Can you suggest some eco-friendly gifts!

There are a few different gift guides on the site you might want to check out as a first step.  There's the general Give Green Gifts wiki.  But you also might want to check out the Father's Day Green Gift Guide which is a bit more male oriented.

Good luck!  Let us know what you end up with.  :-)

Well, I don't know if this will help you out much, because you described your brother as "hard-core" but there may be people who come to ths post looking for less wasteful gifts to give family and friends, like I have been trying to do. Here are some of my ideas:

A gift baskets filled with consumables-like solid shampoos, or a "date night" basket with dinner ingredients. Basket is reuseable and buy a used one at Goodwill to be even more green.

Gift certificate for camping-maybe you can go in with some friends for a National Parks Gold Pass (they're kind of expensive) or just make reservations at a nearby state park.

Buy him tickets to a museum-no extra packaging, etc.

subscription to Netflix-movies come with the mail, so you don't have to make an extra trip to the video store.

Donation in his name to:

--a national, state, or regional park

--a microcredit agency to get 3rd world women out of poverty (FINCA International)

--an organization that gives livestock to 3rd world citizens (oxfamamerica.org)

--Red Cross, etc. (Info on any of these can be found at charitynavigator.org)

Edible local specialties, like homemade jam, or in my area, fresh raviolis

A commitment to be more green yourself-promise to recycle, give composting a try, ride you bike to work once a week for a year...

A packable, reuseable grocery bag (reuseablebagsdepot.com)

I have given Nalgene bottles as gifts. My first one was a gift, and I love them so much I have several now. It allows me to skip all that wastefulness of bottled water.

Offer to wash his car, walk his dog, watch his kids.

Do something with him-go to a baseball game, take a backpacking trip.

Give him a new experience-concert tickets, a local theatre outing.

In general, my philosophy has been to give useful consumables instead of "stuff", and whenever possible, to give experiences instead of tangible things. It's also a pet peeve of mine to receive functionless gifts, so I like to give things that are durable, handy, and can keep my loved ones safe.

Last year we gave out first aid kits that were packed with good stuff, but only the size of a deck of cards, so our family can take them along wherever they go. Included were needle and thread, buttons, paper thermometers, advil, hand sanitizer, brush-ups, bandages, neosporin single-use packages, and super glue (that stuff really does fix anything!) Not very green, but I know it will get used.

Another useful gift is a pocketknife. My husband gave me one last year, and I use it all the time. Oh, and for outdoorsy people and women, a keychain sized pepper spray might be a nice gift, or a safety whistle. Anything but another Bath and Bodyworks gift set!

Ha~I just clicked the "Green Gifts" link in the post before mine---like three of the things I mentioned were already on that list. Oops~!

I think solar powerd gadgets will be best. Have a look at this article.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1122623/green_gift_ideas_solar_power.html

If you need more ideas on this check out Solar electricity for home tips.

Solar powered gifts are a wonderful idea from my point of view. I like to get wine glass gift baskets for my friends so that they can enjoy their organic wine even more. So far it was always more than welcome.

If you think that CFL are good, read this:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2009-1088+0+DOC+XML+V0//en

The EPL web page refered to is old hat and not really helpful.

Mercury is not a good thing but if a light bulb gets broken and a very small amount of mercury is freed it is also not the end of the world. No reason to call in a hazmat team!

Just use good common sense and clean it up. It does not bother me at all.

Proper disposal is important - not to just dump them in the trash.  

The danger is real and the parliamentary question i've attached has been presented less than 2 month ago and the European Parliament is working on it!

For me you'd think more before to write.

You might want to check out Livingecho.com. They have a wide variety of eco-friendly gift ideas for all ages and interests. From baby onesies to solar powered backpacks.

Take a look at www.simplycleanandgreen.com for lots of great gift ideas.  Car cleaning, Personal Care, Antibacterial Sports towel and Home cleaners and more!