Grab Bag Friday: Compost Update, Sustainable Household Goods

It's the last day of Earth Week and our town is abuzz with free bike tune ups, cell phone recycling drives, and even a transportation fair. In celebration, I thought I'd give you a compost update and a review of how our various sustainable experiments worked out over the last year.

The Compost Update: All I have to say is, we're ready to go. As some of you know, last year we got a Sun-Mar 200 Home Composter and ended up with zero results at the end of the summer (apparently because our composter wasn't full enough?) Well, we've been adding stuff all winter, and let me tell you, it's full enough. If we don't have compost by June, we're out of excuses, and it was a failed experiment. I, of course, remain hopeful...

The Sustainable Goods Results: Here's where I'll rate the success of our various small household changes and how well we've stuck to them over the year. Click on the titles to review last year's posts:

The Lightbulb Change
We haven't replaced every single lightbulb yet (hence the 4 stars instead of 5), but we love our CFLs. They start out a little dim when you turn on the light, but within a minute or so, they're up to speed. I haven't had to change a single one. They're awesome.


The Yogurt Change
I've been really good about this one. If you remember, the change was to bring a regular spoon to work instead of using a plastic one for my yogurt. I eat yogurt at work at least 3 or 4 days a week, so I estimate that I've saved somewhere between 140-180 plastic spoons from the landfill just since June 2007!


The Sponge Change
These biodegradable pop-up sponges were definitely my favorite change of the year. Because they're so fun to expand! My estimate: we sent 45 fewer sponges to the landfill since June. As I mentioned last year, they don't have the scraping/scrubbing action of the heavy-duty store bought sponges, but between these and a scrub brush, I haven't come across a single thing I couldn't clean.


The Leftover Change
We haven't been the best at this one. We've definitely reduced the quantity of plastic bags and saran wrap that we use, but we haven't been able to totally shake the habit. We do, however, have a ridiculous number of saved yogurt and other containers spilling out of our cupboards, just waiting to be used. Hm.


The Napkin Change
I'd say we've been pretty good about moving to cloth napkins. We use them most of the time. But after a year, I'm not 100% sure about this one. What do you think is worse--the number of paper napkins that get thrown away, or the load of laundry that you do with all the cloth napkins? The cloth napkins seem like the way to go, but then when I'm loading them into the washer, I'm not so sure. Any thoughts?

Well, that's where we stand. Over the next few weeks, I'll try to remember to post some other successes, failures, and discoveries we've made on the sustainable goods front (for instance, our disastrous experiment with earth-friendly dishwasher detergent).

If you've tried any sustainable solutions that are working in your home, please share!

How to Compost Interlude: The Lightbulb Change

So now that I've been composting for a few weeks, I've become a little bit more aware of the things that I throw away. Every time I throw something out in the regular garbage can, I start to wonder if there's an alternative that could have been composted, or at least thrown out less often. So while I'm waiting for nature to work its magic and create compost, I thought I'd spend the next few weeks posting about some of the little changes that are going on in our household.

#1: The Lightbulb Change

Over the last couple months, as bulbs go out in the house, we have been replacing them with compact flourescent lightbulbs (CFLs). According to the EnergyStar Website CFLs:

• Use at least 2/3 less energy than standard incandescent bulbs
• Provide the same amount of light
• Last up to 10 times longer
  
• Save $30 or more in energy costs over each bulb’s lifetime
• Generate 70 percent less heat, so they’re safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling

One of the misconceptions I had was that CFLs are prohibitively expensive. True, we paid around $4-5 per bulb (Maine has an instant rebate program for CFLs...I think the regular price was around $7-8). But when you keep in mind that you won't need to buy another for 7-10 years, and you'll be saving $30 or more in energy costs over that same time period, it's actually more cost-conscious to buy the CFLs.

Check out Josh Spear's Talk Shop Friday pitch for CFLs. He thinks consumers have a negative association with the word "flourescent," which may be true.

I should also note that while I never paid much attention to CFLs in the past, apparently the more recent versions are far more appealing in both light, style, and cost.

18Seconds.org is an interesting site where you can type in your zip code and see all kinds of information about CFL use in your town. For instance, in Brunswick, Maine: 20,403 CFLs have been purchased since Jan 1, 2007. According to the site, this amount of reduced energy use also reduces greenhouse gases by the equivalent of taking 78 cars off the road. The site also has some good information on what CFL bulbs are, how to choose a bulb, and why you should switch (click on the "Why You Should Switch" link in the top right-hand corner). You need an updated flash player to view the site, but it only takes a minute to download.

Missed anything in this series? It's easy to catch up:

Step 1: Make it a Priority
Step 2: Choose a System
Interlude: Nature Tried to Kill My Composter
Step 3: Collect Organic Material
Step 4: Mix the Materials
Step 5: Moisten the Mixture
Step 6: Wait
Interlude: The Lightbulb Change
Interlude: The Yogurt Change
Interlude: The Sponge Change
Interlude: The Leftover Change
Interlude: The Napkin Change
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part One
The Sort-of Sun-Mar 200 Review Part Two
Sun-Mar 200 Compost Update
Sun-Mar 200: Starting All Over Again
Step 7: Use Your Compost
Step 8: Sun Mar 200 Garden Composter Review