While I’m all for the greening of Costco products, especially because of the massive impact they can have on consumers, I’m a little skeptical about how green these products actually are. The Ingredients list on the label is way too vague to be helpful, or to prove one way or another how green they actually are.  Does anyone out there have any information to enlighten us on the ingredients? To what extent is this line actually greener?  

I don’t exactly expect the Kirkland products to be on par with BioKleen, Epic or Ecover, but I would like to know where they stand in relation to these super-green products. 

As I said, I’m all for making the products greener  but I’d still like to know what shade of green.

The new games like Kite, Picture Frame, X, L, etc. require a lot more attention than 5-in-a-row and I could barely keep up with looking for the current number being called, much less scan my cards for the winning patterns. Considering that a majority of the players were senior citizens with worse vision and slower hands than mine, it was quite a shock how much faster than me they were at playing each number. Plus, they played the bonus side games that compliment the actual bingo game being played. Don’t ask for more details, I have no idea how the bonus games work. Couldn’t keep up with them!

In all, I think there were around 20 different games that night, not counting the bonus games. For each game, a player has at least one sheet with 6 bingo cards printed on it. Pretty much every player that night used 2 sheets, which means they played 12 cards. That’s a lot of numbers to scan!

A quick calculation of 300 players, with 2 sheets per game, for 20 games tallies to 12,000 sheets of paper that we burned through in a mere 3 hours.  TWELVE THOUSAND pieces of paper, on the conservative side! And not a blue trash can in sight. Not a thought to recycling any of that paper. In fact, the volunteers that run the Bingo nights provide handy little trash bags for players to keep at their seat so that they can dispose of their sheets at the end of each game. 

While I’m all for using Bingo as a fundraiser for the church that runs it, they really need to think about the other green.

The plan was to take out the lower of two trays in our worm composting bin and use the castings to feed our outdoor plants, as well as to enrich the soil for re-potting 10 indoor plans I bought recently. (Click here to read more about our bin set-up.) To prep for this momentous occassion, we had added the second tray to the bin around three weeks ago and began putting the food in this upper tray in order to encourage our worm friends to migrate up.

Happily a majority of the worms did actually make the move to the upper tray like they were supposed to, but there were still almost two hundred worms mixed in with the castings we wanted to harvest. We’re lazy, but we did manage to pick out around half of them and threw them back into the bin. The rest are now living “out in the wild”, somewhere in the garden.

Without going into too much detail, let me just say that the castings were not odorless. I’m not really sure why, but I expected the castings to be pretty much odorless. Maybe because the bin itself doesn’t really emit much of a smell, or maybe because potting soil doesn’t really have a bad smell, or maybe because I hadn’t thought it through well enough. In any case, we soldiered on, smell and all.

While one person cleaned out the water retaining part of the bin - where the “worm tea” accumulates - the other began spreading the castings around the yard. Lucky for me, I was the one spreading the castings around the yard - under the calamanci tree, around some of the flowering plants that I don’t remember the name for, under the mexican pepper bushes, under the lemon tree. You get the idea. Meanwhile, my much braver half got the job of cleaning out the tea holder, where some mysterious, floating, non-composting worms had managed to make an appearance and breed to their little hearts’ content.

To tell the truth, once I got away from the pile of castings in the tray, the smell wasn’t so bad. Probably the most surprising thing about the castings was how heavy they were. They are super dense. This is probably something a real gardener would know. But not me. The consistency of the castings came as a total surprise. In fact, the castings were so heavy that the mesh-like bottom of the tray had started to buckle.

In the end, we used up all the castings in the tray, filled a few gallon jugs with worm tea, and are happy to continue with feeding our worm friends in tray #2. But next time, I doubt we get as excited about harvesting time as we were this past week.

As a family of 3, we aren’t big food wasters so we were intially skeptical about our ability to keep so many worms fed - we bought a standard bucket-full from a local vendor. Turns out we could probably keep two bins worth of worms going. All those fruit/veggie peels, bread bits (stale pieces, tortillas, and DD doesn’t do edges), coffee grinds and old leftovers really add up! 

