also touted the green factor of the TurboChef Speedcook Oven, which runs $7,895 in the store, and which she uses at home. Utilizing high heat, the oven cooks dishes five to 15 times faster than a conventional oven, she said, saving electricity by cooking in a fraction of the time. The oven door comes in white, ivory, orange, blue and (her personal favorite) red.

Loaves & Fishes is also stocked with linen products shipped from Belgium, Ms. van Kempen reported. Linen is a natural fiber made from flax, she said, and can be made into a variety of home goods, including curtains, aprons, bathrobes, bedding, pillows and cushions. Prices range from $17 for a napkin to $370 for a window panel, she said.

“The sheets and bedding will soften and soften,” Ms. van Kempen explained. “Every time you wash them, the fiber becomes a little looser and fluffier, so they become softer. Only if you get a hole or if they’re unsightly, you’ll have to replace them. But maybe every five or six years, you’d want to treat yourself to a few new pieces or a new color.”

An owner of eco-friendly bedsheets may consider putting them on an equally eco-friendly mattress, such as the “Buongiorno,” manufactured in Italy by Magniflex and sold at In Home in Sag Harbor. From the recycled plastic and cotton used in the mattress to its delivery method, Magniflex is conscious of the environment, said Andrea Mugnai, the national sales representative for the company.

Mr. Mugnai explained that the mattress made by his company, Magniflex, is rolled up and vacuum-compressed before delivery, reducing its volume by 90 percent.

“You save 90-percent of volume on shipping, and therefore 90-percent of a carbon footprint,” Mr. Mugnai said.

In Home co-owner John Scocco pointed out that Magniflex will ship directly to the customer in no more than two weeks, guaranteed.

“It’s really such a great product, and so comfortable,” Mr. Scocco said, adding that a queen-sized mattress retails for $1,499 and a king costs $1,890.

An eco-conscious shopper need not stop at the kitchen and bedroom, according to General Home Store sales associate Christine Milia. The natural cleaning line, Caldrea, sold at General Home Store in East Hampton, can allow a green habit to flourish throughout the entire house.

“It’s all natural. There’s no chemicals. There’s no contaminants or dyes,” said Ms. Milia. “It’s pretty much whatever the fragrance is, that’s what’s used—from basil to lavender.”

For the laundry room, a 62-ounce jug of detergent costs $17, the 16-ounce stain remover retails for $9 and 80 biodegradable dryer sheets cost $10. The line also features products for the rest of the house, including an all-purpose cleaner—$13 for 32 ounces, concentrated; 16-ounce dish soap and countertop cleaner, each sold for $9; and a 16-ounce hand soap for $13—a product Ms. Milia said is very popular.

“They clean well and smell great,” she said. “When you’re using them, they just freshen everything up.”

Along a different—yet still eco-friendly—thread, Ms. Milia pointed to a plastic tea set made by Green Toys Inc., a San-Francisco-based company that makes its toys from recycled plastic milk jugs. The 17-piece set, which retails for $28, can be cleaned in the dishwasher and is safe for children as young as 2, Ms. Milia said. The store also sells a toy tool kit for $28, a dump truck for $28 and a 27-piece cookware set for $45.

Users are never too young to think about eco-friendly products, according to Ms. Milia, whose store offers a large variety of toys and child-friendly products.

“It’s all about being Earth-friendly,” she said. “That’s what you’ve really got to think about these days.”