If you’re like me, you’ve got some extra time on your hands to consider what you’re cooking and eating, and how much is being wasted. I recently stuck some some green onion scraps in water, and they are growing!

It’s a slow process but fun to watch. 🙂 Here’s more information on how to grow veggies from scraps.

The festivities around the holidays can lead to an increase in the amount of waste we produce. Here are some tips to reduce waste as you celebrate.

The holiday hustle and bustle can lead to an increase in waste. The November issue of City Source from the City of Columbia has lots of recycling tips for the holidays, including where to take broken holidays lights and whether or not we can recycle wrapping paper, tape, stickers, etc.

Hey everyone! According to this article in the Missourian (http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/08/17/electronic-waste-recycling-event/) there will be an electronic waste recycling event at the Home Depot on Clark Lane on August 27th.
I’ve also been told that Best Buy will take non-working televisions (32″ or less); they charge $10 to take it, but then give you a $10 store credit in exchange. (Obviously, you might want to check with them before you haul your TV in there!)

Things to think about when doing your laundry.

• Get a front loading washing machine as soon as you can. They use at least 40% less water and up to 65% less electricity compared to a top loader. Front loaders are kinder on your clothes as well, because they don’t agitate. This means you won’t get those annoying tiny little balls on your clothes.
• Buy powdered detergents. Don’t pay for someone to ship the added water, in liquid detergent, around the country. You’ve already got water plumbed into the washing machine! And make sure your detergent is phosphate free.
• Always fill up the washing machine with a full load, to maximize the effectiveness of the water and energy you’re using. If required (and your machine has it) select the ‘Half Load’ setting.
• Read care labels before buying apparel. Avoid where possible, any clothing that is ‘Dry Clean Only’. Although there are a few more benign dry-cleaning processes these days, most still use a strong mix of toxic chemicals.
• Wear clothes more than once before washing them. Obviously this depends on what type of thing you were doing while wearing the clothes. Skirts, jackets and sweaters may work for this. Select natural fabrics less likely to cause you to perspire like cotton, linen and hemp. Air clothes in the sun and moving air, before wearing again – UV light is a good sterilizing agent.
 Ladies can use a drying rack inside for their delicate little “things” they want to wash by hand.
Note from the editor: I plan to put up a clothesline at my house. Nothing smells better than bed sheets dried in the sun! If there’s a bit of a breeze many other kinds of clothes will also come out dried straight and wrinkle free. The only thing that this may not work really well with is probably your towels.

Gardening seems as close to nature as you can get, except for the 300 million pound of plastic pots and trays used each year in providing you and me with flowers and veggie bedding plants. Then they clutter up our landfills. Read more The Perils of pots ›