According to our friends at NASA, our homes can have more polluted air than outside. VOCs, off-gassing plastics and carpet, cleaning supplies, dirty air handlers and other items can make it harder to breathe inside than out! But there’s an all natural way to clean the air you and your family breathe without using sprays or puffs or things you plug into the wall.
Do you use houseplants to keep your interior clean and green? Clean Fairfax is interested in what plants you have (and how you keep your pets from eating them!)
How does this fit in with Clean Fairfax’s mission? Well, if there are fewer cars on the road, the air is probably cleaner and there are fewer people throwing junk out their car windows on the 40+ miles each way commute into work, for starters. Less litter on the highways means cleaner roads and waterways.
The APTA report notes, transportation activity also plays a role in lessening an individual’s risk in five of the 10 leading causes of reduced lifespan, as identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A recent CDC study evaluated causes of potential years of life lost, including cancer, heart disease, motor vehicle crashes, and other causes. For example, “Pollution contributes to cancer and congenital anomalies [birth defects], and sedentary living … contributes to heart disease and strokes,” Litman wrote.
So rather than begging the state for bigger and wider roads, how about some light rail instead?
In this heat we’ve been having, how are you watering your garden? I’ve let my lawn go. It will come back in the fall. But I have been keeping the garden going by using a rain barrel, and my version of ‘grey’ water–the water that my dehumidifier pulls out of the air (and we know there’s a lot of humid in the air!) In addition, I have a greenhouse that I use in the spring and the fall and winter, and I collect the condensation from the greenhouse into old 5 gallon water bottles!
Clean Fairfax can help you build your own rain barrel for the cost of supplies (we use old pickle and olive barrels)!
Or where they go? I have to say that I haven’t. Until today when this little newstory popped up in my email from our friends at Greenopolis:
An estimated 25 billion (BILLION!) “disposable” chopsticks are thrown out every year, which means that approximately 25 million trees and bamboo are harvested to make this little disposable items! So let’s make something out of them! I have used chopsticks as small plant stakes, but clearly there are higher and better uses for the 25 billion little pieces of wood and bamboo– Like baskets that fold flat for easy and cheap transport. I would buy many of these.
What could you do with a box full of sanitized chopsticks?
Our friends at Fairfax County Stormwater Management have a message for you folks who still use plastic bags.
You can make a difference by pledging to not use plastic bags, and use reusable grocery bags instead. If you HAVE to use plastic bags, make sure they don’t escape. You can recycle your plastic bags at most grocery stores and your hauler may also take them.
Many studies suggest that more greenspace in urban areas actually helps with economic development, property values, traffic calming, crime prevention, early childhood learning, combating domestic violence and more. That’s probably why the city of Indianapolis just set aside over 50 acres in the middle of its city as a park and nature reserve.
“It’s safe to say that Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrum and Tiffany & Co. have an unexpected neighbor. The newcomer has been named Oliver’s Woods Nature Reserve, in dedication to the man who made its existence possible, Oliver Blair Daugherty. A Teddy Roosevelt for our century, Daugherty defended the land from potential corporate buyers, turning down offers as high as $14 million. The land was originally granted to the Daugherty family in the mid-1800s, and upon his passing in 2009, Oliver Blair bequeathed the 53 acres to the Central Indiana Land Trust” The full text of the article is here.
Some would say that perhaps gobbling up land for passive recreation and wildlife preservation in the middle of the city when people need things like JOBS and RETAIL and FAST FOOD JOINTS is not the highest and best use of the land, but I would often (but not always) disagree. Most people want to live (and work) where they can get to some kind of wild and peaceful area, even when they chose to live in the city. Keeping people in the city enriches tax bases, and is its own economic development engine.
Some of the wealthiest cities in the world have world class parks. They can’t all be wrong!
The Dream Machine is a new, interactive, device that offers incentives for on-site recycling, by offering point rewards for each can, or bottle recycled.
It works by pressing a touch screen to begin recycling and scanning the bar code on the bottle or can. The machine then recognizes the bottle as a PepsiCo. product and one slides the bottle into a slot on the top right of the machine. Once you place all the cans and bottles you have in the machine, the touch screen will let you know how many points you accumulated during that recycling trip. The Dream Machine will allow you to accumulate points, or receive a coupon or something similar on the spot.
Another great added benefit to the Dream Machine is that it will provide benefits to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV). EBV offers free job and entrepreneurial training for post 9/11 veterans. So the more people use the Dream Machines, the more help PepsiCo can offer to EBV.
PepsiCo. plans to roll the Dream Machines, provided by GreenOps LLC, in over 50 locations in Southern California, and 150 locations in North Carolina Rite Aids. PespiCo. also has entered into a partnership with Keep America Beautiful for community development. The hope is that Dream Machines will become a mainstay in stores, parks, and sports venues. The Dream Machine is part of PepsiCo’s goal of increasing the beverages recycling rate 34-50% by 2018.
It is certainly refreshing (no pun intended) to see a company that uses literally tons of plastic and aluminum cans get active on the importance and value of recycling. The Dream Machine, combined with something like the BigBelly Solar Compacting and Recycling cans would be a terrific asset for large venues and communities struggling with litter and recycling issues–like the Fairfax County Park System!
Below is a short video on how the Dream Machine works:
AccuStrata has been working on an optical system that analyzes the thin-film solar paneling while they are being manufactured, which enables manufacturers to make adjustments on the fly, creating better efficiency in solar panel production.
Congratulations to AccuStrata! This is their fourth award they have received regarding their optical technology and another example of companies in the greater Washington D.C. area doing more to promote energy efficiency and sustainability for all of us.
How can you get started with solar energy?
Residential solar panel starter kits range from $900 to $10,000 depending on the size and wattage.
Wattage and size depend on each resident’s energy usage.
Solar can be used to power lights, pools, and household appliances.
Solar panels are a great way to reduce your energy bills while also engaging in sustainable practices.
You’ve been admiring your neighbor’s composter and now you can have one yourself!
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Dump your coffee grounds, grass clippings, leaves, old lettuce, green beans, dryer lint, shredded junk mail (or bills!), discarded wool socks, cat fur, egg shells–pretty much anything that isn’t meat or dairy, and let nature make some lovely nutritious mulch for your garden.
If you’re interested in purchasing one of these recycled plastic, snap together in minutes composter, please email Clean Fairfax. We are hoping to get at least 25 orders which will bring the price to $65, a little more than half of what you’d pay for the same at a retail shop.
cfc (at) cleanfairfax (dot) org and we can send you a paypal invoice (where you can securely use your credit card), Request the order form by email and return it with a check.
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