Founding committee member: I am a founding member of the Town Council’s Sustainability Committee.
Bi-annual beautification events: In April 2020, the Sustainability Committee launched its first beautification event (then called the town trash cleanup) in honor of Earth Day. We have now held four of these events, with increasing participation from resident volunteers. We were also able to offset costs by including businesses—I Care Vision Centers and the Sniff Shack sponsored the April 2021 and September 2021 events, respectively.
Low-flow toilets in Town Hall: Due to the committee’s work, low-flow (water conserving) toilets have been installed at Town Hall.
Goals
Think globally, act locally: I would like to see Town Hall set an example for our residents on how to behave sustainably and to provide residents with the tools to increase their own sustainability.
Explore the feasibility of adding solar panels to the Town Hall roof or incorporating passive solar in the Town Hall expansion.
If solar panels are feasible, explore the feasibility of adding hybrid or electric vehicles to the Mountain View Police Department fleet (when a vehicle needs replacement) and potentially superchargers both for police and public use.
Conduct and record workshops for residents on how to properly recycle for our provider and on how to compost in your backyard; post these recordings to the website and to social media.
Determine resident interest in having compost pickup and negotiate a lower rate with one company for those interested.
Explore the possibility of having yard waste pickup.
Provide a Tom’s of Maine Terracycle drop-off location at Town Hall to recycle personal care packaging; this is already in the works.
Make Town Hall events e.g., movie nights, annual picnics, etc. as zero waste as possible.
Research and provide a list of resources for hard to recycle items e.g., paint, lightbulbs, batteries; this is already in the works.
Incentivize residents to plant trees in the public right of way to increase our urban canopy.
Green the town’s dumpster roll-off events.
Have an electronics recycling event before every dumpster event.
Educate residents on other possible options for their belongings to reduce the volume headed to the landfill.
Donation to Goodwill or other organizations
Textile recycling
Repair services
Promote item swaps among our residents in the form of a Town garage sale