By the Bronxville Green Committee

April 9, 2025:  Many of our country’s environmental problems converge around one issue: waste!  We purchase more than we need, trash a lot of it, recycle only some of it, release toxins when we burn or landfill it, and imperil lives around the world when we ship it overseas.  

The Bronxville Green Committee is kicking off a WASTE FREE BRONXVILLE campaign this Earth Month. We will focus on how we can change our habits regarding waste.  Instead of quickly tossing items into the trash, using things only once, and relying on plastic for everything, we can begin to adopt habits built around refusing, reducing, reusing, and recycling.  Recycling works, but it is not the complete solution for the large amount of waste we produce.

We all have the best intentions, but often the problem seems overwhelming, and we are too busy to figure it out. We get it. We know the issue is big, but many solutions are small, and they can be found in your simple everyday choices.

Through a series of articles in My Hometown Bronxville over the next four weeks, we’ll be providing helpful tips and resources that are local and easy. This is not a complex system, just four simple words in a specific order around which you can organize your actions: refuse first, reduce second, reuse next, and recycle last.

As you start with one action and move to the next, you will turn actions into habits whose impacts expand into the community. Sustainability does not require sacrifice. These are not hard steps, just simple choices. And none of us needs to be perfect, just do a little better.

We hope you will join us on this journey towards a waste free Bronxville! Please visit our website and follow us on Instagram @bxvgreencommittee to learn more. And send us an email with any suggestions and feedback!

PS: Did you know…Westchester’s trash is trucked 30 miles north to the WIN Waste Westchester incinerator in Peekskill, where it is burned. Although this process produces energy that flows into the electrical grid, burning two thousand tons of waste each day releases toxic pollutants into the air, contributing to Westchester County’s F grade on air quality given by the American Lung Association. The toxic ash that remains after incineration is hauled to an out-of-state landfill. 

To help reduce the expense, negative health impacts, and squandered resources associated with solid waste disposal, our Village government is focused on drastically reducing the amount of trash we generate. Save the date for our next Village event: TAKE BACK DAY on May 17, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Start collecting your sensitive documents to be shredded, used electronics, and other items to be dropped off for recycling or donation.

The Bronxville Green Committee is a volunteer organization that is part of the Village of Bronxville. We work to propose and implement environmentally sustainable programs in our community. Visit our website and follow us on Instagram @bxvgreencommittee to learn more.