car & driver says smart cars only get 32 mpg. what gives? my old corolla got 38, but you had to roll the windows down yourself.

i am greener than you because i never shower.

although he does have a tail.

1. I removed almost 1200 square feet of ugly sidewalk at my house and replaced it with drought tolerant, native California plantings and 7 trees. the rainwater drains thru naturally and the landscape enhances the environment.

2. I’ve ordered a Smart car.

3. Rocky isn’t allowed to drive.

That battery issue for the hybrids sounds like a headache. have any of you experienced some of these ultra efficient diesels they drive around europe. We rented a ford focus wagon not too long ago in Europe and I swear the thing got 90 miles to the gallon. We thought the needle was broken on the gauge.

oh, I am greener than thou because my uncle owns a farm in Vermont and lives completely off the land, recycles, composts the whole bit. So when I go there, I get a lesson in the true “greening” of America.

Yes, it saves gas, but wait for 10 years and the clean-up for the batteries will be a big mess.

Does anyone have any info on that?

I bought a kitchen compost container (a small green compost container with a carbon filter on top so it filters the foul smell). It’s about 3 gallons big and fits in the cabinet under the sink. I put all the food scrap there, and then once it’s full I take it to the green compost garbage bin in the garage and dump it there.

I have to say my black garbage bin output has been reduced dramaticly and it does feel pretty good.

In a way, sorting out foodscraps into the compost bin is not much of a ‘savings’ for the environment because the foodscraps will decompose well in garbage dumps anyway. But oh well…

What I have noticed is that there is no good kitchen-sized compost holder available in the market. Most of them are either too small (like 1 gallon size), or too ugly (not shiny stainless enough for you to put it outside against the wall). Somebody should design a stainless compost holder that’s about 5-7 gallon capacity and looks good enough to go with the stainless garbage can.

Same for recycles…

As far as the prius is concerned, I did look into it. But concluded that the total cost of ownership for 5 years, for my driving distances, will be more (by about $3-$4k) even if I added the gas savings (assuming a $4.5-$5 gas/gallon) because of the premiums people are asking on the car. Also, the uncertainty of replacing teh battery or disposing of it, etc… makes feel it’s not yet the solution for me.

oh, wait. that doesn’t mean i’m greener than you , just better.