Rye Brook Sustainability Committee

Fireworks are beautiful but the loud noises they make can be traumatic to people, pets and wildlife. Low-noise fireworks are a solution being used at professional displays in Italy, parts of Canada and the US.

Port Chester Carver Center just launched their Friendly Fridge. People can pickup food or drop off food whenever they need to. A great opportunity to drop off the extra produce you grow in your garden, or clear out your fridge before you go on summer vacation.

How are you celebrating Pollinator Week? Did you know that our gardens can really help fighting the loss of pollinators?! Want to make an even more serious con...tribution to the conservation of biodiversity? Livestock production is the single largest driver of habitat loss, so consider to add a change of diet to your agenda! See more

Summer solstice is the official kickoff of #pollinatorweek! This week was designated by the U.S. Senate to highlight the significance of pollinator populations like bees, birds, and butterflies. Each and every one of us can be a part of the collective effort to restore habitat for pollinators right in our own backyard. What can you do to help? 1. #Choosenativeplants ... 2. Select a group of wildflowers that will provide blooms all season long, spring through fall 3. Select host plants for various butterflies and moths. Search "host plant" at prairiemoon.com to find more ideas beyond Milkweed 4. Provide bare soil, brush piles, and standing plants for ground-nesting and cavity-nesting native bees 5. Reduce the use of pesticides 6. Join Rye Brook Healthy Yards and spread the word! https://ryebrook.org/build-a-healthy-yard/ For more resources on pollinator conservation, check out this link. https://linktr.ee/prairiemoonnursery #pollinators #pollinatorgarden #savethebees #ecologicalgardening

Save the date for the 1st annual Rye Brook Community Wide Tag Sale! Every year, hundreds of useful items are thrown away in bulk trash. In order to encourage people to give these items a second life, the Village of Rye Brook Sustainability Committee has organized a community wide tag sale event taking place on Saturday, July 17, 2021 from 9AM-3PM. The rain date will be Saturday, July 24, 2021. Residents interested in participating can sign up to be listed on the tag sale map... here: https://ryebrook.org/tagsale/ Registration for the tag sale map will cut off Saturday July 10, 2021 and a roster will be posted on this webpage indicating the participating addresses. For those who have items they'd like to get rid of but are not able or available to participate in the community tag sale, FTEN is accepting donations of clean clothing, children’s toys, small furnishings, sporting goods, children’s books and home goods in good condition. All items should be dropped off at the FTEN porch at 62 Bowman Avenue on or before July 17th. 100% of the proceeds benefit FTEN & Forever Families through Adoption. Email [email protected] for more information or go to https://fosterteenemploymentnetwork.org/

Have old prescriptions you need to dispose of? @ryebrookpd is having a Prescription Drug Take back Day on Oct. 24th from 10a.m.-2p.m. in front of the Police Department Building. Disposing of your prescriptions at a drop-off location can prevent medicines from falling into the wrong hands or being flushed (which is harmful to the environment). Please note we cannot accept sharps or liquid medications. Can't make the event? No problem. There is a prescription pill drop-box in the Police Department entrance where you can bring unused prescriptions anytime.

REMEMBER YOUR REUSABLE BAG The state wide plastic bag ban goes into full enforcement today October 19th! Remember to bring your reusables wherever you go to avoid the bag fees and reduce our dependency on single-use plastic

FUN FACT FRIDAY Did you know that more than 2 billion pounds of pumpkins are grown every year? According to the US Department of Energy, 1.3 billion pounds are uneaten and sent to the landfill. Food waste in landfills can't break down so it's stuck in limbo releasing methane a greenhouse gas 30x more powerful than carbon. ... Rye Brook Village Hall offers free 24 hr food scrap drop off and that includes your pumpkins! So don't forget to give your pumpkin a proper goodbye by putting them into the food scrap toters at village hall (no paint or sticker decorated pumpkins please). See more

