I’m catching up on my reading this week, so there’s a lot, varying from household tips to national issues. Read on…

• Cooling Things Down – Green Phone Booth. Replacing her old refrigerator cut this woman’s electric bill by 40%!
• Companion Planting 101 – The Greenest Dollar. I don’t actually have a garden, but I think this is cool. And maybe I can use this info for my potted plants?
• How to Recycle Everything – Conscious Shopper. Including some things you might not think about.
• Carrying Our Own Containers – Fake Plastic Fish. Beth addresses lots of questions she gets about bringing her containers everywhere.
• Making Vegetable Broth – Viggie’s Veggies. Continuing my cooking research…
• Paint Your Home “Green” to Stay Healthy and Protect the Environment – Big Green Purse. More info about low-VOC paints
• Imitation sorta-Nutella – Green Mom in the Burbs. DUDE. Seriously.
• What’s Driving Our Favorite Fruit Into Decline? – Grist. Fewer chill hours per year are adversely affecting apple production.
• Saving U.S. Water and Sewer Systems Would Be Costly – New York Times. All the rain (and flooding) we had this week really emphasized the need for more capacity.
• Recycling Efforts Fail to Change Old Habits – Boston Globe. Massachusetts residential recycling rates are the same in 2008 as they were in 1997.