I have to admit, I feel kind of bad trashing the Big Belly solar compactors that have been popping up around the city. In theory they’re good. And while there are no replacements yet for the ones on Newbury Street or Mass. Ave., I’ve seen some new models in Copley, Central, and Harvard squares. These ones are a new design and seem to be getting much less disgusting.

That's not so bad, is it?

I’m still not a fan of touching the handles, though. Do you hear me, Big Belly? I want motion detectors or foot pedals! Oh, well. Until a newer model comes out I guess I’ll just have to carry hand sanitizer….

I’m happy to host the Festival of Frugality this week. Back when we graduated from college, Jason and I were $100,000 in debt, and personal finance bloggers were a great source of advice and inspiration. Nine years later, we’ve paid off all our debt (yay!), but a lot of their frugal tips can be applicable to our conservation goals, as well.

There were a lot of submissions this week, so I’ve broken them into categories. I obviously don’t agree with the content of all of them, but here are four of my favorites:

• How to Afford Switching to Cloth Bags – The Conscious Shopper. Who doesn’t have a ton of free canvas bags lying around? However, I think I only started using reusable bags regularly when I found the perfect ones.
• Cook More & Eat In – Chief Family Officer. As I’ve mentioned before, I really need to work on this.
• Eight Versatile Dishes Entirely Adaptable to Your Tastes – Cheap. Healthy. Good. I’m more of a baker than a cook—meaning that I work strictly by recipe. Flexible recipes like this help ease me into more improvisational cooking.
• Square Foot Garden Fever – Being Frugal. Right now I can only garden in pots on my porch, but if I had even a small yard, this would be the way to go.

Using Less

• The Story of Stuff – Living the Scientific Life.
• Waiting on Extra Purchases – Domestic Cents.
• Homemade Dehydrator – Penniless Parenting.
• 10 Home Office Money Saving Ideas – Cash Money Life.

Smart Shopping

• Does Buying Food in Bulk Save Money? – Planting Dollars.
• We don’t need no steenking laundry detergent… – Funny about Money.
• Seeing Savings with Online Glasses – Personal Finance Analyst.
• Reduce Your Electricity Bill By Choosing An LCD TV Instead Of Plasma – Canadian Finance Blog.
• How to Maximize Your Entertainment Dollar – Bargaineering.

Budgeting

• Envelope Budgeting Made Simple – Cash Out of Life.
• Budgeting Without Bean Counting – Personal Finance by the Book.
• Do You Have a Worst Case Scenario Plan? – My Dollar Plan.
• Gathering $31,000 in 2010 – The Financial Blogger.

Retirement

• Roth IRA Contribution Limits For 2010 – Quest for Four Pillars.

Credit

• When Do Negative References Get Removed From Your Credit Report? – Dough Roller.

Computers

• 4 Steps to A Faster PC – Bucksome Boomer’s Journey to Retirement.
• How to Save Money on the Web: 3 Types of Subscription Tools – Good Financial Cents.
• Money Saving Monday: the Internets – Gather Little by Little.

Vacations

• How to Save Money When Traveling to Europe – Free Money Finance.
• Bed & Breakfasts vs. Hostels: Bacharach – Wanderlust Journey.
• 7 Ways to Control Spending when You Have Out-of-Town Guests – The Sun’s Financial Diary.
• Winter Travel Bargains, Frugal Winter Weddings: Cold Season Savings – The Smarter Wallet.

Valentine’s Day

• 15 frugal but romantic Valentine ideas – Monroe on a Budget.
• Frugal Valentines Day Gift Ideas – Financial Highway.

Goals

• Savings Goals In The New Year And Beyond – Free from Broke.
• 5 Financial Milestones to Aim for By Age 30 – The Digerati Life.
• No One Became Wealthy Worrying for Others – Money Ning.
• If You Believe, You Can Achieve! – Eliminate the Muda.

Recurring Expenses

• Boost Cash Flow For Your Small Business. How I Saved 30% On Phone Expense – Wealth Pilgrim.
• 10 Ways to Cut Your Fitness Membership Costs – Squawkfox.
• How Much Mortgage Can You Afford? – Peak Personal Finance.

Phew—that’s a lot of info! Thanks to the Ultimate Money Blog for hosting last week, and check out the festival home page for more info on how to submit or host.

A lot of interesting stuff this week. As always, if you come across anything you think I might like, shoot it my way.

