Green Medford: Reverse Trick or Treat Bewitches Columbus School Neighborhood

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What would you do if your doorbell rang on Halloween and instead of saying “trick or treat!” your visitors handed you a new, curly-cue light bulb (or two)? This year’s Halloween saw an event that was a brand new take on the usual compact fluorescent light bulb canvasses that the CEA hosts.  We are thrilled to see that this creative event went off without a hitch, and that it has set a great precedent for following years!

Please see below for the post featured on the Green Medford blog:


A group of us from Green Medford and Fletcher Green (a Tufts graduate student group) trolled the streets around the Columbus School last night–Halloween evening–handing out bags of treats to delighted and laughing residents at 84 addresses. People who answered their doors expecting to give out candy were instead handed a bag containing two new energy-efficient lights. Event participant “Sherlock Holmes” noted, “It was gratifying to see how surprised and happy this made people.”

One resident told us, “This is such a great idea! We recently switched all of our bulbs to CFLs and are saving $60 a month.” She turned to her neighbor and said, “You have to take some. This is amazing!”

We gave out more than 180 CFLs that were donated by National Grid and the Tufts Office of Community Relations. The First Annual Medford Reverse Trick or Treat exceeded our expectations, and we are already looking forward to expanding on our success with a bigger event next year!

Thanks so much to all the sponsors and others who helped organize this event, especially JR Siegel, Allie Lipps, Becky Hemperly, Kim Wardwell, Catherine Smith, Alicia Hunt, Brad Steele of EFI, and Barbara Rubel at the Tufts Office of Community Relations.

Susan Altman
Green Medford

Sunny California

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On the heels of recent 10-10-10 and 350.org events, last Monday, the US federal government approved the largest solar energy project in the world—four plants costing one billion dollars each in southern California. The so-called Blythe solar power plant will consist of four, 250-Megawatt plants, built on public lands in the Mojave desert.  “When completed the project is expected to generate up to 1,000 Megawatts of energy … That’s enough electricity to power up to 750,000 average American homes and to make Blythe the largest solar power plant facility in the world,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. Given the recent explosion of Chinese solar and wind development, this news comes at an opportune time for the US renewable energy market.

The total capacity will be roughly equal to the turbine output of a nuclear power plant or a large modern coal-fired power plant, according to Solar Millennium, the German solar company in charge of developing the facility.  Solar Millennium plans to begin construction on Blythe this year and at the height of construction, the project is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs, which is good news not only for green job creation, but for job creation in general in a sluggish US economy.  The Blythe facility is one of a number of renewable energy projects that have been approved in recent weeks by the Interior Department.

MIT Climate CoLab Contest

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What should we do about climate change?

Instead of waiting for policy makers to act, you can help figure out the answer at the Climate CoLab; previously discussed in Opening the [Copenhagen] talks. Working alone—or in teams of people from all over the world—you can create proposals for what to do about climate change. The winning proposals will be presented to key policy makers, including officials at the UN and the US Congress. And if your proposal is one of the top two, you’ll receive travel funding for a representative of your team to attend one of these briefings.

We especially encourage entries from teams of undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in climate and sustainability issues. As usual rules and restrictions apply.

The deadline for the contest is October 31, 2010.

Reverse trick-or-treat CFL event!

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The Cambridge Energy Alliance has participated in many CFL exchange canvasses. On a chosen day, we and volunteers head out into neighborhoods and knock on doors, offering to give an equal number of CFLs for the number of regular light bulbs a household will hand us. As a special treat with Halloween approaching, Green Medford has announced an event that is a new take on this idea.

From the Green Medford blog:

Hi all! I want to share with you a very fun idea and ask for your help in making it a big success!

We’re calling our event “Reverse Trick or Treat,” thought up by JR Siegel, a student at the Fletcher School and a Medford resident. The idea is for a bunch of residents to get together on Halloween, hopefully including kids, to make it more fun for everyone.

Dressed in fun costumes (but nothing too scary), teams of two or three (no kids without an adult) will ring doorbells in a residential neighborhood during trick or treating time. We’ve been given several hundred energy-efficient lights (CFLs) by National Grid and Tufts to give away to folks who answer their doors. The more of us there are to participate, the more bulbs we can give out. The kids, of course, will do regular trick or treating at the same time!