We use a Wriggly Wranch worm bin. After doing a lot of research on the various choices - build, buy, convert - I chose it because its stacking layers and handy spigot seem to greatly cut back on the amount of direct worm handling required to harvest the worm tea and worm poo. Very important features, if you ask me. 

While we love the fact that our old food is no longer wasting resources being driven to a landfill, or taking up space in that landfill, or adding methane to the atmosphere as it decomposes in that landfill, or wasting energy being ground up by the In-Sink-Erator, probably the most satisfying thing about our worm composting is being able to harvest the tea and poo for fertilizing our household and garden plants. Not only is our waste no longer doing harm, it is actually doing good now! What could be more satisfying?

P.S. - if calling the by-product “poo” makes you too uncomfortable, some vermicomposters use the term “castings” instead. Just a fancier way of saying poo, but it sure is easier to say you’re going to spread the castings around the garden than saying your spreading the poo.

No mountain of disposables in the local landfill, no questionable chemicals next to baby’s bottom, and as an extra bonus, no more stinky diaper pails in your living areas!

Even if you think your house’s plumbing can’t handle the gDiapers, you can always toss them in the garbage like a regular disposable. When sent to the landfill, gDiapers decompose in about 90 days, or about 500 years faster than disposables decompose. Additionally, gDiapers are compostable. Haven’t tried this one yet, but for all of you ultra-composters it might be good to know this is an option.

Before you completely write off the flushing option, check out the How-To tips and videos on the gDiaper site. It doesn’t really require the industrial strength flush that you might be envisioning. Done as instructed, those dirties go right down. Done incorrectly, you’ll get some blockage but not on a catastrophic scale. Though I have to admit that we keep a plunger nearby just-in-case.

On the minus side, gDiapers are more expensive than disposables. My unscientific research shows that using gDiapers will cost you almost 75% more than disposables if you buy your disposables in regular retail outlets, and about 100% more if you buy your disposables at a warehouse store like Costco. No idea how they compare to cloth diapers. 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I need to say that I am a RAVING FAN of gDiapers and am completely biased. If you want balanced info about the pro’s and con’s of gdiapers vs cloth diapers, you might need to keep googling. Of course, I’m not opposed to doing a joint post with someone who is devoted to cloth… I just need a contributing author.

In any case, gDiaper and cloth use is not a mutually exclusive choice. Many cloth diaper advocates use the gDiaper liners and covers, and just swap the flushable pads for cloth inserts. Apparently the marriage of the two is a wonderful thing. Browsing the gDiaper Yahoo Group shows the cloth diaper community to be more active contributors than the flushable community. Not sure if that means there are more questions to ask because using cloth is more complicated, or if the flushie group is just quieter. Either way, the group is a fabulous resource for anyone using or interested in using gDiapers.

If you’re interested in checking out gdiapers for yourself, they offer Starter Kits that have everything you need to get going. Choose one of these links for the starter kits:

Anyway, as I was saying, I was watching Wa$ted the other night and was shocked to see that the show producers were able to find a family that didn’t follow the 3 Rs AT ALL. I mean, zero, nada, zip. They didn’t even OWN a recycling bin! They didn’t even use plates and glasses in the home - they used styrofoam products so they wouldn’t have to do the dishes! Really?! This stuff still happens in this day and age? In this century?

Seems that all the efforts being spent on educating our youngsters needs to be shared in educating some adults as well. In fact, I’d say the kids might even be the best educators for their parents. They’ve got the most skin in the game. All the damage their parents are inflicting on the planet will be their mess to clean up some day.

If you don’t believe me, tune in for yourself. Its an eye-opening experience. Check here for Wa$ted show times.

There are two specific points that really say it all:

1. In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.
2. In the wake of becoming the most well-known global warming alarmist, Gore won an Oscar, a Grammy and the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition, Gore saw his personal wealth increase by an estimated $100 million thanks largely to speaking fees and investments related to global warming hysteria.

