EnviroWonk writer Samantha Hulkower spent another day roaming the floor at the D.C. Convention Center, where the WIREC conference is ongoing.

Finally, the part you we have been waiting for: The free stuff at WIREC. There was lots of junk -- mouse pads (doesn't everyone own a laptop by now?), buttons, lapel pins, and whole forests worth of paper products filled with promotional info.

We spent hours wandering among the seemingly hundreds of booths at the trade show, making what felt like hours of small talk with their purveyors to bring you the following comprehensive list of what you're green (with envy) for missing out on. We're saving the stuff we got from federal agency booths for another post.

There were some impressive booths. Volvo alone took up an entire wall with flat screen televisions and 18 wheeler cabs, promoting their carbon neutrality or something. We quickly realized that booth style does not equal the substance of the free gifts, with one caveat: the German Ministry pavilion, which had a hot buffet and was giving out free German beer. Once the beer ran out, all that was left were "Made in Germany" post-it notes and renewable energy flash cards (we passed on those).

The first runner up in the "Big Name, Fancy Booth" category was BP with key-chain flashlights, which also placed in the "Actually Useful" category. Other award winners after the jump.

Food: Lots of booths had free candy. Some had gross bowls of unwrapped candy, which we stayed away from because all it takes is one gross person who didn't wash their hands to give us all e. coli poisoning. The Clean Energy New York lounge had an array of hot and cold beverages, cubed cheese, bags of chips, and most impressively, tongs for bowls of communal snacks like pretzels.

Most Sincere Promotion: The first booth we stopped at was handing out sunflower seeds with their company info on the packet. When pressed as to how this relates to what his company does, the purveyor admitted nothing, just that the packaging was made from recycled materials and at least sunflower seeds will breakdown if I decide to throw them out, unlike the millions of plastic pens being handed out. Touche.

Least Likely to be Utilized (aside from the hundreds of pamphlets, books and business cards handed out): Window stickers for a company's energy campaign. We don't have a car, but if we did, our back window would be filled with decals of Calvin peeing on things. We did pick up some bumper stickers that we might attach to our bike in an effort to make it less nice-looking/hopefully less likely to be stolen.

Most Expensive Looking: One of those backpacking link things with thermometer key-chain attachment. The thermometer probably doesn't work well, and we'll get tetanus from the link once it starts to rust, but in the meantime lots of people probably grabbed one.

Slickest Product Spin: Biomass masquerading as "clean coal". Normally we roll our eyes at the mention of "clean coal", but we had to stop and investigate the baggies of what looked like burnt hamster pellets. Since coal = organic matter + time + heat and pressure, it can actually be made from wood that isn't suitable for making paper, whittling, or any of the other stuff wood is used for. We're not sure what to do with it, since we don't have a furnace, but it will go in our emergency supply kit, in case we ever need to produce our own heat for about an hour.

Swag Take out of Pity: Windmill calendar. We have a good friend who works at a wind energy trade association and so couldn't say no to a slightly creepy calendar of 12 impressively different pictures of wind turbines. But it's March, and we're already good on calendars for the rest of the year.