Sierra Club Green Home

Dog waste disposal poses a dilemma to the environmentally friendly pet owner. Leaving the waste on the ground is hazardous, as it may carry E. coli, salmonella, or giardia, and the rain can wash it into rivers, streams, and oceans. Beaches and rivers have been closed to the public due to such contamination. So we need to pick it up. However, instead of taking this organic matter that would eventually degrade on its own, encasing it in plastic bag, and throwing it into an airless landfill where nothing decomposes, you can compost it. (Photos by Jim’s Photos1, Flickr)

Bob Shaffer is a lifelong farmer based in Honaunau, Hawaii who works as a composting consultant for farmers and vineyards in temperate and tropical cropping systems. He travels throughout the western United States, and sometimes aboard to Australia and Guatemala. (Photo courtesy of Bob Shaffer)

For more than a year, filmmakers have been laying the groundwork for Racing to Zero, a documentary on how Americans can reduce their waste to almost nothing. With initial fund-raising going well, production is set to start in January. The film will focus on solutions and involve supporters of the film throughout production. (Photo courtesy of Diana Fuller)

There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but free mulch is available almost everywhere, and it does grow on trees (and bushes and shrubs). Leaves combined with a small amount of grass clippings and chipped woody plants are the best thing you can spread around your plants to protect them during the winter. It’s important, however, not to just let the leaves lie where they fall, or to rake them into flower beds if you want to use this green gardening technique. (Photo © Jenifoto406 | Dreamstime.com)

Composting—whether in your backyard or through your city program—adds a variety of benefits for the ecology as well as economy. Read on for more reasons to compost your food scraps and soiled paper.

SAN FRANCISCO — Waste management company Recology has hit a milestone: 1 million tons of composted materials in San Francisco. What’s more, Thanksgiving is the biggest food week of the year, and Recology is calling for all scraps to be composted. Read more about the company’s many programs, including art, education, and falcons. UPDATED: Take a video tour of its facilities.

Online retailers generally are not known for great customer service. Instead, they build their reputation on offering quality products and prompt delivery, and many carry a variety of eco-friendly or sustainable products.

One online retailer has figured out how to put all this together. Bucking the norm, Greenfeet strives to offer online shopping that is easy, fun, and steeped in customer service. (Photo courtesy of Greenfeet)

Composting is nature’s way of recycling organic materials like fallen trees, yard waste, and even kitchen scraps. Home composting kits are now widely available so you can make good use of kitchen scraps in the yard or garden.

Making compost from food waste and garden trimmings is fun, easy, and profitable. Even if you live in an apartment and don’t have room for a compost bin, you can make compost indoors.

LOS ANGELES, (NBC) – It’s ‘Green Week’ on NBC, and Thursday will mark the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

We’ve come a long way since we first started thinking about the impact our daily lives have on our planet, but environmentalists say Americans are still the most wasteful people in the world.

So as we look to the next 40 years, what’s next? Well, as NBC’s Jinah Kim reports, it just might be composting.