Sustainable Ewing Green Team

Community Conversation Less than One Week Away

June 1, 2014November 3, 2016Leave a comment

The countdown to the Ewing Green Team’s Community Conversation is in full swing. On Saturday, June 7th, only 6 days from today, the Ewing Green Team will gather along with other citizen activists for a morning of planning to begin a process of creating a comprehensive community sustainability plan. Led by a team of facilitators from Maga Sustainability, Lori Braunstein and Natalie Barney, sustainability champions from Cherry Hill, we will endeavor to Preserve Our Past, recognizing where we have come from, evaluate our township as it currently exits and identify what is it about our community that we most value. With our strengths identified, we will then endeavor to discern how to Transform Our Future, imagining where we would like our community to be in ten or twenty years and to create a shared vision that will form the basis for developing goals and completing actions that move the community toward a more ideal, sustainable community

We are extremely excited to have this unique opportunity to formulate a sustainable future for our town in a more planned way based on the input of concerned citizens. It will be the first time a global community focus on sustainability will have been addressed in an in-depth way in Ewing. The process is being funded by a PSE&G grant through Sustainable Jersey.

Regarding the process, all ideas will be welcome. Can you imagine a Ewing that will make it into NJ Monthly Magazine’s bi-annual Best Places to Live article? One vision for a perfect future might also include more of a front porch community where people no longer retreat to their backyards but commune more with their neighbors. Where block parties for neighborhoods to come together are common. One that is more walkable and bikable. One that is prettier, with more community plantings and more community gardens. What would you like to see in our town? We look forward to joining with other participants to each bring our unique visions for Ewing’s future.

Date: Saturday, June 7th
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Location: TCNJ, Education Building, Room 212

For more information email ewinggreenteam@gmail.com

Shred Day – Saturday, May 31st

May 27, 2014November 3, 2016Leave a comment

Dispose of your sensitive documents safely and securely at Ewing’s second Shred Day of the year, Saturday, May 31st from 9 – 1 at the municipal building. Document shredding will be done on site. This service is for Ewing residents only and proof of residency is required.

The Ewing Green Team will be on hand to assist.

Date: Saturday, May 31st
Time: 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Location: Municipal Building

Environmental Insights

May 19, 2014November 3, 2016Leave a comment

The Conversation about our Industrial Food System Begins with Food, Inc.

Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: The College of New Jersey, Education Building, Ewing, NJ 08628, Room 113, Parking in Lots 17 and 18 (Directions)
Cost: Free and open to the public

Organic, Grow Local, GMO/GE, rBGH, antibiotic usage, factory farms, food labeling laws, processed foods, obesity epidemic, high fructose corn syrup… These are just a few of the issues about the American food supply that now bombard an awakening public. Its industrialization has filled our supermarkets with plenty, but at what cost? Are our bodies able to safely handle the thousands of chemical additives that are now routine in our diet? Is the American diet indeed responsible for the epidemic levels of food allergies, Autism, ADHD, Type II Diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and many other conditions that are being suggested by some health and nutrition professionals? What do they all mean, how are they related, and finally, is our industrial food supply being properly regulated by the government agencies that are supposed to protect our health? Let’s start the discussion about our food in our town with a showing and discussion about documentary film Food, Inc. Ewing Green Team is delighted to introduce as our moderator, Camille Miller, the Executive Director of the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

About Food Inc.

Food, Inc. is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner. The film lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (“Fast Food Nation”), Michael Pollan (“The Omnivore’s Dilemma”) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms’ Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals shocking truths about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

About Ms. Miller

Camille Miller is an organic food advocate and has worked extensively in raising awareness around food and farming issues at the local, state and national levels. She also serves as Vice-President of the Board on the NOFA Interstate Council, a seven state organic farming coalition. She is an active member in the National Organic Coalition (NOC), an alliance of grassroots organic groups and environmen-tal organizations working to provide a “Washington voice” for farmers, ranchers, environmentalists and others involved in organic agriculture as well as a national trained speaker for the Institute of Responsible Technology on Genetically Engineered food.

Master Gardeners’ Plant Expo and Garden Market Saturday, May 3rd

April 29, 2014November 3, 2016Leave a comment

Are you looking for quality perennials, herbs, and veggies of various types for your garden this spring? The Mercer County Master Gardeners’ annual Plant Expo and Garden Market on May 3rd will feature such from top notch local area nurseries. The Master Gardeners and County Horticulturalist, Barbara Bromley, will also be on hand to answer questions and give assistance in making your selections. A secondhand sale of gently used items will also be conducted. So take this opportunity to reduce waste with a little reusing instead of buying new. The Expo will be held at the Mercer Educational Gardens this Saturday, May 3rd from 9am – 2 pm. Don’t forget to tour the gardens while you are there and catch up on all the Master Gardeners are doing. For more information see http://www.mgofmc.org/compostsite.html. The Gardens are located at the Mercer County Equestrian Center4 at 31A Federal City Road in Pennington.

National Drug Take Back Day This Saturday, April 26

April 23, 2014November 3, 2016Leave a comment

If your medicine cabinet is filled with expired drugs or medications that you no longer use, and you are concerned about detrimental environmental effects from improper disposal, here is the information that you need to properly dispose of them.

The Ewing Police Department will be participating in the DEA’s twice yearly National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. This will take place on Saturday, April 26, 2014, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This is a great opportunity for those who missed the previous events, or who have subsequently accumulated unwanted, unused prescription drugs, to safely dispose of those medications. Just go to the Ewing Police Department at 2 Jake Garzio Drive. Enter the main door and make a left to go down the hallway to the Police Department. Ewing Police will have an officer between 10 and 2 to take the items.

All medications are accepted, prescription and over-the-counter, as well as liquids. Hypodermic needles are not accepted. The disposal is handled completely securely; all accepted medications with any labels that you leave on the containers are placed in a large cardboard box, lined with plastic. At the end of the day the contents are taken to the prosecutor’s office. The DEA will pick up and incinerate.

Guidelines for Drug Disposal

If you are unable to participate on the day the FDA’s guidelines for proper drug disposal follow:

Follow any specific disposal instructions on the drug label or patient information that accompanies the medication. Do not flush prescription drugs down the toilet unless this information specifically instructs you to do so.
If no instructions are given on the drug label and no take-back program is available in your area, take them out of their original containers and mix them with an undesirable substance, such as used coffee grounds or kitty litter — to make the medication less appealing and unrecognizable — then put them in a sealable bag, empty can, or other container to prevent the medication from leaking or breaking out of a garbage bag.
You should also remove any identifying information on the label to protect your identity and privacy.

Despite the safety reasons for flushing drugs, some people are questioning the practice because of concerns about trace levels of drug residues found in surface water, such as rivers and lakes, and in some community drinking water supplies. However, the main way drug residues enter water systems is by people taking medications and then naturally passing them through their bodies. That said, the FDA does not want to add drug residues into water systems unnecessarily. The agency reviewed its drug labels to identify products with disposal directions recommending flushing or disposal down the sink. This continuously revised listing can be found at FDA’s Web page on Disposal of Unused Medicines.