Pilot Media - Green Living 2015

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SPRING 2015

YOUR GUIDE TO LIVING GREEN IN HAMPTON ROADS

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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Think you’re a good recycler? Read a few myths and consider new ways to recycle. words by Roberta T. Vowell e recycle.

We pick up after the pooches, we turn off the lights and the TV when we walk out the door, and that lump behind the shed is what we call a compost heap.

But after all these years of spreading the gospel of Green Living, after all the Earth Day celebrations and Clean the Bay days, we are not quite the ultimate masters of reduce, reuse, recycle.

There are a handful – well, two handfuls, since we’re counting to 10 – of ways we goof when we go for the Green. Our friends at HRGreen helped us round up the offenders and offer simple solutions.

the way toilet paper does. The moist wipes clog pumps and stick to grease, which then clogs pipes. Although it may seem insignificant, dental floss is just as bad.

3. STEP AWAY FROM THE FERTILIZER. Our lawn can’t read the calendar. It doesn’t know that it needs fertilizer in certain seasons. Truthfully, it probably doesn’t need to be fertilized at all. A regular dose of fertilizer runoff delivers an unhealthy dose of nitrogen and phosphates to waterways, creating algae blooms, which reduces the amount of oxygen in the water. That makes it mighty tough for fish and other water critters.

Get soil tested at your Cooperative Extension office to find out if the lawn really needs all those chemicals.

1. BAG IT. Public Enemy Number One (and Public Enemy Numbers 2 to about 2 billion) is the plastic grocery bag. The bags simply cannot be recycled in curbside bins – when they reach the recycling center, they shred in the machinery, which brings the process to a standstill over and over again. Try using a brown paper bag to gather your recyclables instead, and take the plastic bags back to the store; some grocery stores have bins to collect the bags for recycling at a different facility.

2. NO, THEY REALLY AREN’T FLUSHABLE.

4. SPECIAL DELIVERY. Yes, we indulged in pizza, but look! We’re being good and recycling the big card board box, right? Nope. Even if the cardboard looks clean, it most likely is doused in grease, and that grease will gunk up the recycling center’s machinery. Deliver that box directly to the trash bin. Do a couple crunches to ease the Green guilt.

5. BUCKET BRIGADE.

We’re talking about the moist wipes, the ones clearly labeled “flushable.” They don’t break down easily when flushed,

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Grab a couple of small buckets and keep them in the kitchen and bathroom. One stays in the shower to collect all the water falling uselessly through the air. The other

AND SO MUCH MORE

bucket hangs out in the kitchen, and slides into the kitchen sink while we wash veggies or wait for the water to warm up.

We’re amazed at how much water this collects, and how handy it is for watering a flower bed or washing a dog.

day

RE NK I H T

6. STOP THE CHARGE. We charge our phones, and then walk away, leaving the charger dangling from the electrical outlet. The charger doesn’t care if the phone is there or not (we assume this, because we don’t really know exactly what emotions a charger has, actually) and continues to do its job, charging merrily away and using as much electricity as if a light bulb were plugged in. Someday, we will learn to unplug the charger after using it.

7. DITCH THE DISPOSAL. Oh, the wonder of the garbage disposal.

Food goes in, and then disappears. Except it doesn’t. Disposals simply grind the food into smaller pieces, which end up in the community treatment system, which is not designed to deal with that type of waste. Before they get to the treatment center, those particles ride the water slide through your plumbing, clinging to corners and elbows, and building into clogs and worse.

Save your plumbing, save the Earth.

each year, a funny thing happens. First, the most godawful rattling and clattering begins. Then, the electric meter goes berserk, ticking away the kilowatts and our paychecks. If your unit is elderly, a new air conditioner (or stand-alone heater in winter) will pay for itself in energy savings. Bonus: it might also mean a good night’s sleep.

9. ONES AND TWOS, NECKS AND SPOUTS. It’s a goofy mantra, but also the easiest to figure out what plastics can be recycled in southside Hampton Roads.

Household bins should contain only plastics marked with a one or two inside the recycling symbol, which includes anything with a neck or a spout.

10. RETURN TO SENDER.

8. SOMETIMES, NEW IS BETTER. When we plug in the window air conditioning unit on the first hot

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015 | 3

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

Save the planet and save some money.

It’s a win-win! words by Toni Guagenti free flight of beer at O’Connor Brewing Co. on 24th Street in Norfolk.

A free yoga class at Chesapeake Hot Yoga on Kempsville Road.

A free Chick-fil-A Sandwich with a large beverage purchase on Main Street in Suffolk.

All you have to do to qualify for these freebies is recycle -- and sign up for a program on the Internet called “Recycling Perks” at Recyclingperks.com.

