Greater Goods on U Street opened last November and is already the Washington City Paper's #1 Eco Store (2008 reader rankings). Greater Goods specializes in environmentally-friendly products and services, including the installation of tankless water heaters, home automation kits and light switches...
We appreciate the wide range of items at Greater Goods, including waste-reducing biodegradable trash bags, grocery bag dryers (for reusing them), water-saving showerheads, aquabarrel rain boxes (to capture runoff water), and energy-saving solar chargers and drying racks.
In addition to products and installation services, Greater Goods currently offers greener living classes including specific classes on Energy Efficiency, Waste Conservation and Green Your Home 101.
The store's website shares DIY guides, like its DC Recycling Guide and will soon expand to offer its products for sale online. Greater Goods will also recycle certain items for free if you bring them to the store: printer cartridges, cell phones and spent rechargeable batteries (from power tools, laptops, cell phones, appliances, etc.). The store charges 50 cents for each compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) you want to recycle.
Greener Goods is also open to suggestions for its products, classes, and services. Got any ideas?
| Location: |
1626 U Street NW
Washington,
DC
20009
|
|---|---|
| Phone: |
202.449.6070
|
| Website: | www.greatergoods.com |
| Categories: | green materials |
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COOL!
view venus_thames's profile
Oh, I didn't realize they'd take batteries; I have recyclables from my Makita drill that have died, I'll drop them off on my lunch hour.
Greater Goods advertises CFL dimmable bulbs that actually work, although the wattage is kind of low. Even so, actual CFL dimmables that work and don't just flicker would, truly, be great! So I recommend checking them out for your energy-effiicent dimmable bulb needs.
Greater Goods also has a very cute roof garden above the front door -- mixing their early 20th century storefront with early 21st century innovation!
Speaking of gardening, there's a great water-efficient and easy-to-install system that I use called Raindrip, and I wish that Greater Goods carried their line. It's a watering system that attaches to your outdoor hose bib. It uses a timer, a lot of 1/4" black plastic hose and little drippers to drip water on the soil around your plants, whether they are in the ground or in pots. If you are in an apartment or house where you have an outside spigot/hose bib and want to keep plants watered without being wasteful, Raindrip is great. In the DC area the parts seem only to be at Merrifield Gardening Center out in Virginia (you can get the Raindrip "patio kit" at Logan Hardware, but no larger kits and no parts). I wish Greater Goods would carry a couple of their kits, as well as a handful of the parts, as the system is awesome. It is water-saving, affordable and made in the USA. Hooray!
view scormeny's profile