Reduce waste in your household by composting. If you have a little space on your property, you can start a compost pile, build a simple composter, or buy a composter. Situate the compost pile a short distance from the house if possible.

The added bonus is that composters produce humus, which is a rich black substance that enriches soil. It is not edible by humans, but plants grow strong when humus is added to the soil.

Composting is not difficult, but you get the best results and the least number of problems (such as odor and pests) when your compost has optimal drainage, insulation, air flow, and mix.

Providing enough drainage for compost pile is crucial for preventing problems. The ideal compost pile is damp but not wet. If water is stagnant, it can prevent helpful bacteria from growing. Sitting water encourages pests such as raccoons and mosquitoes. A cover helps mitigate excessive moisture. Drainage at the bottom of a compost bin can help. If the lid on your compost bin is kept on all the time, you’ll need to check and make sure it’s getting enough moisture.

Airflow is crucial to prevent odors. You’ll need to mix and aerate your compost pile regularly. A tumbling compost bin makes this easy.

The compost pile needs to stay warm in order to work correctly. If it gets cold in the winter, very little breakdown will happen but when the temperature warms up, the pile shrinks quickly. Compost is self-insulating in the middle. It should be situated in full sunlight out of the wind. Dark walls, compost bin can help.

Variety of ingredients is important to keeping the bacteria in a compost pile happy. In addition to adding kitchen scraps,  you will want to add leaves or grass clippings, or even shredded newspaper. By volume, that’s around 3 cup of kitchen scraps for every 1 cup of other yard scraps.

Composters can’t handle all kitchen scraps. They hate meat and oils. Never add pet waste. Some people decide to exclude eggshells and pips because they take a long time to break down.

If you want to minimize labor and maximize your chances of success, purchase a low-maintenance commercial composter from your municipality or local hardware store.

A great source for composting information: compostinstructions.com

In addition to the bag giveaway, Target has provided a limited-life web page, www.target.com/earthday that lists (and has coupons for)  some products that they consider appropriate for Earth Day — but we’re not sure about the bottled water!

You can read Target’s announcement here.

Here’s  another downside to disposable plastic bags. Do you, like me, anticipate the coming of Spring by looking for signs of green in the treetops? If so, no doubt you noticed the off-white remnants of plastic, streaming from almost every tree beside a highway.

Maharishi University of Management

According to David Fisher, head of MUM’s sustainable living department,  this will be “the most ambitious environmental building ever undertaken . . . the only one I know of to combine extensive use of daylighting, whole-tree beams, several different certifications, and planned off-the-grid features.”

The center will be built using a combination of sustainable features and certified standards such as LEED, and will be constructed according to Maharishi Vedic(SM) architecture.

With solar panels, wind turbine, geothermal installation, and passive energy features, the expectation is that this will be a net-zero energy building. And the plan for the future is to take the building off the grid completely, for electricity, heating/cooling, water, and waste.

The new center is expected to be open by April 18, 2012.

The event is being organized now by students in the Sustainability program at Maharishi University of Management and is sponsored by the City of Fairfield, Fairfield Volunteer Center, Fairfield Public Library, Maharishi University of Management, myLocal Cooperative, and  Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

This year’s event focuses on sharing the knowledge of local experts, the excellence of local vendors and businesses, and local projects that anyone can participate in throughout the year.

The conference includes:

• community service
• education about sustainability issues
• celebrations
• building relationships with local and regional mentors
• EcoJam Fashion show
• green jobs
• local economy/volunteerism
• city-wide energy efficiency efforts

From their website: “To us, Sustainability is about inclusiveness–about the interconnected world.  We believe that when the relationships among us (people) and our environments are healthy, mutually beneficial, and strong, we will all enjoy greater happiness, and resilience in every way: ecologically, economically, psychologically, physically, culturally.”

For more information, visit the EcoFairfield blog, follow them on Twitter (@ecofairfield) and “like” the EcoFairfield page  on Facebook.

NY State Senator Tony Avella has sponsored a bill to ban hydraulic fracturing. “Fracking is the most important environmental issue this state has faced in the past 100 years,” he said.

Click to read the article in the Wall Street Journal.

