A few years ago while working as a planner for the City of Piedmont, I attended regional meetings at the Alameda County Waste Management Authority. We contemplated things like if it’s better to buy a toothbrush made from recycled content that you throw away or to buy a toothbrush that has a re-usable base with changeable heads. You might think the latter, such as the Fuchs EkoTec, but what if it’s made in Germany and has a high environmental cost because of shipping?

Food Waste Recycling: How it Works

An image that sticks in my mind is that a banana peel smashed between layers of plastic in a landfill will only decompose as fast as the plastic. Rather than sending biodegradable materials to a landfill, they should be recycled. Food waste recycling refers to collecting food waste from restaurants and homes (food scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, etc.), hauling it to a composting facility, and allowing it to rot in peace. Then it can continue its useful life as nice, rich soil. Considering food waste is a huge part of our waste stream, especially when we already recycle paper, glass, yard waste, and some plastics, it is exciting to think about diverting it from the landfill.

Berkeley’s Food Waste Recycling Program

The City of Berkeley just started residential curbside food waste recycling. They provide a small container for you to keep in your kitchen to collect food waste. Then you dump that into the big curbside green waste container that gets picked up every week. I thought it was cute that the City gave away little green bags full of compost created from green waste and food waste collected in Berkeley in order to drive home the point of the “full circle”. Too bad we’ll still have to throw away those little green bags after we use the compost…

For more info see The California Integrated Waste Management Board’s site and the City of Berkeley’s press release.

Ever since Mark introduced me to David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) a couple of years ago, I’ve been a big fan of making lists and scheduling activities and tasks. What I really love about the methodology is that you can relax even if everything is not done. Each task lives on a list somewhere where it won’t be forgotten, and if it’s important enough, it will get done. If you haven’t read this book already, you should!

Recently, Mark came across a really neat “habit list” to keep track of things you would like to do regularly, rather than a one time task that goes on a todo list. Link to this tool created by Mark Shead of Productivity501. I’ve just started using it, and find it very useful (fun, even!).

The ”habit list” is described on Productivity501:

This tool was created with the premise that “habit” type tasks should not be on our regular todo list. There are several reasons that keeping these types of items on your regular todo list is a bad idea.

1. “Habit” tasks tend to obscure the most important tasks that have to be done.
2. The value of a habit, is measured over time–not just a particular day. Regular todo lists don’t allow for this.
3. When your todo list is full of “habits” it is easy to get discouraged when you have a particularly busy day because the focus is on that day instead of your overall lifestyle.