We are going to start a new thing. We hope to review the previous week for the top news articles that tickled our green fancy and share them with you our readers. If you have an article that you think is really interesting or relevant, please let us know.
Planet Green: Composting: It’s Easy, Awesome for the Environment, and Doesn’t Have to Be Smelly
We are huge fans of composting. We use two bins to compost all of our vegetable scraps from the kitchen and yard waster (except weeds). This article has tips for getting started, ways to make your compost smell less and some suggestions for unlikely things for the compost like dryer lint. We have a number of our own articles involving composting as well.
This article is particularly relevant for us as National Grid customers in Massachusetts. I excited to see this type of forward thinking coming from my utility company. In the near term it will mean that we will pay a dollar or so more per month on our electric bill, but in the long term as fossil fuel prices rise, it will provide a better price for electricity. Unfortunately, the 50% of the Cape Wind’s expected output is only expected to cover 3% of National Grid’s needs.
BP Oil Leak – Google News Search
No single article stands out, so this is more to just recognize the horrible environmental disaster ongoing in the Gulf of Mexico. The containment dome failed because it clogged with hydrates (frozen methane) as they were lowering it into place. Now BP is working on Plan B (or is it C, D, E, F, G on so forth?). The oil spill provides a stark contrast to all of the NIMBY objections to the Cape Wind Project for Nantucket Sound. What is the aesthetic impact of millions of barrels of oil along the Louisiana coast line compared to wind turbines the size of a quarter at arms length on the horizon? Personally, we love the look of wind turbines spinning.
Please let us know what things you thought were of note last week by posting them in the comments.
Happy Greening!
Jon & Alicia
We compost, too, and I noticed you added “without weeds”….That’s been a concern for me, too. But then I hate bagging up my weeds in a plastic bag and sending them to the landfill. Just wondering if you’ve heard of any alternatives? I was going to experiment with an “all-weeds” compost pile and see what craziness would happen, although I’m not sure how my family will feel about losing another piece of our very small yard to weeds. Lately I’ve been letting our pulled weeds “fry” in the sun – lay them on an old piece of aluminum and let the sun bake them. They look really dead at the end of the day…so maybe they really are?
P.S. – Here was one of my favorite articles this week from Concord, Mass:
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/concord-mass-votes-to-ban-sale-of-bottled-water/19465741
Just goes to show that you can be an activist at any age and a little effort can go a long way!
Hi Kate E.,
We’re lucky, in Medford the pick up lawn waste every couple weeks so we can put the weeds and sticks and excess grass clippings into huge brown paper bags (or other containers) and the city takes it to a commercial composting operation. Commercial compost heats up to a hotter temperature than your typical backyard compost bin/pile so it will actually destroy the weed and other seeds that end up in the compost.
I expect many cities and towns that do not have lawn waste pickup, might have a lawn waste drop off option to explore.
I almost included Concord’s Bottled Water Ban. That is a good one to mention.
Thanks,
Jon