TIPS FOR A GREEN HALLOWEEN DECOR Use items you already have in your home like stockings for spiderwebs, cardboard boxes for tombstones, and milk jugs for creating skeletons. You can also borrow decorations or reuse them from previous years. Natural decor such as corn stalks, squash and pumpkins make beautiful decor that can be eaten or composted afterwards. ... COSTUMES Consider making your own, borrowing from friends and family, or checking out a thrift store for upcycled, inexpensive buys. If you aren’t going to save your costume remember to donate it so that someone else can wear it next year or recycle the fabric at the Rye Brook Village Hall Binny

Our friends at the Town of Rye and the BBHS Roots & Shoots Club are holding an awesome, socially distant Native Bird Treasure Hunt at Crawford Park from October 3rd to October 17th. At the end of a successful treasure hunt, participants are encouraged to submit an entry, with creative photos, on the Town of Rye’s website for a chance to win a sustainable prize. According to organizers, the goal of the Crawford Park Native Bird Treasure Hunt is to raise awareness of nature-friendly, sustainable practices, while getting people to enjoy nature in their own community

LEAVE YOUR LEAVES FOR BIODIVERSITY Did you know that Rye Brook is home to a variety of beautiful moths? Our yards serve as important habitat to these stunning pollinators ... Don’t forget to take the Rye Brook Healthy Yards pledge to get your free yard sign and promote pollinator friendly gardening around town https://ryebrook.org/build-a-healthy-yard/

FALL FOR LEAVES, LEAVE THEM BE If you can instead of bagging up your leaves this year consider moving them into beds, a corner of your garden or under trees. Leaves act as a free, eco-friendly fertilizer adding nitrogen and amending the soil for greener lawns in the spring. ... Many of our local birds, mammals and pollinators depend on leaves for finding food and shelter during the winter. Keeping leaves out of the waste stream significantly reduces greenhouse gases, helping the environment.

GREEN THUMB GARDENING TIP Welcome fall color into your garden or porch with native Asters! New England Asters come in a beautiful variety of purple colors and are loved by the butterflies and bees ... The best part is they are perennial and will come back every year where they are planted! You can find them for sale at many of our area nurseries and garden centers.

This is a friendly reminder of the Labor Day Holiday Week Sanitation Schedule. Tomorrow (Monday 9/7) is Labor Day which means this week’s sanitation schedule is adjusted as follows: - Monday's household garbage collection is moved to Tuesday.... - Tuesday's household garbage collection is moved to Wednesday. - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday garbage, recycling and bulk waste collections remain unchanged. No Green waste collection this week. Please also be aware that during holiday weeks, the trucks often pick up at times that are very different than normal. The Village Code requires that all refuse (garbage, recycling, etc.) be out by 6:00am on the morning of the scheduled collection.

Power outages forcing you to clean out your fridge? Don’t forget to compost! Spoiled food is perfectly safe to compost. All spoiled food and food scraps can be dropped off at Rye Brook Village Hall 24/7.

Is hot weather making your trash smell? Rye Brook’s FREE composting program can help! By keeping food scraps out of your trash and instead collecting them in a food scrap bin for drop off at the Rye Brook Village Hall you will:... Help reduce methane release into the atmosphere; AND Eliminate any smell from your trash can Sounds like a win-win to us!

If you plant it, they will come! If you want to attract pollinators of all kinds to your yard, it’s as easy as planting a couple natives like these purple coneflowers and bee balm. Native plants provide an essential food source for all kinds of pollinators including bees, butterflies, moths and hummingbirds (not pictured because she was too fast)! Native plants are well adapted to survive our local weather extremes and as a result are lower maintenance. ... So plant a few natives in your garden this year and then sit back and enjoy nature’s show. Just be sure to skip the pesticides - they kill pollinators too! To learn more about planting natives in your garden check out this guide from Westchester County. https://www.sunywcc.edu//Plants-for-Westchester-Go-Native-