No, we didn’t get a new toilet. We converted our old one with a One2flush kit. Turning the handle one way makes a half flush and turning it the other makes a full flush. And it’s easy to increase or decrease the water levels of both of them if necessary by adjusting the settings on the flapper.

It's not actually as scary in there as you might think.

Our toilet was already a modern, low-flow toilet, using just 1.6 gallons of water per flush. But you really don’t need 1.6 gallons for every flush. That’s now the default setting for the full flush, and 0.8 gallons is the default setting for the half flush, but we’ll have to continue playing around with the water levels to figure out what’s the least amount that we can use.

The kit was relatively simple to install—you can tell by the fact that two very non-handy people did it without flooding the bathroom. Taking the toilet tank off was obviously terrifying, and a little difficult, too, because the bolts were corroded. But this video walked us through the whole thing step by step.

We did run into one problem when we were done. The fill valve continued to allow a steady trickle of water through, even when the tank was already full. We were afraid we’d have to replace the whole fill valve (or shamefacedly ask our landlord to do it), but cleaning the valve did the trick.

The problem? The previous tenants had put bricks in the toilet tank to save water. The bricks had started to degrade in the water, and brick dust had gotten into the valve. This is why people now emphasize that if you want to displace water in your toilet, use a bottle of water—don’t use bricks!

Cross posted on the Cambridge Energy Alliance blog.

Not a ton of links this week, but they’re all really interesting. (The Energy Pyramid in particular seems very pragmatic.) Read on:

• Is Living Sustainably Unsustainable – Arduous Blog. This is totally how I feel this month. I just keep telling myself that I’m in it for the long haul and a little backsliding isn’t the end of the world.
• Marcal Paper Products Review – Pays to Live Green. Ali recommended Marcal toilet paper to me a while back, but I haven’t been able to find it yet. I’m pretty happy with my Green Forest for now.
• New Honeywell Wind Turbine – greenUPGRADER. Lighter, quieter, and produces electricity at 1/3 the cost per kWh than other wind turbines. Check out the photo of the rooftop installation. Cool.
• Energy Pyramids – Energy Savers Blog. On the other hand, these pyramids emphasize that high-cost energy generators like solar panels and wind turbines are the last thing to focus on when it comes to saving energy.
• How Green Is That Corn Cup? – greenUPGRADER. My point exactly. Most people don’t live in a town with commercial composting. And I’ll bet even my neighbors in Cambridge don’t know where they can drop off their compost.
• A Welcome Retraction – New York Times. The Lancet retracts a 1998 paper that linked vaccines and autism because the author received payments from a lawyer suing vaccine manufacturers. Not to mention that he filed a patent for a product that would benefit from the fears and the original study only included 12 children.

Also, I’m a week late in mentioning this, but my Green Burials post was featured in the All Things Eco carnival and the Carnival of the Green at the Fun Times Guide for Living Green. Thanks, guys!

That’s all for now. As always, if you come across anything you think I’d be interested in, send it my way.

I’m afraid this is the post that will push me over the line into hippy craziness, but I’m so surprised at the effectiveness of the Crystal deodorant I switched to that I don’t care.

I know, I know, using a rock as deodorant? Wetting it down before rubbing it on my armpit did take some getting used to. But it works. Like all deodorants, rather than being absorbed into the pores, the Crystal deodorant stays on top of the skin and makes it too inhospitable an environment for the growth of the bacteria that’s the source of that particular rank smell.

Now there are those who argue that the aluminum in antiperspirants causes cancer, but I haven’t seen convincing evidence, and the American Cancer Society itself refutes those claims. However, there are other good reasons to switch.

• Armpit stains – Our old dry cleaner once told us that antiperspirants are the cause of stains in the armpits of our shirts. And using bleach just makes the stain worse. The dry cleaner did a decent job of getting the stains out, but why go through the extra trouble?
• Perfumes – Other deodorants or antiperspirants replace sweat’s smell with others. This deodorant neutralizes the smell, with no perfumes.
• Unnecessary plastic – One Crystal deodorant stick is supposed to last upwards of a year, and at the rate it’s going so far, I believe it. How many tubes of antiperspirant or deodorant does a person go through in the same amount of time?

