We feel virtuous when we send our electronics to be recycled rather than just dumping them, but what guarantees do we have that they’re actually disposed off responsibly? A report on SBS’ Dateline suggests that some Australian TVs and other unwanted goods are being illegally dumped in Ghana rather than carefully recycled. More »
That less-than-attractive, somehow-still-working car in your driveway? It seems just ripe for a trade-in for a more efficient and green vehicle. Then again, it might be better for your wallet, and the planet, to let it ride out its remaining life. More »
Whether you want to curb your disposable paper towel use for the sake of your wallet, the environment, or both, home management blog Simple Mom has a great system for switching over to cloth towels for good. More »
If you want your next car purchase to be more environmentally friendly, the government-funded Green Vehicle Guide is a sensible place to start. The site ranks cars based on greenhouse and air pollution emissions, and lets you compare up to three models for relative performance. The lists are ranked by both best performance and vehicle sales, which reveals that most of us apparently haven’t yet taken the green message to heart when it comes to car purchases.
Green Vehicle GuideReducing your environmental impact by diet doesn’t mean having to go entirely vegetarian. If you’re intrigued by climate change and “flexitarianism,” one meat-loving author says eating 3.1 ounces per day is just about right. In his (long) piece for Audobon Magazine, Mike Tidwell consults with researchers and crunches the numbers to suggest that eating enough meat to make up a deck of cards per day, with only half of it red meat, is an ideal goal for having a real impact. Your ability to get by on that amount, or beliefs in climate change’s importance, will certainly vary, but it’s a good guideline to use for gradually switching to a less-meat diet. A shorter summation of Tidwell’s findings is linked below. Photo by jslander. How Much Meat Should a Climate Change-Wary Flexitarian Eat? [Example Source via Example]
Wired’s How-To Wiki guides newcomers gently into the soft terrain of composting, a great way to recycle biodegradable goods and create some of the best growing soil around. You can get started with something as simple and low-cost as a trash bag, the authors note: Just fill it up with a good mixture of browns (paper and plant pieces) and greens (kitchen scraps), soak it down, punch a few air holes and wait three months. Viola! Compost.
The wiki has more detailed advice for those who want to keep a tidier pile, or learn more about what makes for great material—one easy-to-find example, as previously posted, is non-glossy, low-colour junk mail. Are you composting? What’s your setup? Let us know in the comments. Photo by normanack. Compost [Wired How-To Wiki]
Windows only: Freeware application HP Smart Web Printing combines clips from any number of web pages into one page, so you don’t have to print five different pages of filler to get one page worth of information. The tool—which despite its HP origins works with any printer—integrates directly with both Firefox and Internet Explorer, so clipping text, images, or any part of a page is as simple as clicking a button. Before you print, you can edit, resize, and adjust all of your clippings to your liking. The result is more useful printouts and less wasted paper. If this freeware, Windows only download tickles the environmentalist in you, check out other easy ways to go green and save money with your computer.
HP Smart Web Printing [HP via Shell Extension City]
