Will Brinton, the founder of Woods End Laboratories, a bioenergy consultancy, predicts a future without landfills. Instead we’ll use table scraps and sewage to power our homes. Just dump the waste into a household digester, and bacteria will break it down and release the natural gas methane. Farms could sell their copious poop-based energy supplies back to the grid. But how much energy do animals yield? We ran the numbers and found that you might want to consider a pet elephant.

MANURE MAKER	DAILY OUTPUT	METHANE YIELD	POOP POWER
Elephant	200 pounds	230 feet3/day	39 kilowatts*
Cow	120	95	16
Llama	16	18	3
Pig	2.5	3	0.5
Dog	0.75	1	0.2
Chicken	0.2	0.3	0.05

^*The average U.S. household consumes 30 kilowatts a day.

i Found this on:

http://www.popsci.com/corey-binns/article/2008-09/stinkiest-fuel-earth

Leaving Your Computer On

Standby power, also known as vampire power, the juice used by all those DVD player clocks, coffeepot LEDs and cellphone chargers—accounts for more than 5 percent of all residential electricity use in the U.S., a tab that costs us an estimated $4 billion per year and pumps millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Solution? Turn off your computer at night, unplug your iPod when it’s done charging, or put those gadgets on a power strip for one-touch turn-off.

Upgrading Your iPhone

What happens when you toss your old cellphone or computer monitor in the Dumpster? First, you’re contributing toxins like mercury, lead and cadmium into the environment. By some estimates, there are 500 million discarded cellphones in the U.S. alone. Second, you’re wasting precious resources: Electronics contain small amounts of precious metals like gold, silver and coltan, all of which can be reclaimed to reduce often environmentally destructive mining operations. What can you do? Plan your electronics purchases wisely—think about a new phone every three or four years, instead of every six months—and always drop your e-waste off at a recycling center...

Buying Plastic Everything

It’s been said that in 1,000 years, when archaeologists dig down to the 20th and 21st centuries, they’ll deem our time the Plastic Age. The ubiquitous petroleum-based material will be our most prominent artifact, mainly because the stuff doesn’t biodegrade. Besides just making a mess that won’t go away, some plastics are known to leak hormone-disrupting chemicals and other toxins. Until bioplastics—made from vegetable starches and cellulose—become viable, opt for glass containers when you can, and take a reusable bag to the grocery store.