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Green Tips: Greening Your Internet Use

In an age where the internet is becoming easier for everyone to access, our ability to use this medium as a tool for reducing waste is also becoming much more convenient. Here are some ways you can use the internet to reduce paper and waste:

Emailing: Nearly everyone has an email address, so this should be an easy way to eliminate the need for paper mail. Emailing not only can reduce paper waste, but it will save money, trees, and is quicker than regular mail.

Eliminate the need for disks: After disposal, CDs and DVDs end up polluting landfills, and manufacturing them releases greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. There are many websites that make it easy to download or stream movies and music online. Taking these small steps to reduce the use of disks can make a big impact on the environment.

Switch to e-books: Books, newspapers, textbooks, and magazines can usually be found online. Downloading these or viewing content on websites reduces paper waste, and also are more convenient to buy and easier to carry around.

Electronic invitation: For your next event, send invitations through email, using websites such as greenenvelope.com and evite.com, and eliminate the need for paper invitations. They are less expensive than paper invitations and are also very easy to send and customize.

Paperless billing: Many companies now offer the option to receive and pay bills directly on their websites or in apps. This gives consumers the ability to access their bills anywhere, and pay them more easily. It also eliminates clutter and saves paper.

Conserving power: Closing tabs and apps you aren’t using, bookmarking pages instead of leaving them open, lowering brightness, and enabling power save options are all ways to make your battery last longer and save energy. This will mean a less frequent need for charging and less electricity use.

Green Tips: Understanding New York’s Watersheds

As we celebrate Chesapeake Bay Awareness Week, we remember the environmental, ecological, and economic significance of the estuary and how its conservation is imperative to the United States as a whole. As part of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, we support the restoration and conservation of the Chesapeake Bay and advocate for clean water in all sources that empty into the bay.

Obstacles facing conservation in the Chesapeake Bay are made clear once one understands the many watersheds in New York. One of these is the Susquehanna River Watershed, the ultimate source of the Chesapeake and its headwaters. Here are some interesting facts about New York’s watersheds, including the Susquehanna River Watershed and its relevance to the Chesapeake Bay:

Everyone (including all New Yorkers) lives in a watershed. There are 17 larger watersheds or major drainage basins in New York. You can identify the watershed you live in using this map.

The Susquehanna River Watershed/drainage basin is the second largest east of the Mississippi River. It includes almost 9,000 miles of rivers and streams in the south-central portion of New York. The Susquehanna River itself is 444 miles long (148 miles in New York state) and drains more than 27,000 square miles including not only New York but large parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland as well, emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. In fact, almost four million people live within the watershed following the river.

People can harm the environment by polluting watersheds. Pollutants such as septic waste, pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals related to human activity can be detrimental to watersheds, and can even lead to bodies of water downstream of the watersheds becoming unhealthy habitats for humans and other organisms. These pollutants along with urban stormwater runoff compose the largest sources of waterbody damage in New York.

The Susquehanna River suffers from pollution. While the water quality in the Susquehanna River Watershed in New York has generally been deemed satisfactory, the majority of the water in the basin is still unassessed. According to the DEC, the most significant pollution in the watershed in New York is from agricultural activity. This pollution finds its way into the Susquehanna River and is multiplied in its journey through Pennsylvania to the Chesapeake Bay.

Drinking water ultimately comes from watersheds. The state of New York has more than 87,000 miles of rivers and streams alone, not counting lakes and ponds. These waterbodies run through watersheds and provide us water, so let’s keep them healthy!

The Delaware River Watershed provides drinking water to 15 million people in four states, including New York State. As part of the Delaware River Watershed Initiative, we are working with groups from across the watershed area to protect and conserve this vital water source through stormwater management, building green infrastructure, and preventing pollution.

The Susquehanna River Watershed and river basin provide drinking water to 1 million people. This includes people from all states that the river runs through.

You can help protect New York’s watersheds. Small actions produce large results! You can help prevent watershed and waterbody pollution by taking simple steps. Conserving water, limiting what you put down the drain (sinks, toilets, etc.), sweeping sidewalks rather than hosing them off, and using commercial carwashes are all ways to protect watersheds in New York.

