sustainability

We are once again partnering with the City of Philadelphia on a neighborhood cleanup on Saturday, December 2nd. We will assist block captains, students, volunteer groups and neighbors by providing trash bags, brooms, work gloves, and trash pickup.

Attendees will learn how to reduce energy use in their homes including through on-site training in installing energy saving materials. Each attendee will receive a packet of materials that can be used to seal cracks and reduce drafts around doors and windows. Participants will also learn how to take advantage of discounted energy efficiency improvements available only to University City residents.

Thanks to the 184 households who participated in our treecycling day on Saturday. Electronic Recycling Day has been moved to this Saturday, January 11 in Clark Park from 10am-2pm.

Our neighborhood is lucky to have a beautiful tree canopy, but that doesn't mean that there aren't still gaps on blocks that would benefit from additional trees. UC Green is looking for volunteers to help identify locations where additional trees are needed. The deadline for getting these locations identified and added to UC Green's spring tree planting is December 1st, 2013, so we only have a few weeks to act!  For more information and to participate, contact UC Green at 215 573-4684.

Through a partnership with Amtrak, the SHARE Food Program and the US Environmental Protection Agency, several merchants of Amtrak's 30th Street Station food court, including Auntie Anne's Pretzels, Jersey Mike's Subs, Wendy's, Dunkin Donuts and Au Bon Pain are now making regular donations to local food cupboards. This food will go towards feeding families in University City instead of ending up in landfills and trash compactors.

For the last several months, preschoolers at the Parent-Infant Center have been collecting fruit and vegetable scraps for composting at The Dirt Factory. As stewards of the environment, composting is very important to PIC, and all week, their classrooms collect food scraps and hold them in the freezer. On Tuesdays, a teacher from the Roadrunner class takes a small group of kids around the entire center with collection bins, and this is what some of those little environmentalists had to say about why composting is important:

Take advantage of discounted energy efficiency improvements available only to University City residents.

Almost 30 households each week are dropping off their compostable food waste with us on Wednesdays (5-6pm) or Saturdays (10:30-11:30am).

Turn your Christmas tree into wood chips instead of landfill. Bring it to Clark Park to have your tree chipped and turned into mulch which will be used in neighborhood parks and gardens. Did you get a new flat screen television for the holidays? Drop off your old one for recycling.

Saturday, October 6, 10am | Extending The Growing Season

If you love eating home grown vegetables, learn how your garden can keep producing fresh food well into the fall, and even throughout the winter! Master Gardner Lauren McEewen will discuss inexpensive tools, such as reusing plastic soda bottles and old vinyl windows, as well as the more advanced techniques that will keep your vegetable garden going all year long.