How Green Is Verona-Cedar Grove?
Do the townships make it easy for you to live an Earth-friendly lifestyle? What do you wish was different?
Towns across the country are getting new recycling centers, giving away rain barrels and installing parking meters with solar panels. Here at Patch, we wanted to know: What makes Verona-Cedar Grove green?
Going paperless is an initiative to transfer all paper documents onto electronic devices such as laptops and iPads to eliminate costs incurred by printing products such as paper and ink or toner cartridges.
The Cedar Grove Township Council made an important decision to go green by purchasing five iPads at a cost of $4,800 for council members. The tablets allow them to save paper and trees by displaying documents, agendas and other items instead of printing them out.
The council estimates they save between $4,500 and $5,000 in paper alone.
Right now, only the township council will use iPads instead of paper packets but the town hopes to have all governing bodies go paperless in the near future.
Instead of throwing those outgrown clothes in the trash, Verona and Cedar Grove residents can head down to Ozone Avenue in Verona to donate to Goodwill.
Verona and Cedar Grove also participate in recycling efforts and participate in Essex County's annual Computer and Electronics Recycling Day as well as Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day.
TELL US: What does Verona-Cedar Grove do to help you go green? Do you use any resources from the town to stay green? Share in the comments below.
CG
5:00 pm on Thursday, March 21, 2013
I believe there are many ways that CG can improve their green-ness. I can only speak for CG.
1. The new order of SUVs seems to be un-green. Not sure how many cases exist where having a sedan prevented an officer from being effective.
2. There could be a compost program in CG. Montclair offered their residents a highly discounted price to purchase residential compost barrels. They saw the amount of refuse being picked up at the curb drop dramatically, and thus increased savings.
3. I am not sure why the recycling center is locked up. Do people vandalize/steal? How about putting a camera up? I say, leave it open and more accessible. Also, maybe consider picking up both co-mingled and paper each week. I find that I have too much to wait every other week. Yet, I only need trash pickup once a week. (We're a family) More recycling = less trash. Also making it easier to recycle will encourage people to do it. Some towns fine you if you through away recyclables.
4. For recreation, the amount of paper seems antiquated. How about online registration for the pool, sports, events, etc?
I think these are some quick fixes that would improve our green status, and also potentially reduce some of our costs.