Trash That Can

By now we should all be separating our garbage from our recylables from our compostables. So what's the next step in cradle-to-grave ethos? How about compostable garbage cans?

UMBRA has come out with a line of cans they say will degrade under natural conditions – the kind found in composting heaps. It's kind of hard to believe, seeing how sturdy and plasticy they look, but we purchased a tall grey can with a swivel top for the kitchen.

We're going to check into just how they degrade, and as to how organic their materials are. Upon seeing the can in the store however, we were compelled to buy it, if for no other reason than to make a statement with our "disposable" income. For now we can report that the can works up to our standards...

SOLAR ENERGY NOW!

Just read this compelling, and heartening, piece on Andrew Sullivan's excellent blog. I'm seriously psyched over this one folks!

"This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."

Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a

postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night. The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas.

The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity -- whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source -- runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.

Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.

The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said.

Sponsible Challenge: TAMPA

Just returned from a weekend jaunt to the Tampa-Clearwater area of Florida and have to say that I was disappointed by a seeming lack of indifference to our environment. Be it at Tampa Int'l Airport, the Tampa Performing Arts Center, or my grandparents' community center, I saw nary a recycling bin. While I'll slap myself on the wrist later for not bringing my SIGG bottle on this trip, I winced several times as I was forced to throw plastic bottles in the trash. C'mon Tampa! Let's get with the program!!

Now, I'm sure southwestern FL is chock full of environmentally conscious types far more frustrated over the situation than I. So, I encourage any of you reading this to contact me. Let's put our heads together and come up with a gameplan for getting your city and its outlying towns on the right track. There's a lot of lush greenery in semi-tropical Florida. What say we make the state even greener, together?

GO SOLAR!

When I was a kid I was fascinated by the concept of being able to cook food with the sun. My sisters had their EZ Bake oven – I wanted to harness the power of the cosmos!

I remember seeing various solar cookers – from cigarette lighters to big-ass ovens – in the 1970 Whole Earth catalog and feeling envious of those who had the money to actually buy these things. Then I saw instructions for making your own solar cooker. All I needed was cardboard, tinfoil, and something to adhere everything together.

I never got my makeshift oven to work (although I may have inadvertently reflected radio waves to an alien society), but never gave up the thought that, in theory at least, I could cook with the sun.

Fast forward about 30 years and the do-it-yourself bug has struck me again. Wouldn't it be coo, I thought, to finally get that solar cooker cooking? Indeed. Enter instructables.com.

This site has detailed instructions on making an incredible array of cool useful things, including a solar hotdog cooker. Now, I'm not a fan of dogs, but I may have to try to build on eof these things and itch that self-sustaining scratch I've had lo the past three decades. I'll let you know if it works...

Check out the directions here.

BABY STEPS

Sometimes, in our rush to make big change, we get discouraged when we see that the sum total of our best efforts may not amount to much at all in the grand scheme. Nevertheless, it's important not to lose the faith, for we know not what grand result our tiny action may reap.

Right now I'm working on getting the company I work for (who shall remain nameless) on board with paper recycling. About a year ago I enrolled us in a bottle & can recycling program, simply by googling "recycling los angeles". As it turned out, There was a place within blocks of our office. We received a free corrugated plastic box with a lid for depositing bottles and cans.

Now, here's the cool part: Yes, we now push our plastic, glass and metal recyclables back into the system, rather than a landfill. But maybe the bigger imapact is the response of my fellow employees, many of whom were inspired by my small act, and who have since "confessed" to me about their own recycling deeds. Love it.

Today I lunched into Part II of my personal recycling campaign: Paper. I met with the owner of a recycling company who is willing to come pick up the reams of paper we toss each month, and give us money to do so. That's what I call a win-win-win situation: us-them-Earth.

Let's see what more may come of this. To be continued...

Freecycle!

Ever find yourself with a bunch of packing boxes you just used for moving and no idea what to do with them? Throwing them in the dumpster would be way wasteful. Recycling them is a hassle. You figure someone could probably use them for a move of their own, but who? And if so, would they even pay you for used boxes?

Enter freecycle.org, a brilliant networking idea that may be in a town near you. The idea behind freecycle is to keep used stuff for which you have no room out of the landfill. By simply posting it on the Yahoo! group in your area you can more than likely find it a home, freeing up space for you and filling a need for another. Usually you can just say that you're leaving a pile of _______ outside, propped up against the big sycamore tree at 6pm, and before you can say "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," it will magically disappear.

Of course you can also score that ratty old mattress you've been searching for or the 5lb. bag of used coffee grounds for your compost worms. A little give, a little take is not just green- it's good karma.

A CHANCE FOR CHANGE

This is an amazing story that picks up on the incredible devastation caused by a huge tornado in the town of Greensburg, Kansas last year. It's proof that given the opportunity, people will opt for a greener lifestyle.


Tornado-flattened Kansas town is coming back greener
AP ONLINE

By ROXANA HEGEMAN

GREENSBURG, Kan. - A year after it was practically wiped off the map by a tornado, Greensburg is rising again - and going green, too, with solar panels, wind turbines, tinted windows, water-saving toilets and other energy-efficient technology.

Environmentalists and civic leaders have seized on the disaster as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to re-engineer the town.

"I would never say the tornado happening was a good thing. I would never wish that on anybody," said Kim Alderfer, assistant city manager. "But given the opportunity, we have to do it right - to make it better."

On May 4, 2007, a ferocious F-5 twister blasted Greensburg, killing 11 people in the town of 1,400 and flattening its turn-of-the-last-century brick buildings, Victorians and prairie-style houses. Townspeople found themselves disoriented after most of Greensburg's manmade and natural landmarks were erased or uprooted.

But now the water tower is back, the town's one traffic light has been replaced, and neighborhoods are showing signs of life.

Returning homeowners and businesses are being encouraged to think about such things as energy-saving lights and rainwater collection systems as they rebuild. And the town government has resolved to erect public buildings that meet the stringent LEED Platinum standards for energy-efficient design.