Read about me in Gothamist: “Meet the NYC environmentalists going off the grid and eating discarded food”
The story Meet the NYC environmentalists going off the grid and eating discarded food begins:
Joshua Spodek’s studio apartment in the West Village is an off-grid oasis.
While other apartments in his 15-story co-op rely on electricity produced by fossil fuel-burning power plants, Spodek is disconnected from Con Edison and National Grid. The main circuit breaker in his apartment is turned off.
Instead, he powers his few electric devices – phone, laptop, pressure cooker and a single light turned on only to read at night – with solar panels the size of an unfurled yoga mat that he charges weekly in Washington Square Park. He buys nothing in a package. The total garbage he’s accumulated over the last three years fits in a reusable shopping tote. He doesn’t use cars and hasn’t flown in nearly a decade. He estimates he’s reduced his overall carbon footprint by 95% since he unplugged from the grid.
“ There’s a certain amount of sunlight that I get and that gives me a certain amount of power, and then I choose what I do based on what I get, and that’s how humans lived for a long, long time,” Spodek said.
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