Free Car Care Checkup at the Green Festival

Having a well-maintained car is a great way of going green, when we aren’t riding bicycles, carpooling, walking, or taking Sun Tran! How do we know if our cars are maintained properly? Come to the Free Car Care Checkup on Saturday, October 25th during the Livin’ la Vida Verde Green Festival at Tucson Convention Center.

In the lot just south of the TCC Music Hall, technicians volunteering from local repair shops will perform multiple inspections on your car including, tires, under the hood, and safety checks. Learn how to go green, save money, and reduce your car’s impact on the environment at the Free Car Care Checkup sponsored by the Automotive Services Association and Pima County Environmental Quality. Call 740-3343 for more information.

Click to view larger versions of the fliers:

Drive Less, Save More
by Karen Wilhelmsen

With gas prices steadily high, now is the perfect time to look at how you are getting to work. Tucsonans drive over 26,000,000 miles every day! Driving motor vehicles causes congestion on the roads, contributes to air pollution and global climate change, and is expensive! Consider using an alternate mode of transportation for your commutes. Even one day a week helps.

On average, every 31 miles you drive puts one pound of pollution into the air (www.pagnet.org). Motor vehicles cause most of Tucson’s air pollution, about 60% of it! Air pollution is becoming a larger problem and compromises the health of everyone, especially children, the elderly, and people with respiratory and heart disease.

You can improve air quality and save an extra $1,000-$2,000 a year by using alternate modes of transportation! Modes to consider:

WALK THERE
If you live close enough, walking may be an excellent way to get to work, or do errands. Walking can help relieve tension, improve blood circulation, tone muscles, enhance your general outlook on life, and be used as transportation.

RIDE SHARE
Driving alone to work, costs you about $1,000 in vehicle operating expenses each year (www.pagnet.org). Downtown Tucson parking costs are $540-$900 per year. Sharing rides reduces your operating and parking costs. In addition, discount carpool parking is available in the downtown area to County employees. Call Pima County Facilities Management at 740-3771 for parking information, and 884-RIDE for free carpool matching services, or click on www.pagnet.org.

BUS THERE
Sun Tran services more than 19 million passenger trips each year. The busses use either compressed natural gas or biodiesel as fuel, which reduces pollutants significantly. County employees can purchase monthly subsidized bus passes for $10, saving $18 per month on the value of the pass. Contact Sun Tran at 792-9222 or www.suntran.com with questions or to plan your trip. Don’t live near a bus route? Use Park ’N Ride lots, or ride your bike to a bus stop. Bike racks are on the front of the bus so you can take your bike with you. Call 740-3345 for a free two-trip bus pass to try it out.

BIKE THERE    
There are more than 700 miles of bikeways in the Tucson area. Bicycling has excellent health benefits and is a very efficient mode of transportation. Bike lockers are available in the downtown area with a $10 deposit and paycheck deductions of a mere $1 per pay period. Contact Pima County Facilities Management at 740-3054 for details on bike lockers.

In conjunction with the City of Tucson, the Pima County Department of Transportation, Bicycle and Pedestrian Program, offers FREE bike safety classes for all types or riders – adults, kids, beginners, commuters, and fitness enthusiasts. For more information, call 243-BIKE (2453) or click on http://www.dot.pima.gov/transsys/pimabikeped/allsafetyclasses.html

In addition, the Pima Association of Governments has a bike buddy matching program, helping riders find a buddy for their commute to work.  As with the carpool matching system it matches up people based on where they live, where they work and their work hours.  However, the bike buddy matching system also looks at the experience level of the biker – novice or experienced. To find out more, call 792-1093 or click on www.pagnet.org, or to sign up using the on-line carpool application, click on www.pagnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=492 

Don’t fret about being stranded without a vehicle in case of an emergency. Pima County offers employees a Guaranteed Ride Home in case of an urgent situation where you need to leave work quickly! Participants must use an alternate mode of transportation at least twice each week. Call 740-3345 or e-mail karen.wilhelmsen@deq.pima.gov for a Guaranteed Ride Home application.

Each time we turn the ignition, it makes a difference in our wallets, on the roads, and with air quality and global climate change. Leave your vehicle at home at least one day a week, and you will make a difference.

Feel free to contact karen.wilhelmsen@deq.pima.gov or 740-3345 if you have any questions or concerns regarding Pima County’s Travel Reduction Program or air quality issues in general.

Green Your Halloween
by Karen Wilhelmsen

Beyond dressing up as the incredible hulk there are plenty of ways you can green your Halloween. From costumes to treats and not filling car seats, your night can still spook trick-or-treaters without being scary to the environment.

Green Costumes
What will you wear to spook the little goblins, and what will you dress the little goblins up as? It will be difficult to resist the sparkly princess gown and muscle-filled Spider Man costumes shimmering on the racks of store seasonal aisles. When you fight the temptation of store-bought costumes and strive to go green, however, you will reduce pollution, save resources, and may uncover the thoughtful, creative, and constructive minds you and your little devils have.

