CasaSugar

Casa Quickie: Got Milk Carton?

CasaSugar — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:00:27 -0800

Want to make the change to composting, but haven't committed to buying a compost container yet? There's no reason why you can't get started immediately, especially if your city offers curbside composting services.

Next time you finish a carton of milk, don't flatten and toss it; instead, open up the spout and use it to hold leftovers and scraps. Since the container is waxed, it won't leak. However, it will eventually break down at a composting facility, so once it's filled, you can drop the entire container, compost and all, in your curbside composting bin. Waste not, want not!

Want to upgrade your container? Check out these choices below.

Source: Flickr User numb3r

Mandatory Composting Begins in San Francisco Today

CasaSugar — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:15:23 -0700

Beginning today, the city of San Francisco will require both businesses and residences to compost food scraps and biodegradable products or risk a fine for not properly sorting their garbage. While other cities require recycling service and participation, the law, which Mayor Gavin Newsom signed into effect in June, is the first nationwide to require the collection of food scraps and other compostables.

A study by the Department of the Environment found that 36 percent of what San Francisco sends to landfills is compostable, primarily food scraps, and 31 percent is recyclable - which is mostly paper. Seeing that SF already has an impressive 72 percent recycling rate, the legislation could send that rate soaring to 90 percent.

To facilitate the program, the city will offer free green compost carts to apartment buildings and businesses, as well as free kitchen pails for renters. Fines will be capped at $100 and are meant primarily to raise public awareness and encourage compliance. Has your city or town made any moves to require composting? Has your city had success with any recycling fines or mandates? Tell me by commenting below!

Source: Flickr User MayorGavinNewsom

Casa Verde: Ed Begley's Top 5 Ideas For Going Green at Home

CasaSugar — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:00:31 -0700

Environmentalist extraordinaire and star of hit eco show Living With Ed, Ed Begley Jr. recently chatted with Green Muze about his ideas for green living. Ed also shared his ideas for the top five ways that people can go green. Many of them are surprisingly easy! Check out Ed's ideas below.

Get out of your car as much as you can. Walk, take public transportation, or ride a bike as much as you can.
Get energy-efficient lighting for your house. The earth and your wallet will both thank you.
Put weather stripping up around your doors and windows, making your home tight and efficient.
Start a compost container or pile, and use it for starting a home garden - it will deliver great food through a great pastime. If you live in an apartment, get part of a community garden!
Practice the 3 Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle.

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Cool Idea: Multitasking Countertops

CasaSugar — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:00:20 -0700

On a recent trip to Austin, TX, I stayed at the Park Lane Guesthouse, an eco hotel in one of my favorite neighborhoods. The whole house was beautifully restored (I'll share more pictures soon), but I was particularly impressed with the multitasking ingenuity of this hand-tiled countertop. Near the sink, a small, blue glass handle emerged from the tile. Can you guess what is under the handle?

To find out, read more.

The handle lifts a circular cut-out in the countertop, and underneath is a small shelf supporting the compost bucket! It's such a practical solution. I know that we're constantly shuffling the compost bucket around at our house, and we also hate to have it take up too much space. This way, the compost bucket, and its contents, are concealed, but still within easy reach and disposal in the compost pile. Nice, huh?

Cool Idea: Composting Bags

CasaSugar — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:00:52 -0700

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, yard trimmings and food residuals make up 25 percent of the total waste sent to the dump. By composting, you can help to reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfills.

SunChips, which is an advertiser on our site, is one of the companies working to green its business practices, and I wanted to highlight its good work in this area. The company is working to develop the the first 100 percent compostable chip bag of its kind, currently planned to launch in 2010. So, instead of throwing an empty bag in the trash and sending it to the landfill, consumers will be able to toss it directly into a home composter. As a first step toward the goal, the company is making all 10.5 oz. bags of SunChips snacks with 33 percent renewable materials. This step, as well as the company's solar field in Modesto, CA, helps to reduce the company's carbon emissions by 1.7 million pounds every year.

There are actually a variety of biodegradable home cleaning products on the market right now, including biodegradable garbage bags and sponges. Check them out below.

To check out a video of the SunChips bag biodegrading before your very eyes, read more.

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Casa Verde: CowPots

CasaSugar — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:00:32 -0800

They might not be the most glamorous choice, but CowPots are a brilliant gardening idea. Invented by brothers Matt and Ben Freund, these Connecticut dairy farmers were looking for a way to make their farm more sustainable. And since dairy farms all produce manure as a free byproduct, the brothers started there. For the past 10 years, they've used a methane digester on their farm.

The New York Times article "From Tons of Manure, a Growth Industry" further explains the Freunds' smart use of cow manure:

Beginning in 1997, theirs has been one of the rare farms in the United States continually extracting methane gas from cow manure in a digester. The methane can power a generator to save electricity costs, and the digester also removes the most pungent odors.

