By Shawn Dell Joyce

At some point today, you will be offered a disposable cup. Before you take it, consider how disposable that cup really is. If we were to look at how much energy it takes to produce cups made from paper, polystyrene and ceramic, most people would automatically think the ceramic cup is the greenest choice.

You’d have to use the ceramic cup 640 times before it would equal a polystyrene cup and 294 times to equal a paper/cardboard one in terms of the energy it takes to produce the cups, according to Treehugger.com. In terms of air pollution, polystyrene produces the least amount of emissions to manufacture one cup. It also takes more water to manufacture a ceramic cup than the entire life cycle water consumption of the other two.

Before you toss out all your ceramic cups and replace them with Styrofoam, Treehugger went on to find the ceramic vessel much more functional and durable with up to 3,000 uses compared to single-use paper, plastic or polystyrene foam. 

“But for a reusable cup to be reused, it has to be washed,” says Martin B. Hocking, a professor of Chemistry at the University of Victoria, in Canada. Hocking authored a life cycle assessment of reusable cups made from glass, ceramic and plastic to disposable cups made of paper and polystyrene.

Hocking factors in the cost of energy to wash the cups which is almost equal to the energy expended to produce a single polystyrene cup. According to Hocking’s study; you would have to use a reusable plastic cup 450 times, a glass cup 393, and a ceramic cup more than 1000 times for it to approach the energy efficiency of polystyrene. You would only have to reuse a plastic, glass or ceramic cup about 20 times (on average) to equal the energy expenditure of a disposable paper cup. 

If you go by just the energy expenditures, Styrofoam cups seem like the way to go. However, there is much more to a cup than its function. What happens to these five cups after their useful life is over?

Glass takes over a million years to decompose, but it is recyclable, and when recycled it reduces pollution by 20 percent according to California’s Project New Leaf. Paper can be recycled, but most paper cups are coated with plastic or wax and cannot be recycled. Even coated paper will biodegrade in five years, while uncoated and unbleached paper will be gone in a few days according to Worldwise.com  Styrofoam and plastic do not biodegrade, instead they photodegrade breaking down into smaller and smaller particles that will eventually wind up in our bodies.

Scientists are just now learning the effects of photodegrading plastics and polystyrene on the environment. These substances have only been around about 50 years, and are just now breaking down into microscopic sizes. As plastics get smaller, they are eaten by smaller creatures. As these creatures are eaten by larger creatures up the food chain, these plastics (and toxins) get concentrated inside living bodies, even in our bodies.

“Except for a small amount that has been incinerated,” says Tony Andrady, a senior research scientist at North Carolina’s Research Triangle, “every bit of plastic manufactured in the world for the last 50 years or so still remains. It’s somewhere in the environment.”  

Nothing is really disposable. Many of the things we consider disposable, will probably outlive humanity as a species.  The greenest choice is to cup your hands and drink out of them as our ancestors have for millennia.  That may not go over to well in the school cafeteria, so get in the habit of bringing your own cup.

Here are a few alternatives to paper and polystyrene:

— Replace paper and polystyrene with biodegradable, compostable clear drinking cups made from cornstarch, pack of 50 for $8 from www.ecowise.com

— Offer a discount to customers who bring their own beverage container if you own a fast- food restaurant or take-out place.

— Commit your whole office to zero waste and have each employee bring in his own cup, plates, and utensils.

— Don’t host large events with “disposables;” include in the budget the cost of renting or buying real dishes and the staff to wash them.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning, nationally-syndicated newspaper columnist and director of the Wallkill River School in Orange County. Shawn@zestoforange.com

By Shawn Dell  Joyce
“Fallow Fields” is a pastel of Benedict Farm painted during the winter. The painting incorporates dramatic winter skies and dark rich purples and yellows.

By Shawn Dell Joyce

We may not be able to do much about taxes or the economy, but one thing we can do is lower our cost of living thanks to a program started and run by Montgomery resident Alice Dickinson.

Orange County Rural Development Advisory Corporation, RDAC, is a non-profit housing counseling and development agency that helps people keep their homes by avoiding foreclosure, as well as lower their cost of living through weatherization and energy efficiency.
In January, RDAC received state funding to provide free energy efficiency retrofits for homeowners and tenants in eastern Orange County.  This area includes the towns of Newburgh, Montgomery, Crawford, New Windsor, Hamptonburgh, Cornwall, Blooming Grove, Highlands, Tuxedo, Woodbury and Warwick and all the villages within these towns. RDAC can assist homeowners, landlords or tenants to reduce utility costs, conserve energy, increase home comfort, and improve health and safety. The funds are free to qualifying household in the moderate income range.

