Grocery stores in general are not very good at switching to environmentally friendly products. Their attitude seems to be to sell what's easiest, which tend to be established brands that people are familiar with.

But one DC area chain stands out. That's Harris Teeter. They offer a good selection of products that are good for the Earth. Selection is likely to vary by specific location, but brands they carry include:

Recycled paper products:

Toilet paper:

Green Forest (packs of 4 and packs of 12 rolls of toilet paper)

Sofpac (made by Marcal) packs of 4 and packs of 4 "double roll"

Paper towels:

Green Forest (single and 3 packs)

Marcal

Seventh Generation

Napkins:

Green Forest

Trash bags made from recycled plastic:

Harris Teeter brand kitchen bags and 30 gallon trash bags

Dish Soap (for hand washing dishes):

Seventh Generation

Meyer's

Citradish

Method

Automatic dishwasher soap:

Seventh Generation

Fabric softener:

Sun & Earth

Method

Dryer sheets:

Meyer's

Sun & Earth

All purpose cleaner:

Citrasolv

Sun & Earth

Seventh Generation

Window cleaner:

Citraclear

Fluorescent light bulbs:

Excellent variety of compact fluorescent bulbs, including vanity globe, candle shaped lights, flood Par 38, outdoor post lights, ceiling fan replacement bulbs, and 4 packs of spiral bulbs (a lot better value than buying one bulb at a time)

Additionally, the 2 foot and 4 foot fluorescent tubes they are carrying are Alto by Philips. This have significantly less mercury in them than competing bulbs. Alto bulbs are easy to identify by the green band on each end.

All in all, Harris Teeter's selection is far better than other area grocery stores. They have set a standard that really makes their competitors look 10 years behind the times.

If you don't already shop there, please consider stopping by one of their stores and trying a few of these products. There are many reasons for choosing these products, But a new one that should be important to all Americans is the amount of petroleum saved by using things like plant based cleaners instead of petroleum based ones. Seventh Generation alone calculates that they have saved over 500,000 gallons of petroleum the way they make their products.