Compost at least 50% of your kitchen and yard waste
Composting is a beneficial way to use kitchen and yard waste that would otherwise contribute to a landfill. Instead, your nitrogen-rich kitchen scraps and grass trimmings mixed with sources of carbon, such as dead leaves and paper bags, can be turned into rich soil in a compost pile. Finished compost can then be used to enrich your garden soil. Learn more from our Tips for Green Leaders Composting Fact Sheet or check out this howdini video or an EPA GreenScapes video on composting.
Attend a composting workshop with the Frederick County Department of Solid Waste. The Department also sells compost bins for $25 available for pick-up from 9031 Reichs Ford Road.
Interested in composting, but don’t have a lot of outdoor space? Vermiculture, or vermicomposting, is a method of composting that uses worms to break down organic waste. Kept in a small bin indoors, the worms produce castings, a rich fertilizer for house and garden plants. Bins can be home-made or purchased. To learn more, check out this Worm Composting 101 video or How to Make a Worm Bin video.
You can also leave newly cut grass on the yard after mowing as a type of composting. Known as “grasscycling,” this practice allows nutrients to be absorbed back into the soil so that your yard can stay healthy.
Choose a "staycation" instead of flying to a vacation destination
The staycation, or vacation at or near your hometown, has become very popular in recent years. The benefits of a staycation include saving fuel and electricity, eating more healthy and local foods, supporting local businesses, and gaining appreciation for attractions near your hometown. Learn about some staycation ideas.
If you carpool to work every day with a co-worker, you could cut your gas consumption and vehicle emissions in half! Talk to your neighbors about sharing rides to common or nearby destinations. Ask the parents of your children’s friends and teammates if you can share driving duty for school and extracurricular activities. Click to learn about the Commuter Choice program, which can help you start your own carpool.
Use alternate transportation such as walking and biking at least once a week
You can eliminate your fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions related to transportation by walking or biking to work or school every day. Click for more information on biking and pedestrian transit in Frederick County.
By freezing, drying, or canning home-grown or local foods during growing seasons, you can reduce your consumption of non-local produce in the winter. Learn more about do-it-yourself food preservation.
Grow at least 15% of your own produce and/or raise your own animals for food
Growing your own food is just about as local as food production can get. Not only does it cut down on the fossil fuel consumption and synthetic fertilizer and pesticide use associated with industrial agriculture and food transportation, it also provides you with fresher food, exercise, and a closer connection to the land. Learn more about food gardening from the National Gardening Association.
Cultivating a perennial polyculture garden is especially beneficial for the environment. Perennial polyculture gardens include a variety of plants that last from year to year and do not need to be replanted. While perennial polyculture requires a larger initial investment of time and money, it pays off with less required labor and expense in subsequent years. It can also increase plant diversity, increase disease and pest resistance in plants, sequester more CO2, filter more rain water, fix more nitrogen, prevent erosion, and build soil. Try growing some edible Maryland natives, such as pawpaw and blueberries, in your garden. For more information, watch this perennial polyculture guidelines video or model perennial polyculture garden video.
Depending on where you live in Frederick County, you may be able to raise your own chickens, guinea fowl, ducks, goats, pigs, sheep, rabbits, or cows. You can reap the nutritional benefits of naturally-produced animal products and reduce environmental impacts by raising them yourself. In addition to food, animals can provide pest management, grass trimming, wool, hides, furs, and natural fertilizer. To learn more, check out these resources on: raising backyard lifestock, comparing backyard livestock types, backyard chickens, and raising goats.
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