Consumers : Brave New World of Eco-Friendly Wares

What would you say to a world where old tires become handbags, designer cars run without gasoline-powered engines and swimming pools are cleaned without chemicals?

Eco-inventors and environmental entrepreneurs offered just such wares and more at last weekend’s Eco Expo, a trade show with hundreds of ecologically safe products and services. Most are available to consumers now or will be within a year or so.

“Inventors can change this world for the better. We must,” says Alan Arthur Tratner, president of Inventors Workshop International, whose seminar for prospective inventors offered tips on how to get eco ideas to the marketplace and turn “green ideas into greenbacks.”

Tratner admits it’s not easy to get an invention to consumers: “There are about 70,000 patents filed every year, and out of those only 2% make it commercially in the marketplace. There’s a lot of luck involved in this, and you have to have perseverance and faith in your idea.”

Although the show featured products made from almost every kind of recycled material, perhaps the most unusual ones could be found in the clothing and accessories category. The San Francisco-based Used Rubber USA displayed handbags, vests and accessories fashioned from old bike, auto and truck tires and tubes.

Designer Mandana MacPherson said her creations are made “from scrap from San Francisco junkyards and car shops” and carry lifetime guarantees. They’re trendy-looking and range in price from about $30 for belts and small purses to $85 or more for larger shoulder bags.

In the transportation area, a handful of companies displayed alternative fuel vehicles--electric, methanol, natural gas, hydrogen and solar. By far the flashiest design of all was the Exar-1, an electric sports car expected to be in production in about 15 months, according to representatives of the Studio City firm that will produce it. Makers hope to sell it to consumers for a sticker price of about $12,000.

There also were several rows of booths with water-saving products.

The Mini-Flush from Water Savers Unlimited in Los Angeles seemed the easiest to install in a toilet. The blue plastic device slips over the flow tube inside the toilet tank and forces the flapper valve to close prematurely, thus saving water each flush. Its promoters say it limits water usage to 1 1/2 gallons per flush and costs $19.95.

A more complicated system, the Flush-1 Flush-2 from Rocrige Enterprises in Walnut Creek, requires about an hour to install, and you have to remove the existing plumbing inside the toilet tank. But this device has dual flushing capacity. Pushing down on the handle activates a shorter flush for liquid waste; pushing up, a longer flush for solid waste. The Flush-1 Flush-2 sells for $29.95.

Homeowners with pools and spas lined up to watch a video promotion from California Ionization Products, a firm headquartered in Cathedral City. Its product, Challenger 3000, is designed to keep a pool or spa clean through ionization instead of chemicals.

Challenger 3000 uses a copper electrode-sensing device, controlled by a computer, to monitor water conditions in a pool or spa. When needed, the water is subjected to electrochemical reactions that disinfect it, removing unwanted minerals, bacteria and algae through the pool or spa filter.

The Challenger 3000 costs about $1,495 installed in an average-size pool; $400 to $500 for a spa.

In the environmental services category, the Pick Up Artists offered an unusual recycling service. Shelli Graff and Kari Steinberg, a former lawyer and an advertising executive respectively, formed the company four months ago.

There are several types of service available. The door-to-door plan is $4.75 per pickup per unit for condos and apartments and $6 for a home. A floor-to-floor service is $4 per pickup per unit; a bottom-of-the-building plan costs $3.25. Office visits are $10 per pickup.

The Pick Up Artists then take the recyclable trash to recycling centers, where they are paid for it. Their customers are reimbursed “for 100% of what we earn,” says Graff.

She adds that the firm has two 12-foot trucks and two employees serving almost 300 clients.

The company slogan: “We Pick Up Where the City Leaves Off.”