Protecting the Susquehanna River Watershed will help conserve the Chesapeake Bay. Currently, the largest amount of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay comes from the Susquehanna River. As a part of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, NYLCV supports the protection of the Chesapeake Bay on a federal, state, and local level. You can help protect the Chesapeake as well by supporting campaigns prioritizing clean water issues, and by taking the simple steps stated earlier to protect your watershed.

Green Tips: Composting Edition

About one-third of what New Yorkers throw away can be composted. Food scraps and other organics do not break down in landfills the same way they do in compost piles. Not only does composting reduce waste, it also helps enrich soil used for growing trees and grass, improving our vital greenspaces. Anyone can compost, whether you live in a house or apartment. Here are some tips:

Collect organics, including:
- fruit and vegetable scraps
- food scraps such as grains and baked goods
- shells, seeds, or pits
- yard waste
- paper or cardboard that is not coated with any wax or glossy finish

Put them in a bin for indoor or outdoor composting.

Be sure to avoid adding greasy or fatty foods, as they will slow down the composting process. Also, be sure to avoid adding any type of plastic. These will not break down at all in your compost. For a full list of what you can and cannot compost, click here.

Compost is ready to be used when materials at the bottom turn a dark color and the compost has a soil-like, earthy smell. At this point, you can spread a layer of it over the soil in your backyard, garden, or any area with trees, grass, or plants.

If you need to store your compost before bringing it to your yard or drop-off site, leave it in your freezer to prevent heavy odors throughout your home.

If you do not have a lawn there are many drop-off locations throughout New York City and the rest of the state. Your organic waste will be transported to a composting site and turned into a nutrient-rich soil that is used for farming or gardening.

Congratulations! By composting you have reduced your waste, helped decrease greenhouse gas emissions from landfills, saved waste pick-up and disposal costs, and improved the health of your environment.

Green Tips: Wedding Season

It’s spring, and that means it’s wedding season. Show the planet some love by checking out our cheap and easy tips for having a sustainable wedding.

Get married outside: Reduce your energy usage by getting your guests outside and soaking in some fresh air. Of course, plan ahead: My Wedding has some great tips for planning an outdoor wedding.
Cut down on stationery: Why not go paperless for your save-the-dates, invitations, and thank you cards? Can’t part with the paper? Opt for stationery from companies that use recycled paper (or even “plantable” paper!).
Source locally: Try to serve local foods and drinks at your wedding. It’s a great way to showcase the bounty of your home and support your local farms and businesses. Also, sourcing locally cuts down on the energy it takes to bring things in from far away.
Consider re-purposed gemstones for your rings. Diamonds, and the people who mine them go through a lot to get those gems out of the ground and onto your finger. Save the energy (and the money) by repurposing a piece of jewelry from your family or from a retailer that sources fair-labor gems and uses sustainable practices. Check out Brilliant Earth for more info.
Ditch the favors: Thank your guests by donating a specified amount per guest toward your favorite environmental organization.

Green Tips: New Parent Edition

Becoming a parent is a wonderful and exciting thing, but it can no doubt be stressful. If you care about environmental issues, like climate change, then you may be worrying about the impact having a child has on the planet. Reduce your stress and your impact by checking out our simple list of green parenting tips. From reducing your use of products with harmful chemicals to decreasing the amount of waste you generate, give these simple lifestyle changes a try.

Create your own cleaning products: Many household cleaners contain potentially harmful chemicals, such as certain antimicrobial chemicals, solvents, and fragrances, which can harm our health and get into our waterways. If you must use these products, use them sparingly and be careful: ensure plenty of ventilation and wear a mask and protective gloves. For every day and maintenance cleaning, you can make a lot of efficient cleaners with just a few basic ingredients, including baking soda, vinegar, and water. Add some essential oils to spruce things up a bit. Wellness Mama is a great resource for recipes!

