By John Perry

By Amelia Glynn

Photo at right: After saving his trash for a year, Berkeley caterer Ari Derfel can’t look at packaging the same way again. Image by Andy Isaacson

I confess: I am a catalog junkie. I'm addicted to my daily fix and cutting back—even to save a few trees—won't be easy.

Eating local produce is a lot tougher than I expected.

Not because there's not enough high quality, locally-grown organic produce. But because there's too much.

If I wax poetic about how my cat litter smells like Christmas, would you think I was nuts? I have a very sensitive nose, and with two feline beasties I am forever battling that Two Cat House Smell. I can’t stand the heavy perfumes in most litters, and my cats have let me know in their own catty ways that they hate it too. And I don’t like the idea of using strip-mined clay litter from China that goes right into the landfill. So I am always trying something new – wheat litter, orange peel litter, newspaper litter. I am usually left sadly disappointed; scoop in hand, sticky, stinky mess in litter box.