“What’s the big deal about a programmable thermostat, anyhoo?”, I hear you ask. Well, I’ll let the good ol’ U.S. Department o’ Energy tell you:

[During winter], by turning your thermostat back 10°–15° for 8 hours, you can save about 5%–15% a year on your heating bill—a savings of as much as 1% for each degree if the setback period is eight hours long.

Gadzooks. If your average power bill is $70 a month during the 4 coldest months of the year, a programmable thermostat can save you between $14 and $42 during those 4 months! Not to mention the painless energy savings.

But it doesn’t only conserve energy and save money during the winter, oh no. During those hot months, you can set the temperature higher while you’re gone, and have it cool down more when you’re actually at your house. Voíla, even more energy and monetary savings!

Read instructions carefully when installing a programmable thermostat

Me and some friends tried to install my thermostat on one of the coldest days of the year. We wired everything up perfectly, but the heat wouldn’t come on. A day later, my friendly neighborhood electrician fixed the problem by reading the manual and figuring out that you had to tell the programmable thermostat that we had a heat pump. Dang, that one night without heat was a cold night
indeed, but I learnt a valuable lesson about reading instructions.

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Not only is cat litter not great fun to clean up (and buy), but most clay-based kitty litter is made from clay that is strip mined from the Earth, which is horrible for the environment. The U.S. Bureau of Mines estimates that in 1994 alone, approximately 1.5 million metric tons of clay was mined to make clay cat litter.

A good way to avoid clay litter, and to reuse, is to just use old newspapers as cat litter. Here’s how to make your cat(s) some homemade newspaper cat litter.

1) Sprinkle some baking soda on to the bottom of an empty litter box. This is optional, and helps absorb some of that atrocious cat pee smell.

2) Tear newspaper into narrow strips (less than an inch wide). Pro tip: It’s a lot easier to tear vertically than horizontally.

3) Use your hand muscles to tear those newspaper strips into pieces that are about half a foot long. Use a ruler if you want to, kitty will appreciate the extra precision.

4) Make it rain. Flutter, throw, or somehow get all that newspaper into the cat litter box. It should be over halfway full (it’ll flatten a lot when it gets wet).

Et voila, you are finished. It’s recommended to change the wet newspaper daily, or else it’ll stink up your house. Hopefully your cat will give the newspaper litter the ol’ thumbs up, and you’ll be on your way to a greener kitty litter box.

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I guess they used to just expect you to throw away the paper and rubber band (committing a major sin against Mother Earth), but they have seen the light and are now reusing them.

Anyhoo, it’ll be good to see more and more business start finding ways to both help the environment AND save money. A hearty kudos to the Garner Southeast Library.

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A little while ago, I had the good fortune to talk with Aaron Vronko, the CEO of RapidRepair, and ask him a few questions. For your 411, RapidRepair buys your broken small electronics and uses their parts to repair other people’s gadgets. A prime example of a business that helps the environment while also making money. But let’s get on with this here entrevista…

Joe (Me): So, what does your company repair?

Aaron Vronko: Ipods, iphones, zune, mp3 players, handheld game consoles.

J: I heard you guys do electronics recycling; do people send in or come in in person?
AV: We get lots of walk-in business, but mainly people send in what they need to be repaired.

J: How fast do you guys fix most things?
AV: Our diagnostic process is free. We average about 1 day for diagnostics, then 1 day for repairs, so even if you mail your device in, you can get it back that same week.

J: How long have you been doing electronics recycling?
AV: We started our repair business 5 years ago, but didn’t recycle then. We didn’t throw away old stuff, just kept it around since it was all small electronics that didn’t take up much space. Then about 3 years ago we started recycling old stuff that we couldn’t use.

J: How much of what people bring in can you actually use?
AV: Very damaged items get recycled. We’ve used a couple different recycling companies, and usually have to call them just once a year. We don’t get any money for plastics or aluminum or batteries, but we do get a very small amount for a pound of boards.

J: Do y’all have any plans on expanding and opening new stores?
AV: We’ve looked at it, but we’re pretty comfortable. Our operations are basically at the center of country [Kalamazoo, Michigan], so it’s pretty fast to mail stuff to and from us.

J: What’s the biggest way that your company saves material from landfills?
AV: We use old parts to repair electronics. We take in old damaged devices and use them to make refurbished devices. Last year we saved 10,000 pounds of small electronics waste saved from landfill. These were small electronics, so 10,000 pounds represents a lot of iPods and Zunes. We just added consoles this year so the amount of waste saved this year will go up dramatically.