Reduce your waste: New parents have a tendency to buy a ton of products that they don’t actually need, and most of it ends up in landfills. Check with family members or friends before you buy something to see if they already have it. Don’t forget to stop by your local thrift store too. Getting together with other parents and swapping baby/kid clothes is also a great way to reduce textile waste.

Bring your own bag: Parents, in particular, make a lot of trips to the grocery store. Perhaps one of the simplest ways to reduce waste is to bring your own reusable grocery bags with you. Check out last week’s green tip for how to make a tote bag out of an old t-shirt!

Make your own baby food: Support your local food producers, ensure healthy nutrition for your child, reduce your waste, AND save money by blending up your own baby food. Lots of store-bought baby foods are expensive and actually include loads of added sugars and syrups. Use different vegetables as they come into season to make your own unique blends, freeze them in an ice cube tray, and pop them out to defrost as needed. Pro-tip: Reuse jars and baggies each batch so that you’re cutting down on packaging waste.

Eliminate indoor air pollution: Research strongly suggests that indoor air can be significantly more polluted than the air outside. Children are uniquely sensitive to pollutants in the air because of their smaller, developing lungs. If you think your inside air is dangerous, have it tested by a professional. Also, make sure your carbon monoxide detector is working. Other simple things you can to improve indoor air quality is to vacuum often to reduce dust, which can collect irritants, like pollen, mold, and dust mites. Also, open the windows regularly, consider getting some house plants, which act like natural air purifiers, and prevent mold by fixing leaky sinks or roofs and having a fan in your bathroom. For a complete list of reducing indoor air pollution, check out the Small Footprint Family.

Take a walk: Did you know that the transportation sector contributes about 40% to New York State’s collective carbon emissions? Do your part by taking a walk instead of driving, if possible. Get out into nature with your kids and get some exercise.

Green Tips: “Upcycling” Your Old Stuff

Spring cleaning is a great way to clear out clutter, but rather than throw your old stuff away, give it a second life by “upcycling,” or reusing it for something else. Here are some creative tips we collected on how to reduce your waste by repurposing common household items. Enjoy!

Clothes, Sheets, and Other Textiles

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, New York residents and businesses throw away almost 1.4 billion pounds of recyclable textiles, including clothing, shoes, accessories, drapes, towels, and sheets each year. Donating old clothes is a great way to reduce your textile waste, but if you’re feeling crafty, why not give it a second life?

Sheets: Turn old bed sheets into new curtains. Check out this how-to video for pretty easy directions.
T-Shirts: The World Wildlife Fund says it can take more than 700 gallons to produce the cotton needed to make a single cotton t-shirt. Why throw it away after it goes out of style? Make a tote bag out of it. Or for something a bit more challenging, turn an old t-shirt into a throw pillow.
Shoes: Donating old shoes is probably the best way to deal with footwear, but lots of people have repurposed shoes into mini herb gardens or cactus pots.

Dish Rack

Use your old dish rack as a desktop file organizer. The silverware cup makes a great pen holder. Check out this example.

Ice-cube Trays

Have some old ice-cube trays laying around? Fill up the cups with assorted snacks for your kid or at your next lunch or dinner party. Also, you can try using them as drawer organizers for smaller items, like push pins or paper clips.

Desk or Dresser Drawers

Why not pull out the drawers from an old dresser and repurpose them as space-saving shelves? Here are a bunch of ways to re-use old drawers.

Garden Rake

Who would have thought you could turn that old garden rake into a wine glass or coat rack? This is a really easy way to reuse some old garden supplies and save space in your cabinets and closets. Check out this detailed tutorial.

Paper, paper, paper

Paper is another item that should be recycled, but lots of paper products can be reused over and over again. For example, an easy way to extend the life of an old newspaper is to turn it into wrapping paper. Also, try making envelopes out of old calendars. One Green Planet put together a super creative list of these and other suggestions here.

