clean up – Sustainable Ewing Green Team

Protect Our Local Watershed at Our Annual Stream Cleanup in Ewing

March 6, 2025Leave a comment

Calling all our Ewing Friends and Neighbors: Let’s work together to show the Shabakunk Creek some much needed TLC on Saturday, April 12^th 9-11 am. Pre-registration required.

Cleanup days are a good time for Ewing residents to get out into the environment and experience nature while working to protect our important natural resources. Volunteers walk along specific stream segments and pick up trash and litter. This event, run by Mayor Bert Steinman and the Ewing Green Team in partnership with The Watershed Institute has been run in a number of Ewing locations over the years resulting in the removal of over 9200 pounds of trash during this event alone.

Additionally, over the past decade, The Watershed Institute’s annual cleanups have coordinated the hard work of over 9,300 enthusiastic volunteers who have removed more than 160,000 pounds of trash from our local area communities.

The Ewing event this year will concentrate cleanup efforts at the Shabakunk Creek at the Hollowbrook Community Center and its environs, at 320 Hollowbrook Drive, Ewing.

Pre-registration is required!

This is a rain or shine event. Long pants, gloves, and closed-toed shoes are highly recommended. Please don’t forget to bring the gloves and your reusable water bottle! This is an in-person program. Masks are optional. A parent or legal guardian is required to attend with all children. To attend this event, you must agree to the terms of the waiver included during registration.

Thank You Giveaways!

Trees NOT Tees! The Watershed will continue to offer cleanup volunteers a complimentary tree sapling to say thank you for helping keep our waterways clean! They will not be offering stream cleanup t-shirts as we typically do to reduce our environmental impact and conserve limited natural resources. One cotton t-shirt takes 650 gallons of water to produce while a single oak tree can host 532 species of caterpillars, 147 species of birds, 120 species of mammals, and 60 species of reptiles and amphibians. In addition, one mature white oak can absorb over 2000 gallons stormwater per year which can reduce stormwater runoff pollution, flooding, and recharge groundwater.

Event Summary

Event: Stream Cleanupat the West Branch of the Shabakunk Creek.
Date: Saturday, April 12^thTime: 9 – 11 am
Location: Hollowbrook Community Center, 320 Hollowbrook Drive, Ewing.
Cost: a couple of hours of your time
Pre-registration required: Click Here

2024 Stream Cleanup Results

April 22, 2024Leave a comment

Just over a week ago on a cold and damp Saturday morning on April 13^th, the Green Team, Environmental Commission, and The Watershed Institute partnered to perform a cleanup of the Shabakunk Creek at Ewing’s Hollowbrook Community Center and its environs. This event was a part of a Stream Cleanup held every spring where volunteers from local municipalities come together to remove trash and debris from our local waterways to protect and preserve essential wildlife habitat, safeguard our water quality, help control flooding, and engage the citizenry in the beautification and care of our local environment.

This marks The Watershed’s 18th annual cleanup in local watersheds and the 5^th in which Ewing participated. Over the past decade, 8,700 enthusiastic volunteers have removed more than 152,000 pounds of trash from our communities.

Our haul this year totaled 1855 pounds of trash, removed by the 56 volunteers who braved the cold and drizzle. The most commonly found items included cardboard, glass bottles, and plastics. Special finds this year were air conditioner parts, a rusty bike, deer stand, lots of concrete (construction) waste, a mailbox, trash cans, a car bumper, bike crossing road sign, seed spreader, seat cushion, half of a ninja blender, a traffic cone, and chicken wire fence.

Ewing had the most pounds of trash collected for that first weekend of cleanups and we ranked 2^nd in the number of volunteers who braved the cold and rain. We thank everyone who so generously gave of their time at this event: local students, scout groups, corporate groups, families and, of course, our friends at The Watershed for organizing this once again and including us in this critical effort in watershed protection.

About The Watershed Institute

The Watershed Institute is a non-profit organization committed to keeping water clean, safe, and healthy. They wok to protect and restore Central New Jersey water and natural environment through conservation, advocacy, science, and education.

Earth Day Moody Park Clean Up* (date change)

April 6, 2022April 10, 20221 Comment

You’re invited to join the Ewing Green Team in showing Moody Park some love.

In coordination with AmeriCorps NJ Watershed Ambassador Program, the Ewing Green Team will be holding an Earth Day Community Park clean-up event at Moody Park on Sunday, April 24th.

The clean-up will run from 10 am – noon and pre-registration is required. Participants aged 15 or younger must be accompanied by an adult. The adult should complete the registration and waiver and include the name(s) of the minor(s) in the comments as well as include the total number of people who will be attending under the adult’s name. Waiver

Trash bags, disposable gloves, hand sanitizer, and trash pickers will be available on site. Participants are also encouraged to bring their own supplies.

“Our Community Clean-up, slated for Earth Day+², coincides with regional, state and county events focused on beautifying our communities,” stated Councilwoman Jennifer Keyes-Maloney, “including the Mercer County Sustainability Coalition’s Greening Together event, a week-long celebration of Earth Day- Arbor Day with both in-person and virtual events.”

