The BioBrick is a brick of compacted and kiln dried wood waste (like sawdust) collected from sawmills and carpentry shops, etc. These bricks burn like coal in a wood stove, but still give of those soothing, mesmerizing flames that everybody loves to watch smolder in their fireplace.

The BioBricks are manufactured nearby in Bristol, CT and are sold by the pallet all over New England and New York.

I took these photos in my family’s living room. This is our third winter using these bricks in our wood stove, and they’ve really lowered the cost of our oil heat, and are way more efficient than regular wood logs, according to the BioPellet website.

The only real disadvantage to the bricks is that they are only compatible with a wood stove like ours, and can’t just be thrown into a fireplace like wood logs or a Duraflame.

So, if you’re tired of staring at the silly image of crackling fire on TV every holiday season, but you feel guilty about the trees that died to make your fire, check out BioPellet.net and consider the BioBrick for your holiday heating.

But, this made me think about how our pets could be greener, too. They are part of our families after all.

Jasmin Malik Chua on the Planet Green website, which is owned by the Discovery Company (Discovery Channle, TLC, Animal Planet, etc…) has a ton of tips for how to make our pet ownership more sustainable.

Of course green pet living all centers around one topic…poop.

If you feed your pets organic food, not only is the development of the food greener, the pets are eating better, and the grass or the dump isn’t getting contaminated with chemicals, because the poop is organic.

Many pet-owners like to recycle plastic bags by reusing them as gloves and a transport mechanism to the trash while on walk. Well, if these bags aren’t biodegradable, all we’re doing is petrifying the poop. All regular dog walkers, or the rare cat-walker, should invest in some biodegradable bags for clean-up, or maybe a plastic toy shovel that can be carried on a walk with you.

Some ambitious pet owners actually compost the animal waste which is quite an undertaking, but takes quite a bit of strain off of the environment.

The statistics on page three of Chua’s piece are particularly enlightening. What I found most interesting was her stat that the more pets we grow up with, the less likely we are to develop allergies to them. Good to know if you love animals and are raising kids!

The one that really grabbed my attention was their suggestion to drop a plastic bottle with some sand in it in the toilet tank. This would cut down on how much water is used in each flush, and it’s also a good way to reuse a plastic bottle. We’re all guilty of flushing the toilet to often, so this would be an ideal way to quell that tendency.

Everybody has heard take shorter showers and turn off the water while you brush your teeth, but few of us obey this suggestion. A low-flow shower-head is a great way to limit your water usage. I’m used to having low water pressure, but I know this is a concern for people who like to have the dirt beaten off of their skin. Most green shower-heads promise that they wont compromise your water pressure, and they will definitely reduce how many gallons you use.

My family and I are very green when it comes to water use for the garden and yard. We have a huge yard but have never watered the lawn for cosmetic reason, and this past summer there was so much rain there was certainly no need to. We always put mulch on our gardens, and never use the hose to clean off the driveway either.

One of their suggestion that I am definitely going to start doing is washing vegetables in a pan of water, instead of running the water over them. This is a very easy change to make, and it definitely won’t compromise the cleanliness of the food.

Everybody should really step back and consider the way they use water, this was definitely an eye-opening list to go over.

According to the Daily Green, one leaf blower with a two-stroke engine can cause as much pollution as 80 cars each driven 12,500 miles. That’s pretty scary.

There are some green models of leaf blowers, like these from STIHL.

Of course raking is also good exercise and nothing could be more nostalgic than jumping into a freshly raked pile of leaves. Enjoy!

Green Monster Truck Load

Green Monster Ecycling in West Hartford has a very simple solution.

Map

I’ve dropped off a lot of old computers, batteries and VCRs at Green Monster in the past, and it’s very convenient for anybody in central Connecticut.

They used to have a 24 hour drop off bin, which looked a little bit like a port-o-potty, but it appears they have limited their hours now and won’t take just anything. And, unfortunately, not everything is free to drop off, but the minimal cost is worth the environmental impact.

So, if you ever need to get rid of your transistor radio, bunny ear antennae, or electric typewriter Green Monster is the place to go.

The first step in doing this is, of course, to look at what your town accepts for curbside recycling. My home town of Bloomfield, CT has some very strict recycling policies, New Britain appears to be a little more liberal.

The first item we are all too familiar with is the pesky, cardboard paper towel/toilet paper roll. These easily overlooked menaces are usually just get tossed into the nearest trash bin, but are accepted curbside in most towns, so they’re worth taking the extra walk to throw them into the recycling bin instead. Also, they can be used for a variety of different things, like a makeshift megaphone, or, as my father calls them, doo-DOO-doos, for their use as musical instruments. So you if you feel like saving them up, I’m sure your local daycare or kindergarten classroomwould love to take them off your hands.

Another item that I always toss immediately are the super annoying cards that fall out of every magazine you’ll ever read. I’m not sure what they called specifically, but every Sports Illustrated I get has two in it, and every ESPN The Magazine will have four. Some larger magazines will have six or more. I know they’re annoying and easy to ignore, but they are made of a thicker cardstock and can be recycled along with the magazine itself.

A big one for most college students is the plastic lid from your drink. Paper cups usually have a wax coating inside which makes them unrecyclable, and Styrofoam should be avoided altogether, but if the lid has a 1 or a 2 inside the recycling logo they’re fair game. Tons of people bring their coffee to class in the mornings and on the way out they toss it all in the trash, but a quick separation of the cup from the lid can save a lot of plastic. Along the same lines as these lids are straws, plates, and napkins which can be recycled as long as they aren’t coated (hygene isn’t a concern because it’s all properly cleaned during the recycling process).

Light bulbs are often disposed of improperly and can be recycled, too, just like all glass and metal items. Some towns won’t accept them curbside but they can usually be dropped off at any recycling center.

There are many simple ways to recycle your everyday items, it just takes a little thought to realize that these often insignificant things can be reused.

Welcome to Blue Devil, Green Blog! I’m Tom Sullivan, and this blog is all about me finding simple ways to make my life greener, and “reduce my carbon footprint” as they say. This is an assignment for my Web Journalism course this fall so along with my little tips and tricks on how to go green, I will also be reporting and writing about sustainability on the Central Connecticut State University campus (hence the Blue Devil) and also projects and products that are prevalent in the Hartford-New Britain area.

CCSU already has a developed a site focused on greenifying the campus, the project is called CCSUSustainAbility. I hope to work closely with them for future posts.

My first big project was to develop the logo you see next to the page header. Here’s a closer look:

A Green, Blue Devil?

Thanks for stopping by! Come back soon for more!