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What Are the Different Types of Eco Gadgets?

Tara Barnett
Tara Barnett

Eco gadgets come in many different forms and may help a person monitor his or her usage of resources or may simply provide ways to accomplish tasks in an eco-friendly manner. Many eco gadgets are for use in homes or businesses and help reduce energy consumption. Solar devices and other energy creation gadgets can allow an individual to charge a small item on the go. Most of the time superfluous usage of resources is not considered eco friendly, so frivolous gadgets are not common in green designs.

Some of the most common eco gadgets are designed to reduce waste in homes and businesses. Special toilets, for example, can reduce water waste, and unique timers that go in showers can prevent a person from wasting water with reminders or by changing the water temperature. Most eco gadgets of this type focus on reminding users of wasteful behavior or automatically preventing wasteful usage of resources. There are also newer gadgets that connect to monitoring programs available on phones and computers, allowing a person to remotely monitor his or her energy consumptions.

Woman with a flower
Woman with a flower

Other eco gadgets focus on new and unique ways to accomplish tasks like charging a music player. A purse with solar panels, for example, can be used as a charger while traveling, so it is both more convenient and greener. Solar power is much more common, but there are also portable wind energy devices that can be used in emergencies or when traveling. Many outdoor lights are powered in these manners and cannot only reduce waste but can also cut down on bills.

Many gadgets that are traditionally made of plastic can be made from recycled materials in order to make them greener. Phones, for example, can be made from recycled materials and include solar panels in order to make them greener. In some ways, these types of eco gadgets are more gestures than realistic energy saving measures, but the construction of these devices does encourage new and unique ways of creating green gadgets.

For true environmental enthusiasts, there are many more complex gadgets that can help with common green tasks. Composting, for example, is often aided by gadgets that can make the somewhat undesirable task of turning the compost pile easier. Gardening gadgets and those that disperse water in a garden effectively can also be excellent for the ecosystem, because food grown at home does not waste energy with transportation. Eco gadgets do not always market themselves as explicitly green, but a savvy environmentalist can often find ways to use gadgets to make his or her environmentally friendly lifestyle more convenient and efficient.

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