What this all means is that a family of four would qualify for free service if their income is $46,836 or less.  That same family may spend over $9,000 on heat and utilities yearly. RDAC’s trained professionals will come to their home and seal all the cracks and holes in the house, insulate attics and walls, repair or replace heating systems, and provide efficient lighting and refrigeration.

Dickinson notes, “Households who earn less income tend to spend a disproportionate amount of income—upwards of 20% of their annual income—on energy, compared with approximately 5% for higher income households. If we can reduce a home’s energy consumption with energy efficiency, it  puts in place measures that continue to save money every year.”

RDAC has been at the forefront in bringing green jobs to our area, and has worked with the state to implement Green Jobs-Green NY legislation. RDAC is also working to bring the new PACE program to our area which would reduce the cost of renewable energy to homeowners by tying it to the property taxes.

RDAC is proving that retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency will stimulate public and private investment in green small businesses, as well as manufacturing of more energy-efficient materials including insulation, caulking, doors and windows, heating and cooling systems, and home appliances.

“It just makes sense, said Dickinson.  Even someone who is not particularly committed to reducing carbon would like to save money and air sealing and insulating your home can save up to 40 percent on your utility costs.  Who wouldn’t like that?”

If you would like to take advantage of this new program, there is an application to determine program eligibility, then an energy audit of the home is conducted to identify needs. Both homeowners and renters are eligible, subject to federal low-income guidelines.  If a household contains a member who receives Supplemental Security Income, Public Assistance, Food Stamps, or Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) benefits, the household is considered automatically eligible for weatherization services.  All services are provided without cost to the occupant of the home.  However, owners of rental buildings must invest funds toward the cost of weatherization services performed on their property.

Please find more details on RDAC’s energy services, as well as WAP application available for download, at www.ocrdac.org or call (845)524-HOME (4663)

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning, nationally-syndicated columnist and director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery, NY. Shawn@zestoforange.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce

Recent flooding rains wash it into our lawns, collect it in the gutters by the roads, and consolidate it on storm drains. With no leaves as camouflage, we see the plastic bags caught on bare branches.  Beer bottles, tin cans and Styrofoam cups nestle like Easter eggs under shrubs and bushes. Litter is a man-made blight on the local landscape.

But litter doesn’t end in the Wallkill Valley. In his eye-opening book; “The World Without Us,” Alan Weisman describes a small continent of litter floating in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. His words: “It was not unlike an Arctic vessel pushing through chunks of brash ice, except what was bobbing around them was a fright of cups, bottle caps, tangles of fish netting and monofilament line, bits of polystyrene packaging, six-pack rings, spent balloons, filmy scraps of sandwich wrap, and limp plastic bags that defied counting.”

 What is the source of all this flotsam and jetsam? Captain Charles Moore of Long Beach, Calif., is quoted in the book as concluding that “80 percent of the mid-ocean flotsam had been originally discarded on land. It blew off garbage trucks, out of landfills, spilled from railroad shipping containers, washed down storm drains, sailed down rivers, wafted on the wind, and found its way to the widening gyre.”

 According to Keep America Beautiful campaign, “People tend to litter because they feel no sense of personal ownership. In addition, even though areas such as parks and beaches are public property, people often believe that someone else like a park maintenance or highway worker will take responsibility to pick up litter that has accumulated over time.”

 A walk through Winding Hills Park, Benedict Park, or any of the Rail Trails and you will see that otherwise normal people are thoughtlessly dropping trash. These folks are our friends, neighbors, and (gulp) even ourselves. So how can those of us who do really give a hoot stop this blight?

 Keep America Beautiful engages people in cleaning up their community and engendering the feeling that they have a vested interest in their environment.  The organization points out that litter can also happen accidentally. As in overflowing garbage cans waiting for curb-side collection. Or from trucks at construction sites that are not properly covered.  Even from municipalities that don’t offer litter cans and proper receptacles in public places.

 Every year, Keep America Beautiful hosts the Great American Cleanup from March 1-May 31. This is the nation’s largest annual community improvement program, with 30,000 events in 15,000 communities. Last year, volunteers collected 200 million pounds of litter and debris; planted 4.6 million trees, flowers and bulbs; cleaned 178,000 miles or roads, streets and highways; and diverted more than 70.6 million plastic (PET) bottles and more than 2.2 million scrap tires from the waste stream.