• The Leased Life – Boston Globe. I love the idea of leasing things that we don’t use regularly. It’s also kind of cool that the company that much of my family works for, Interface, is quoted, even if it is in regards to a business model that didn’t work….
• Why I Started Eating Meat Again after 12 Years as a Vegetarian – Green Phone Booth. I’m sad to hear that Erin is no longer a vegetarian, if only because it’s a trend I’ve seen in my own friends. Then again, I’m the last person to be strict about anything, and an environmentally aware occasional meat eater is probably better than a lazy vegetarian.
• Re-Calibrating Your Internal Thermostat – Green Phone Booth. I applaud any effort that conserves resources, but heat is something I refuse to compromise on. Making my house energy efficient is one thing; being cold is something else entirely.
• How To Store Fruits and Vegetables – Berkeley Farmers’ Markets. Thanks to Fake Plastic Fish for posting this. Maybe eventually efficient food storage will become second nature to me.
• Guide to Greener Electronics – Greenpeace. This is pretty unspecific, but it’s useful to look at company-wide habits, such as recycling programs.
• The Ultimate List for Stopping Your Junk Mail – The Greenest Dollar. When I signed up for do not mail lists it took a long time for it to make a difference, but the junk mail seems to have thinned out now.
• Electronics Recycling: Safely and Ethically – Cambridge Energy Alliance. One addendum to this: while the city of Cambridge doesn’t accept TV and computer monitors at the drop-off site, they do offer curbside pickup—one per household per week.
• Borax: The Unsung Green Cleaning Hero – greenUPGRADER. I know I’ve said it before, but I really need to make the time to experiment with stuff like this.
• Environmental Impact of Media – MediaShift. PBS’s MediaShift tries to unravel the impact of print and digital publishing. Their panelists seem a bit biased, but there’s a lot of interesting info. Thanks, Danielle!

In other news, I’m getting How to Be an Everyday Philanthropist from a book giveaway at The Good Human. It’s not an environmental book, per se, so I won’t be reviewing it on here, but look for it on my GoodReads feed.

I’ve been debating whether this is too morbid a topic, but my father passed away last week, so I’ve been pretty morbid lately. My dad’s wishes were for a very simple, unintentionally environmentally friendly burial that included cremation and no viewing. Unfortunately, the option that the majority of Americans choose (wake, casket, etc.) is the least green option possible. Why?

• Embalming fluid – The embalming process uses formaldehyde, a toxic chemical that may be the source of the increased leukemia rate in embalmers. In order to have an open casket viewing (which I find kind of creepy anyway), the body needs to be embalmed, by law, even if it’ll be cremated afterwards.
• Concrete burial vaults – Concrete boxes enclose coffins so that the ground doesn’t sink as the body decomposes. Each year, 1.6 million tons of concrete is used for this purpose—in the U.S. alone.
• Caskets – 30 million board feet of wood is used per year for American caskets. It seems so wrong to me that trees are cut down just to be buried.
• Cemetery land use – Cemeteries aren’t quite as bad as golf courses for pesticide usage and landscaping footprint, but they’re close. And what a waste of good land!

While cremation does use fuel (roughly the same as a month’s energy use for a single person) and emit air pollution (it’s the second-largest source of airborne mercury in Europe), its total use of resources is far less than a traditional burial. Only a third of Americans choose this option right now, but the percentage is expected to rise to half by 2025.

Image from the Grave Matters blog

The absolute best option that I can find (after my organs are recycled, of course) is a burial that doesn’t include a casket or liner, just a simple shroud. That way the body decomposes and the nutrients from it are returned to the soil. Not many cemeteries of that sort exist right now, but Rainbow’s End in Orrington, Maine seems to be the one that’s closest to my family (thus cutting down on their travel footprint). If you don’t live near Orrington, the Centre for Natural Burial has compiled a comprehensive list of green burial sites in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Of course, in the winter this wouldn’t be an option, so cremation and scattering in the woods seems like the best alternative. Truthfully, I would like to be composted or buried on my parents’ farm, but I don’t think I’d ever be able to convince my family to do that, even if I made them listen to “Circle of Life” a million times.

It may seem early, but if you wait to find a CSA much longer, choices will dwindle. Most already have waiting lists of people who expressed interest during the year. I loved Stone Soup and am definitely signing up with them again. (If you wonder what sorts of things you’ll get, check out my weekly photos.) But there are a lot of options out there. If you live in the Boston area and don’t know yet which to pick, Boston Locavores has a pretty full list of farms on their site. It’s a relatively large investment up front, but worth it when summer rolls around. And doesn’t just thinking about it now make summer feel that much closer?