The program started in 2011 in Chesapeake with partners TFC Recycling, also of Chesapeake. It has expanded to include Norfolk and Suffolk in South Hampton Roads, and to Colonial Heights and Ashland, Va., Deerfield Beach, Fla., and Augusta, Ga. Recycling Perks also will be offered this year in Richmond and Atlanta.

Here’s how it works: Register the recycling container associated with your home on Recyclingperks.com; each container has a serial number on it. Then, when the recycling

truck rolls by and picks up your recyclables, it scans the chip or tag on the container and adds 50 points for each collection period to your account, according to Bill Dempsey, Recycling Perks’ president. The points do not expire.

To redeem points, you visit Recyclingperks. com, as well. The site is accessible through a smart phone, home computer, laptop or tablet. You can print out the reward coupons or use them straight from your phone.

“Look for local rewards that are either close to your house or near your current location,” Dempsey said.

Norfolk is the only city with an app associated with the program – a test to see how it works. The app not only lets your access rewards, it educates you on what can be recycled and when pickups are, among other information, Dempsey said.

Perks run the gamut from free food items, to buy-one-get-one-free goods and services.

Businesses participate free, Dempsey said In the age of Groupon and Living Social, where consumers get deals at a fraction of the price, Dempsey said, the time was right to start a similar program with Recycling Perks four years ago.

“We felt that there was an opportunity to educate and to make people aware of what should be recycled (and) how to recycle better,” Dempsey said. “And what better way to reward people for making the right choices …to tie in a buy local program that rewarded local participants for their recycling efforts and drive people to local businesses.”

The program makes people tourists where they live by allowing them to get out and try local business fare, he said.

Plus, “people like to be rewarded for what they’re doing,” Dempsey said.

“Everybody likes to save money.”

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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

These days, computers are easier to donate. Find out who will take them off your hands. words by Roberta T. Vowell y first personal computer was a big deal.

I mean, it was big. It was a fat box, about the size of a beach ball but not as fun. It had a 4-inch-square screen set in the middle of all that plastic, and it squatted on my typing table like a malevolent, one-eyed toad.

It had been passed along by a friend, an early computer wiz. It was outdated when I got it, and it became obsolete within about a day. After a few months of fighting the frog, trying to make it perform any PC functions, I bought a real home computer. It worked. I loved it. But I couldn’t get rid of the frog.

See, this was the early ‘90s. Personal computers were changing fast, and users were swapping them out just as quickly.

Charities and non-profits were inundated with them, and when the thrift store shelves were packed with similar frogs, they stopped accepting computers.

I went out one day with the frog and all its extra pieces, armed with the address of a place known to take elderly computers. “$15,” I told my husband when I returned home, frog free.

“That’s all you got for it?” he said.

“No,” I said. “That’s how much I had to pay the guy to take it for recycling.”

A couple of decades later, computers are easier to donate for re-use and recycling.

Before you give away a computer or cell phone, make sure you’ve removed all your personal information.

Here are some places to take your computer for recycling or re-use.

Saturday at the Resource Recovery Center, City Landfill, 1989 Jake Sears Road.

• Goodwill & Dell reconnect Partnership.

Check dellreconnect.com/locations.php for one of the 49 participating local Goodwill sites.

• VersAbility Resources: People with disabilities earn wages by disassembling computers and keeping tons of waste and harmful materials out of local landfills. You can recycle your old computer by dropping it off at VersAbility’s sites in Hampton or Gloucester, or VersAbility can come to your business to pick-up large quantities (pick-up fees do apply). Due to the expense of recycling, there are nominal fees for monitors and televisions based on screen size. (757) 896-8439 or recycling@versability.org.

• National Cristina Foundation. If your computer still works and is less than 5 years old, visit The National Cristina Foundation (NCF) website, a non-profit that works with companies and individuals to donate computers and other technology to charities, schools and other public agencies.

• Habitat for Humanity of South Hampton Roads.

• Cox Conserves. The company helps promote recycling at certain spots in Hampton Roads.

On the southside, Norfolk accepts electronics from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Saturday at the Division of Waste Management, 1176 Pineridge Road, and 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at the Division of Towing, 1188-A Lance Road. In Virginia Beach, recycling is available from 7 a.m. to 4:30 pm., Tuesday through

• Community recycling events. AskHRgreen. org keeps a listing of upcoming events, and for other ways to recycling electronics.

words by Toni Guagenti f you’ve ever wondered what it would take to retrofit your home for solar energy, or build a home incorporating the sun in your money-saving energy plans, you can get a first-hand look each fall by attending the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Tour in Hampton Roads.