To give it a fair test, I first went completely antiperspirant- and deodorant-free for a week, since I’d read that it takes a couple days for the antiperspirant to be sweated completely out of your pores. I was worried that I’d stink, so I did this over Christmas break. I had Jason rate my smell each day, on a scale of 1 to 10. (He’s so dedicated!) The antiperspirant rated a 0; at some points during the deodorant-free week I rated as high as a 6.  P-yew!

I’ve been using the Crystal deodorant for a little over a month now, and even after exercising, my smell only rated a 1. Maybe a 2 during the physical exertion and stress of helping to take care of my dad. And although it’s not an antiperspirant, I haven’t actually noticed that I’m sweating more than usual. Maybe it’ll be different in the summer.

Don’t believe me? Check out Slate’s more thorough test that convinced me to try it. Or try it yourself!

Hopefully this will make my shirts last longer without having to be sent to the dry cleaner. I’ll feel good about saving the plastic, too. And I don’t feel like I’m losing any convenience in the process. I wish I’d gotten over my squeamishness and tried this before.

Jason was sick this weekend, and while he was shaking down the thermometer, it slipped out of his hand, flew across the room, and broke into a zillion pieces—or so I thought. It was actually four pieces of glass and a zillion tiny beads of mercury.

I had no idea how to clean up a broken thermometer; I just knew that mercury was hazardous. So I immediately went to the EPA website, and what I found out was terrifying. Here are some of their directions for cleanup:

• “Have everyone else leave the area…. Open all windows and doors to the outside; shut all doors to other parts of the house.”
• “If a spill occurs on carpet, curtains, upholstery or other absorbent surfaces, these contaminated items should be thrown away.”
• “Keep the area well ventilated to the outside (i.e., windows open and fans in exterior windows running) for at least 24 hours after your successful cleanup. Continue to keep pets and children out of cleanup area.”
• “Never use a vacuum cleaner to clean up mercury. The vacuum will put mercury into the air and increase exposure.”
• “Never wash clothing or other items that have come in direct contact with mercury in a washing machine, because mercury may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage.”

Follow the link above for full instructions. But you get the drift: we had to throw away our area rug, take a couple hours tracking down every single bead of mercury with tape, and spend a day in the bedroom with the cats while the living room aired out. And I’m still not entirely sure that we got it all.

Our new digital thermometer. It takes just 10 seconds to register. And no mercury!

I know, I know, who has a mercury thermometer anymore anyway? We got ours a good 12 years ago, before we knew there was anything wrong with them. And if I’d known cleanup would be this much of a hassle, I would have recycled it long ago, while it  was still whole.

I think we’ll have to drop off the mercury-tainted trash at the Recycling Drop-Off Center the next time it’s open. But just to be sure I’ve emailed the DPW to ask. I’ll keep you posted.

Okay, okay, so these are actually Saturday green links. My only defense is that Jason has the flu and he’s a very demanding patient. On to the links:

• Ask Umbra’s Pearls of Wisdom on Apartment Dwelling – Grist. Although I’m willing to put some investment towards energy savings in our apartment, major expenditures are more for owners. Umbra offers good basic advice for anyone.
• Massachusetts Sets Ambitious Energy Standards – New York Times. This may make us surpass California as the most energy-efficient state!
• 9,922 Megawatts of New Wind in U.S. in 2009, 39% Growth from 2008 – Treehugger. More good news!
• Recharging Your Cell Phone, Mother Nature’s Way – New York Times. I can’t wait for a solar cover for my Kindle. And one that can use indoor light, too. So cool.
• Another change taking place at Walden Pond – Boston Globe. Thirty percent of the species that Thoreau recorded can no longer be found in Concord. Yikes.
• Recipes for Homemade Household Cleaners – Conscious Shopper. I’m going to do this one day, I swear.
• Amazing Uses for Baking Soda – Greenest Dollar. Along the same lines as the homemade cleaners… I’m taking notes.
• Cities vs. Suburbs – Grist. I still have lingering resentment toward the suburbs for Scott Brown’s election, but I don’t think we can completely write them off.

As always, if you see something this week that I might be interested in, send it my way.