What you can do to help?
• Want to organize a cleanup in your community? Go to www.kab.org to volunteer.
• Grab the kids and some empty buckets and walk the banks of the nearest stream picking up litter. Be sure to separate recyclables from trash.
• At home: Keep a litter bag in the car, bungee cord your curbside garbage can closed, and carry a pocket ashtray if you smoke. Teach your children to be stewards of the earth.
• At work: Ask your boss to “adopt a road” and take responsibility for keeping it litter-free, conduct a recycling drive at work to collect paper, usable clothes, tires and other goods that can be donated.
• In your community: Identify eyesores and organize civic groups to eliminate the litter, create a “trash fishing contest” to clean up the water ways. Take computer equipment or deliver it to the transfer station.

 Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning columnist and director of the Wallkill River School and Art Gallery in Montgomery, NY. Shawn@zestoforange.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce
Recently, most of Orange County’s industry has been “outsourced,” causing a loss of jobs and the disintegration of hometowns built around companies like IBM. Our current recession is an indication that this global economy is not working. Economist and author Michael Shuman said recently “about 42 percent of our economy is “place based” or created through small, locally-owned businesses.” This means that almost half our economy depends upon small independent businesses that make up the backbone of our hometowns.

These small businesses are what give our town local color and local flavor. They are what differentiate us from every other exit on the Thruway which has the same six chain stores. Local businesses are also committed to their hometowns, and support the local economy through hiring people in the area, donating to local charities and volunteer ambulance and fire service, and paying local taxes. Shuman estimates that we could expand our region’s economy to be 70 percent local or more by incorporating these ten simple steps that will actually save you money in the process.

–Localize your home! The biggest expense most of us have is our mortgage. Actually, 60 percent of our annual expenses go to shelter. This money often flies out of our community and into absentee landlords’ hands, or corporate banks in other states. By renting from a local landlord, or buying your own home with a mortgage from a local bank, you can localize this expense. Local banks and credit unions typically have the best rates anyway, possibly saving you money in the process. Try to find a bank that doesn’t repackage and sell loans on the secondary market which would stop your money from flowing through the community.

–Drive less! According to Shuman, Americans spend one out of every five dollars on transportation. That amounts to almost $5,000 per year! Until we can start replacing imported oil with locally-produced biofuels, our best bet is to drive less.

–Using mass transit, bicycling, or walking are highest on the list, but not very easy for us rural folks. Use the car sparingly, buy gas from an independent gas station if you can find one, and use a local repair shop you trust.

–Eat Independently! Households spend about $2300 per year on restaurants; unfortunately it’s mostly fast food chains. This one is a simple matter of choice with very little effort required to find a wonderful independently-owned restaurant.

–Local Arts and Entertainment! Most people opt for a movie at a corporate multiplex at the mall. Enjoy homegrown talent! Visit the small repertory theaters, see a real play instead of a movie. Visit an art show and buy art from local artists, buy music directly from the bands.

–Localize Your Health Care! Most of us have health care plans that are far from local, yet two components: high-tech equipment and prescription medications can be localized. Get your meds from an independent pharmacy, preferably one that also uses local suppliers. If we take better care of ourselves, walking more, eating local, building strong family and community ties, we will reduce our need for the high-tech equipment. Using local midwives instead of OB-GYN’s, and naturopaths or herbalists are alternative ways.

–Buy Locally Grown! Eating locally, meaning buying fresh vegetables, meats, and dairy from local farms reduces transportation costs and vitamin loss. Farming is one of the few industries left in the Hudson Valley. The closer you eat to home, the more you improve your health, your view, and your local economy.

–Localize Electricity! If Taylor Biomass were online, we would have local electricity. Until then, increase energy efficiency by improving insulation and having a home energy audit, then invest in solar hot water through a local provider.

–Give Locally! More than 6 percent of the U.S. economy is nonprofit according to Shuman. Most of these nonprofits are in the forms of hospitals, universities, and churches, but locally we also have arts organizations, environmental groups, and many others.

–Buy Local! In the time it has taken you to read this, Americans have collectively spent $23 million. Shuman says that $16 million of this figure could be spent in small locally-owned stores. Imagine how much $16 million would help our schools and communities.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning columnist and founder of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery. Shawn@zestoforange.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce

Phthalates, called “plasticizers,” are chemicals used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic soft, pliable, and in the case of water bottles; clear. This chemical is as American as apple pie, and is present in all of our households through things like toys, food packaging, shower curtains, vinyl flooring, lubricants, adhesives, detergents, and most cosmetics. Phthalates make baby’s teething rings soft, give your car that new car smell (by off-gassing), are in almost all perfumes and nail polish. They make medical tubing and IV bags flexible.
   