Green Tips: Bird Watching

Tips for Spring Bird Watching

Start a nature or bird journal:

Some of the best thinkers, Aldo Leopold, Henry David Thoreau, and so many more, kept them, so why not start one yourself? Record the day, time, your location, any observations, or even sketch what you see. Why not pick up a copy of A Sand County Almanac to get inspired?

Invest in some binoculars (and a camera!):

Gear isn’t everything, but it can help. Check out this great guide from the National Audubon for more tips.

Find a good guidebook:

There’s more variety for field guides than ever before. There are even apps you can download (iBird, Sibley, Audubon, just to name a few). As for books, look for a format and layout that works for you, something that you can easily bring or pack with you on hikes and walks, and something with images and maps relevant to your interests.

Do your research and learn about flyways:

In addition to the guidebook, make sure you know the area where you’re going. If you’re looking for a particular kind of bird, like a tufted titmouse, research their preferred habitat. During spring migration, find out what birds fly through your area so you can position yourself accordingly.

Know where to go (and where not to go):

Make sure to plan your bird walk on public land or in a park. Watch for posted areas and never walk on private land without permission.

Or, watch from home by making your yard bird-friendly:

Watch from your window or porch. Grow some native plants like milkweed or sunflowers, or shrubs and trees, like the red elderberry or crabapple, which create a natural habitat for birds and butterflies.

Keep a low profile:

Check out the American Birding Association’s Code of Birding Ethics for a complete list of do’s and don’ts for birders. Always respect bird habitat and the land you’re exploring. Never leave trash behind or walk off trails.

Tips for where to watch:

Want to see some bluebirds? Take a trip to Mine Kill State Park (about 40 miles south of Cobleskill, NY) and walk the 2.5 mile Bluebird Trail. This is considered some of the most prime viewing for New York’s state bird.
In the mood for something bigger? One of the most famous spring hawk-watching sites in the east is located on the shore of Lake Ontario, about 14 miles east of Oswego. Observers at Derby Hill often see as many as 40,000 raptors pass between early March and the end of May, most of them Broad-winged Hawks.
In the NYC area? This Saturday, April 28^th, check out the Littoral Society’s Spring Migration Bird Walk at Jamaica Bay Refuge at 11:00 AM.
New York City’s Department of Parks and Recreation has some great suggestions for bird watching in and around the big apple. Also, check out NYS’s Bird Conservation Area Program for more tips about where to view birds this spring.

Green Tips: What to know about buying an EV

As more car manufacturers release electric models and as battery technology improves, owning an electric vehicle (EV) has never been more within reach. There are tons of reasons why switching to an EV makes sense for the environment, but did you know that it can also save you cents in the long run? A federal rebate of up to $7,500 combined with a New York State rebate of up to $2,000 means that purchasing or leasing an EV is now comparable to purchasing a gas-powered vehicle. While you’ll pay for the extra electricity, it will be significantly cheaper than fueling up. Also, an electric vehicle motor is quite simple, and EVs do not require as much maintenance as regular cars. No more oil changes!

With all of these perks, it’s only a matter of time before people start making the switch. One of the key barriers keeping people from doing so is something called “range anxiety,” which is basically the fear of being stranded with an empty battery. Charging rather than fueling is much different, and until technology and infrastructure catches up to our desire to travel more sustainably, we’ve put together this simple list of tips that will better prepare you for owning an EV and hopefully ease some of that range anxiety.

How far do I drive each day?

About 90% of car trips are within a 30 miles radius, and most EVs can last at least 100 miles on a single charge. If your regular trips are further, you may want to consider a hybrid.

What kind of climate do I live in?

EV batteries can lose effectiveness in cold weather, so be aware of what the weather is doing, and plan ahead. Also, on cold days, try warming up the car while it’s still plugged in. This way, your battery won’t have to work as hard on the road to warm things up.

Do I have regular access to charging at home or at work?

Most people with a garage can plug-in at home overnight. Charging at an off-peak time is crucial. Also, find out if there are public charging stations available for an on-the-go top off. (Apps like PlugShare or the Energy Department’s Alternative Fuels Data Center, among others, helps you find a charging station near you.) Charging takes longer than fueling, so planning ahead is important.

