View the full article in Seacoast Online here.
By Fred Weston and Susan Glick, York Ready for 100%
By the end of May, 434 households had signed on to be an EcoHOME – a figure that means hundreds more residents are sharing information and taking significant actions to curb their greenhouse gas emissions at home and at work. Of the number of households participating (which continues to grow), the breakdown is 80% residents of York, 13% residents from nearby towns, and 7% residents from out of the area.
Our organizing principles — residents-helping-residents take action and working with community partners — have already been reported in this newspaper and have been picked up by newspapers as far away as Midwestern states, leading to inquiries from the national office of the Sierra Club.
EcoHOMES actions, which are introduced every 30 to 45 days, have focused so far on Community Solar, LED lightbulb exchange, and Food Recycling/Composting. Here is an update:
Community solar action
Maine is one of a handful of states that offers residents the opportunity to switch their energy source to community solar farms. So far, 50 EcoHOMES have switched to community solar, which means their household electrical power comes from one of several solar farms around Maine.
Electricity from solar costs less and is one of the most effective actions we can take to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and lower the greenhouse gas emissions coming from our homes. The change to solar is accomplished with a 15-minute phone call or online.
So far, the 50 households that have switched their power source to community solar will eliminate collectively an average of 150 tons of greenhouse gases per year. (That’s equivalent to the emissions from 33 cars per year.)
For more information see YorkEcoHOMES.com/Solar.
LED lightbulb exchange
Thanks to Eldredge Lumber and Kittery Ace Hardware, old-fashioned lightbulbs can be taken to either store and traded for up to eight LED bulbs. So far, 99 people have exchanged their old incandescent bulbs and received 764 free LED bulbs.
About 750 additional LED bulbs have been purchased, putting more than 1,500 LED bulbs into use in York and nearby towns. This action and change will eliminate about 140 tons of greenhouse gases per year.
Food recycling and composting
The average York household generates an astounding 500 pounds of food waste a year … and food waste accounts for nearly a third of all York’s trash. Food waste that goes into regular trash is incinerated or sent to a landfill. This results in the generation of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 28 times more potent that carbon dioxide.
Currently in York there are three ways to compost your food waste: backyard composting, curbside pickup by Mr. Fox, and (drum-roll please) York’s Transfer Station on Witchtrot Road, which is now accepting food waste!
Any home that starts composting through EcoHOMES, using any one of these three options, receives a free counter-top bin for easy collection of your daily food scraps. A free roll of compostable bag liners is also included. As of this writing, 44 households have claimed their free bin. A little arithmetic tells us that so far, 22,000 pounds of waste is being diverted from curbside trash pickup annually, eliminating about 66 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
EcoHOMES is deeply grateful to have established strategic partnerships throughout the community. Key partners include Eldredge Lumber, Kittery Ace Hardware, York Department of Public Works, Hannaford, Mr. Fox, York Recycling Committee, York Public Library, York Community Service Association, York Land Trust, Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the University of Maine, York Parks and Recreation, York Recycling Committee, Clarke & Howell, Williams Realty, Coldwell Banker Yorke Realty, and faith communities.
We are building on our success so far, and we invite households in York and other towns to join us as we work together to create a cleaner, safer future. (Sign up at YorkEcoHOMES.com.)
This article is based on information provided by York EcoHOMES, a Committee of York Ready for 100%, a grassroots citizens’ organization dedicated to building sustainability and reducing the causes of climate change and its effects on humans and the natural world. For more information see YorkEcoHOMES.com or email info@yorkreadyfor100.org.