Clark Behind The Headlines
From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

I want to discuss something delicate with you.

You know we're going to get pushed pretty hard over the next couple of years to not use soft toilet paper. This is the newest environmental deal.

I've seen several newspaper articles with the environmental movement being very concerned about extra-plush toilet paper because it apparently takes old-growth trees to make it.

You know how when you're at an office building or any institutional kind of setting, and the toilet paper they have is not exactly so gentle? Well they're not buying that stuff because they're environmentalists; they're buying it because it's cheaper!

Many times they're buying recycled paper made into toilet paper. Americans prefer soft toilet paper. It's just the way it is.

Consumer Reports did a rating of toilet paper and the soft toilet papers really did well in the survey. Just know that you're going to be getting the guilt trip in terms of the attack on old growth forests.

According to Washington Post reporters' research, 5% of the trees that are chopped down are used to make toilet paper and facial tissue.

So, I love this quote in the Washington Post: "But environmentalists say 5% is still too much."
Here's my take on it: when they can make an affordable toilet paper that is pleasant to use, and is good for the environment because it’s made of recycled paper, fine!

In the survey that Consumer Reports did, the highest ranking of any of these environmentally-friendly toilet papers was 13th place. So for now, my green goes for something that's not green.

Now, I'm all about being environmentally-oriented and doing things to save money that ultimately benefit the environment. But my perspective - and I know this makes me far from a pure environmentalist - is the green I'm about is money green, not the environmental green, even though I've done everything to my house to reduce its energy consumption.

I'm doing all these things, but ultimately it’s a win-win only if it doesn't degrade your life and at the same time saves you money and helps the world.

HLN Money Expert Clark Howard

For more tips, visit CNN.com/ClarkHoward

STEPHEN:

The heating system and air conditioning in my house is 21 years old. A contractor has told me that I can spend $5,700 on a new gas furnace that will be 90% efficient and a heat pump that will be 15 seer. This will qualify me for the $1,500 tax credit for energy savings. Is it worthwhile for me to make this investment?

CLARK:

If you plan to stay in your house for a lengthy period of time, it will pay off for you right now with the bonus of the tax credit. And it will definitely pay off for you over the long haul in what you'll save on energy in winter and summer. But you have to patient, because it is "eventually". You're not going to make this money back in two or three years. Depending on the climate where you live and the relative cost versus the energy bills you're paying now, it could be a 10-year payback. If you want to get a feel for that, go to energystar.gov and look at their calculators to see if the payback is a reasonable period for the length you plan to own your home.

HLN Money Expert Clark Howard

In the 80s movie “Back to the Future”, the mad professor had gone off into the future and came back with the DeLorean that had a different fuel system. It was called Mr. Fusion, and it was fed trash from the house of the main character, played by Michael J. Fox. He got the cans and started pouring the trash in and that was all they needed to power the DeLorean.

Clark recommends checking out the Microfueler, which allows you to make fuel from household waste.

Well, another popular actor from the 80s, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is in a video for a technology called the Microfueler. And he's really excited about this startup company.

The Microfueler is a home fueling station that you install at your house to fuel your cars. The idea of this machine is to use waste to make your own fuel and then you can run a car, truck or SUV that is an E85. An E85 is a flex-fuel vehicle like they have in Brazil. About 90% of new vehicles sold in Brazil are designed to run on gasoline, ethanol, or a combination of the two.

The Microfueler is designed to pay for itself in two years through a combination of cost savings and a federal tax credit. After you pay it off, you're fueling in an environmentally conscious way, if that matters to you. Or, if the other kind of green matters to you, you're saving money. You can see more about it at www.microfueler.com.

There’s only one Microfueler in operation right now. Is it going to work on a wide scale? Who knows? The idea of taking your food waste and turning it into energy seems like off-the-charts crazy, but there are more efforts around the country to take garbage and turn it into energy to run factories or provide energy for homes.

Wouldn't it be something if Mr. Fusion wasn't just a joke, and the idea really ends up providing energy to make things run? And who among us would be the first one to get something like this?

Yes, it would be me.

HLN Money Expert Clark Howard

Unfortunately, there have been a number of cases where food producers have been able to convince the U.S Department of Agriculture to let them label foods as organic when they’re not.

Unless your food's 100% organic, there could be some nasty stuff in there.

There was an appointed official who overruled the staff at the USDA which allowed products to be sold as organic when they were not. Believe it or not, 90 percent of organic baby formula is not truly organic.

Organics are the fastest growing part of the U.S. food market. However, if you’re paying all that money for organic food, you may be paying it for nothing.

There is an investigation at the USDA inspector general’s office of all the problems with phony organic labels on food. It’s a shame that they’re 245 products labeled as organic that have non-organic ingredients in them. The story is just unreal.

A report from Consumers Union, the parent organization of Consumer Reports, says some organic foods have mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls! I mean this is ugly stuff.

But I wanted to tell you about a new standard that is supposed to help you figure out which foods are 100 percent organic.

If your food is truly 100 percent organic, food labels will have an ingredient list, name and the address of the handler, plus the name and seal of the organic certifier. Foods labeled as organic should have no chemicals, additives, synthetics, pesticides or genetically modified organisms or substances.

If the label does not say “100% organic”, then you’re buying something that is not entirely organic or not organic at all. So spending the money on it is fool’s gold.

It will become a clear delineation to people to which foods are organic and which foods are not. People who are savvy on distinguishing organic foods will insist on buying foods that are truly organic.

HLN Money Expert Clark Howard

The average person who buys bottled water blows $1,400 a year, not to mention the environmental angle I never talk about. People who are into “going green” think bottled water is a disaster.

Bottles that never end up degrading fill up landfill space, and when you add in packaging and delivery costs, it’s an absolutely terrible, abysmal waste, whichever way you look at it.

Well, a town in Australia decided it had enough. And they banned bottled water. Banned it! And it’s the ban heard around the world. Because if you want to create a nightmare for the bottled water industry, you make their product illegal. And that's what happened in the tiny hamlet of Bundanoon, Australia, about 100 miles from Sydney. This appears to be the first community in the world to completely stop selling bottled water.

Here's a bulletin for you: we don’t know where most bottled water comes from. Because bottled water, under the alphabet soup of federal regulation, is very lightly overseen.

Bottled water manufacturers are not required to disclose where their product came from. So, you could be paying big money for water that comes from the tap. And in most cases, bottled water is only checked for safety about 12 times a year, whereas tap water is usually tested several times a day.

If you’re still not comfortable drinking from the tap, then consider a compromise that will still save you around 90 percent of the cost. And that is to use one of those simple filtration systems for tap water.

You can buy a water filter for your home that cost about four dollars. Whatever gives you the confidence that you're comfortable not wasting money on bottled water anymore is fine with me. So just think about it. It’s something we are way overdue for in this country.