What is Sustainable Living?

Our definition is “A life that is deeply satisfying, fulfilling, and appealing – and at the same time, environmentally responsible.”

To understand what sustainable living is, it helps to understand what it’s not.

First of all, it’s not about living in the woods, eating nuts and berries, and wearing tie-dyed clothes. It’s for mainstream adults – typical Americans with two cars in their garage, one of which might be a sport utility vehicle. It’s for people who ski, watch TV, hike, read, snowmobile, go to movies, rollerblade, play video games, bowl, and camp. For people with mortgages and those who drop their kids off at child care. It’s for people with credit cards and those who shop at malls. And for people who regularly drive up to fast food windows.

Second, sustainable living is not about never buying anything again. It is about making thoughtful decisions, considering the impacts of our consumer choices, and finding alternatives.

Third, sustainable living is not competitive. Individuals have different needs and values. Sustainable living is deeply personal, based on individual definitions of quality of life. For example, this quote might express your sentiments exactly – or it might not.

Fourth, sustainable living is not guilt-driven. It focuses not on what was done in the past but on what will be done in the future. It combines practical ideas – such as turning off lights – with intangibles such as lifestyle values and personal quality of life.

And finally, sustainable living is not “gloom and doom.” It does, however, put our individual actions into a global context. While it’s about taking positive steps at the individual and family level, the world we live in is an important consideration. Wackernagel and Rees, in Our Ecological Footprint, state, “It would require four Earths for everybody on the planet to live the lifestyle of North Americans.”

Read more about the OSU Sustainable Living Project at cof.orst.edu/cof/extended/sustain/

“Our goal when we opened Living Light Marketplace was to carry products not only for the raw food chef, but for anyone who wants to make a difference when they select household items, products, and gifts for family and friends,” says Soria. “We’ve created this simple holiday list for the conscious consumer with sustainable values in mind.”

• Bamboo-one of the fastest growing renewable plant species on the planet. Try bamboo flatware or chopsticks. Cherie’s advice: “Use these plants to eat more plants.”
• More Bamboo-The Bamboo Bottle for hot or cold beverages is BPA free, durable, and 1% of sales go back to the planet.
• Acacia bowls-sustainably produced of Hawaiian hardwood are both beautiful and durable.
• Glass Dharma Straws-lifetime guarantee, and made of borosilicate class in Fort Bragg, California, where we live. It’s the last straw you’ll ever need.
• Greenware-this stainless steel water bottle is lightweight, BPA free, durable, and 1% of the sales go back to the planet.
• EcoBags Natural Tote-in durable cotton canvas with Living Light logo – great for shopping, errands and travel.
• Thai Coconut Sugar-known also as jaggery, coconut sugar is a world renowned low-glycemic sweetener favored by Mahatma Gandhi.
• Rawsome Creations Nut Milk Bag-fair trade, philanthropic, functional, and durable. Make your own nut and seed milks with this simple tool, and drink to your health.
• Guatemalan Aprons-beautiful striped, hand woven icats in a palette of rich colors and patterns in long or short styles, with adjustable straps.

Click to read the entire article

All this and more is being offered at the second annual Local Living Festival, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sept. 24 and 25 2011 at the Cooperative Extension Learning Farm, 2043 Route 68 in Canton, NY.

Click for more information.

This article in EcoSeed – Energy | Environment | Economy explains how His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales will marry Miss Catherine Middleton in an eco-friendly way, from the wedding ring to the flowers.

Let us hope their marriage is totally sustainable, too!

Click to read the article in EcoSeed.

This blog post on the New York Times website talks about a plan to open a ski park in a waste management plant. The article says, “If you’re itching to visit the new advanced waste management plant that will open in 2016 in Copenhagen, be sure to bring your skis. An urban ski park will cover the plant, which will incinerate the waste from five municipalities to generate heat and electricity for 140,000 homes.”

Imagine taking an elevator to the top of a building, then skiing down one of 3 slopes while your trash – and all the trash from the surrounding region – burns merrily inside.

Read this article to find out what these “geniuses” are thinking.

Hmm. Go skiing to take you mind off pollution.