Really, at this point I feel like I don’t even need to add any commentary so I’ll just give you a link and a follow-up quote so you can get the whole scoop and let Big Al’s hypocrisy dazzle you…. (too bad we can’t use some of his and Tipper’s hot air as a renewal resource - we could probably power all of Southern California for a year).

Click here for the article from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

And below is the non-explanation provided by Gore’s spokesperson in response to the TCPR article:

1. The Gores undertook a three plus year renovation that concluded in
November 2007 with the issuance, in November 2007 of Gold LEED (Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design) from the US Green Building Council.

2. As part of this renovation, the Gores have:
-Installed a geothermal system for heating, cooling and hot water
-Installed 33 solar panels
-Completely retrofitted their appliances, windows, ductwork, insulation, and
lighting.

3. Since the renovations were complete, the Gores have saved 40 percent on
their site energy use (which is a combination of electricity and natural gas
bills–the two major sources of global warming gases).

4. The Gores also purchase their electricity, through their utility, from
the Green PowerSwitch program–which means that their electricity come from
solar, wind and methane gas.

So, in summary, the Gores have: made their home more energy efficient, the
produce electricity from renewable power (solar, geothermal) and they
purchase renewable power. No one is perfect, but they are doing their part.

Finally, the Gores are also donating a substantial amount of their personal
time to educate the public about the climate crisis as well as donating the
proceeds of their work to charity. They have donated the proceeds of the
Nobel Peace Prize, “An Inconvenient Truth” (the book and film), and Mrs.
Gore’s photography to the Alliance for Climate Protection and The Climate
Project.

So, it turns out that having a Ford vehicle (Escape hybrid) entitles us to receive the Ford Magazine. As you might expect, the “magazine” is basically a blatant extended advertisement. However, surprisingly, it did have interesting news on their cars (the new Flex, a new plug-in Escape), some fun facts on eco-driving, as well info on a new site they’ve developed called Driving Skills for Life. Wonder if they got the idea for combining self-promotion with useful information from Costco Connection? Costco’s got the whole self-promotion-disguised-as-interesting-articles thing down to a science.

Anyway, let’s start with the eco-driving facts. They really did a good job of pulling together some interesting stats:

• Older, poorly maintained vehicles make up only 10% of the vehicles in the US but account for 90% of all emissions!
• At speeds exceeding 40 mph, the drag caused by open windows consumes more fuel than using the vehicle’s air conditioning.
• Approximately 50% of the energy required to operate at highway speeds is devoted to overcoming wind resistance. (So why don’t Ferraris get better gas mileage??)
• Idling for more than 30 seconds uses more fuel than restarting the engine.
• In city driving, acceleration accounts for nearly 50% of a vehicle’s energy consumption.
• When compared to Eco-driving behaviors, depending upon the vehicle being driven, aggressive drivers can produce as much as:
• 7% more CO2 emissions
• 26% more NOx emissions
• 8 times more CO emissions
• Gas mileage drops by about 1% for every pound of tire pressure below the recommended level. Keep your tires properly inflated!
• Driving a vehicle at 65 mph consumes roughly 15% more fuel than driving at 55mph.
• Today’s engines don’t require lengthy warm-up before driving, even in cold weather.
• A properly tuned vehicle may consume about 20% less fuel and produce fewer emissions.

As for new things to expect with Ford’s cars:

• The plug-in Escape sounds promising. For 7 hours of charging time you get to travel 30-40 miles on electric power. The charge time may sound a bit excessive but the very cool part is that if you need to go further than your alloted 30-40 miles, the gas engine will kick in and the vehicle switches to standard Ford Escape Hybrid mode.
• For the new Ford Flex (pictures above), Ford is finally unveiling a car that appears to be designed some time within the past 20 years. I especially like the humongous amount of cargo space that can be available as well as the giant sunroof for the back-seat dwellers. Really, the biggest issue I see with the Flex is the fact that it is essentially a car/wagon that gets SUV-like mileage. Obviously designed pre-$120+ per gallon oil, the Flex gets a measly 17 mpg in the city and 24 mpg on the highway. Too bad Ford didn’t have the foresight to make the Flex their second hybrid. THAT would have been something to blog about!

