The Bottom Line on Office Organic Waste

For almost two years, it was a covert operation. I quietly spirited away used coffee grounds from our office coffee machine and uploaded them to the compost bin at my condo complex. Then, a little over a year ago "the envirogods" (a.k.a. me) introduced an organic waste pail in the lunch room. After a careful marketing and education campaign, the pail now fills almost weekly. And the coffee grounds keep coming. And it all gets diverted from landfill.

How much waste diversion are we talking here? I weighed a batch this week before dumping it in the composter: the total over four days was 2.963 kg, or 0.741 kg/day. Assuming 250 work days in a year, that's 185 kg of organic waste not hitting the landfill annually.

The bottom line?
(a) Taking garbage home from the office makes me, arguably, more of an envirodork than an envirogod.
(b) Being careful with my waste at home (population=2) is a good start. Introducing responsible waste management at the office (population=75) is progress. Today, the office. Tomorrow, THE WORLD!

Global Warming Debate

I generally don't expend much energy debating global warming and climate change. I watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, and it scared me. I watch as extreme weather events kill thousands of people all over the world. I worry that polar ice caps are melting at such a rate that we could be in for a nasty climate shift that will make Hurricane Katrina look like a light drizzle.

Still, I don't spend much time debating because that's not my thing. I consider myself more of an educator. Accordingly, here's a really neat video my Aunt Betty sent me that makes a pretty compelling argument in favour of taking drastic measures to mitigate the effects of global warming. Right or wrong, the implications of the decisions we make today are serious enough that issues like this warrant some discussion. Perhaps this video will generate some of that.

Oh, a quick FYI: there are no polar bears in the video (I just really liked the symbolism in this photo).

Global Warming Protest

I couldn't resist this pic sent to me by my EnviroStar sister-in-law. S.O.S.: Save Our Snowmen.

The down-low on make-up

So here's a question for you... If you go out of your way to eat organic because you're nervous about the long-term health effects of food-borne chemicals, shouldn't you also be nervous about what you put on your skin? I recently stumbled upon an Environmental Working Group resource called the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database, which rates the safety of a dazzling array of personal care products. Perhaps not unexpectedly, there's a whole shwack of potentially dangerous chemicals that we spread all over our bodies every day.

You may also want to check out Ask Umbra's short video, Wake Up to Your Make-up, that claims to "reveal the ugly truths about conventional makeup, and show you how to put on a happy face."

I got a ticket? For IDLING?!?

What better way to educate (or edu-shock) someone into rethinking their choice to leave their vehicle's engine running, than to leave an Idling Infraction ticket on their windshield? The tagline is great: Idling gets you nowhere.

A full PDF of the ticket is available at the Natural Resources Canada website.

USB = U Should Bike

A quick mathematical comparison illustrating that using my bike to run errands today (in this case, to pick up movie tickets and buy a USB cable) was faster and cheaper than going to the gym for a workout followed by using the car to run errands.

Bottom line is, by electing to take my bike, I saved myself 37 minutes and kept $5.28 in my pocket, never mind the fact that I burned no fossil fuels, and caused no air pollution. Win. WIN. WIN!

Wasps building in ma composter

"Wasps building in ma composter" was the subject line of a recent e-mail message from my brother. The words, "Whaddaya think?" followed.

Pests of all kinds, flying and otherwise, tend to avoid a well-tended compost pile for a few good reasons. First of all, 50 to 60 degrees Celsius in a properly functioning composter is simply too hot for man or beast. Secondly, a human visiting every few days with a pitchfork to completely obliterate the pest's habitat doesn't exactly contribute to comfortable living conditions. And third, well-tended piles generally don't have a food source easily accessible on the surface -- it's normally buried under a layer of soil, grass clippings, or leaves.

Properly maintaining the pile is the key to prevention. For some good info on pest-proofing your compost pin -- check out this link to the City of Toronto website.