Solar Decathlon 2009

The Solar Decathlon is currently going on in Washington D.C. and Rice has a home there this year. One of these days I'd really like to make it out there during the event to see all of the home entries. Check out Inhabitat's Flickr set to view some great photos of all of the houses, as well as their article on Rice University's ZEROW house.

war has been declared & update on single-stream recycling

So, we apparently have some pretty smart squirrels in our backyard. They figured out exactly what was preventing them from getting into the promised land of food sources, and bit through the exact portion of the hinge on our compost so they could pull off the lid and feast. We've temporarily put duct tape on, but that's already not holding them up. They laugh in our face : "Duct tape? You have got to be kidding us. Foolish humans!"

Meanwhile, since single stream recycling has started up, we've consistently had a full-to-the-brim recycling container, while our trash has had two bags of diapers, and one partially full household trash bag. It's awesome. With the compost going, we really do throw away so little trash.

Recycle your Brita filters

From Preserve...

Preserve Recycles Brita Water Filters

We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with Brita and, beginning in January, will recycle all Brita pitcher filters returned to our Preserve Gimme 5 program. The No. 5 polypropylene plastic from the casing will be used in our products. The filter ingredients – activated carbon and additional ion-exchange resin that reduces lead, mercury, copper, cadmium and zinc that might be found in tap water – will be regenerated for alternative use or converted into energy.

Starting in January, you can drop off your used, dry Brita pitcher filters at participating Whole Foods Market stores or mail them directly to Preserve Gimme 5. Full details and instructions on both options, including a complete list of Gimme 5 stores, will be available at www.brita.com in early January 2009. To read more visit http://www.brita.com/pr/recycling.pdf

Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging

How much sense does this make? If it's on Amazon, it's not as if the packaging needs to entice the shopper to pull it off of some imaginary shelf anyways...
Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging FAQs

'Clean' Coal

As I've said before, I think Inhabitat is a great site. They recently put up an article talking about what 'clean coal' really means.
Inhabitat � IS IT GREEN? Clean Coal

Update on single stream recycling

Recycling plant shelved, $1 million already spent

It seems that Austin still has a few things to work out on this whole recycling thing...

Single stream recycling comes to Austin!

Finally - it certainly took Austin long enough, especially for a city that claims to be so green. We can finally recycle all plastic, and not just numbers 1 & 2. Though, check out how big the bin is - larger than our trash! The old bins we'll get rid of next week.

Bring your own bag!

From an email subscription from 1/2 Price Books, comes the following green tip. If we really want to reduce our dependence on oil, we need to look beyond just what cars consume. Our everyday shopping and living habits consume quite a bit!

GREEN TIP No. 010
It’s good to b(eco)me carried away.
Paper or plastic? How about neither. Both plastic and paper bags are less desirable for the environment, not to mention, not as strong nor as functional as reusable carriers. Keep a tote bag in your car to lug groceries and books to and fro.
BARE FACTS & STATS: it takes as much petroleum to make 14 plastic bags as it does to drive a car one mile. Paper bags use even more petroleum. Plastic bags are made from nonrenewable petroleum resources that require the use of toxic chemicals during production and processing. Few facilities collect and recycle them, and most plastic bags end up as litter or in landfills. Plastics production accounts for 14% of toxic air emissions in the United States. The 10 billion brown paper grocery bags used in supermarkets annually require virgin pulp to give them strength to hold heavy groceries, cutting down millions of trees for the creation of bags. Learn more at
b(eco)megreen.info

Veggies and dirt!

This morning a truck full of dirt woke us up - it may not look like a lot here, but really it is - a full day's worth of work ahead of us. But it's to top off the lawn so it won't need as much watering this summer. It's Dillo Dirt, so the ultimate in captilalism and recycling. We do all the work to clean up the yard waste (limbs, weeds, leaves, whatever), put it out on the curb, pay the city to pick it up, and then a few months later, pay the city to drop it back off, only this time in the form of dirt.
And, to be even more Austin-hippie like, we also went to our neighbors' to pick up our half of half a bushel of fresh veggies from a local farm. There are so many, I'm not sure what we'll do with them all (recipes for radishes and mustard greens anyone?), but definitely looking forward to a season of this.

Water, water - where?

I subscribe to a Wired magazine RSS news feed, and some really amazing stuff comes up on that. Since we've abandoned cable, I don't get to watch the Daily show or Colbert Report any more, but check out Dean Kamen as he presents a water purifier on the Colbert Report. How great is it that this guy actually spends his time, and his employees' time, inventing stuff that will actually help people?

unplugged

Greener tip No. 002
b(eco)me powerless
Devices that are "on" even when off waste energy and account for 10% of your electric bill. Put chargers together on a power strip and turn it off while you're away. Unplug unused refrigerators, toasters, coffee pots, blenders and cell phone chargers.
COST BENEFIT: Most people use their chargers only 5% of the time they have them plugged in, wasting both energy and money. Unplugging unused appliances can reduce the phantom energy use in your home and save you up to $170 a year. Kitchen countertop appliances alone, when unplugged, can save the average family more than $80 a year.
BARE FACTS & STATS: it takes a tree-packed forest with an area equivalent to 500 soccer fields to absorb all the carbon dioxide produced by mobile phone chargers that are left plugged into outlets.

There's such a thing as 'waste chocolate'?!

Too bad you can't smell it....

LEED needs fixing....?

"Lately, even the USGBC seems to realize the solution lies not in giving out medals for greenness one building at a time, but in encouraging greener communities. Density is why the average resident of Tokyo uses as much energy in a week as the average resident of Houston uses in a day. "
-Daniel Brook, Slate

Plastic, plastic everywhere, and not a drop to drink

This is gross. One of the things we have brought home from living in Munich is their wonderful use of canvas bags for everything - from groceries to clothes to whatever. So much so that the last time Kyle went, he brought back 4 more. They're reusable and washable, if you do happen to bust open something by accident.

the point of no return

“The human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available at current consumption patterns,” Achim Steiner, the executive director of the Environment Program, said in a telephone interview.

from the NYT

prehistoric poop

Gross