J: Last question: how many iPods do you yourself own?
AV: I actually don’t own any. I have an iPhone, and sometimes use that to play music. But even if I didn’t have the iPhone, I wouldn’t have an iPod.

I hope you enjoyed that interview. I know I did. The only question I forgot to ask was if I could have a free iPod. Dang! Anyhoo, if you need your iPod or Zune repaired (or want to sell your old or broken one), check out RapidRepair.

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‘Tis a good way to reduce waste and save some money, so give it a looksie. I shall end this brief article with a little more detail about how they aim to plant 10,000 trees today, courtesy of their press release:

For Earth Day 2009, Swaptree is working with The Nature Conservancy’s ‘Plant a Billion Trees’ initiative and will be planting a tree for every trade completed on Earth Day. While currently several thousand trades happen every day on Swaptree, our goal on Earth Day is to do 10,000 trades and plant 10,000 trees. While the average Swaptree user, given its emphasis on recycling and sharing, lowers their yearly carbon footprint by 180 pounds, with this initiative we hope to offset several thousand tons of CO2.

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So as not to be a complete scrub, I bought a cup o’ coffee there, insisting that the coffee wench use my handy reusable mug I had brought instead of one of those wasteful, disposable styrofoam cups.

To my surprise, she gave me a 15% discount for using my own reusable mug. She said she was only supposed to give a 10% discount for this, but she didn’t feel like that was enough. I thanked her profusely for this.

If every coffee place gave a big discount for people who brought in their own cups, think of how many disposable paper or styrofoam cups wouldn’t get used once, then thrown away.

So next time you’re going out for some coffee, try bringing your own mug and asking for a discount. If they don’t have one, suggest it (without being a jerk about it). If there’s a monetary incentive to bring your own cup, more and more people will do it.

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But enough idle chit-chat; let’s get this show on the road.

Organic Mess

Have you ever wanted to compost, but it just seemed too dang complicated? Then you’re in luck, for Talia has provided some tips on simple composting.

Neighbor Nancy shows y’all how to get some free vegetable seeds and how you can grow a ton in small containers. I’m about to go plant even more plants in old containers now.

Julie has ten reasons why organic lipstick is the way to go, to get that special bee-stung look that’s all the rage.

Jennifer took composting to the extreme and even composted her finger! What a true eco hero!

Ed Biado spouts off about organic this and that. While I approve of most organics, I don’t think they’re always the best option.

Go Green and Save Green

Ah, helping the environment whilst helping your wallet. That’s what EcoJoes is all about.

ishan is all about that, too. He dared to ask the question “Do hybrid cars really save you money?“. His conclusion is much the same as mine.

JT has some leftover stuff, but doesn’t want to throw it away. Here’s how he makes money by selling used mess.

Energy

FreeOrganicNews ponders what exactly is solar energy? His findings may shock you; then again, they may not.

Big Mack has found some zany CFL designs, and he brought them for show-and-tell.

Nancy Miller has found 50 blogs that have good info on energy. Not to be one to judge, but her site is kinda weird and spammy.

Getting out and Enjoying the World

TravelCat4 has some handy eco-tips for how to travel in an Earth-friendly manner. My favorite tip was the ‘grow a beard’ one; zero effort required, plus you get that rugged look that draws all the ladies in!

The Barefoot Badger proclaims, “Ain’t nothing like the real thing baby“, and I wholeheartedly agree. All our new-fangled technology is no substitute for the real world and real life. Get out and enjoy the real world now, people!

Global Warming

Not content with one submission to the Carnival, Mack also wrote this Debbie Downer article about global warming. Heed his warnings, people.

Sally decides to go all the way to the top, and ask Mr. Barack Obama to help prevent future extinctions.

Other Green Mess

Another post by Ed Biado gives some tips for living a greener life.

The aptly-named Mesquite Pete is all about some DEET. He has had enough mosquito bites, and decided it’s time to fight back.

Earth Day is right around the corner (April 22). Astrid Lee has provided this handy chart of ways to celebrate this planet we live on.

Beth Terry contemplates the pros and cons of recycling plastic into oil. I think it’s great that they’ve found a way to do this, but I do understand Ms. Beth’s concerns.

Ryan and Leslie help us visualize the huge number of plastic bottles used in the U.S. in just five minutes.

