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Houseplants can combat volatile organic compounds in your home

6/25/2020

 
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Five common houseplants—jade, spider, bromeliad, dracaena, and tree cactus—can combat volatile organic compounds in your home from innocent-seeming items such as furniture, cleaning supplies, dry cleaning, paint, nail polish, copiers and printers.

Treehugger.com writer Melissa Breyer reported on a NASA study that demonstrated the effectiveness of five particular houseplants at removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the air.  "They found that certain plants are better at removing specific compounds from the air – this is especially meaningful for indoor air, as studies have shown that interior air can have three to five times more pollutants than outside."*  The houseplants that they studied were jade plants, spider plants, bromeliads, Caribbean tree cactus, and Dracaena.  "They found that all of the plants were good at removing acetone, but the dracaena plant took up the most, around 94 percent of the chemical. The bromeliad plant was great at removing six of the eight VOCs, taking up more than 80 percent of each over a 12-hour sampling period. Likewise, the jade plant was very good for toluene."*
 
*Melissa Breyer, updated April 7,2022, "5 Houseplants for Removing Indoor Air Pollution,"
https://www.treehugger.com/houseplants-best-removing-indoor-air-pollution-4857723

Photo by Cori Redford, Flickr Commons

Compost vegetable and fruit scraps

6/4/2020

 
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Uncooked peels, spoiled produce, and other fruit and vegetable scraps don’t need to go to the landfill. They can be transformed into high-quality soil for your garden – no matter how small it may be. This video from Delaware County’s own Tyler Arboretum will help you get started.


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