5 Things We Love celebrates Earth Day, April 22, with this short list of things to help you embrace the green lifestyle. What are you loving this week? Send a brief description of your latest favorite thing, where to find it and how much it costs, along with your name and contact info to features@staradvertiser.com.
Soda tabs become stylish bracelets
Mix a sense of environmentalism with the entrepreneurial spirit — plus a dash of youthful style — and you’ve got these fresh soda-tab bracelets, designed by 15-year-old Reyn Aubrey for a business class at Mililani High School. Made of 24 tabs woven together with stretch cord, the $6 bracelets
fit most wrists, but Reyn takes custom orders for other sizes and cord colors, including red, pink, blue, neon green, black, white and gold. Email Reyn at popithawaii@gmail.com or visit popithawaii.com. — Joleen Oshiro
Buy local products at Maui superette
Like the Maui radio jingle says, Pukalani Superette — “Pook Soop” to regulars — is “your easy-does-it store,” offering everything from fresh-baked pastries and Spam musubi to firewood, chicken feed and a sophisticated selection of beer and wine. But the biggest draw is the prepared food and Maui-grown meat, produce and flowers. The store, owned by brothers Myles and Aric Nakashima, debuted at its current location in 1955 but has its roots in Tanizaki Store, opened by their grandparents on an adjacent site in 1924. Next time you’re Upcountry, grab their signature chili chicken, chow fun and tako poke for a picnic. And for a different kind of Maui souvenir, buy a $1.79 reusable shopping bag that’s also an endorsement of a family-owned business that supports local farmers. Located at 15 Makawao Ave.; call 572-7616.
— Christie Wilson
‘Green’ lunch with reusable bags
Ziploc bags, plastics utensils and disposable lunch bags get tossed in the trash regularly, which is taxing on both the environment and your pocketbook. Down to Earth offers a variety of reusable lunch essentials, such as the U Konserve insulated lunch tote ($24) made out of nine recycled plastic bottles. It comes with a shoulder strap and is machine washable. The line boasts products that are free of BPA, PVC, phthalate and lead. A sweat-free ice pack ($9.59), also made from a recycled plastic bottle, has a removable gel pack and machine-washable cover. As a replacement for sandwich-sized plastic bags, try the hand-washable Food Kozy Snack Bag ($3.89). — Nancy Arcayna
Great works push environmentalism
“American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau” (Library of America, $40) was published to wide acclaim in 2008, but with our atmospheric carbon buildup rising ever higher — and with it, the danger of global warming — the book may be more valuable than ever. Edited by author and activist Bill McKibben (who is speaking at 6 p.m. Thursday at the University of Hawaii Art Auditorium) with a foreword by former Vice President Al Gore (who appeared here just last week), the anthology collects vintage and contemporary writers (John Muir, Barbara Kingsolver), art (including cartoonist Robert Crumb’s sobering “A Short History of America”) and even song lyrics (Joni Mitchell, Woody Guthrie). Its purpose is to alert us to the close study of nature and its pleasures, as well as our responsibility to rein in destructive practices. McKibben writes, “Environmentalism can no longer merely fix the excesses of our consumer culture. It needs to change that culture.”
— Elizabeth Kieszkowski
Chocolate and ale sales aid animals
If you love Hawaiian monk seals, chocolate and ale, then this is a win-win-win. Endangered Species Chocolate carries a lavender mint, creme-filled dark-chocolate bar featuring a monk seal on its wrapper ($4 at Down to Earth) that is certified vegan, gluten-free and kosher and sourced from fair-trade cacao farms. Ten percent of net profits go to groups working to save animals and endangered species. Meanwhile, the new limited-edition Rogue Monk Seal Ale has a full-bodied flavor and deep honey color that pairs well with a burger, pasta or pizza. A portion of proceeds supports programs at the Waikiki Aquarium, which is celebrating its 110th anniversary. Pick up a 22-ounce bottle for about $8 at Lanikai General Store, Tamura’s and Whole Foods Market.
— Nina Wu
