Taking a Bite Out of the Big Green Apple

Last weekend, 4 of my bestest buds & I headed to New York City for a quick wintery get-a-way.

We actually lucked out on the weather and I was amazed at how many green efforts I spotted throughout the Big Apple.

Here are a few of the things we saw:

The green lady’s home, Liberty Island, had plenty of green facts to share:

From the restroom….(the gist: waterless urinals, hand dryers vs. paper towels, green seal t.p., low flow toilets & faucets, automatic flushers, automatic on/off faucets, lights are on timers, and green seal products are used to clean and disinfect)

to the snack line….(We recycle: Over 175 tons of carboard, over 600,000 plastic bottles and cups, over 10,000 aluminum cans, our coffee grounds are composted, We also recycle batteries, foam cups, glass, plastic bags, paper and food scraps)

Not to mention the fantastic mass transit system!Thank goodness only a small population actually drives in the city.  I must say they have to be masters at driving or they would kill bike messengers, pedestrians, or each other…

Take a look at this interesting fact on the back of a subway ticket:

(Using busses and subways in New York City keeps 400 million pounds of soot, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, and other toxic substances out of the air yearly)

We also strolled through Central Park to The American Museum of Natural History, only to discover the Climate Change exhibit was on display…

If you don’t have the opportunity to make the trip to NYC before August, you can see/learn a lot about the exhibit from their website.

We had a great time and took in a lot of culture.  Besides that, it was neat to recognize that a city who hosts millions of people a day realizes the dent it puts on our ozone.  In my opinion there are visible signs of the effort being made to lessen the damage from the city’s population.   

If they can do it there, we can definitely do our part from home.