The digester also breaks down the manure into liquids, which can be used for fertilizer and solids, which are used for the CowPots.

Find out how to use CowPots in your garden when you read more.

CowPots, which start at $7.99 per 12 pack, cut down on plastic in the horticultural industry. This is definitely good eco news, since the horticultural industry generates about 350 million pounds of plastic each year. To use the CowPot in your garden, simply drop the seedling in the CowPot into your garden plot, and the pot will break down in the soil. You'll want to bury the pot completely in the ground. Once it's covered, the pot will break down in the soil over a period of several weeks. Since CowPots naturally retain water, they're also a great choice for dry or desert climates.

Have you used CowPots?

View 4 Photos ›

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Garden Therapy: A DIY Compost Bin

CasaSugar — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:00:32 -0700

Craftster member Gwydion has inspired me to use the extra lumber left over from some home projects to build a new compost pile. I'm tired of wrestling with my flimsy plastic composter, which seems to never stay in place and whose top always folds into the compost itself. Yuck! Gwydion DIYed her compost pile for a fraction of the cost of one she'd buy in a store.

To find out how she did it, read more.

Gwydion writes, "It's a pretty simple design. The front of each box has slots where you can drop in additional 1-x-8 boards, depending on the height of your compost. Makes it easier to turn the compost from one bin to the other and to rescue the finished product. My husband saw something similar online for about $200, plus shipping, plus assembly, so naturally I had to try to make it. Constructed from 1-x-4s, 1-x-8s, and hardware cloth, with 2-x-4 footers (which you can't see in the picture). It's about 3-x-3-x-6 feet. I built it in panels in the living room and then assembled it on the patio (because that's where the outlet was for the drill . . .). This was a rotten idea, as I then had a miserable time moving it to the corner of the yard. It's waterproofed with about six coats of linseed oil and is holding up well to the elements."

I love the fact that even though Gywdion's husband was the one that spotted the composter online, Gwydion was the one who built it. (This is how it works at my house, too.) Nice work!

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Primer: Vermicomposting

CasaSugar — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:30:20 -0700

Vermicomposting, or vermiculture, is a method of composting that uses worms, either red wigglers or red earthworms, in addition to bacteria, as a catalyst for the decomposition of organic waste. It can occur on a large (tons) or small scale, but it's particularly suited to kitchen composting, where space is limited. To set up a vermicompost, you first must find a bin, anything from a reused plastic bucket to a retailer compost bin, that has holes in the sides to allow air to flow, and a spout that can be opened or closed or holes in the bottom to drain into a collection tray. The type of bin you use will fall into one of three categories: non-continuous (undivided container), continuous vertical flow (vertically stacked trays), or continuous horizontal flow (horizontally stacked trays). To continue the lesson, read more.

You'll add moist bedding to the bin, such as dried leaves, sawdust, hay or shredded paper, which mimics the worms' natural habitat and serves as a food source. Then, you add the worms to their new digs, and toss in your organic food waste. You can compost practically all of your food waste, aside from animal leftovers, including coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, plate scrapings, rotting fruit, vegetable peels, leftovers, moldy bread, etc. The worms will chew through the material, and their excrement will in essence be a nutrient-rich fertilizer. You can then mix your fertilizer with potting mix at a one-to-four-part mix, and your plants will eat it right up!
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Does Your City Compost?

CasaSugar — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:00:57 -0700

Of course, you can always start composting at home, but it's nice to have the option of putting your compost in a green bin on the curb once a week. Here in the Bay Area, we can compost curbside. Does your city have this service?

Crave Worthy: Vermicondo

CasaSugar — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:30:47 -0700

Levitt Goodman Architects, known for their fab prefabs, decided that worm composters posed an ugly problem for modern apartment dwellers, who lack access to backyard gardens. So, they designed the Vermicondo ($1,500), a multilevel condo for worms. Vermicondo consists of a series of shelves, an element that eliminates the need to muck through worm leftovers. When the upwardly mobile worms have finished eating everything they can find, they move up a layer, leaving behind a tray of beautiful organic soil. The top layer of wheatgrass just looks pretty, and serves as a "garden" of sorts for city dwellers who don't have one, mimicking the growing trend in real-life architecture of rooftop gardens. The structure's modern design, slick back-painted acrylic sitting upon a stainless-steel colonnade, doesn't just look pretty either — it protects the little wigglers from light and arid conditions. This is most definitely the only time you'll find the words "worms" and "crave worthy" within a mile of each other; the Vermicondo proves that "good design will save the worms." If only Levitt Goodman could design a price tag that's more palatable for moi . . .
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