What’s Blythe Danner Doing With Trash and Gas?

Last week, Blythe Danner got trashy, but in a really good way — she was on hand to unveil New York City’s new natural gas powered garbage trucks.

Garbage trucks are major polluters, but there’s no way we can take them off the road. According to Energy Vision, which is the non-profit behind the new trucks, if half the garbage trucks in NYC were switched to natural gas, “more than 16,000 tons of pollutants would be eliminated a year, while reliance on a clean domestic fuel would eliminate the need for 23 million gallons a year of petroleum-based diesel fuel, which is getting more expensive by the day and relies on imported oil.”

So, what does Blythe have to do with this? Well, the stunning actress and mother of Gwyneth Paltrow has long taken an interest in environmental causes, promoting recycling and conservation for the past 30 years. So, while garbage trucks might not be as sexy as, say, designing a reusable water bottle, Blythe knows that her appearance at their unveiling will bring much needed media exposure to the cause.

I know I gave you a bunch of stats about the fuel saved and pollution eliminated by the use of the new trucks, but you might be wondering exactly what that means for New Yorkers. Eliminating (or reducing) the pollution emitted into the air by replacing just 38 garbage trucks with the new natural gas powered trucks will “spare New Yorkers the health risks, involving asthma, other respiratory illnesses and cancers associated with more than 124 tons a year of airborne particulates (soot) and smog-forming nitrogen oxides.” Just 38 natural gas trucks can do that much? Let’s hope that other cities take a cue and get their own natural gas powered garbage trucks.

Photo courtesy of greendaily.com