The headline in a Hawaiian newspaper ad said "Wear shoots and leaves." The product featured was a T-shirt made from 100 percent bamboo fiber, feels like silk and is machine washable. A local Target ad featured sheets and towels made from a combination bamboo fiber and cotton and they were touted to be antibacterial.

Word is that bamboo is the hottest new fiber. Bamboo is considered a green crop. One of the fastest growing plants on the planet, bamboo is renewable and no pesticides or fertilizers are used to grow it.

Traveling through China many years ago, we saw bamboo used for scaffolding as well as building material, furniture, dishes, etc. At the recent Chamber Installation, architect Paul Roberts table was decorated with bamboo plants and samples of sustainable building materials including bamboo flooring, concrete flooring and tiles, glass tiles, and wall board made from sorghum, straw, and wheat.

Everyday, there are more green products hitting the market. Entrepreneurs are taking the challenge to make things from "environmentally preferable" or recycled materials.

VALCORE's manager Jackie Giffin, board member Carroll Zensius, and I ventured over to Stockton last week to the annual Ag (Agriculture) Show which featured a mini Recycled Products trade show.

Jackie loves to work in her garden and was intrigued by the colorful recycled tire rubber mulch which has a longer life than the traditional wood products. For a list of companies making this mulch, check out www.wastetireproducts.com or www.rubberbark.com.

Most of the companies at this show were local to the valley, using materials that were headed for their landfills. One company, Epic Plastic (www.epicplastics.com), makes a landscaping product called Bend-a-board from recycled #2 HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastic. I visited their original plant in Richmond years ago. They are now thriving in a huge plant in Stockton and are also making a plastic composite decking called Bella Decking.

Considering this was an Ag show, there were more outdoor products. The recycled material of choice was tires. Waste Tire Products (www.wastetireproducts.com) makes a great looking recycled rubber paving mat that can be used to cover cracked concrete and is suitable for horse stalls.

Modular Rubber Drains (www.ModularRubberDrains.com) uses old tires to make drains for highways. Their innovation is having connected parts that can easily be repositioned when rain washes out the ground around the drain, as compared to poured concrete that has to be jack-hammered out and re-poured.

Huffco Manufacting in Stockton (800 634-6060) started out making sports flooring and rubber tiles to use around playground equipment. Now they take the leftover material and manufacture classy recycled rubber tire door mats that are available at local home improvement stores.

One valley company, Summit Sales (www.summitplastics.com), completes the recycling triangle by taking used PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipes from farmers and vineyards along with PVC discards from construction, vinyl fence and window fabricators. They grind it up, wash it and manufacture new PVC pipes, and other products.

Johns Manville (www.jm.com) uses recycled glass bottles to make their Formaldehyde free insulation. Bio Based Insulation (www.biobased.net) creates soy-based insulation products without formaldehyde or other harmful chemicals.

Weisenbach Specialty Printing (www.recycledproducts.com) brought an array of promotional products made from recycled materials. Their feedstock includes recycled circuit boards, scrap electronic waste, old barn wood, recycled currency, paper, glass, plastics, tires, steel, etc. One new product was a plastic mug made from corn polymers instead of oil-based polymers.

The next time your company needs pens, shirts, or reusable mugs to promote your company, check out one of the companies listed on our website on the Reuse page.

And finally, the California Integrated Waste Management Board was in Stockton with several booths promoting many aspects of reducing waste, recycling, building green and becoming sustainable. Visit their website: www.ciwmb.ca.gov.

VALCORE Recycling welcomes a new Member at Large, Carroll Zensius to our Board of Directors.