Environmental Goals for Westchester in 2015, let’s do this!

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With 2014 being such an incredible year we are looking forward to 2015 and the positive change it can bring to Westchester schools.

My personal wish list for 2015 is

1. Implementing We Future Cycle’s School Lunch and Building-Wide Recycling and Composting Program to 10 More School Districts in 2015, even if it is just in one pilot school per district. Implementing these programs is very do-able, but working with experts is critical to ensure a successful implementation. Results will speak for themselves and that will hopefully lead to district-wide implementation in many Westchester School districts.

Just imagine, if one school reduces its garbage from 22 bags per day down to less then 1/4 bag per day, what kind of impact this will have if 10 more districts will join the program. And just imagine all those students going back home to their parents and sharing their enthusiasm to save the world.

2. Creating the First Leaf and Food-Waste Composting Site in Westchester. So far, only very few communities are composting their leaves, most are trucking them to Rockland County at great expense in fossil fuel consumption, labor and heavy equipment on our streets. So far, no community is doing larger scale, organized food waste composting instead nature’s valuable resource is treated as trash, plastic bagged and burnt. The good news is that several communities are now studying how to solve this problem. We are proud to be on the forefront with them.

3. Integrating Sustainability Education into Curriculum. We have done numerous environmental projects with individual schools such as green writing contests, waste free snack education, TerraCycle Ambassador programs, kindergarten recycling sorting games and it shows again and again, that when students are made aware early of their personal ability to create environmental change, that the ripple effect through the community is amazing.

2014….Giving Thanks To Great Opportunities for Environmental Change in Westchester

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change-strategy-continuum2014 was an action-packed year for We Future Cycle. We are looking proudly upon multiple TV, radio and other news outlet coverage stories of the environmental programs that we offer.

We thank New Rochelle’s Interim Superintendent, Dr. Jeffrey Korostoff, for boldly going where no one had gone before by fully supporting the program and implementing it in all of New Rochelle’s Elementary Schools.

We thank Maureen Caraballo, Treasurer for Hastings-on-Hudson School District, for being the major force to bring the program to Hastings’ schools.

Greenburgh_cornerWe thank Paul Feiner, Supervisor of the Town of Greenburgh, for endorsing us to bring the program to all of Greenburgh’s school districts.

We thank the White Plains Sustainability Committee to endorse us and to recommend the program to White Plains schools. We are very pleased and excited to be presenting this program to the White Plains Administration in January.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWe thank the City Council of New Rochelle for endorsing We Future Cycle programs and for working with us to bring the first Food Waste Composting Site to Westchester.

We thank Joseph Carvin, Supervisor of the Town of Rye, for endorsing the program and affiliating with us. Mr. Carvin is also founder of the organization “One World, United & Virtuous.”

Parker-1We thank Catherine Parker, Westchester County Legislator and Chair of the Committee for Environment and Energy, for featuring our program at the Board of Legislators and the Westchester Environmental Summit, as well as  for her continuous and outspoken support. She is the major force behind creating a Westchester-based solution for food waste composting.

We thank the Columbia University Capstone Program for recommending the implementation of the We Future Cycle School recycling program as part of the Zero Waste Initiative to the Town of Mamaroneck, Village of Mamaroneck, and the Village of Larchmont.

We thank the Greenburgh Nature Center for offering a meeting venue to present the program as well as many other earth-saving and thought-provoking environmental presentations.

We thank County Legislator Sheila Marcotte and James Maisano for honoring us with a Proclamation for creating and implementing the program at New Rochelle Trinity School. New Rochelle’s Trinity Elementary School is truly a leader, one of the first schools to implement with an exceptional administration.

We thank the Pelham Sustainability Committee EcoPel for featuring the program and for their efforts to bring it to the Pelham schools.

We thank the Westchester Municipal Offcials Association for endorsing the program and bringing it back as recommendation to their communities.

We thank all the people that support us in our work to bring sustainability and environmental education into the schools as a daily learning experience, so we can raise environmentally-literate children.

Charles Kettering said these famous words: “The world hates change, yet is has been the only thing that brought progress.”  We could not agree more.

