ENVIRONMENT

Don’t Throw That Out!

Saving trash for the compost could save your town money

Most people would look at you kind of funny if you told them that you were thinking about keeping some of your trash every week. But, in a way, that’s what we are doing when we keep compostables out of the waste stream. New Canaan is the latest municipality to look into diverting food scraps through the Sustainable CT Community Match Fund.

As noted in the fundraising page, currently food scraps goes right into the municipal waste stream and the problems associated with that are twofold.

One, Food that you throw out in the trash ends up with Styrofoam and plastic bits in landfills. These are “anaerobic environments,” which increases the methane gas in the air as the food breaks down over time. Despite being a natural byproduct, these situations exacerbate the production rather than through the natural composting of foods.

Second, the hauling of these foods has to be paid for by the tax payers. As with most municipalities that offer trash hauling, New Canaan pays a company to pick up residential trash each week an bring it to the transfer station who bring it to landfills or incinerators. Neither of these options are great, so the ideal situation would be to reduce the amount of waste.

Composting essentially solves both of those problems at the same time. Not only does taking out the food scraps from the waste stream lower the amount of waste that ends up in incinerators or landfills, lower the amount of methane that is created when it is left in anaerobic environments, but it produces good quality compost to be reused.

The idea is clearly worth exploring, and that’s where the Sustainable CT Community Match Fund came into play. Raising over $4000 from the community, the town of New Canaan received $8000 total, $7600 of which was used to pay the haulers, while $400 went to signage for the transfer station.

In the initial phases of the program 220 pounds were collected, but just two months later and over 800 pounds were collected.

The only drawback is that you do have to keep some of your trash. They recommend simple covered buckets to collect the scraps while you wait to bring it to the transfer station. And while in years past it might have been a bit strange to keep some of your trash, more and more people are saving their food scraps to begin composting. It’s something the community agrees upon.

Feed The Community

How public gardens could add to your town or city

The concept of a community garden is as old as time. Agriculture itself was started by a group of people who decided they didn’t want to be hunter-gatherers anymore, and planted food to feed their community. In the thousands of years since, strikingly little has changed about growing your own food – you put a seed in the ground and through careful tending, food comes up. A small miracle.

Here’s how three municipalities handle community gardens:

Bristol

“The gardens are available to Bristol residents. Some people plant vegetables and others plant flowers. The gardens are great for people who live in apartments or condominiums and don’t have space for a garden of their own at home. Most people use the gardens for their personal use. We have some gardeners who grow vegetables for the various food pantries in the City. We are thankful to be able to offer the community gardens to the residents of Bristol as it benefits so many people.” — Patricia Tomascak, Executive Director, Department of Aging

Torrington

“The Bowman Gardens have been around since the 70’s but In the past 8 years they have grown from fields of rotor tilled in ground plots to 84 raised beds as well as in ground planting. We added a 40X20 pavilion and picnic area complete with BBQ grills and picnic tables, this has become a safe outdoor gathering place for seniors during the pandemic. The pavilion was a partnership with a local trade school and future Eagle Scouts. We added a storage shed last Fall for equipment & supplies and this year we had a permanent well drilled and a pump house built creating a stable water supply. We have been able to make all of these improvements buy enhancing our partnerships with local groups and business. Partners want their involvement to have a long-standing tangible mark on the community and its citizens, our Community Gardens hit all those targets.” — Joel Sekorski, Director, Services for the Elderly

West Hartford

“The Town of West Harford is lucky to have not just one, but three distinct and beloved Community Gardens. Each of the three gardens is subdivided into 20x20ft plots and rented annually to residents for a low fee. This provides a unique opportunity for the citizens of West Hartford to grow their own fresh vegetables, fruits, and flowers. The gardens are managed as a joint project by the Department of Leisure Services and Public Works. The garden plots come with access to water and compost, and are worked by a community of like-minded gardeners. This community has grown so strong that at one of the gardens (Buena Vista), a group of gardeners joined together to form “year-round-gardening”, which is committed to notill, organic gardening. The Community Gardens have become a true source of pride for West Hartford, as residents from all walks of life come together to plant and grow.

West Hartford is also host to a large Plant a Row for the Hungry garden. This project, in conjunction with the Garden Writers’ Association, has been producing vegetables for the community since 1999. With most of the labor of gardening done by volunteers, school groups, and summer camps, the PAR garden has – over the years - given over 20,000 lbs of fresh, organic produce to the Town’s senior centers and local food pantries.” — Christy Page, Assistant Park Naturalist, Westmoor Park West Hartford

Bees?

Beacon Falls sponsors local beekeepers programs

When towns plant pollinator pathways, they intend for bees and other assorted insects and birds to come dine on the nectar and cross-pollinate. But unfortunately, the bee population is in precipitous decline. These necessary creatures have lately found homes in colonies in backyards, not an errant nest, but placed there intentionally. If you were interested in becoming a beekeeper, Beacon Falls Parks & Recreation department has been holding programs to learn how.