You get an opportunity to see some of the most recently built homes using the latest technology and other homes whose owners bought and had solar panels installed to existing houses.

It’s an alternate energy source that’s catching on like wildfire.

According to the Energy Defense Fund, the solar market has exploded this decade, more so than in the two decades leading up to this point.

And, according to a recent blog on the defense fund’s website, www.Edf.org, the trend

is catching on with middle-class Americans.

“Incentives such as net metering and solar ‘leasing’ programs have also broadened the market,” the blog said. “Today, middleincome and working-class homes are driving investments in roof-top solar systems in key states, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down.”

For local folks, like Ruth McElroy Amundsen, who retrofitted her Norfolk home six years ago, the price has significantly gone done.

McElroy Amundsen estimated it cost about $10 per watt. It’s fallen to less than $4 per watt today.

To make solar more affordable, some states are offering residents a way to capitalize on increasing the amount of renewable energy they use, some in forms of energy credits.

While this can be a complicated road, it

can still pay off a solar system sooner than later. Plus, McElroy Amundsen said, the federal government immediately awards a 30 percent tax credit on the price of the system.

According to the EDF blog, America can “boast an estimated 20 gigawatts of solar energy nationwide, enough to power more than four million homes, and the United States added more solar capacity in the past two years than in the previous 30 years combined.”

This means jobs.

“The industry added jobs nearly 20 times faster than the national average in 2014, and solar employment has grown 86 percent in the past five years,” the EDF blog stated.

To get up front and person with this burgeoning industry, mark your calendars for Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015. For more information, visit www.hrsolartour.com.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015 | 5

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words by Toni Guagenti

hen a group of women sitting around a dining room table created Buy Fresh Buy Local Hampton Roads in 2009, residents had only a handful of choices of where to buy locally grown produce.

Six years later, like the farms and businesses the organization touts, a bounty exists.

“It’s really exploded,” said Kirsten Halverson, Buy Local Buy Fresh’s executive director. “It’s exciting.”

According to the group’s website, Buylocalhamptonroads.org, the nonprofit’s mission “is to help consumers make informed decisions about where they buy their food and understand why it is important to keep our food dollars invested in our local economy.

“By accomplishing this primary mission, we also serve our second mission to help support small, family farms and keep the local farming community alive and vibrant.”

Locally, people have renewed their interest in learning where their food comes from and how it is produced, Halverson said.

“Nationally, the conversation has exploded,” she said.

Buying locally allows people to go directly to local farmers and ask questions about the food, and it also allows people to support local businesses who can get them fresh food quickly, without the traveling costs involved in long-haul shipping, Halverson said.

“It creates this wonderful sense of community,” she said.

Part of Buy Local Buy Fresh’s mission entails putting out a Buy Local Buy Fresh guide every spring on the website; it’s a one-stopdocument that directs people where to find locally grown food.

“Connecting Farms and People” provides information for Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Knotts Island and Isle of Wight and Surry counties.

The guide includes seasonal availability of produce, markets and co-ops, fruits and vegetable growers, restaurants and caterers who cooks with locally grown food, meat and seafood and vineyards. It also lists specialty items made locally, like Southampton County’s Shady Goat Farms, which produces a variety of chevres, plain and marinated feta,

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The children “get really excited about it,” Halverson said. “They take it to their parents and it goes from there.”

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It allows people to taste dishes created by local chefs highlighting fresh, local ingredients. The group’s fundraiser also features local wine, craft beer, local food vendors, music, kids’ activities and a live farm animal display.

The organization also does outreach to the community, like fostering relationships between farmers and restaurant owners,

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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

words by Irene Cimino Roberts, Manager-Corporate Public Relations, Dominion Resources ach spring, school systems throughout Virginia partner with Dominion’s Project Plant It! to teach elementary school students about the starring role that trees play in our ecosystem.

Now in its ninth year, Project Plant It! provides teachers with a variety of nature-based lesson plans and activities to transform the classroom into an indoor/ outdoor laboratory where students can connect with the environment. All of the instructional materials—including the teacher’s manual, posters, certificates, the website and more—support state learning standards and essential knowledge skills in math, science, language arts and social studies.

In April, each participating student receives a redbud tree seedling in honor of Arbor Day. This culmination inspires

children to plant their own tree and care for it over the years.

Leslyn Shaw, a third-grade teacher at Richard Bowling Elementary with Norfolk Public Schools, cites many reasons why she loves teaching about trees and the environment with Project Plant It! “The students get very excited about this program because it comes when we are learning about wildlife habitats,” she said. “We’re always looking at the big tree outside of our window and discussing the wildlife species that call it home and what would happen if the tree was destroyed by fire or drought. With the Project Plant It! teaching materials, students can boost their science, writing and reading proficiency while collaborating on an activity.”

