by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Ok, this one is a no-brainer. Really. If we can’t at least do this, the rest of our efforts are doomed. I mean it. It’s one thing to struggle through the harder changes – like no A/C in August or giving up your car. But we can and should all do the easy stuff – don’t we owe that much to the planet and ourselves?

For instance, we all brush our teeth – every last one of us. Heck, some of us (including me – surprise!) brush our pet’s teeth. So, it stands to reason that if we all recycled our toothbrushes, it would make a difference, right? (Not too mention all those non-recyclable tubes of toothpaste – more on that later!)

Well, for now you can at least recycle your toothbrush and it’s really, really easy. Recycline makes the Preserve Toothbrush – a great product that is both environmentally and functionally friendly (I’ve used them for years and can say that first- hand). Recycline has it covered – they create these toothbrushes (and razors) from recycled polypropylene and the packaging they come in is also made from recycled material. Then they take them back and recycle them again – bristles and all, turning this reinforced material into plastic lumber.

Recycline makes this process very Easy by providing you with a pre-paid envelope which you can simply drop in the mailbox. Each envelope will hold several old brushes and their containers, so I store mine under the sink and then just drop them in the mail when full after several months. This company has been in the Green from the get-go and they are currently a semi-finalist in Forbes.com “Boost Your Business” contest. To add your vote, go here.

This makes me think about other easy changes we could all make – I’m talking REALLY Easy changes – no sacrifice necessary. Hey, I know things are more serious than that – we also need the big stuff to happen – like alternative energy and fuels, large-scale water conservation, more organic farming, and regulations for big business. But the little things matter – karma-wise and otherwise. It is the smaller things that we do daily that can stoke the fire of change within ourselves and others and provide growing awareness of how we live and why – creating a new/old perspective.

I’ll start a list of Easy changes below. I’ve done all of them – damn easily. Please add to my list and I will promise to try anything I haven’t yet done.

Change one (or many) lightbulbs to CFL’s

Turn the lights off

Use rags instead of paper towels

Give up using napkins (bring your own reusables)

Give up plastic bags (bring your own reusables)

Turn down the heat and the A/C

Wash clothes less often and use cold water

Hang dry

No lawn, less lawn and/or push mow

Buy less (or nothing) new

Buy sustainable stuff

Buy organic

Buy fair trade

Recycle

Give up bottled water

Bring your own drinking bottles and coffee mugs

Use only biodegradable cleaning and body products

Use bar soap instead of bottled soap

Navy showers

Join your local co-op

Fill your car tires with nitrogen

Don’t wash your car

Grow herbs and/or vegetables

Compost

Drive less

Offset

Watch less (or no) TV

Read magazines and pay bills online

Walk or bicycle to any destination under 1 – 2 miles

Adopt a pet from a shelter

Reuse, recycle, rebuild, restore, restyle, rethink

Buy recycled office supplies

Don’t idle your car – ever

Support local businesses

Wash dishes by hand (with the faucet OFF)

Share tools

Give consumables as gifts and don’t use gift wrap

Fly less

Eat Less Meat

Eat Local Foods

Consolidate and/or share your car trips

Host a “Stuff Swap” with friends

Tell a friend

A march through town, food, music, drumming, hooping, local fashion, giving, and dancing into the early morning stirred up plenty of energy for the Greenspace mission. Another excellent local news article yesterday in The News and Observer followed up:

 by Cheryl Johnston Sadgrove, Staff Writer

CARRBORO – The residents of 116 Old Pittsboro Road didn’t spend the last night in their rental house packing boxes.They hosted a potluck dinner, downtown parade and fashion show in a last-ditch effort to keep their vision for the residence off Greensboro Street alive.

The 10.5 acres — mostly wooded, within walking distance of downtown — could provide a community garden, a public greenway and a public amphitheater, the residents say.

The circa 1912 brick home could be a center for community and sustainability, with conferences and demonstrations of sustainable technologies.

But the Carrboro Greenspace Collective, as the renters and their supporters call themselves, has not yet found a buyer who can meet the $1.4 million asking price.

They hoped that raising awareness about the property Saturday would do that.

Waving large, colorful depictions of a butterfly, dragonfly and sun on sticks, nearly 50 people paraded to a drum beat from the rental home to dance on the Weaver Street Market lawn Saturday evening. Some wore green arm bands. Others carried banners that read “Save the Carrboro Greenspace” and “For the commons: not landlords or bureaucracy.”

Tamara Tal, a member of the collective, passed out orange information sheets. She envisions the space to be one where people can share ideas and food without the regulations that many town public properties now have.

“There has to come a time in society when we start valuing the community,” she said, “the safety community brings, and the public health having greenspace brings.”

READ MORE…

Many of us have been preparing all week for an event that is close to both our homes and hearts. We’re trying to save Greenspace, a space that has been host to many community events – a space where people are encouraged and supported to “Think Globally. Act Locally.” Today’s post is an excerpt from the Carrboro Citizen, our local newspaper. Read on – this is big.

By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer, The Carrboro Citizen

Granted, even in a community as substantially liberal in spirit as Carrboro, “usufruct” is hardly a word around which the general citizenry will likely clamor to rally.

“Usufruct” (according to Webster): “the legal right of using and enjoying the fruits or profits of something belonging to another”; from the Latin usus et fructus, “to use and enjoy.”

