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How to be more sustainable this Holiday Season: 10 Tips

How to be more sustainable this Holiday Season: 10 Tips

If buying new holiday lights, make sure they are LED. Not only do they use a lot less energy, but they are also less of a fire risk than incandescent lights.

Shop Local! There will be ubiquitous cardboard boxes being delivered all over New Canaan this holiday season. Why not break from the new normal and visit our local downtown for holiday gifts. Helps cut down on shipping waste and helps our local stores. Gift certificates to local restaurants and experiences are always a great gift.

Piloting Food Waste Diversion in New Canaan Restaurants

Piloting Food Waste Diversion in New Canaan Restaurants

The Importance of Food Waste Diversion A couple months ago, I set out to figure out how Planet New Canaan could help local restaurants divert their food waste. This seemed a logical next steps after the positive advancements New Canaan has made by setting up food...

A Solar Panel Experience Worth Sharing

A Solar Panel Experience Worth Sharing

Solar panels are good for the planet and for my pocketbook. In 2015, we installed twelve solar panels on our garage roof. They cost me $13,947 after rebates, and the panels reduced our Eversource metered electricity usage by two-thirds, giving us a 7.5% yield on our...

Food Scrap Recycling: How You Can Help

Food Scrap Recycling: How You Can Help

My Story: How I Started I started collecting and composting my food scraps over 15 years ago. I didn't start because I was thinking of the environment. Well, not exactly. I did know that I would be recycling material. I'm a gardener and I'm cheap. Composting allowed...

Leaf Blowers: A Triple Threat

Leaf Blowers: A Triple Threat

During these challenging cold winter days, do you notice an unusual quiet outside? Bet you don’t miss the constant hum, or should I say, roar, of multiple landscapers blowing leaves, cut grasses, twigs and whatever in your neighborhood?  Winter offers some advantages...

Waste Not, Want Not: Use It All

Waste Not, Want Not: Use It All

Food waste is a problem. Not just what we do with it (ends up in a landfill, mostly) but also the natural and human resources used to produce, transport and market it. Research from the United Nation shows that around 17% of food is wasted worldwide – that’s One Billion Tons.

Recycling is More Than Your Blue Bin

Recycling is More Than Your Blue Bin

When you think of recycling, do you picture a blue bin filled with glass, paper, plastic bottles and aluminum cans?  If so, you are not alone. Single Stream recycling certainly has made recycling easier, as we no longer have to sort and separate items.  However, the...

Composting Your Autumn Leaves

Composting Your Autumn Leaves

Autumn’s wonderful leafy colors are followed by yards full of fallen leaves. What can you do with them in a way that is most ecologically responsible?

Pollinators

Pollinators

Here are some of our favorite native plants for attracting hummingbirds. Plus consider annuals, although not native, annuals offer lots of nectar and blooms all summer. Native Perennials and Shrubs * Trumpet Creeper, Campsis radicans* Oswego Tea, Monarda didyma*...

21 Sustainable New Years Resolutions

21 Sustainable New Years Resolutions

21 Sustainable New Year’s Resolutions   Inside Your House 1. If you are not composting at home, start using the new Food Scrap program at New Canaan Transfer Station to divert reusable organic waste from the municipal waste stream. Check out our program here. 2....