Sustainable Ewing Green Team

Members of the Ewing Sustainable Green Team and the Ewing Environmental Commission will gather at ComFest at TCNJ on October 6^th to educate the public about their mission. Our hope is to spur participation from community members in creating a sustainable future for Ewing. At ComFest, the Green Team will have representation from each of its projects throughout the day, tips on sustainable living and activities for kids.

The Ewing Green Team is part of the statewide Sustainable Jersey effort (www.sustainablejersey.org). Sustainable Jersey’s mission is to promote meaningful environmental change in New Jersey by helping municipalities that want to go green, save money, and take steps to sustain their quality of life over the long term.

The Sustainable Jersey program identifies actions that municipalities can implement to go green and then certifies municipalities that have reached recommended milestones Of the 566 municipalities in New Jersey, 376 are already registered and 109 are certified to date. The Ewing team is pleased to announce a recent partnership with TCNJ Bonner Sustainability Scholars for the 2012-13 school year. The students are trained to assist municipalities in working toward sustainability goals.

A major focus in Ewing this year will be on educating the public about sustainability – what we can do as citizens, what our municipality can do to help, and about the Green Team and how citizens can get involved. “It’s important in our current economy and especially for future generations to create a more resilient community that can weather economic and resource shifts”, says John Hoegl, Chair. Green team leadership is excited about its growing and diverse team with a presence on the Township website and Facebook.

The Ewing Green Team meets the 4^th Wednesday of each month, 7-9pm at the Ewing Senior and Community Center on Lower Ferry Rd. For more information, come by the booth at CommFest, or contact John Hoegl at ewinggreenteam@gmail.com or 609-530-1530.

Composting is a good example of how a homeowner’s actions can have a positive impact on municipal costs: composting kitchen waste, leaves and grass clippings rather than putting them in the landfill could save our Township money in county tipping fees and labor. Homeowners would also see a direct additional benefit – the improvement of the soil health of their yards. Yards where the homeowners have trashed their grass (clippings) and leaves are starved for nutrients by the removal of these natural materials that would break down naturally and rebuild the soil.

Composting your leaves is not all that hard. Simply start up your trusty mulching mower (or buy a mulching blade and install it if you don’t have one) and mow away. You can leave the leaves on the grass to enrich the lawn or collect in the bag or dishcharge to the side and keep making passes until the shredded leaves reach the garden bed of your choice. It’s that simple. Check out this video to see how easy it is to enrich your soil, benefit the environment and save the Township $ on garbage costs. Who knows? It may even have the additional benefit of depressing your next tax hike!