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)!
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!
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.
Please join us at Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale Campus,
(Wakefield Chapel entrance)
11-4 pm (we do reserve the right to end the event early if the weather gets unruly)
Fun things to do:
Rock Climbing
Build a Bug House
The Scrap Exchange
Zoo to youReptiles Alive!
Rain Barrel and Composter Raffles
Food!
Environmental Education Displays!
Face painting and balloon artist!
more!!
Do you need to have confidential documents shredded? If so then come from 9-2! Limit: Five cardboard boxes of documents–no binder clips, no electronic media! Look for the shredder in the parking lot B.
Did you know that the US Postal Service recycled than 200,000 tons of paper, cardboard, plastics and other waste in 2009, representing a decrease in its greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 1.67 million barrels of oil. And most of it is just from having recycle boxes available in the post office. How easy is that?
You can stop delivery of the free newspaper The Washington Examiner? It is criminal that you actually have to tell them to stop sending it rather than encouraging you to sign up, but in any event, you can stop the littering of your driveway by visiting this link. I have just done it myself today, and do not know whether they sell your email address (which is required of you to stop delivery but it doesn’t appear to have to be a real email) or your mailing address, so proceed with caution!
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