Here’s the bad news. Phthalates are also endocrine disruptors, which means they interfere with normal brain development. Children’s brains are always developing which makes them particularly susceptible to damage from phthalates. Our children are also most likely to come into contact with them because plastics are widely used in children’s toys, foods, and in most things they with which they come into contact.

Researchers have found that children suffer permanent damage from phthalates because their cells depend upon hormones to determine how they should develop. Phthalates resemble estrogen in the body and send signals to cells that may result in autism, breast and testicular cancer and reduced sperm counts. Adult exposure to endocrine disruptors is not as harmful because the effects are temporary, similar to taking a birth control pill.

Recently, phthalates have been linked to autism in a study by Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, professor of pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He found that autism and other ailments “are, in part, the result of the impact of environmental chemicals on the brain as it is being formed.” In another study, researchers measured phthalate levels in the urine of pregnant women, and found those with higher levels had children more likely to display disruptive behavior.
 

Phthalates are highly profitable, bringing chemical companies over $1.4 billion a year. Exxon Mobil is a major manufacturer of phthalates. Many countries have banned phthalates — the EU, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and even China. The United States demands a level of proof that many scientists consider impossible and hasn’t acted to protect the American people from harmful toxins. The Environmental Protection Agency is slow to react and has only banned a handful of chemicals in its history, while allowing millions more to be used without any safety testing at all. 
  

Many savvy mothers are already protesting te ue of phthalates and urging others to boycott manufacturers. Because of lax regulation, phthalates aren’t listed on product labels and are so widely used it’s difficult to avoid them.  The best way to protect your family is to look at the number in the recycling triangle located on the bottom of the container:

•  Don’t buy or use and plastics with the numbers 1, 3, or 7 because they contain endocrine disruptors. Safer choices are numbers 2,4, or 5.
• Don’t buy any product that contains n-butyl benzyl phthalate (BBzP) or di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), or any other ingredient that starts with “phth” which is a dead giveaway for phthalates.
• Avoid any soft, flexible or pliable plastic, especially for use around children. Polymer clays contain up to 14 percent phthalates by weight. These phthalates enter children’s bodies through hands and by breathing fumes produced when the clays are baked. A child playing for five minutes with small amounts of the tested clays would be exposed to levels of phthalates that exceed the maximum daily exposure standards set in Florida and Minnesota.
• Use all natural cosmetics, personal care products, home cleaners, and adhesives. Synthetic fragrances in hair sprays, antiperspirants and deodorants, adhesives in nail polishes, and fume-bearing chemicals expose children to airborne phthalates. 
   
   Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning columnist and founder of the Wallkill River School in Orange County, N.Y. Shawn@zestoforange.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce

As you read this column, we’re poised on the brink of yet another snow storm, with a few inches still piled up from the last one. Many people have taken this opportunity to wag their fingers at me and say “What global warming?”

 Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Thomas Friedman coined the term “global wierding” last week to replace the misleading phrase “global warming.” While the earth has warmed a degree, and is projected to warm quicker than natural over the next century, we are anything but warm today.

 Our weather is indeed weird with massive snow just south of us and rain at the Winter Olympics in Canada. Australia is having a record 13-year drought , and Texas ended a drought this winter with massive snow storms. As a matter of fact, Texas got snow this year before we did.

What does all this prove or disprove? Nothing really. “Climate is what we expect and weather is what we get,” according to NASA. We have only been collecting data on weather for the past 100 years, and trends in climate are measured in thousands of years. A single weather event; like a hurricane, or a spell of unusual weather; like snow in Texas, may be unprecedented; but still within the “normal” range.

 What is actually happening to our climate is right in line with predicted climate change models; some parts of the earth are experiencing drought while flooding happens elsewhere. Storms are more severe, summers are hotter, spring comes earlier, and polar ice is diminishing.

Many old timers in our region remember waist-high snow drifts and ice skating to school on the Wallkill. We haven’t seen a REAL severe winter in a while if you talk to those who actually lived through them. Some of us tourists (residents who haven’t lived here 20 years yet) quake in fear at the thought of a N’oreaster.

 Whether one actually believes in human-driven climate change or not has become irrelevant. The truth is that we all have to eat, and breathe, and both things are becoming more difficult as our population swells, and resources become tight. If you care about clean air, water, and food security, than we have enough common ground to rebuild our country with green energy and localized economies.
We sorely need industry in our region, and unfortunately, most of it has been outsourced overseas. Renewable energy, energy efficiency, Cultural Tourism, and other similar industries are the only ones that can’t be completely outsourced — because they are place-based. You can’t wrap up an historic Victorian house and send it to China for weatherization. That is something that has to be done here, by a local person.