Even though EVs require less maintenance, it’s still important to take care of your car. Check your tire pressure regularly, and follow the instructions in your user’s manual. This will keep your vehicle running better, longer.

Where does my electricity come from?

As the shift away from gas-powered vehicles and machinery continues, people are becoming more aware of where their energy comes from. This means that we should continue to push for investments in cleaner, renewable energy sources, like wind, solar, and geothermal. Get involved in campaigns for renewable energy development to ensure your EV is running on clean power.

Want to learn more? Attend our upcoming policy forum on electric vehicles Friday, April 27^th in White Plains. Click here for more information and to register.

Green Tips: 10 ways to celebrate Earth Day!

Each year on April 22^nd we celebrate the earth and the environment. However, not many people know how it all began. In 1970, Gaylord Nelson, then US Senator from Wisconsin, wanted to draw national attention to a growing concern over the deterioration of the environment. As a bipartisan effort, Nelson brought together a team of people from across the country to plan and promote Earth Day events. He called it a “teach-in” since many of the first people involved were students and universities. According to the Earth Day Network, the first Earth Day drew more than 20 million Americans from coast to coast for rallies, protests, and events. Since then, these activities have only grown.

As we celebrate another Earth Day next weekend, let’s make it more than just a post on social media or a passing mention of the environment. We put together a short list of tips to help you make this Earth Day your best yet. Get out and enjoy a forest, plant a tree, or do any combination of these things. On behalf of NYLCV and NYLCVEF, Happy Earth Day!

1. Go for a hike or get outside!

Get outside! Go for a hike, a walk, or a picnic. Want some suggestions? Check out our previous Green Tip on exploring New York State parks. Invite friends or family to experience it with you!

2. Visit a community garden

Community gardens are becoming a thing! Find one near you and volunteer your time, and keep it on your radar for summertime. Eating locally sourced food is a great way to cut down on your carbon footprint and grow your local economy. Check out New York State’s Department of Agriculture and Market’s map of community gardens.

3. Get a home energy audit

Knowledge is power, and there are tons of things you can do to cut down your energy use at home. The Energy Department actually offers a great beginners video for how to do your own energy audit.

4. Clean out your house, garage, or closet & donate

Spring-cleaning is seldom a favorite activity, but we all like the results, and we all need to do it at some point or another. Instead of throwing away old appliances and clothes, consider donating them to the Salvation Army or another thrift store.

5. Write your representative

Take action and let your representatives know that you care about the environment, and so should they! Find out who your representative is by going here. Want to know more about environmental issues at the national level, check out NYLCV’s 2017 Federal Agenda.

6. Attend an Earth Day event or festival.

There’s no shortage of celebrations going on the next couple weeks. Do you live in the NYC area? Timeout put together a pretty good list of Earth Day events here. NYLCVEF is going to be at New York City’s Car Free Earth Day on Saturday, April 21^st raising awareness about our new campaign for electric school buses. If you’re there, you should check us out! We’re going to be set up by Herald Square.

7. Go vegetarian for the day

Too much red meat is not only unhealthy for you but it’s also bad for the environment. From the way it is produced to the way it is transported, red meat contributes a lot of carbon to the atmosphere. Celebrate Earth Day by going meat-free! Check out this great list of vegetarian dinner recipes for inspiration.

8. Ride your bike or use public transit instead of driving.

This one is pretty straightforward. Vehicle emissions make up about 30% of our greenhouse gases. Cutting down on driving can help. Don’t believe us? Check this out.

9. Do your part to reduce plastic pollution

This year, the Earth Day theme is to End Plastic Pollution. What can you do? Use a reusable grocery bag, water bottle, or coffee cup. Want to learn more about the campaign? Check out Earth Day Network here.

10. Join an environmental group or organization

As the saying goes, “Earth Day should be every day.” Why not join a group that’s committed to environmental protection and fighting climate change year round? You’ll be able to stay informed, get involved, and support causes that make a real difference.

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