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Welcome to Bluedot Living’s BuyBetter Marketplace, a biweekly newsletter that navigates the confusing world of stuff.
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Bluedot Living’s BuyBetter Marketplace newsletter includes affiliate links, including to Amazon. If you purchase a product through one of our links, we may earn a commission. These commissions help us fund the great journalism that you see on Bluedot. Thank you for supporting us! |
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Dear Readers,
Lately, we’ve been hearing a lot about childless cat ladies. “Miserable” (!) childless cat ladies, at that. As a child-free cat lady (with two cats, one dog, and one husband), I’m far from miserable. In fact, I’m delighted. Why? Because this bizarre cultural moment has given me the opportunity to do what I love most: talk about my pets and encourage people to rethink their consumer habits. |
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As a pet owner, I face constant temptation to buy adorable toys, clothes, treats, and more. But I also consider the environmental impact of these items, because there’s a lot of landfill-destined, virgin plastic stuff out there that only has a lifespan of about 100 squeaks. Fortunately, a growing number of companies is creating sustainable pet products. Thanks to help from my dog Finley, cats SanDeE* and Modell, and the other pets of Bluedot, I’ve got great recommendations for your little fur family. |
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Actress Edna Wallace Hopper, known as “the eternal flapper,” worked on stage and screen from the 1890s into the 1950s. Also a shrewd stock trader, she became the first woman to sit on the board of the L.F. Rothschild investment banking firm.
(Library of Congress. Copyright 1905, F.S. Clark, Detroit) |
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Read on for great items and tips that will help reduce your pet’s carbon paw-print.
Meow! Woof! And happy shopping!
– Elizabeth Weinstein, Marketplace Editor |
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Adventure Gear
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Bluedot dog Duncan loves his harness from Ruffwear, a company that makes gear for canine adventurers who travel, camp, hike, bike, run, swim, and even ski with their humans. Read our review. |
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Adorable Wool Toys
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1% for the Planet member company Friendsheep makes our favorite dryer balls, adorable wool toys for cats and dogs, and even wool cat caves. Old dryer balls make great dog toys, too. Save 10% with code Bluedot. Read our review. |
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Winning Kitty Litter
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Cat mom and Bluedotter Cleo turned me on to Ökocat’s upcycled wood pulp kitty litter. It worked so much better than our old brand that my husband and I kept thinking the other partner had already scooped! Read our review. |
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Paid Advertisement with Native Path |
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Hydration, Simplified |
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| Stock up now and make hydration your top priority this year. |
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“I tested four Earth-friendly options, seriously invading Oscar’s personal privacy.” |
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Bluedot Institute student reporter and cat-lover Cleo Carney decided to test four brands of eco-friendly kitty litter to assess their performance. Her favorite, a Canadian brand, is hard to come by in the U.S., but she and Oscar approve of two other great options that are easily accessible stateside.
Find an Earth-friendly litter for your favorite feline. |
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Dear Dot: What Are the Best Dog Poop Bags? |
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Dear Dot,
We buy and use compostable doggie bags for our pup’s poops. But we typically toss them in the garbage so is there any point to compostable bags? Are they still better than non-compostable or biodegradable bags?
–Deb, Toronto, ON
Dearest Deb,
You’ve come to the right place with your doggie doo dilemma. I share my home with two Canine Dots, both large, both prodigious producers of poop. Consequently, my bag-curious friend, I have considerable experience with doody sacks.
Let’s start by saying, please, all you hound huggers, for the love of all that’s sacred, pick up your pup’s poop. Turns out, only half to three quarters of people actually do, depending on your statistical source….
To find out what kind of doo doo bags Dot recommends and why, plus lots of poopy puns, read on.
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Sign up now for daily musings and advice from Dear Dot. |
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A Day in the Life of A Sustainable Paw-ducts Tester |
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Last year, my husband and I took Finley on a cross-town adventure to Riverside Park on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. I remarked on all the wildlife (read: squirrels) and another dog owner said, “Just wait ’til the goats come back!” Goats?
It turns out that the park, with its short, steep slopes, has a number of areas that are tough to weed and prone to filling up with invasive species. In 2019, the Riverside Park Conservancy decided to try a new approach to its Woodland Restoration Initiative by bringing in goats to help tame a particularly stubborn stretch of land. I’ve always liked goats, and I wanted to see what Finley would think of them. So, we went to Goatham Fest, a ribbon-chewing ceremony, to check them out.
To learn more about how New York’s city goats and how Finley reacted to them, check out Goats Return to New York City’s Riverside Park: They’re Baaack. |
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| Take charge of your health journey today with Lumen. Order now using code GETLUMENHEALTH for 15% off. |
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If not, visit our site for round-ups of linen clothing, underwear, green tech, items for better sleep, gifts for dads, gifts for moms, gifts for hosts, pantry staples, cookware and appliances, cold-weather clothes, clean beauty, clean skincare, laundry and food storage solutions, back-to-school favorites, picks for pups, baby showers,<> gardens, the beach, and summer clothes, products for picnicking and renovating, kitchen favorites, white sneakers we love, and household cleaning products. |
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Want to get in touch? I’d love to hear from you. Tell me about your favorite sustainable products, topics you’d like to see covered, or anything else that’s on your mind — email marketplace@bluedotliving.com.
I’ll see you again in two weeks.
– Elizabeth |
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Elizabeth Weinstein, Bluedot’s Marketplace Editor, lives in Manhattan with her husband; her papillon, Finley; and her cats, SanDeE* and Modell. When she’s not asking the folks at Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom to try on all of their sustainable sneakers in a size 9½, she can be found at the Union Square Greenmarket or gardening on her rooftop terrace. |
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES |
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SIMPLE / SMART / SUSTAINABLE / STORIES |
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The BuyBetter Marketplace and bluedotliving.com are published by Bluedot, Inc.
Find more simple, smart, sustainable stories at bluedotliving.com, our Martha's Vineyard website, our Brooklyn website, our San Diego website, our Santa Barbara website, our Boston website, our Toronto website, and our Los Angeles website. Subscribe to this newsletter here.
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