Long Beach leads California in water conservation. In October, I wrote about our town’s efforts to deal with deep cuts in its water supply and our own plans to do our part. This month, great news on both fronts! The Grunion Gazette reports that Long Beach won the Green California Leadership Award for Water Management at the Green California Summit in Sacramento. Long Beach has managed monthly water savings of 8 percent since it implemented its new conservation plan and the Cohens have managed to cut our usage by 15 percent over this month last year! Hooray!

Closed circle brushing. Did you know that tossed out toothbrushes add about about 50 million pounds of waste to American landfills each year? And, that most toothbrshes have grips and other components that make them un-recyclable? We can do better, and someone is. Last year I found the Preserve Toothbrush at Trader Joe’s. The Preserve Toothbrush — a nice, simple, smallish toothbrush made in the USA — is a completely recyclable brush made primarily from recycled Stonyfield Farm yogurt cups. Use it until it’s time to replace it (dentists recommend every 3 months), then put it in its postage-paid return envelope and send it back to its makers who grind it up to be made into plastic lumber — used for things like picnic tables. Ah, that satisfying click of the closed recycling circle! Try it. The brushes are available at Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s and online, where you can order a subscription like mine. The cost: about the same as an Oral-B.

Some mindful-living serendipity. Last week, I internet-met (hah! intermet!) artist Todd Davis when I emailed him to ask permission use an image in a post about his very nice painting. During our e-mail exchange, he internetroduced me to his wife Danielle’s smart/useful/cool website, lessismorebalanced.com. Danielle points us to all kinds of goodness from organic tequila and chocolate, to news on alternative energy like algae ranching in Texas, to truth-about-food links like the one to Bill Moyers’ coverage of farm subsidies, to where to find a good 100 percent post-consumer notebook. Nice and newsy; do visit!