In an earlier podcast I told you why we had decided to get into composting: it's not necessarily one of those "quick money in your pocket" things, but more of a strategic thing. Over half of what goes into the landfills is organic and could be composted. Instead, it sits there taking up a huge amount of space, and then produces methane - a nasty greenhouse gas - as it breaks down. We pay oodles of money in taxes, homeowner association fees, and so on to have it all hauled to the landfill and crammed into a big hole in the ground.

It's just a lot smarter - ecologically and economically - to put all that organic stuff back into the land in a useful form like compost. And it looks like even those of us who wouldn't recognize compost if it slapped us in the face can make it happen with the Naturemill Automatic Composter!

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I want to tell you about something that might save you some serious bucks on your winter heating bills: radiant panel heaters.

You may never even have heard of these things, but after we got a couple to test out in our boys' room and master bedroom upstairs, we were sufficiently impressed that we went and bought four more to put in the other rooms. Since then haven't had to turn on our upstairs energy-sucking heat pump once!

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Porsche 550 Electric Kit Car: On My Christmas List!

I don't know about you, but that doesn't make much sense to me when there's something that has been around in one form or another since about 1890 that would save me (and you!) a ton of money and get us out from under all the problems with fossile fuel in our gas tanks: the electric car!

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Ryan, one of our alert podcast listeners, sent in a great question: where do you take light bulbs to recycle them? The answer, as with most things, is "it all depends!"

For incandescent light bulbs, there really isn't any hope: these things aren't recyclable at all (unless you want to use them in craft projects), and so they wind up as tons and tons of additional junk in our landfills. According to one source of "trash trivia", Americans buy over a billion - yeah, you heard that right, a BILLION - incandescent light bulbs. Every year. And guess where all those puppies wind up? In the landfill!

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This one has always steamed me, even before I started "going green" (you can read that as either environmentally conscious or just plain cheap!): people at the office who dump their plastic bottles or aluminum cans in the trash when a recycle bin is literally right in front of them. It makes me want to scream!

In one office I was in we had this guy who purposely put all of his recycleable stuff into the regular trash. Again, this was a while ago before I read Plan B 2.0, but even then it rankled me. Good heavens! Even if you think recycling's a crock, as he did, just go ahead and toss your stuff into the recycle bins, anyway - the worst that can happen is that your bottles, cans, and paper will wind up in the dump. But they'll definitely wind up there if you just throw them in the trash!

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While everybody else apparently is glued to the tube watching the Superbowl (unfortunately, I don't have the sports gene), I'm sitting here tapping away on my laptop while everyone's shouting at the TV, contemplating a new gadget: the NatureMill Automatic Composter. 

Now, you have to keep in mind that I am not an "environmentalist," "green freak," etc. - whatever label you want to use. I can only imagine the hoots of laughter by my parents (who are definitely environmentalists) if they knew that I was considering getting a composter. They would die laughing. It's just not me. But I'm doing it anyway.

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Okay, if you only do one single "green" (whether that's eco-green or money'green) thing, do this: replace at least one, and preferably all, of your old incandescent light bulbs with modern compact fluorescent light bulbs, also known as CFLs.

Compact fluorescents can save you some REAL money by saving a lot of energy, and they'll also help reduce the amount of nasty pollution that fossile fuel power plants belch into the air. Whether you're into the environmental thing or not, getting CFLs for your home or business is a NO BRAINER!

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SavingCivilization.org's premier podcast is about something very, very important: saving our civilization! You think it's a joke, right? Nothing's wrong, everything's hunky-dory in your life.

I hate to have to tell you, bub, but you need a wake-up call, and that's what we're here to do! But even if you think all this "green" stuff is for left-wing, tree-hugging, whale-loving lunatics, at least look at it this way: cleaning up our act can mean that you can save money! Save on your electric bills, save on your transportation costs, save on your taxes, etc.

So even if the only green you really feel like buying into is money, that's okay! Check out our first podcast and let's get this trip started!

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