Alex has some easy ways to save car fuel, and it looks like he’s from England, talking about “tyres” and “boots”.

Scott is eager to let you know that this recession is a great time to start a green business.

Dang, that about wraps it up for this Carnival. Thanks for all the submissions; hopefully I didn’t forget anyone or mess up a link. Until next time, this is EcoJoe, signing off.

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I might answer, the GE Energy-saving light bulbs are on sale at Target for $1. Use this $1 off coupon and ka-chow, you can be saving electricity with your new free CFL bulb.

No money down, no excuses. Just do it and start saving energy and money today.

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DestroyDebt has compiled a whole 76 ways to save money while helping the environment.

Condo-Blues is on a mission to seal up his ducts and save some electricity and cash money.

Here’s yet another way to save money by cutting electricity costs from DepositAccounts.

BargainBriana has some good tips on how to cheap out on your various holiday parties.

Carole takes some time out of her busy day to teach us all how to make a natural birdseed wreath. Cheap, and it helps our animal friends.

The Well Run Dry shows just how dang easy it is to save money (and lower your eco-footprint) by riding a bike.

Here are some handy dandy ways to save money on groceries, brought to you by Fire Finance.

Here be some timely Thanksgiving leftover tips from A Simple Walk.

Stolen Moments has some easy tips for sticking to her grocery budget.

When you’re traveling for this Thanksgiving weekend, Savvy Frugality says why not think of the good ol’ train system?

Madison shares some free mess for this Black Friday.

Here are some frugal ways to have Family Fun© with your children, brought to you courtesy of Grey.

Oh snap, mom n’ dad have found out how to get Legos cheaply. Kudos, y’all.

LuluGal has written a beautiful piece about how to “magnetize money”. Give it a looksie.

David Mitchell dares to ask the age-old question: real or fake Christmas tree?

Martin Dasko flips it on everybody and explores when it’s NOT okay to skimp on money.

How in the world can you save money AND the planet whilst remodeling your abode? Aahz knows how.

vh waxes philosophical while also thinking about potential money savings.

Heather Levin shares some ways to save money on laundry day (many of them are “green”, if you will).

Wow, that was a LOT of submissions. A big muchas gracias to everybody who submitted to this week’s festival. Sorry to anyone who didn’t get posted, there were HUNDREDS of submissions, so don’t feel bad. Until next time, this is Joe, signing off.

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Green Halloween Candy

Forget about all that plastic-wrapped, cavity-causing, diabetic-killin’ sugary candy. Instead, give out these delicious treats to the lil’ ones who come trick-or-treating to your door:

• Raisins – long known as “nature’s candy”, these all-natural treats will keep trick-or-treaters coming back for more!
• Apples – there was a time when, if someone gave me an apple when I was trick-or-treating, I’d angrily chuck it at their house the second they closed the door. I’d probably still do that, but still, this fruit is healthy and natural and mess.
• Homemade Strawberry Jam – fill dozens of used (and maybe even cleaned) baby food jars with jam. Tell the kids that it’s a jar of guts, and watch their eyes boggle at that spooktacular thought.

Green Halloween Costumes

Instead of going with disposable, plastic costumes, here are some more eco-friendly costume alternatives:

• Adam and/or Eve – just get some leaves and glue, and bah-bam, you have the ultimate Earth-friendly Halloween costume.
• Hobo – I actually did this one year. Just find your oldest, dirtiest clothes, smudge some dirt on your face, and presto, a bum is you.
• Shoeless Joe Jackson – take off your shoes. Hey, great costume!
• A Giant – wear your old clothes that are too small for you. You’ll look like a giant who can’t find clothes that fit!

Green Halloween Decorations

• Acorn Pumpkins – Sadly, I used to do this. Find acorns and draw jack-o-lantern faces on them. Be prepared for a ghoulish good time!
• Booby Traps – dig a hole in your yard and cover it with sticks and leaves and such. Watch as trick-or-treaters fall into it. *BONUS* Take their candy and reuse it by giving it to any trick-or-treaters who somehow manage to make it to your door.
• Easy Scarecrow – sit in a chair or stand in your yard and don’t move. Congratulations on the greenest Halloween decoration of them all!

I hope these green Halloween tips have helped you. I know they’ve helped me. The main thing is to just use your imagination and some ingenuity, and you can have a great green (and cheap) Halloween.

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