From the section: OUR TOWNS- [North Hempstead]

By Christina Hernandez -- March 20, 2009

Town Councilman Angelo Ferrara and Supervisor Jon Kaiman

North Hempstead Town has begin using an environmentally friendly asphalt patching material that replaces petroleum derivatives with plant oils.

The substance, GreenPatch, uses renewable solvents such as plant oils as softeners instead of the petroleum derivatives used in traditional asphalt, said Scott Herman, a sales associate with Cold Mix Manufacturing in Flushing. He said it is 100 percent biodegradable.

“It’s a direct replacement for conventional, toxic substances that had been used on New York’s city streets,” he said. GreenPatch, which has been on the market less than a year, is also being used in the Town of Oyster Bay and the City of Long Beach, Herman said.

“It’s an environmentally friendly material, the use of which fits into the town’s emphasis on keeping it green whenever we can,” Nash said.

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Campaign for the Environment, called the move “a great step in the right direction.”

“Repairing the roads is a necessity,” she said. “We should be doing it in an ecologically sustainable way,”