Larchmont /Mamaroneck Zero Waste Initiative Recommends We Future Cycle School Recycling Program

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payt_epa_logoOn December 9th, 2014 representatives of the Village of Mamaroneck, Village of Larchmont and Town of Mamaroneck were listening to a very informative and well structured presentation by the Columbia  University Masters in Sustainability Capstone Program. The kick off was a presentation by Mitch Green, Town Liaison, explaining how this presentation came about and thanking the Capstone team for choosing Larchmont/Mamaroneck as their project.

0514_boltanskiThe team then laid out the “have and have nots” of the towns, slides showed the percentages of yard waste, curb side recyclables recovered, as well as total garbage collected.  The towns are already exceptionally well positioned with a 63% recycling rate, which is the combination of yard waste and curbside recycling. The goal however is getting to 90%. The team showed several areas of opportunity, which are comprised of textile recycling, food waste composting, “Pay-as-you-throw” and getting the schools involved. carpet-waiting-to-be-recycled

The team outlined that schools and the children within them are the key to changed behavior and their recommendation is to get the We Future Cycle Program into the schools to start that process. Parents learn from their children, as much as the other way around.

The 100+ page report will be posted as soon as it becomes available.

Hastings Lunch Recycling Program On The Air…… Nationwide and Beyond!

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UPDATE: The program will be aired on January 12th on AM 880.

Today, Sean Adams, a reporter for WCBS, came to learn about the We Future Cycle Recycling Program in the Hastings-on-Hudson schools.

WCBS Newsradio 880 is one of America’s most listened to radio stations providing news and information on the AM dial in New York for 45 years.  Traffic and Weather Together on the “8’s” has been a mainstay with New York commuters for decades. With one of the largest, most veteran local news staffs in the country, WCBS provides coverage of breaking news, local news, business, sports and entertainment. WCBS 880 provides a 24 hour news stream via CBS New York.com.

Sean Adams with Hillside's Assistant Principal Mr Johnson
Sean Adams with Hillside’s Assistant Principal Mr Johnson

Adams took time to learn about the program, walked around the schools and interviewed Mr. Johnson, Assistant Principal of Hillside Elementary school,  Mr Johnson explained how the children have taken full ownership of the program and how they are correcting and teaching each other, how they check their classroom bins for all content to be correct and that they are even checking in the offices if all is in order. “I am very conscious about where I put my things because I know that I have my kids in and out of here and they are checking”, Johnson said with a big smile.

George Prine, Director of Facilities, shared that garbage has gone down drastically . Prior to this program, he used to fill two 6 yard containers to the brim every day. Now he is looking at maybe 4 yards every other day. He is in the process of making changes to his pick up needs and is expecting to be saving on next years garbage bid. “I am just amazed how well it is working, we have tried several times to increase our recycling, but only this time it is working and it is here to stay” he shared contently.

Alan Levin, Food Service Direct with Chartwell
Alan Levin, Food Service Direct with Chartwell

Sean Adams also interviewed Alan Levin, Director of Food Service with Chartwell. Mr Levin has been an exceptional team player in this program because he worked diligently to bring his kitchen to follow the same rules. The kitchen is also fully source separated, sorting out compost, commingled as well as soft plastic. “Prior to this, we had about 5 barrels of garbage every day, and now we are down to this tiny little bin”, showing off an office sized bin, “everything else is either commingled or compostable. I call this a really successful program and my staff has really been very good about following the new rules.”

All three agreed that this is the way of the future and they are happy to be part of it.

The show will be aired on January 5th, 2015 on AM 880.

Support Crowdfunding Initiative to Bring Small-Scale Biodigester to an Educational Site in Westchester!

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Biogas is the perfect solution to many environmental problems, creating heat, biogas, and compost out of our waste, instead of using fossil fuels to cart that waste away for it to be burnt. It is a technology as old as time, used all over the world, but practically non existent in the U.S.