Friedman writes: “I suspect China is quietly laughing at us right now. And Iran, Russia, Venezuela and the whole OPEC gang are high-fiving each other. Nothing better serves their interests than to see Americans becoming confused about climate change, and, therefore, less inclined to move toward clean-tech and, therefore, more certain to remain addicted to oil.”

Let’s stop debating each other and actually do something for a change. Let’s get America back on her feet and into the green millennium so that our kids and grandkids stand a chance.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning newspaper columnist and director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery.
Shawn@zestoforange.com

“Hoeffner’s Farm,” pastel by Shawn Dell Joyce. One of my favorite local farms.

By Shawn Dell Joyce

Small family farms, once on the endangered species list in the American landscape, are making a huge comeback, thanks to a new model of agriculture. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) offers farmers a guaranteed income during these uncertain economic times, and gives communities food security.

The way it works is the consumer (that’s you) pays up front the yearly cost of a weekly share of the farm’s harvest. During the growing season, you visit the farm each week, and pick up an assortment of fresh, locally grown produce. The benefit for farmers is that they know exactly how much to grow and can cover the cost up front. The benefits to your family are improved nutrition, food security, and the knowledge of exactly where your food came from, whose hands touched it and how it was grown.

Becoming a CSA member is also good for the environment. In our country, the typical forkful has traveled 1,500 miles from the farm to your mouth! When you join a farm, you avoid all those diesel emissions from transporting the food. Plus, the produce hasn’t been commuting for the past week, so it’s much fresher and tastier.

Never buy food from strangers! Many conventional meat-farming practices are cruel and unhealthy. When you buy locally, you can see how the animals live. Local farms are small-scale producers who generally allow animals access to open pasture. They graze on grasses (much healthier for them and us), nurse their young, and live a good life. Unless you see for yourself how the animals live, you can’t know for sure how they are treated.

Being a member of a farm helps build a closer community. When share members come to the farm to pick up their weekly box of produce, they inevitably end up swapping recipes, chatting with the farmer, and discussing the weekly bounty. CSAs often become gathering places, hosting potluck dinners, special events and even classes.

You connect your children to the land. Many of our children suffer from NDD (Nature Deficit Disorder) and can recognize more than 1,000 brand names of processed foods, but can’t recognize 10 fresh vegetable growing in the field. When you take your children to a farm, they make the connection that their food comes from human hands working the earth. 
 
Connect yourself to the land and the season. Nothing tastes quite like a crisp apple on a cool fall day, or hot buttered corn off a summer grill, or baked squash in midwinter. When your family is a member of a farm, you are treated to seasonal produce. Produce naturally tastes better in season.
Get to know your region! Farms are beautiful and it’s fun to visit them. Be a tourist in your hometown! Many of our small farms rely on agro-tourism. Visiting a working farm gives your family a taste of your region’s history and local flavor.

Money spent on a local farm stays local and grows! British researchers found that money spent at local farms multiplied because the farmer used a local bank, bought seed and supplies locally, advertised in local papers, and paid local employees. These “farm dollars” had twice the economic impact of the same amount of money spent at a chain grocer.  Farmers tend to help and support each other rather than compete. As a result, CSAs often offer produce grown on other farms to their share members as well.

You acquire a taste for new flavors. Broaden your palate by joining a farm! The farm gives you a bit of everything it grows, which often includes a few things you might not have heard of. This is a great way to find your new favorite vegetable! Mine is spicy hot daikon radishes, long as your arm and white as potatoes!

Eat your view! When you join a CSA, you support a farming family. This helps preserve the farmlands, as well. The only way our farmers can afford to pay the taxes on those picturesque views is if we support the farms!

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Eating fresh, (ideally) organic vegetables makes your family healthier, and saves you sick time and medical expenses.
The fresher your vegetables, the higher the vitamin content, according to nutritionists.
Where to find a local C.S.A.?
www.LocalHarvest.Com locates farms within a radius of your address that retail directly to the public.

www.Eatwild.com  is your source for safe, healthy, natural and nutritious grass-fed beef, lamb, goats, bison, poultry, pork, dairy and other wild edibles.

www.SlowFood.com  is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning columnist, artist, and director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery.  Shawn@zestoforange.com

“Chamber’s Tractors” is a pastel by Shawn Dell Joyce of the tractor dealership on the road into Montgomery. This painting, along with many others depicting the Village of Montgomery, will be on display at the Wallkill River School in March. See my work, along with fellow-Zester Carrie Jacobson at our reception March 15, from 5-7pm. www.WallkillRiverSchool.com