Think reduce, reuse, recycle! Use materials found in your home. Buy vintage from yard sales or second-hand stores. Reuse items from past costumes, or “borrow” household items to enhance your attire. Make something new from waste materials. Have some fun and think up some clever ideas, or steal some off the internet. The effort to concoct your very own costume adds to the anticipation of this fun holiday, and can rekindle thoughtfulness behind the celebration. An added benefit with greening your costume is keeping some green in your wallet too!

Some green costume ideas for adults (or kids):

• Instead of buying new costumes, consider renting them, or even borrowing or trading costumes with friends or relatives.
• Think about your hobbies. Do you scuba dive, garden, work on cars? Wear and carry with you your existing hobby gear and go as a professional in that field.
• Go as a tourist. Wear bright-colored, wild clothes, wide brimmed hat, and be sure to carry a camera and map. Second hand stores have great loud clothes very cheap. You might have all this in your closet anyway!
• Dress up as some common phrases like “black-eyed peas,” by darkening around your eye and decorating an old T-shirt with a bunch of the letter “P” printed all over. Or go as static electricity – put on dark clothes and attach socks, handkerchiefs, and underwear with safety pins and use styling gel to make your hair stand up. Be creative!
• And let us not forget the long standing tradition of using an old sheet for a ghost, or overalls, flannel shirt, and a straw hat for a scarecrow.

Some green costume ideas for kids (or adults):

• Use any play dress-up costumes that your child already has.
• If your kid has a body type swim suit, have them go as a surfer. Cut out a cardboard surfboard and have your surfer paint a cool design on it. Wear water shoes, and slick back their hair with gel so it looks wet.
• If your child is in sports, you’ve probably got on hand all it takes to be a baseball, soccer, basketball player or karate master.
• If you have camouflage, khaki, green, or brown shirt and shorts or pants, find accessories to go as a safari guide or hunter. Find a wide brim hat, stuffed animals, and hiking boots. Replace the animals for a rope and you could have Indiana Jones prowling about the neighborhood.
• Find a flowing dress or top and skirt, add a bandana and some jewelry to go as a gypsy or “flower child.”

Check out http://www.greenhalloween.org, www.simplecostumes.com, or Google “green Halloween” for other clever, inexpensive, and earth-friendly ideas.

Green Halloween Treats and Treasures
Candy…candy…candy. Yep it’s yummy, but too much…well, you know. Think about healthy treats like organic, fair trade fruit snacks, raisins, juice boxes, trial size packs of veggie chips, and snack bars.

Try treasures instead of food treats. Green Halloween, a non-profit grass-roots organization states that “Kids love little trinkets like spinning tops, stickers and collectable cards. Most children especially love gifts from nature like polished rocks, crystals, and seashells. … Although non-food items are generally healthier than food items, try to avoid non-recycled plastic toys.” Some suggestions include:

• Barrettes
• Home made bean bags
• Bells
• Charms
• Crayons
• Pencils
• Spinning tops
• Seed packets
• Trading cards
• Glass beads

Green Party Is More Than a Political Organization
If you’re celebrating Halloween with a party, remember, going green is as much about what we don’t buy as what we do buy. Reduce excessive buying. Avoid disposables. Think durable. Serve healthy, pesticide-free, seasonal food. Make sure prizes and gifts are made from recycled or sustainably harvested materials, without unnecessary packaging. Send e-invitations or invitations made from recycled magazines or paper. You’ll be celebrating the earth the same time you’re celebrating the holiday.

Green Your Jack ‘O Lantern
Scary or fun, carving Jack ‘O Lanterns is a favorite tradition! And you can treat yourselves and your compost with all the pumpkin parts. When making your Jack-o-Lantern, clean pumpkin seeds and toss with melted butter or olive oil and seasonings like salt, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, or Cajun seasoning for a nutritious snack. Pumpkin seeds are packed with protein, vitamins and minerals. Bake them at about 300ºF for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Toss leftover pumpkin guts in the compost pile. And, once Halloween is over, cut up and add the carved pumpkin to the compost bin for a nutritious treat for your plants and trees once decomposed. For more info on composting, check out Tucson Organic Gardeners at http://iwhome.com/nonprofits/TOG/.

Let’s Talk the Walk
Let’s face it, driving is scary, emitting all kinds of pollution into the air and our lungs. Idling gets zero miles per gallon and spews pollution into the air in a concentrated area. Children are especially vulnerable to air pollution, so it’s best to leave your vehicle parked and walk with them door to door on their trick-or-treating expedition. Plus, the less vehicles driving neighborhood roads, the safer the little witches and zombies will be.

Go Green
There is a movement at many levels towards going green for a sustainable community, a sustainable earth. And the green hulk in all of us can last well beyond Halloween.  

Tips for Desert Dwellers

Pima County Environmental Quality has a new flier with handy tips on water conservation, recycling, saving enery, transportation, and helpful contacts.

Click to view or download the flier:

Prepared by Pima County Environmental Quality with assistance from Arizona Department of Water Resources, City of Tucson’s Department of Neighborhood Resources and Environmental Services, Habitat for Humanity, Tucson Electric Power, and Pima Community College.

Please share this information with others before you recycle this flyer.

Back to the top