Held at the local Naugatuck YMCA, they sponsored a total of four programs – two this past year in September and November, with two planned for spring next year. They are free for Beacon Falls residents.

The classes were being helmed by Rich and Robin Pivirotto, the owners of the Beacon Bee Company, which they founded in 2019 after several years of amateur beekeeping.

But like many hobbies, they found that beekeeping was addictive – starting out with only one hive, they grew to 20 hives in their apiary by 2020. Each hive can produce over 50 pounds of honey or more each year, with around half or a little less being excess. Some beekeepers sell the surplus, which likely funds added beekeeping gear.

Back in 1918, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station had this to say: “The outlook for honey production never was better, from the money standpoint, than at present, and the possibilities, through the suppression and control of infectious diseases are much greater in recent years […] so that beekeeping and honey production generally will be much improved.”

This sweet golden syrup isn’t the only thing that bees are good for. Apples, blueberries, raspberries, pears, squash, cucumbers, as well as a variety of flowers are dependent on bees to pollinate them.

But the owners would take umbrage at a word used earlier - As Rich says, “beekeeping is not a hobby, but a full-time commitment”. There are days when their “day jobs” may be done, but they still must put in the time for their beekeeping responsibilities.

Robin says, “beekeeping doesn’t come without it’s challenges, but at the end of the day, it also comes with so many rewards”.

Naturally, many will be afraid of the consequences of a bee sting. But there are sure to be methods learned in these programs that will teach individuals how not to get stung, as well as being able to tell the difference between honeybees and their more nefarious cousins, the yellow jackets.

Back in the day, Romans would pay their taxes in honey. Word is still out if Beacon Falls will adopt these measures. But as Robin said, there are so many rewards for keeping bees that one may very well develop a taste for honey, which some say is sweeter than wine.

There When You Need It

2021 CCM Convention exhibitor shares tips on storm preparedness

You know that feeling when you walk into the grocery store and you are instantly surrounded by red and green ornaments, garland, and wrapping paper and you think to yourself, “How is it the holiday season already?” Well, hurricane season can sneak up on you in much the same way. While we are now coming out of the 2021 hurricane season and taking a collective sigh of relief that Connecticut didn’t suffer any major impacts, another hurricane season will be here again before you know it. So, as we celebrate this holiday season and ring in 2022, ensure to put planning for disaster response on your list of resolutions. No matter the season, summer or winter, destructive weather events can occur at any time. Storm preparedness and readiness is a year-round mission and paramount to the success of any recovery. AshBritt offers four tips for preparing your municipality for storm-related events in any season:

1. First, gain an understanding of disaster debris management, through the State Disaster Debris Management Plan and review the State Guidance for Municipalities to determine your contracting options by visiting the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Disaster Debris Management and Preparedness portal. Once you understand what is available, procure a contract that best suits your needs based on the information you have received from contractors.

2. Our second tip is to learn about post-disaster debris management. AshBritt’s online training academy provides participants with information about debris management following a federally declared disaster event.

3. Thirdly, as you prepare for whatever comes next, build local capacity with government staff, as well as with the local workforce through training and workshops.

4. Lastly, develop an education outreach marketing campaign aimed to educate residents on storm preparedness and the proper segregation of storm debris.

In 2021, AshBritt provided the NW Connecticut Region with an informative presentation on the types of services available to municipalities, showcased educational outreach campaigns, and shared information on our capability and capacity to handle multiple activations. AshBritt has more tips and services that can help you prepare for disasters in any season. We are available to provide similar presentations and customized training sessions to meet your needs, visit AshBritt.com to learn more about how we are always There When You Need Us.

A Resource For Sustainability

New Milford plans long term rehab of Great Brook

One of the best resources for towns and cities is SustainableCT. And one of the best resources in

A large majority of towns and cities in Connecticut are already registered for SustainableCT, 123 out of 169, in fact, and just over half of them are certified Bronze or Silver. But only 53 towns so far have taken advantage of the Community Match Fund.

Any currently participating municipality can create a project on the Patronicity platform, and SustainableCT will match it dollar-for-dollar.

In New Milford, the goal was to “remove years of accumulated rubbish and invasives that crowd out native species, while strengthening the banks of Great Brook, a Housatonic River Tributary.”

Trash collecting in the brook, leading to Housatonic River

From their Patronicity page, they said that the banks of the brook are beginning to collapse where invasive plant species have overtaken native plants. As part of the ecosystem, these species can cause downstream – literally – effects where native birds and animals are locked out of their normal territories.

The campaign started in the middle of November 2020, and was officially fully funded on January 1, 2021. This gave the Sustainable New Milford team $15,000 for a “robust and comprehensive master restoration plan for the entire four-mile stream.”

According to the project budget, around $4000 was to be spent on field assessment, $5000 towards a community-chosen long-term permitted-engineered project, with other expenses going toward short term projects and plans.