New this year is an opportunity to nominate a teacher who creatively incorporates

the Project Plant It! lesson plans, instructional tools and website activities into the classroom curriculum. Details about the nomination process can be found at www.projectplantit.com.

Nearly 12,000 students in the Peninsula/ Hampton Roads/Tidewater region—including almost 5,400 students in Virginia Beach enrolled for the first time this year—are participating in Project Plant It! in 2015.

Dominion, parent company of Dominion Virginia Power, established the program to teach children about trees in the environment. Since that time, more than 288,000 tree seedlings have been distributed to students in areas where Dominion conducts business.

For more information on Project Plant It!, including teaching materials, visit the website or Facebook page.

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015 | 7

words by Toni Guagenti

hen it comes to raising healthy babies in an environmentally sound way, some people aren’t just feeding their children organic, or using cloth diapers.

People like Heather Donis found a way to go green for her baby by getting rid of all the cleaning products and chemicals in her house when her son Henry was born more than six years ago.

After reading the book, “Clean House, Clean Planet,” by Karen Logan, Donis decided to do what millions of Americans do: make their own cleaning products and save tons of money.

“I use it on everything,” the freelance graphic designer said. “It does a great job.”

The all-purpose cleaner consists of castile soap, a touch of Borax, vinegar and water in a 24-ounce spray bottle.

A quick search on the Internet yields

myriad ways people can clean their houses with a few inexpensive and environmentally safe products.

Easily available substances can take care of a home’s everyday cleaning needs, basics such as baking soda, washing soda, vinegar and Borax, according to an article on the website Mother Earth News, written by freelance writer Ann Larkin Hansen nearly 25 years ago (the organization has posted archived material online.)

Donis estimates she spends less than $7 a year for the ingredients she has needed to mix her all-purpose cleaner. She also uses baking soda and vinegar to clean a lot of household items, including the back splash behind the kitchen sink.

“It’s definitely cheaper,” Donis said.

The following are four recipes for environmentally sound cleaning products:

words by Roberta T. Vowell ogs know all the best places to go.

Being dogs, though, they always leave a little something behind.

The humans on the other end of the leashes know that a plastic bag to collect dog doo is a must. And that toxic little bag, of course, must go into a trash container. Aside from the general nastiness of dog waste on the ground, rain washes dog feces into storm drains and eventually into waterways. There, the excess nitrogen and bacteria creates an algae bloom (think green and smelly) that robs oxygen from the water.

To encourage pet owners to scoop the poop (and help those of us who discover we are on a walk without a bag), askHRgreen.org offers free pet waste stations. The metal stations are painted green (of course!) and include a bag dispenser and a trash can for the waste. They come with 400 dog waste bags and 50 liners for the trash cans.

Katie Cullipher, senior environmental planner for askHRgreen.org, says the group has awarded 54 stations to communities in the area. Hampton Roads community groups, neighborhood associations and property managers apply for the grants online, and sign an agreement to install and maintain the station, including emptying the trash and replacing the bags.

The waste stations have been popping up in community parks and playgrounds, and can also be placed at popular dog walking spots, such as around a lake or river, or on a beach.

Normally, the dog waste stands would cost $200 each, but askHRgreen.org received a grant paying for them, so they can be given away free.

“It’s a nice benefit to offer, and a very important way to keep waterways clean,’’ Cullipher says.

Heather’s Helper

Mold Mutilator

(all-purpose cleaner) Recipe: Mix 2 teaspoons of vinegar, one teaspoon of Borax and water into a 24ounce spray bottle until it’s nearly full, then add a quarter cup of castile soap.

Recipe: Mix one part hydrogen peroxide (3 percent) with two parts water in a spray bottle of your choice; spray on areas with mold; wait at least an hour before rinsing.

Task: Takes on most surfaces in your house, from counters to mirrors, walls to toilet seats.

Task: Annihilates unsightly mold in the bathroom in the grout between tiles and behind the kitchen sink.

Dandy Dishes

Grease Cleaner

Recipe: Mix equal parts of Borax and washing soda, but increase the washing soda if your water is hard.

Recipe: Mix 1/2 cup sudsy ammonia with enough water to fill a one-gallon container.

Task: Gets dishes sparkling enough to see your reflection; good for cleaning glass globes that cover lights.

Task: Cuts through grease on oven hoods and grills.

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ProjectPlantIt.com Project Plant It! is a partnership between Dominion and the Arbor Day Foundation, and is offered at no charge to elementary schools in Dominion service regions.

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