Check out this fabulous small size home bio digester, perfect for a typical U.S. household and small enough to tuck into a corner somewhere outside.  The Biogas Education Network is seeking contributions via crowdfunding website Indiegogo “to place home biogas units Made in the USA using recycled materials by Hestia Home Biogas at select non-profit educational sites…where they may be visited by the public and utilized by educators to provide students with hands-on experience operating small scale biodigesters and using biogas.”

Please consider supporting the Biogas Education Network Indiegogo campaign by donating and/or spreading the word!

Student Lunch Contributes to Global Warming

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About 18% of elementary school sandwiches are wrapped in Aluminum foil. This data came from a survey in a New Rochelle Elementary School lunchroom. Every child was surveyed on how its lunch was packaged. aluminum-can-life-cycle

We found of the 850 children surveyed, about 55 % brought lunch from home, the others bought lunch in school.  That is about 470 children. Only 6% of these children were completely waste free, meaning they brought all food and drink in reusable containers. Another 16% had some sort of reusable container, either a bottle or a sandwich box , 18% had their lunch wrapped in aluminum foil, of which half had that aluminum wrapped sandwich again in a small plastic bag.  So close to 80 sheets of aluminum were used every day in just one school.

Let’s look at what Aluminum is and how it is mined.

map_enAbout 7 percent of the earth’s crust is aluminium, making it the third-most abundant element after oxygen and silicon. Aluminium production starts with the raw material bauxite.

Bauxite is a mineral found mostly in a belt around the equator. Bauxite, containing 15-25 percent aluminium, is the only ore that is used for commercial extraction of aluminium today.

mineThe bauxite occurs mostly in the tropics, in horizontal layers normally beneath a few meters of overburden . The layers are usually mixed with various clay minerals, iron oxides and titanium dioxide. It is the iron that gives bauxite a deep red color.

This is the process of mining.

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Industry claims that it is mitigating the devastating effects of strip mining huge surfaces, but evidence is ample that mitigation as well as environmental control during mining is lax or non existent.

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Tailing ponds is another source for environmental problems.

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75% of all Aluminum foil used in the US is for single use food  wrapping, and ends up in landfills.

So your child’s sandwich can contribute to global warming.  Maybe there is a better solution?

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Why food composting can save Westchester’s taxpayer money, big time!

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Food waste is around 40% of all waste from households, it is made up of mainly water, thus it is heavy. Garbage cost is calculated by weight. So all this water is costing the tax payer dearly.

Westchester’s garbage is being collected by the municipalities, brought to one of the several transfer stations within the county and from there it is transported in big trucks to the incinerator in Peekskill.

So basically, we are using fossil fuels  (garbage trucks get about 2.6 miles per gallon of diesel fuel) to truck water 50 miles north?

The far better solution would be to sort out all that water laden food waste and actually compost it.  Combine food waste with yard waste and  nature will give us black gold, aka compost.

The absolute best way is to do it right at home. Solon-Compost-Bin-4Have a little bin next to your sink and sort out all your food waste (no bones or meats though, home composters can’t handle that, commercial ones can)

And place that food waste in a ratio of 1 food waste to 3 leaves or woodchips into a composter. It can be a home made one, compost-4-940x626

or a commercially available one like these. And the rest is done by mother nature. Turning the mixture once in a while will introduce oxygen and thus help the bacteria to do a more efficient job. Earth_Machine_close

A few weeks later you will have lovely compost that can be used in your garden.

Most people are afraid that composting will be smelly or attract rodents. With all in life, if it is done right, there is none of that.

Westchester County Legislator Catherine Parker Introduces Limited-Use Plastic Bag Legislation

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We Future Cycle is proud to support Westchester County Legislator Catherine Parker in her announcement to introduce a bill to limit the use of plastic bags and styrofoam containers by retail businesses in the county.  She was joined by Legislators Catherine Borgia, Maryjane Shimsky, and Pete Harckham, who are co-sponsoring the bill, as well as Mamaroneck Town Supervisor Nancy Seligson and Girl Scout Cadette Katie Yacoub, who is doing a plastic bag project in Eastchester.   Read the full article on the New Rochelle Patch

Photos courtesy of John Filiberti.

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