Green Living
Middletown Area School is Green Through and Through
You can’t describe the Lucy School, a preschool-through-8th grade private school midway between Middletown and Myersville, without talking about the boots. To me, the boots symbolize the approach this school takes to its educational mission, which founding director...
The Comeback of Water Fountains (and the going-away of plastic water bottles)
The marketing campaigns by bottled water companies have won the hearts and minds of Americans during the past few decades. So imagine that now, as we wean ourselves off the single-use bottle, xx of which are thrown away each hour, we now have to create publicity...
How Many Paper Towels Does It Take?
Does anybody remember the animated Tootsie Pop commercial? “How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?” Strangely, I thought about that commercial the other day while in a public restroom. I know, how odd! Anyway, what made me...
The Coffee Makers Funeral
The other day I heard a man brag about giving a worn-out coffee maker a ‘Viking funeral’. For those who are not familiar with the Vikings, they would set their dead on a boat and light them on fire. Then they would sail off to Viking heaven. Back then, of course,...
The Grocery Story: Our Food and Co-ops in the age of Big Grocery Retail
I walked in the C. Burr Artz Library expecting a large crowd gathered in the community room. There were a couple of tables set up, chairs lined in their rows, and an elderly crowd making chit chat as we were waiting for Jon Steinham to begin his discussion on his new...
The Anthropology of Roadside Trash
For a year now I have been routinely cleaning up litter along a two -mile stretch of Harmony Road, sometimes with the help of family and friends. We adopted it as part of Green Frederick's mission to serve the community. Its a bucolic setting, winding along the stream...
School Composting and Waste Sorting Data
Joe Richardson of Bar-T Mountainside Ranch (a directory member!) and member of the @Frederick Compost Workgroup recently presented data from a number of waste sorts and composting efforts he coordinated at schools in Frederick County. He presented the data to the...
“There’s a new ‘JOHN’ in town”
If you poop, add a scoop. If you pee, let it be. Months later, top-dress the brown spots in your lawn. I interviewed David Myers of Build-Rite Construction LLC/Myers Barn Shop, and RN, a customer of his, about the Sun-Mar Composting Toilet. And the statements above...
The Christmas Tree Shopping dilemma
Every year at this time we scope out whats being said about real vs. artificial Christmas trees, and while Green Frederick leans towards buying a re-plantable LOCAL real Christmas tree, there are considerations. Take a look at Earth 911’s assessment here, with some...