Bring your electronic to recycle at the Brookdale ShopRite

You can drop off computers, monitors, printers, wires/cables, keyboards, mice, telephones, TVs under 32 inches, VCRs, DVD players, stereos, small appliances to be recycled. Pick up information on recycling and a free cloth bag courtesy of Shoprite. Electronic recycling will continue at Brookdale Shoprite the last Saturday of every month from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Why recycle electronics? You save the town money by not having to pay to send them to the Newark Covanta incinerator where they are burned, polluting the air in Essex County and beyond. The toxic leftovers are put in a landfill. By recycling them, you are helping to clean our air, land and water and saving our tax dollars!!

Geoscape claims to be the only company in NJ offering leases for solar, where for no money down, you can get solar panels on your roof and pay at least 25% less than you pay now for electricity (claims from their website). It’s also a good time to buy solar panels, with a rebate from NJ, federal tax credits of 30%, and the Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) you earn by generating electricity.

If you’re interested in generating electricity from the sun at your house, or at your business or church, then this is a great place to get it. If you already have solar electricity, or even solar thermal, please come to share your experiences. We met Jeff at the Earth Day 2010 celebration at the Essex County Environmental Center on April 16. [Disclaimer: Greener Bloomfield does not in any way endorse or recommend Geoscape Solar; we are simply providing information from one of many possible solar providers in NJ.]

Pat Kenschaft

• Pat Kenschaft, 9:00-11:00 AM, 56 Gordonhurst Avenue, Montclair. Drive north two blocks on Grove Street from Watchung Avenue, and turn right. The third house on your right.
• Judy Hinds , 9:00 AM – noon, 156 Rhoda Avenue, Nutley. From Montclair take Watchung Ave. east all the way east over GSP to its end at the light at East Passaic. Turn left on East Passaic (no street sign – alas). Turn RIGHT at 2nd corner, Coeyman Ave – comes up pretty quickly. Count 4 streets on left, Stanley Ave. Turn left on Stanley, then immediately LEFT onto Rhoda. Our house #156 is third house on right, with a huge oak tree in front.
• Necole Fabris, 9:00 AM – noon, 8 Prospect Place in West Orange. From Montclair take Harrison Avenue to the West Orange end (Main Street). Left on Main Street. Follow Main Street to the next light. Go through the light and bear right to stay on Main Street. Make an immediate right on Prospect Place. We are the second house on the left.

Pat has raised all her family’s vegetables for decades, including a time when she was working full-time, her two children were teen-agers, and the family took in two foster teen-agers. Her husband brings home 100 bags of others’ leaves each fall and they mulch with neighbors’ grass clippings. These and wood chips are all they use from off the site. Composting is the key. Continuous tours take about a half hour. Email Pat.

Judy has an organic square foot garden. See the cool weather crops off to a great start, and the preparations for the warm weather. Check out her mini-cover cropping and her protective measures for seedlings. 973 661-0067. Email Judy.

Necole composts, uses leaves and grass clippings as ground cover, and introduces natural pest control measures into her garden, as needed. Her flowers consist of assorted annuals and a perennial bed, and her vegetable garden supplies approximately 80% of her family’s produce during the months of June, July, and August. The garden will be minimal in April, but much more lively in May. One and all are welcome. Please do not mind the dog barking as you arrive. She’s all bark and relishes a good compost heap like her human mom, just for a different reason. After all, dogs are scavengers and compost heaps are gold mines!

[We're also looking for volunteers to help at our table for an hour or two, starting with setup at 9:00. If you'd like to help, please sign up at www.meetup.com/GreenerBloomfield. Thank you!]

The Montclair Township Environmental Affairs office and Community Green present the latest movie in their Montclair Green Film Series. “A Chemical Reaction” will be shown on Thursday, April 15, 6:30 p.m. at the Montclair Public Library’s Main Branch, 50 So. Fullerton Avenue. All events at the Library are free.

The documentary tells the story of a powerful community initiative started in 1984 when a dermatologist noticed connections between her patients’ health and their exposure to pesticides and herbicides. She warned that chemicals put on lawns posed severe health risks, and had unknown side effects on the environment. This eventually led the town of Hudson to ban the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides. The chemical companies put their full legal weight on the tiny town and eventually the case made it to the Supreme Court.

The town’s right to protect its citizens was upheld, and – like a row of dominos – other municipalities followed suit. The entire province of Quebec enacted a ban and Home Depot stopped putting the dangerous pesticide products on their shelves.

Paul Tukey, one of the nation’s leading experts on organic lawn care followed this story for years. This documentary follows his journey leading to the doorstep of Hudson.

It’s an inspiring story of overcoming great odds and demonstrates the power of people coming together to effect great change in our society.

For more information about the Montclair Green Film Series, contact the office of Environmental Affairs at (973) 509-5721 or email .

NJN’s one-hour high definition special Green Builders profiles a cast of green building pioneers who have taken the leap into making their part of the “built environment” a more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly place. From The Willow School to PNC Bank to the first solar-hydrogen home, people talk about why green, the challenges, and how they fared. A green building has more to do with smart planning and a mindset change about energy use than expensive technologies or consumer sacrifice. These are real projects on the ground, working businesses and college campuses that prove you can change your carbon footprint once you change your way of looking at how a structure operates. Major funding for Green Builders was provided by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation? with additional support from the Cape Branch Foundation.

This is one of a series of Environmental Film Screenings put on by CommunityGreen.org. For more information contact Marnie Vyff at 335-4469 or marnie@ecoLOGIC-design.com.

Training will be held at the Essex County Environmental Center at 621-B Eagle Rock Avenue in Roseland from 9a-11am or 7pm-9pm on March 24th. Pre-registration is required – please 973 228-8776 if you plan to attend.

Attendees will be instructed on how to accomplish this safely and with as little distress to the birds as possible. For those of you who are not familiar with it, GeesePeace is a nonprofit organization that is tackling the resident Canada Goose overpopulation problem through humane methods. These methods are approved by the Humane Society of the United States and PETA. In short, volunteers coat the goose eggs with oil before the eggs become viable and then replace them in the nest so the goose does not lay another clutch.

If you’ve ever complained about stepping in goose poop or watched kids slide around in it on the soccer field, this is your chance to take responsible action toward the ultimate goal of a more harmonious relationship between humans and these beautiful birds. To learn more about GeesePeace, please visit http://www.geesepeace.org.

“The Disappearing Male” is about one of the most important – and least publicized – health issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system. The last few decades have seen dramatic increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from a number of problems including low sperm count, testicular cancer, ADHD, autism, and dyslexia. The male birthrate is steadily decreasing.

“The Disappearing Male” takes a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals called “endocrine disrupters” that are found in everything from shampoo, sunglasses, meat and dairy products, to pesticides, carpets, cosmetics and baby bottles.

The second film, “Big River”, investigates the environmental impact one acre of corn causes for the people and places downstream. In a journey from the heartland to the Gulf of Mexico, two farmers trade their combine for a canoe––and set out to see the big world their little acre of corn has touched.

Their trip flashes back to the pesticides they sprayed, fertilizers they injected, and the soil they plowed, leading to new questions explored by new experts in new places. Topsoil is eroding, fertilizer has runoff, and the herbicides they used are blamed for a cancer cluster that reaches all too close to home.

Please join us for these free films and an open discussion following. For further information please contact the office of Environmental Affairs at (973) 509-5721. [From Montclair Township website.]