Green Ideas
World Water Day asks: Why waste water?
March 21, 2017Wednesday, March 22 is World Water Day. This year’s theme is wastewater — or, more specifically, wasting water. It’s a topic that’s definitely worth a deeper look. Here are some quick facts and figures from World Water Day: (For even more, click on this downloadable World Water Day fact sheet) More than 80 percent of wastewater…
Keyhole garden design holds the key to saving water
February 28, 2017In 2013, we wrote about one of our favorite gardening concepts: hugelkultur, in which large chunks of rotting wood buried deep underneath a garden’s soil will save water and, eventually, turn into compost. Well, we have a new favorite: the keyhole garden. A recent Rodale story does a great job of explaining the concept in detail,…
10 ways to ditch plastics
February 22, 2017Back in January, we wrote about the flood of plastic trash that’s polluting our waterways. We’re going to revisit that post again today, add some more details, and include a few more suggestions about what you can do to reduce your use of plastic. Plastic is, literally, everywhere. We use plastic utensils, plates, cups and…
Wet winter helping California recover
January 31, 2017We’ve posted a few times about the severity of the drought in the Western states – in particular, California. Here’s good news, for a change – the water level in some of the state’s reservoirs is starting to return to normal. A recent article on KQED Science features interactive pictures of three reservoirs that have…
Plastics are polluting our waterways
January 26, 2017If you’ve seen The Graduate, you might remember the immortal words of Mr. McGuire to Benjamin Braddock: “There’s a great future in plastics.” In the 50 years since that movie’s debut, it’s become clear that those were wise words — at least from an investor’s point of view: Civilization has become addicted to plastic. And…
Water you waiting for? Teach kids about the importance of H20 today
January 16, 2017It’s no secret that the Earth’s clean water resources are shrinking rapidly. Pollution, waste, drought — all play a role in draining our supplies of potable H20. There are, of course, many ways we can conserve water. The trouble is, it’s often hard to convince people that water is a finite resource. As long as…
When it’s time to toss the tree, keep it green
December 29, 2016The holidays are almost over and you’re tired of vacuuming up pine needles five times a day. When it’s time to take down that tree, though, don’t just toss it out with the trash — consider a more eco-friendly solution instead. Residents of Bethlehem and Allentown can set their tree out for curbside pickup…
Some water-saving tips for cold weather
November 29, 2016Even though it looks like the Lehigh Valley region is in for some heavy rain over the next few days, we’re nowhere near out of the woods when it comes to the DEP’s drought warning. That calls for all of us to make some smart decisions when it comes to water use. As we’ve stated…
How much water does that Thanksgiving feast gobble up?
November 22, 2016With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we thought it would be fun to take a look at the amount of water it takes to make some of our favorite foods. For this experiment, we turned to the Los Angles Times and used their interactive graphic, which measures the amount of water it takes to produce…
It’s time to tuck in the garden for winter
October 24, 2016The nights are longer, the temperature is colder and, unless you have some late Fall veggies growing, it’s time to get your garden ready for the winter. One of the first things you should do is pull up any remaining (unless you’re still growing veggies) plants and vines. While some people leave them in o ver the…