Design Notes: Dorm decor, flip-flop coir doormats

Design Notes: Dorm decor, flip-flop coir doormats

Compiled by Home & Style Editor Susan Martin from News and wire sources

 

 

Decor lessons: The back-to-dorm catalogs are arriving, but you do not have to be a college student to pick up some cool stuff for your own home.

 

Many of these items are well-suited to kids', tweens' and teens' living spaces. And adults may find a funky floor lamp or throw rug they can't resist, as well. Plus, coordination is such a breeze.

 

Among the pickings from retailers such as JCPenney, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Linens 'nThings and others: butterfly chairs, colorful comforters, fleece throws, body pillows, desk chairs, storage bins, pop-up hampers, desk organizers, inexpensive bookshelves and more.

 

Recycled and rugged

 

You've probably seen those coir doormats with cute flip-flop designs printed on them. But imagine a durable mat actually made from flip-flops – or the material left over during their production.

 

We spotted both mats and storage bins in the Viva Terra catalog of eco-living products, but similar products are available elsewhere. The recycled items are made from colorful factory remnants left over once the foot bed has been stamped, according to the catalog.

 

The mats, priced $29 to $89, come in three sizes –plus a 22-by-60 inch runner, above. The bins come in sets of two, $135 per pair, with the largest measuring 23 inches wide and 14 inches high. Good for storing boots, kids' stuff and, of course, flip-flops.

 

3,000 small farmers in Kerala have turned to organic farming on coir geotextiles.

More than 3,000 small and marginal farmers in Kerala have turned to organic farming and are growing coconuts, bananas and intercrops such as pepper, nutmeg and arecanut, assured of a ready market.

 

Organic farming does not use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, instead it relies on crop rotation, green manure, biological pest control and genetically modified seeds.

Eco-friendly: Creepers are grown on coir geotextiles called eco-fences, which are stretched and fixed on posts. Sevashram, a voluntary organization that has helped convert more than 500 acres of land at Angamaly near the Kochi international airport to organic farming, buys the produce that the farmers want to sell. It often pays more than the market price.

 

"It involves the whole cycle, from production to consumption, so every village involved can be self-sufficient," said K. Mampilly, a priest who started Sevashram. "All the money is generated by farmers and the benefits are shared among them," he said.

Sevashram now plans to popularize the concept in neighbouring Thrissur, Kottayam and Alappuzha districts, where it has set up 10 groups, each involving 150 farmers.

 

"We have a cluster system and each cluster has about 300 farmers managing coconut centres called kera kendras, which are essentially agri clinics-cum-business centres," Mampilly said. Each centre, in turn, serves several self-help support groups.

The farmers, who are members of the support groups, learn to grow farm products organically and sell whatever surplus they have after consumption to consumers in neighbouring districts. To train farmers and also help them sell, Sevashram engages retired officials and experts from the agriculture department, as well as certification agencies such as Indocert to inspect the produce.

 

M. Ousephachan, a farmer in Angamaly , said Sevashram buys coconuts grown on his four-acre plot at prices above market rates.

 

Sevashram even supplies him manure and sells the produce it buys from him at stores called 'eco-parlours'.

 

"I have been getting better yield (since converting to organic farming)," he added.

"About 200 families that have one to two acres of land have come together as a self-help group and we have stopped using chemical fertilizers and pesticides," said Bindu Paul, a farmer in Moolapura village who joined the scheme two months ago.

 

After 13 years in the field, last year, Sevashram promoted a public limited company, Swasraya Organic Products Ltd. The company is in early talks with a South Korean firm to sell sulphur-free coconut oil, under the brand 'Kerasyam'. Sevashram has also promoted the concept of 'eco-fence' where coir-based textiles are stretched and creeper plants are grown on them to form a thick fence.