Building community, both physical and conceptual, has been the modus operandi at Carrboro Greenspace, a little piece of paradise at 116 Old Pittsboro Road, which now may soon be sold. And as unaccommodating in enunciation and obscure in definition as this word, “usufruct,” may be, the Carrboro Greenspace Collective finds it perfectly appropriate in describing the nature of their work to date. (Back to etymology in a moment.)

Anchored by “Casa Grande” – home for the past year and a half to several members of the Carrboro Greenspace Collective – Carrboro Greenspace is 10.5 acres of mostly densely wooded, dramatically slopped refuge, just a five-minute walk from downtown Carrboro. Casa Grande, says denizen and organizer Sammy Slade, was envisioned as functioning like the Horace Williams House with green sensibilities. Carrboro Greenspace has been host to weddings, art exhibits and a puppeteers’ convention. The property is also home to the ReCYCLEry, a nonprofit community bike workshop (see last week’s Carrboro Citizen), and the Walk-in Tributary Theater, where movies are screened in a swimming pool.

Trouble is, the owners of this property have determined that a change in plans is in order. And so while planning what may be the last event at Carrboro Greenspace, on August 4, the residents of Casa Grande are today packing boxes. They’ve been asked to vacate by the owners, Carolann Stoney and April Morris of Pomona, California.

According to Slade, the owners have said they want to make renovations to the house, which has been on the market now for about a year. The ReCYLCLEry remains for now in operation. But sale of the property seems imminent.

Blame it on usufruct, and its absence of readily apparent commercial viability: There’s no way the Carrboro Greenspace Collective could have raised the funds to purchase the property – not on their own, not with what’s collected via free bike-repair classes and donation-only flicks. Or just blame it on commercial viability: Ten and a half acres pretty much smack in the middle of downtown Carrboro is, obviously, a prime piece of property.

Read more…

by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

Want your city and eat eggs too? I was strolling around the pond in my co-housing community with the dogs last night and chatted with a visitor. “It feels like the country out here,” he said, “I’ve been looking for a place like this – peaceful but close to town.” Yep, it is quiet here all right. And without streets or overhead lighting in our efficiently designed 16-acre space – home to 33 families – you can see the stars at night. Yet, our “out here” is a mere 2.5 miles from downtown – a short bike ride or long walk. Best of both worlds? You bet.
Many cities are catching that small town vibe by integrating both urban culture and walkable convenience with local and community-oriented businesses and a country-like atmosphere. Chickens live contentedly in small yards and homemade coops like these in my neighborhood, and there is a community garden nearby. The Farmer’s Market is held at the “Town Commons” and our community food co-op hosts weekly social and events.

The trick to make this all work is for all of us to relearn how to enjoy small spaces, both indoors and out. We’ve all but forgotten that “the best things come in small packages”. Most of the front yards in older, urban neighbors are tiny but extra-treasured. Wind chimes and other creative art hangs on porches, bicycles lean against the steps, tomatoes and other edibles line the sunny side of the house and wildflowers and wild grasses replace the traditional lawn. I often enjoy walking in these neighborhoods in all their wabi-sabi-ness. I find my thoughts wandering pleasantly and creatively – and I always feel a reassuring sense of connectedness.

This, sadly, is a huge contrast to the what I’ve noticed in the “better” neighborhoods, where houses of mega sizes are springing up on huge lots. Contractors go to great lengths to make these areas appear luxurious, but the end result usually feels sterile and separated. The spacious wrap-around porches are rarely occupied, the vast and manicured yards look strangely unnatural. Most now have 3-car garages and the accommodating driveways are scrubbed spotless. Quiet? Yes, it most often feels vacant except for the SUVs driving down the streets. A community? Hardly.

Instead of trying to “keep up with the Jones”, listen to your inner voice. What really feels like home? It’s up to us to change the McMansion trend – the contractors will keep building them as long as we’re buying.

Catch the vibe. Live Bigger by living smaller. You can have the best of both worlds. And there may be some eggs in it for you, too.

By Jerry Stifelman, Carrboro, NC

10. Global Warming. (The average SUV emits nearly double the amount of CO2 as a Ford Taurus)

9. THEY INCREASE AMERICA’S DEPENDENCE ON FOSSIL FUELS. So we end up kissing up to oppressive regimes in the Middle East and now Central Asia.

8. THEY MAKE US FORGET WHAT AMERICAN’S ALL ABOUT. By insisting on driving gas-guzzling SUV’s, we’re letting other countries get way ahead of us in terms of innovative ways to power vehicles.

7. UNLESS YOU REALLY USE YOUR SUV TO GO THUMPING UP MOUNTAINS, IT LOOKS SILLY. Like wearing an outdoor vest, hiking shorts and a poncho to the movies.

6. THEY’VE BECOME THE YUPPIE VEHICLE OF CHOICE. (And no one wants to be a yuppie, not even yuppies.)

5. THEY’RE NOT VERY NIMBLE. If an SUV were a football player, it would be an overweight offensive lineman. Wouldn’t you rather drive a running back?

4. THEY PLAY INTO THE BAD THINGS PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT US. They say Americans are selfish and pampered. And a whole lot of us are driving gas-guzzling, CO2-emitting, oversized 4WD vehicles to buy mocha lattes and go to the mall.

3. THEY ROLL OVER. Go ahead, make a really sharp turn – dare you.

2. WHAT WOULD JESUS DRIVE?

1. OSAMA BIN LADEN DRIVES AN SUV.

DRIVE LESS.  DRIVE SMALLER.  LIVE MORE.