Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

Recycling 101: What’s In, What’s Out, and Why

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What’s the deal with recycling? Confusion about what’s acceptable, doubts about where it all goes and whether costs outweigh benefits are questions we literally can’t afford to leave unanswered. With our municipal budgets stretched to the max and the effects of climate change looming large, it’s critical for us to understand the proper way to recycle in New Canaan–and the cost to each of us when we get it wrong. Join our team of local recycling and waste management professionals for straight talk on the “how” and “why” of recycling in our town. Our own Tiger Mann, Director of New Canaan Public Works, will be joined by Jennifer Heaton-Jones, Executive Director of the Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority, and Jay Greco and Patricia Swope from City Carting to give us everything we need to get recycling right.

Animal 411

‘It Does Establish Local Control’: State Rep Pursues Bill That Would Allow Towns To Decide on ‘Leg Hold’ Trapping

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A state legislator is urging residents of New Canaan and nearby towns to contact their delegates to the Connecticut General Assembly as he pushes for a bill that would allow municipalities—rather than the state—to decide whether widely discussed “leg hold” or “foothold” traps may be used in their towns. State Rep. Fred Camillo (R-151) said that allowing towns to move away from the traps—which use a footplate and curved jaws that snap onto animals that spring them—is mainly “about cruelty to animals who otherwise have no say at all in how they are treated.”

“This is something that is really horrible,” Camillo, who represents a wide swath of Greenwich, told NewCanaanite.com as a long session of the state legislature got underway last week. “Horrible. And it is not just for coyotes. Dogs have gotten caught in these things.

Faces of New Canaan

Faces of New Canaan: Micaela Porta

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More than one New Canaanite urged us to talk to Micaela Porta, co-founder of Pesticide-Free New Canaan, for a possible article here on our local news site. The nonprofit organization’s website is itself a wonderfully concise resource for environment- and wellness-minded residents (as is this new, informative newsletter from the New Canaan Conservation Commission, a group of which Porta is a member). In researching Pesticide-Free New Canaan I came across this Q&A, which does a very nice job of reviewing the nonprofit organization’s history and mission, with useful and succinctly stated tips and checklists for residents who want to pursue organic garden and lawn care (asking, for example, “What are the top three things I can do to protect my loved ones and myself from harmful chemicals in their gardens and lawns?” and “Do you have any recommendations for budget-friendly, safer, pesticide-free strategies?”)

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Just as we met Thursday morning and sat down at that window table in Dunkin Donuts on Elm Street, New Canaan’s Beth Jones popped over to say a quick hello, and when I told her I was meeting Miki (as Porta is known) for an installment of “Resident Expert” on NewCanaanite.com, the immediate response was: “Thank goodness we have such an expert resident. She’s a treasure.”

During our conversation—transcribed in full below—I got a strong sense of what Jones meant. (Ultimately, I’m putting this in “Faces of New Canaan” instead of “Resident Expert,” but it could’ve been either one.)

We did discuss Pesticide-Free New Canaan, which Porta founded with town resident Heather Lauver: its history, status, place in New Canaan, science, support, partners.