We want to focus on a neighborhood with lots of families that might not already have CFLs or know all they need to about saving electricity and money by switching to energy-efficient lights.

We also would like to find a reporter to walk around with us and take pictures and talk to people about the event.

In addition to us in Green Medford, we already have all these sponsors committed!

EFI/National Grid, Tufts University Office of Community Affairs, Fletcher Green (a student group at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy/Tufts), and the Medford Energy and Environment Office.

Please join us! Contact Susan Altman, Green Medford, susan.altman@comcast.net, 781-395-4664, or J.R. Siegel, Fletcher Green, j.r.siegel@gmail.com.

Happy Halloweeeeeeeen!

Whitehouse Goes Solar!

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Under mounting pressure from 10-10-10 groups, 350.org’s Bill McKibben, and various other environmental activists, the Obama Administration announced today that it will re-install solar panels on the White House roof. After weeks of rallying support for the Solar Road Trip including over 40,000 signatures by citizens who urged the President to retrofit the White House, Bill McKibben, 350.org, Unity College students, and the 40,000+ who were following the event were ultimately disappointed; previous coverage. The White House refused to take the Carter-era solar panel which was removed when Regan took office, and has since been living in Maine. however, the administration promised that they would “continue deliberative processes” surrounding solar on their roof. Since that day, not much has been mentioned on this topic by 350.org/Bill McKibben, other than that the President of the Maldives will be installing solar panels.

While the White House was not able to accomodate the symbolism of re-installing the solar panel that once resided on the President’s roof during the Carter administration, this morning great news was announced by the Associated Press, they will go forward and install new panels.

The most famous residence in America, which has already boosted its green credentials by planting a garden, plans to install solar panels atop the White House’s living quarters. The solar panels are to be installed by spring 2011, and will heat water for the first family and supply some electricity.

The plans will be formally announced later Tuesday by White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Obama’s decision, whether purely political or not, represents his Administration’s increased need to demonstrate support for renewable energy alternatives, particularly after the failure to pass comprehensive climate legislation in the Senate this summer.

In a recent Rolling Stone article, Obama stated, “One of my top priorities next year is to have an energy policy that begins to address all facets of our overreliance on fossil fuels. We may end up having to do it in chunks, as opposed to some sort of comprehensive omnibus legislation. But we’re going to stay on this because it is good for our economy, it’s good for our national security, and, ultimately, it’s good for our environment.” In the wake of the tragic BP oil disaster and with mounting evidence of a returning conservative agenda given mid-term elections, the Obama Administration will have to stand firm against the pull of those who do not consider climate change a top priority. By placing solar panels back on the roof of the White House, a symbolic move which should not be overlooked, the message is clear: Let’s not just talk the talk, let’s walk the walk.

This report also includes text from Tara Holmes

Touring the Casella Recycling Plant

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The front of the warehouse, where trucks unload.

On Wednesday I went on a tour of the Casella recycling plant. Cambridge’s recycling director, Randi Mail, is hosting tours before the town switches over to single-stream recycling October 25. Casella is already handling single-stream loads from many towns in Massachusetts, including Boston. It was fascinating to see the elaborate sorting process.

First, giant piles of recyclables are dumped off the trucks and bulldozed onto a conveyer belt, which levels them out into more manageable amounts.

A teeny tiny bulldozer pushes the recyclables onto a conveyer belt.

Then the mass of recyclables are spun around a tunnel with 1-inch holes in the sides. Centrifugal force holds lighter materials to the side while glass falls to the bottom and shatters, over and over again, until it can fall through the holes.

Heavier metals (pots & pans…) and rigid plastic (like laundry baskets) are pulled out by hand and dropped into chutes. More than 20 people are stationed at various spots on the line to hand sort, but 99% of their job is to pull out plastic bags before they can gum up the works.

A magnetic conveyer belt runs over the line to pull out metal. Since aluminum isn’t magnetic, a later spot in the line reverses the polarity of the aluminum to repel it over a barrier and onto another belt.

