Making Cary, NC a Greener Place
Living in Cary, North Carolina is a good thing by most accounts, consistently
ranking very high in livability, even while withstanding the ire of
others in the Triangle for being too “beige”. Whatever that means.
As if the rest of the triangle is all that interesting when compared
to the likes of NYC or San Francisco. At any rate, I digress.
Despite the many things I love about the area, one of the things that
bothers me is the amount of waste that goes on here (much like the rest of the good ol’ USA). Cary homeowners
are constantly being told to conserve water, etc. while the town and
business seemingly use water like it is going out of style. How many
new subdivisions and strip malls in Cary have nice little water
fountains out front continuously using water (even when it is recycled, it is not 100% efficient)? How many new subdivisions are clearing trees creating large amounts of waste on a daily basis while I am told I should conserve?
So, here are my top 6 things I think Cary could do to be greener, and I
don’t mean in the tree-hugging sense, I mean, practical, everyday
things. Some are for the town to do and some are for us citizens to do.
1. Start picking up chipboard (you know, cereal boxes, etc.) in the
curbside recycling program. This has to be one of the single biggest pieces of
waste most people produce and I bet most of it is thrown out because you can’t put it in the green bin. While the town encourages you to set it
aside and bring it to a convenience center, I bet most people do
not. The town says it does not have a enough trucks to manage all of
this, but my solution dovetails nicely with step 2.
2. Stop picking up yard waste every week in residential areas. Pick
up yard waste every other week. Provide people with a container just
like the garbage can to hold it all. Then in the off weeks in a neighborhood, they
can pick up all the chipboard. Even better, reduce all pick up
(including trash) to every other week, thus keeping the highly
polluting trucks out of neighborhoods as much as possible. In order to do this, however,
people would need airtight, odor proof trash cans, lest we stink up our garages. Think of it as
the Diaper Genie for household trash.
3. Use Habitat for Humanity’s Reuse Center when doing home remodeling
instead of just throwing out the remains of your gutted kitchen.
4. More bike lanes. Better driver education concerning bikes. Find
a way to give tax credits or discounts to people who bike to work,
etc. Perhaps we could have a program where cyclists could swipe a
card at a little station verifying they are riding their bike.
5. Even better than putting your yard waste out on the corner, start
composting. Make compost bins available on the cheap. People spend
all this money on mulch, top soil, cow manure, etc. when they have
all the makings of the same stuff in their weekly yard waste if only
they spent 30 minutes or so reading on how to do it and another 10 minutes each week tending to the pile. Composting is
easy and it need not smell bad, either.
6. Rain barrels. Again, make them
available for cheap. I paid $100 for two of them, but I bet they
could be even cheaper if the city gave more incentive for people to
adopt them. In fact, I bet they could find a local manufacturer who
they could buy barrels from cheaply and then they could be easily
converted to be used as a rain barrel. Also, consider giving incentives to those who, when installing a sprinkler system, also install an underground storage tank to capture rain runoff from their downspouts that then feeds back into the sprinkler system.
Ultimately, I would love to see the Town of Cary try to engage a
manufacturer to make solar much cheaper for a whole community. Perhaps if
a whole town were to negotiate buying solar panels in bulk we could
bring the price down significantly. Think about it, Cary, NC — virtually energy independent. How cool would that be? What better
thing could there be for home prices than to say that your energy
bills would be next to nothing for the life of the home? In fact, if the town did it right, it probably could setup a whole power cooperative, ensuring cheap power to homes and businesses for years to come.
August 9th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I own a small day spa in Cary. We strive to be “Green”, we use an electric mower, no disposables like paper cups, plates napkins, frequently visit Habitat for things needed in the spa (sinks,light fixtures) our products are biodegradable so I can take used water from a facial and water my flowers…..We started this business in May 2007 and I was shocked to hear that the Town of Cary did not offer recycling for businesses. We take home a bag every day and put it in our home recycle boxes. I hope that enough of us will express our concern so that this will change.
I would love to get solar paneling for our home and business! Let me know what I can do to help if you undertake this project for our community. Oh and where do I get a rain barrel and how does it work?
August 10th, 2007 at 4:59 am
I got the rain barrels off of craigslist (http://raleigh.craigslist.com). I have also seen them (much more expensive for the same thing) at Fairview Garden Center on Penny Road and Ten-Ten and Logan Garden Center (Seaboard Station in Raleigh.)
They consist of a 55 gallon drum with a mesh screen on the top and a spigot on the bottom. You cut off a section of your gutter downspout and put the rain barrel underneath them. I put mine up on cement blocks so that it is easier to get a watering can under them (plus, the higher up they are, the more water pressure you get.) I am planning on getting some chicken wire to wrap them in, so that I can grow some vines up around them to make them look better.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Loved your 6 suggestions. We’re using rain barrels already at our house in Cary and I’m looking for a cheap, compost bin (that has a handle to rotate the bin easily, so my kids will help) to start vermicomposting. Any suggestions? And…would you consider adding “carpooling” as number 7 to your list? It’s like a forgotten art.
August 28th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
I would search for “compost” at Google or Y! and you will get plenty of places to buy that kind of composter. I made my own out of the remnants of a deck. Just a big rectangle, about 3′ wide and 5′ long. Not an ideal layout, but works well enough. If I were to do it again, I would separate it into 3 separate stalls, so that it is easy to move the compost as it decays.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Be sure to find rain barrels which offer a mesh mosquito guard, and also look for barrels which have an overflow valve function to allow the excess water to flow out of the rain barrel and away from your foundation. Hooking a drip hose to this valve is a great way to give your garden or flower bed a constant source of moisture.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:29 am
Your proposal sounds good and practical. We often take for granted the little things that we can do to make a place greener.
I usually take part in tree planting activities if I have time. But the simple everyday acts like disposing your garbage properly, recycling paper or plastic bags are one way of addressing the environment issue.