Community members will be notified upon sign-up as to their reporting location at the park. This is a rain or shine event.

“We are so appreciative of residents who are willing to give up a bit of their Sunday to help beautify an important recreational space in Ewing.” said Ewing Mayor Bert Steinmann.

As a thank you for all your hard work, cleanup participants will be rewarded with a treat from Rita’s Italian Ice! Each ice flavor will be pre-packaged, and you will receive biodegradable spoon! What a sweet way to end a cleanup!

Community members unable to participate in the event at Moody Park are encouraged to consider cleaning up their portion of the community, whether that be a street corner, storm drain or common area. We invite you to share photos of your personal cleanups.

Thank YOU for making a difference in Ewing!

Event Summary

Title: Earth Day Community Park Cleanup
Date: Sunday, April 24^th
Time: 10 am – noon
Location: Moody Park (parking lot at the corner of Buttonwood and Ewingville Rd
Pre-registration is required

Keep Ewing Beautiful: Participate in the Sept 20th TrashDash

September 12, 2020September 12, 2020Leave a comment

by Lynn Robbins

You’re invited to take part in a TrashDash plogging event Sunday, September 20. This national all-day event is open to everyone of all ages.

Join the Sustainable Ewing Green Team and Keep America Beautiful as we get rid of litter and create a cleaner, greener, safer community for all.

How to participate

Grab a bag, a pair of gloves, and a camera if you’d like to share photos. Choose a place to take a walk or jog and pick up any litter you find on your trek as we all join in to clean up our community while observing social distancing.

You can take photos along the way — the litter you find, a before and after comparison, your filled trash bag when finished, or whatever strikes you. Send your pictures plus any comments you wish to share to the Green Team at ewinggreenteam@gmail.com. We’ll post contributors’ results on our Facebook page. You can also post your experience on your favorite social media sites, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and on Instagram @KeepAmericaBeautiful. Use the hashtag #TrashDash or #DoBeautifulThings.

The word “plogging” combines “jogging” with the Swedish phrase, “plocka upp,” to pick up. The activity, started by Erik Ahlstrom around 2016, has grown to an international movement.

Spearheaded by Keep America Beautiful, the first TrashDash run in the United States took place last September. In addition to commonly found litter, this year TrashDash intends to bring awareness to the safety hazards of littered personal protective equipment (PPE), including used masks and gloves.

The organization describes TrashDash as “the engine to remove thousands of pounds of trash from neighborhoods, beaches, rivers, lakes, trails, and parks — reducing waste and plastic pollution, improving habitats, and preventing harm to wildlife and humans.”

Learn more!

Keep America Beautiful: https://kab.org/
Free registration for virtual plogging with Keep America Beautiful/Instagram: https://act.kab.org/event/trashdash-2020/e293288
The plogging story: http://www.swemfa.se/2019/02/19/plogging-an-eco-friendly-trend-on-the-move/

Tips for Recycling Your Christmas Tree

December 28, 2017December 28, 20172 Comments

Next week we will be seeing that holiday staple, the Christmas tree, that gave its all for Christmas cheer, forlorn and discarded by the hundreds at the curbside. Ewing Township, of course, collects your tree at the curb for recycling into mulch to be used around local parks, however, there are also many environmentally- and taxpayer-friendly ways you can use your tree on your own property.

Reuse your Christmas tree around your home and in your yard this winter and not only will you nourish the landscape, providing valuable resources and habitat for the environment, but you can also help reduce staff time with tree pickup, saving taxpayer dollars.

Winter mulch
Evergreens provide winter insulation for tender plants in your yard and reduce frost heaving. Cut the boughs from the tree and place them over any delicate plants for the winter. They also help alleviate the weight of snow on branches that might otherwise break from the added load.
Mulch with the needles
Needles from your tree dry out quickly and decompose slowly. They make an excellent mulch for the garden. Pine needles are full of nutrients that can reduce the PH of your soil if its more alkaline. Many on a branch fall off the boughs placed in the beds during the winter.
Brush Pile for Wildlife Habitat
Wildlife need snug hiding places and protection from winter weather. Make a small brush pile from the boughs in a back corner of your yard and create a safe place to support our threatened vanishing wildlife. Or leave your tree intact and place it in its stand outdoors. Fill it with bird feeders hung from the boughs. Again, this makes a wonderful addition to wintertime habitat for a variety of small animals such as birds, rabbits, and squirrels…
Firewood
You can use your tree as firewood, but not right away. The wood is wet and can pose a fire hazard. Cut your tree up and let it dry out and then use in an outdoor fire pit. It’s not good with an inside fireplace, but works well outside.
Fresheners
Make a sachet from the tree’s pine needles to keep that Christmas scent in your home throughout the New Year.
Fish feeders
Sunk into private fish ponds, trees make an excellent refuge and feeding area for fish.
Coasters
The creative and crafty among us can make round coasters from the trunk.