And lastly, with regard to Ford’s hyped new site called Driving Skills for Life, I did a 25 minute tour of the eco area under the Students section. It was torture. Don’t waste your time. Anything you can learn during that waste of internet electrons is available in their handy-dandy list that is provided at the beginning of this post. To be fair, the Student section does seem to provide some good tips for beginner drivers. So don’t be afraid - go ahead and explore the site, just avoid the eco section.

• George Clooney - cuts back on CO2 emissions by driving a Prius. Seems that CO2 emissions only count on terra firma though. He still feels okay flying around on a Gulfstream. Somehow, releasing the pollution directly into the atmosphere makes it better. Even his lovely girlfriend, Sarah Larson, is confused by the contradiction.

UPDATE: About 2 days after Sarah’s interview was made public, news broke that George and Sarah had broken up… think he’s upset she outted his hypocrisy?

• Lexus - was so thrilled that Paul McCartney did some promotional work for them, they comped him one of their giant hybrids, the LS600H. And to make it extra special, they even FLEW the car from Japan to England instead of putting it on the slow boat from Asia. Forget the carbon footprint reduction Sir Paul is getting from tooling around in his new LS600H, it won’t put a ding in the environmental damage caused by the delivery; per CO2balance.com, “the plane journey would have caused a carbon footprint of 38,050kg, compared to 397kg for a three-week boat journey.”
• Barbra Streisand - back during the rolling Brown-Outs in 2003, Babs did her best to encourage the masses to “try to line dry clothes…only run your dishwasher when it is fully loaded…” and more recently has posted a list of pointers on how to be greener. However, those rules don’t apply to her own estate, where she pays $22,000/year to keep her grass green. On the other hand, I guess she doesn’t ever define “green”. At least her grass is getting greener. Also, per Radar Magazine Online, she hasn’t exactly been cutting back on her travel requirement - for last year’s concert series in England she flew from city to city in a private jet (you know, because the cities in England are soooo far apart), while her posse and tour goodies required 13 tractor trailers following behind that pollution spewing jet.
• John Kerry - writing that environmentalist book last year (This Moment on Earth: Today’s New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future) sure must have made him sweat enough to really crank the A/C at his Beacon Hill townhouse. He runs up a $1,100 monthly electricity bill there. Apparently John and Theresa can’t afford those solar panels now that their $25 book is selling for a discounted $6.99.

Curious about who your fellow “masses” consider ecocrites? Check out the online poll Gawker conducted recently. Current results have John Travolta at the top of the list, though I think there are much bigger hypocrites on the list (Babs). You can still vote, so let them know who YOU think is talking out of both sides of their tailpipe!

Right on cue, after my $4.10 per gallon experience this morning, I saw an article in MSN Autos for Volvo’s latest concept plug-in hybrid based on its C30 model. As with all things still in concept, this little gem has been given the somewhat cool name of ReCharge. Though, knowing Volvo, the actual production name will be something entirely more bland like R30.

Some interesting highlights for the ReCharge include:

• No central motor! Rather, each wheel is driven by its own electric motor.
• The flex-fuel engine that it does have is used to charge the battery, not provide power directly to the wheels.
• Volvo estimates that the ReCharge will emit up to 66% less CO2 than today’s best hybrids.
• There are a bunch of other interesting technical points brought up in Jacob Gordon’s MSN article - why wheel engines are safer, battery technology used, plus the efficiency, speed and distance specs. I don’t need to confuse things with my interpretation, so please click HERE to access the original article.

Having said all that - I have just 2 requests for the engineers at Volvo:

1. Please bring the ReCharge to production sooner than the 10 years currently projected.
2. Please do a station wagon version. I am, after all, still an American that needs my SPACE!