100 billion pounds of food waste are discarded every year, that is almost 25% of all our food. Additional waste is created at processing plants and farms. Rotting food creates methane, a terrible greenhouse gas. Someday trash dumps will recover all this gas.  Right now, you can turn food scraps into useful matter by composting. Most local recycling programs do not support composting. Most are located in California. If your local sanitation department does not have a composting program, you can do it yourself.

What is Composting?

Composting is utilizing mother nature in turning food scraps and yard trimmings into super nutrient rich soil. It helps reduce waste and produces the best growing soil around.  Backyard composting is good for gardeners and those who have lots of yard trimmings and some produce scraps.

You know composting is going mainstream when you see Costco is selling several composters. Even Amazon has a bunch of low-cost composters.

How to compost?

Here is a good guide to composting.  We find it a great way to reduce the amount of trash put out and a great way to make some valuable rocket soil for growing plants.

We put a container by the sink to collect compostables and later move them to our compost bin.

What to compost?

You can easily compost food scraps, vegetable and fruits. Also consider composting coffee grounds, tea bags, and the like.

• Bones, bread, grains, pasta
• Dairy products
• Eggshells, fish, shellfish
• Meat, Poultry
• Paperbags, paper cups, paper cups, paper napkins, paper plates,Pizza box containers
• Paper fast food burger containers, paper takeout boxes
• wine corks
• paper coffee cups
• Yard clippings including branches, brush, flowers, lawn clippings, leaves, and weeds

Our local trash company, Recology finally got with the program in 2011 and is now composting food scraps. Line the inside with newspaper or biodegradable bags.  Do not use plastic bags. Sprinkle baking soda if it begins to smell. Flies can be prevented with essential oils such as citrus, eucalyptus, lavender, or lemongrass dripped on the inside lid.

What Not to Compost

• Aluminum or Metal
• Animal waste
• Construction waste including concrete, asphalt, stones, bricks, wood
• Cooking Oil
• Condiment packets such as ketchup, mustard
• Diapers
• Garbage
• Glass or ceramics
• Hazardous waste including chemicals, cleaners, batteries
• Juice, soy milk, or soup boxes with foil liners
• Liquids or ice
• Plastics or plastic bags
• Sod, dirt
• Any Styrofoam

Here is our big compost bin.  It works but is not built very well.  The plastic parts come apart forcing us to relatch it every couple months.

This compost is the final result of our efforts.

Why Compost?

Composting allows us to turn organic trash into super soil. Although composting requires a lot of effort and time, the benefits far outweigh additional trash in a landfill.

CNBC’s Trash Inc: The Secret Life of Garbage helped remind us that garbage is everyone’s problem and needs us to be more responsible. New York City garbage gets hauled several states away to get dumped!

Costco.com now shows several solar power kits from Grape Solar starting from $3599.99 for a 880 W expandable grid tie solar kit.  There is a 5 kW kit for $17,999.99. Professional installation is a must unless you are really gifted. Grape Solar has a network of over 5,000 installers who will be available to provide local customer support. This kit is eligible for the 30% Federal solar tax credit and possibly state and local utility rebates, making it a pretty good deal.

Costco had a limited time special discount on Solar electric systems for Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, and Oregon for Costco members back in 2009, that may be available in your area.

A typical system priced 1/10/2009 for Colorado:

$ 9,697.22 Solar Equipment – 3Kw system
$13,162.97 Installation
————-
$22,860.19
- $10,780 Colorado rebate
————-
$12,080.19 Costco Member purchase price

Possible additional savings:
- $92.40 1% rebate from Amex TrueEarnings Card
-$184.80 2% Costco Executive member reward
-$3624 Federal Tax credit
————-
$8178.99

Pretty sweet deal!  Check with your local Costco and tax adviser for your current special deal.

Thinking about solar – Are Solar Panels for me? helps you decide if they are right for you.

The Costco Effect is defined by the Devil’s Dictionary as “..consumer enter a store planning to buy toilet paper, and end up charging $1500 on their AMEX card.”

The Wall Street Journal even had an article on this. “Michael Norton, a Harvard University marketing professor, co-authored a yet-to-be-published paper that found people buy more than they intend at Costco because they perceive that prices are better. He believes people end up throwing out food as a result.”

Knowing many Costco regulars or “addicts”, I can agree with the articles.  You visit the store to buy more household items like detergent, paper towels, bread, milk but end up with books, electronics, beef jerky, clothes, and much more in your shopping cart. Shoppers assume they are getting great deals and buy until their garages are overstocked.

This overbuying problem presents itself at other warehouse clubs like Sam’s Club and even to holders of Store credit card with rewards or loyalty program like a Target Credit Card or Amazon Credit Card.  You end up buying extra, often unnecessary items because of a discount, cash back, or sales goal.

We have no problem buying in bulk to save money, but when you add in a bunch of impulse items, you do not save money, you spend more.  Many items are only sold in bulk, so we had first hand experience buying items, eating some, then tossing the rest.  Not very eco friendly and no savings of money.

Try to restrain yourself at Costco or any other store.

Do you really need this item?  Will I really finish this 12 pack?

Never shop when you are hungry!  That sample tasted good, should I buy some?  Eat before shopping.

Also remember that you can return anything to Costco at ANY time, even partially consumed. (Some electronics have a 90 day return period.)

Costco has new Kirkland Signature Environmentally Friendly – Eco Friendly cleaner made from environmentally friendly ingredients that are biodegradable and biorenewable. Plant based formula, made from bio-renewable resources.  No Phosphates or dyes, cruelty free, natural fragrance.  Costco Connection has an article on this product in Costco Magazine page 55.

Kirkland Signature Environmentally Friendly fabric softener is also available. It uses biodegradable softening agents.

Costco Kirkland Signature Eco Friendly Cleaner Ingredients

Costco lists all active agreements. Coconut and palm oils ingredients as well as natural plant oils are used.  MSDS documents are tough to get. Calling Costco at 800-774-2678 lead to a recommendation to call their supplier for these products, Huish detergents – Sun Products, at 800-776-6702.  You can call them and ask for the MSDS documents.

Costco follows the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) requirement of cleaning agent degrading. Biodegrades 70% in 28 days after functioning.

Costco has stated that “Palm and coconut products are purchased only from certified-sustainable plantations where deforestation and irreversible damage to the ecosystem are forbidden.”

Per the MSDS documents, the Multi Purpose Cleaner has Cocamide DEA (From coconut oil, toxicity) and d-limonene (major component of the oil extracted from citrus rind). They do not indicate how much is present.

The Liquid Dish Detergent has Ethanol. (On the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Hazardous Waste list and can cause central nervous system disorders)

Liquid Laundry Detergent did not list items on its MSDS.

Digging into a product takes a while but can produce some interesting results.  At least Costco is moving in the right direction.  Using these products rather than old fashion ‘regular’ cleaners is a step in the right direction.

Alternative Eco Friendly, Green Cleaning products

An easier route we take is buying Planet, Seventh Generation, or Method product from a local grocery store or Amazon.  Free shipping and low prices make it easy. These vendors clearly declare ingredients used in their products. No need to lug the heavy items too!