Paper and cardboard slides up rollers spaced at intervals. The paper glides over the top of the rollers, but heavier materials like plastics fall through. It’s amazing how well sorted everything is by the end of the line.

Eight sets of optical sensors ID different kinds of plastics and trigger jets of air to shoot them over a barrier onto another belt.

The end results are baled for transport. The system works remarkably well: the plant director told us that their buyers only allow 2% contamination of each material with another, so it has to be well sorted. Anything that didn’t get separated is run through the system again to capture as much as possible.

Bales of recycling are stacked way over your head.

I expected the warehouse to stink, but it didn’t. I guess that’s a testament to how well people rinse their recyclables. But it was very noisy and very dusty. And hot! I guess an 80-degree day wasn’t the best for a tour.

Some take-aways for me:

  • Plastic bags are death to the machines. The line is only running about 70% of the time, mostly because of plastic bags. So don’t toss them into recycling bins.
  • Plastic smaller than 3 inches falls through and doesn’t get recycled. So bottle caps should always be put back on their bottles.
  • Paper attached to glass gets thrown away, because tiny glass particles stick to it at the plant. So if you want to recycle it, pull it off at home.

If you’re interested in going on a tour yourself, Cambridge is hosting two more this year, on October 28 and November 18. To sign up, email recycle@cambridgema.gov or call 617-349-4815. If you can’t make the tour, you can also watch a video about single-stream recycling on Casella’s website.

For all the pictures, and larger versions of them, see the original article at the link below.

Cross-posted on pragmaticenvironmentalism.com

Person-to-Person Car Sharing with RelayRides

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The RelayRides onboard computer

On Saturday we tried out a Boston-based car-sharing service called RelayRides. It’s much like the other locally-based car-share service Zipcar, except that all the cars are owned by regular people. When they’re not using them, they rent them out.

Jason and I are thinking of enrolling our car, since we rarely use it on weekends, but we wanted to try out the system from the other side first.

Like with Zipcar, a membership card locks and unlocks the door, but only during your scheduled time. An electronic device near the rearview mirror shows how long you have the car for and allows you to extend or shorten your reservation. It also houses the gas card. Gas is the owner’s responsibility (figured into the cost of the rental), but drivers are supposed to make sure they return it at least ¼ full.

When I signed up, I got a $25 credit on my account, to encourage me to use it. It’s such a new service that they’re also waiving any introductory fees, so it’s cost us nothing. If you’ve ever thought of using Zipcar, it’s worth trying out.

The whole thing’s remarkably easy, but there were a few hangups. The door unlocking mechanism was a little touchy; I had to hold the card against it longer than I thought necessary before it registered. And we did have a little bit of trouble finding the car. Unlike Zipcar, the only RelayRides sign around the car is in the bottom corner of the windshield, and the website showed a silver Honda Accord, when the car was blue. That wouldn’t have been so confusing, except a silver Honda Accord was actually parked nearby. Luckily, the owner of the car came out while I was calling the company and pointed out the correct car.

Despite that, though, the whole thing was so positive that it even convinced Jason that we should sign up, and he’s not always up for my cockamamie schemes. Once our car’s enrolled, I’ll let you know how it works from that side, too.

Eveything you know is wrong

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♫ Everything you know is wrong ♫
♫ Black is white, up is down and short is long ♫
♫ And everything you thought was just so ♫
♫ Important doesn’t matter ♫

—”Everything you know is wrong,” Weird Al Yankovic

Presumably Mr. Yankovic was just having his usual way with words and catchy tunes, but somewhat surprisingly the refrain from this song also reflects the public’s continuing misunderstandings about energy conservation.

New Scientist had a recent summary of a new journal article Public perceptions of energy consumption and savings. It uncovers some mismatches between what people consider to be significant means of conserving energy, and practices that actually do. The New Scientist article is a nice summary, but it glosses over a lot of detail, and if you have any objections to the findings or want more detail it is worth checking the paper itself, which is freely available, before dismissing it outright.

An older article from Science Blog discusses common misconceptions in general, but opens with a discussion of energy used to heat homes.