I was out with some friends last night, and when it came time to pay, everyone pulled out their credit cards. The funny thing was, the other three cards looked exactly alike. I think they were all from Bank of America. It made me think about how much I love my bank. I know, I know, love isn’t the usual word that people use regarding financial institutions, but this isn’t a regular bank.

Wainwright is a local bank, with 13 locations in the Boston area, and each month, it donates thousands of dollars to local charities. Their causes include “affordable housing, community development, women’s rights, and the gay and lesbian community.” They also have a community room in many branches that they make available as a meeting space.

Their environmental record includes four LEED certified branches. One is the first in the country to receive LEED Gold certification, and another is the first in New England to receive Silver. They offer discounted loans to homeowners for energy efficiency improvements, hybrid car purchasers, and nonprofit groups focused on sustainability. They even have a CD available that acts as collateral for a loan to Equal Exchange.

I first became aware of Wainwright when I worked in their Accounts Payable Department for a summer during college. I actually got to cut the checks to the charities. I’ve been a loyal customer ever since. It’s not often that a bank is so engaged in their local community and so interested in making the world a better place. I want to encourage that as much as possible with my patronage.

Does your bank think about more than the bottom line?

No, Boston Organics isn’t going out of business or anything; we’re just canceling our service. This is the third time we’ve signed up with them in the middle of the winter and canceled before summer arrived. But there’s just something about their service that destroys all of our good intentions to make meal plans and eat at home. It may be that our area receives deliveries in the middle of the week, and we do the rest of our grocery shopping on the weekends. It may be that the selection gets really repetitive, so we choose to order out. Or it may just be that the oranges always froze on our porch and then fell apart when I tried to peel them. (Seriously, the delicious oranges my sister fed us this weekend may have been the last straw.) Whatever the reason, I feel like by continuing the service I’ve been undermining our attempts to eat better.

We’ve never had this problem with our CSA. Maybe there’s more variety or picking it up is more of an event. Not that I’m blaming Boston Organics. I still love the idea of their service; it’s just not for us. I kind of feel like a failure for not being able to make this work, but I’ve got to be practical about it.

Anyone else having the same problem? What have you done to make it easier?

I’m catching up on my Slate this week….

• Giant Greenhouses Mean Flavorful Tomatoes All Year – Boston Globe. I’m conflicted about this. On the one hand, I think it’s cool that there’s a giant greenhouse near where I grew up. On the other hand, greenhouse produce is generally more carbon-intensive than imported.
• Industry Wary of New Rules on Fishing – Boston Globe. New quotas go into effect in May.
• Invasive 8-Inch-Long African Snail Reappears in Florida – Veggie Revolution. Florida’s just weird.
• Can Hand Sanitizers Like Purell Really Stop People from Getting the Flu? – Slate. In a word, no.
• Whatever Happened to Acid Rain? – Slate. Apparently the Northeast is still really acidic. (Follow the link in the article to see a really freaky map of acidity in the U.S.)
• Did We Save the Whales or What? – Slate. Yes and no…

That’s all. As always, if you find something interesting, send it my way.

Starting in July 2010, residents of Massachusetts and 14 other states won’t have to puzzle over which dish detergents are phosphate-free, because they all will be. The new law exempts detergents sold for commercial dishwashers (a bummer), but detergents for residential use will all contain less than 0.5% phosphates.

And the winner is...

Most detergents include phosphates because they work better with hard water. Unfortunately, all that phosphorus washing down the drain has the same impact as too much fertilizer washing into our waterways. It causes algae blooms, reducing the oxygen in the water and killing off wildlife.

When I switched, I went through quite a bit of trial and error. I tried Palmolive (liquid), Cascade (liquid), and Ecover (powder), but they left residue on my dishes. (I should have known not to go against Consumer Reports’ recommendation just because I wanted to keep using liquid.) Finally I settled on Seventh Generation powder. I really can’t tell the difference between it and our old detergent.

A bonus tip: We used to use Jet Dry. Then we realized we were just doing it automatically—we didn’t even know if we needed it. So we stopped. We don’t often notice any spots on our dishes, and if we do, white vinegar does the same job. Seriously. Just fill the Rinse Aid compartment with it. I was worried it would smell, but it doesn’t at all.

Our car passed 150,000 miles this year—and suddenly became very expensive. First the brakes needed to be replaced, then the catalytic converter, then the tires. But after doing all this work, we’ve noticed a marked increase in fuel efficiency. In January, our car was only getting 40 mpg (or below!), which is the worst it’s ever performed. Now it’s back up to 45 mpg, and I think that’ll rise even more when it finally stops raining.

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The Prius’s regenerative braking system uses the kinetic energy from the tires to generate electricity. Because of this, the regular brake pads aren’t used much and last a long time. I think this is the first time we’ve had to have them replaced. Average brake pads are replaced around 30,000–60,000 miles.

I never knew what a catalytic converter did before ours needed to be replaced. Apparently it uses a catalyst to interact with the exhaust and change it to less harmful byproducts. When it becomes clogged, there’s a noticeable change in fuel efficiency. We were told by the dealer that they usually need to be replaced around 90,000 miles, so ours has actually lasted a long time.

Our tires, on the other hand, have been replaced three times in eight years. The first time was because we weren’t rotating them properly, so they wore unevenly. The second time one of them was stabbed in the sidewall. This time the tread actually wore down (finally!).

New tires actually reduce fuel efficiency, at least for a while, because the extra grip means extra rolling resistance. They eventually wear a little and the fuel efficiency increases again. The specific tires we got, Nokian WR G2, are designed to reduce rolling resistance.

As a bonus, the Nokian tires are made with low-aromatic oils. High-aromatic oils are still used as plasticizers in most American tires but have been shown to be carcinogenic, and their use has actually been restricted in Europe, beginning this year. I didn’t even know any of this before we had to replace our tires this time. As long as the performance is the same, why wouldn’t we use the non-cancer-causing tires?

When we got the new tires, the guy at Advanced Tire Company suggested that we fill them with pure nitrogen. It’s supposed to deflate slower than the normal nitrogen/oxygen mix, and it’s used a lot in airplanes and tractor trailers. But I haven’t found a compelling argument that it’s much use in passenger cars, and it’s quite expensive, so we didn’t do it. Jason checks the tire pressure regularly, anyway, before each trip we make to Maine.

What do you think? Do any of you use nitrogen in your tires? Does it make that much of a difference? And is it worth the cost?