Some of which included volunteer clean-ups in April, June and September. The April and June cleanups already happened with “masked volunteer residents on distanced and staggered shifts with technical expertise,” according to a letter to the editor to the New Milford Spectrum.

While this will be an ongoing project to help the environment surrounding Great Brook, it’s important to salute the work and effort of the town, volunteers, and supporters through the fundraising campaign.

It shows that the will to do these green projects is there, and that the community is often willing to put their green – i.e. money – to saving the environment.

For more information on SustainableCT’s Community Match Fund, you can contact Abe Hilding-Salorio, the Community Outreach Manager at (860) 465-0256, or at hildingsalorioa@easternct.edu.

For more information about all of SustainableCT’s efforts, visit them at SustainableCT.org

Toss & Save

The latest in food composting comes to Middletown

Perhaps it’s a sign of the times that in each issue of Connecticut Town & City there’s a new article about an innovative idea related to green initiatives. In Middletown, they’re going green by hooking up with Blue Earth Compost for a first in CT project.

Piggy-backing off the fact that throwing away trash has never been more expensive and costly for towns and cities, local leaders have been looking for ways to lessen the tonnage. One such way to accomplish that is by removing waste from the stream.

Mayor Ben Florsheim held a press conference to announce the program on July 13, 2021

As part of Middletown’s Feed the Earth campaign, the town has partnered with Blue Earth Compost to do just that.

Like many composting programs that required a citizen or business to sign up for the service, users take their food scraps that would otherwise end up in the waste stream and brings them to a location where they would be turned into compost.

The difference here is that the program is part of a municipal contract that allows the businesses to participate in this new green service.

In a press release on Feed the Earth, Mayor Ben Florsheim says the program will “also educate consumers and businesses about the usefulness and ease of composting.”

“This new campaign is just the latest in a larger effort to increase the role composting can play in everyday lives. As composting takes hold in hearts and minds across Connecticut, it has grown from person-by-person residential collections to municipal contracts like this new partnership.”

Blue Earth Compost is a local Hartford area company. Founded in 2013, their mission is “to change the way that people think about ‘waste’.”

According to their site, American’s throw away approximately 40% of the food that they grow. Not only does that food get wasted, but the resources that went into growing that food as well.

The process of composting preserves some of those nutrients and brings the equation closer to net-zero.

According to figures in the Middletown Press, they are paying $88 a ton to dispose of waste, but $84.85 to compost. So not only would they be saving money on all the scraps that does successfully go into the composting program, they’ll be saving the earth as well.

In addition to the businesses that are piloting the way on this new initiative, Mayor Florsheim said that he’d like to see this program go citywide.

“The City of Middletown hopes to be only the first of many municipalities in our region to explore municipal composting in the years ahead,” Mayor Florsheim said, “This could be the start of a new era in food cycle management.”

Beauty And Infrastructure Meet

Sustainable Meriden adds mural to bridge underpass

Sustainability isn’t just solar panels and composting. Although renewables and recycling are hugely important, we need our residents to have pride in the places they are protecting. Sustainable Meriden recently took advantage of the Sustainable CT match fund to beautify an often-overlooked piece of infrastructure – the bridge underpass.

In a project that saw the collaboration between the city of Meriden, Sustainable Meriden youth group, RiseUP for Arts and the Department of Transportation, the Bunker Ave bridge got a much needed makeover with a simple mural.

Reminiscent of Lego bricks, the underpass will be bedecked in a combination of jeweltones and rainbow colors that are sure to brighten up the underpass.

RiseUP for Arts is no stranger to these projects. On the fundraising site, they note that they have worked on over 50 mural projects throughout the state, with 25 local artists, 50 partners, and over 500 volunteers. They can be seen at their website, www.ctmurals.com

Because they are professionals, this project was perfect for the community match fund. Taking steps to ensure that there’d be a good bond with primer and wall prep, important safety measure, the paint itself, and even an anti-graffiti clearcoat means that some costs would be associated with this mural.

Over 60 donors included local businesses, clubs, and individuals combined their powers to raise the $5000 needed for half the job in just over two months. The other half was provided by the Sustainable CT community match fund.

This program is open to anyone in a Sustainable CT municipality. This means that youth groups, nonprofits, and more can double the impact of the funds that they raise for projects like this one.

Sustainable Meriden is a student-led program that engages the community to achieve Meriden’s sustainability goals. Through the efforts of this program, environmental and social goals can be achieved while promoting a vibrant community and economic growth. The collaborative community engagement will help Meriden achieve certification through the Sustainable CT initiative and become a thriving, resilient city.

Though it might seem like just a coat of paint that is going up, murals like this create more investment in local communities. A virtuous cycle where beauty begets more beauty. It’s important enough that Sustainable CT has made supporting arts and creative culture one of their action points.

Establishing a poet laureate, a cultural office, or an artist-in-residence all help towns reach their goals of sustainability. It’s all part of their goal of having a greener future, one that is also red, orange, yellow, blue, indigo, and violet as well.