The Chicago Tribune listed 50 ways to be ecological and economical around the house. You'll see more of those tips in upcoming sections, but here's one for the kitchen: Use your garbage disposal, since it's greener to feed the disposal than it is to encapsulate food waste in a plastic garbage bag and send it to the landfill. Sent down the disposal and into the sewer line, organic waste gets treated by the sanitary district and turned into fertilizer.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

LET TOOTHPICK MARK THE SPOT

More uses for objects you already have, from this month's Real Simple magazine: Use a toothpick to mark the end roll of your packing tape. After each use, place a toothpick under the loose end, so you can pick up where you left off. (Bonus: No more scraping with your fingernail or shredding the tape!)

FINAL WORD

"If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world."

Deepak Chopra | who's giving a lecture tonight at the Hawai'i Convention Center