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If you are concerned about the potential health and environmental threats of hydraulic fracture gas drilling want to tell Governor Cuomo not to allow hydrofracking in New York State, here is a chance to speak up. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will be a public hearing in New York City on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center , 199 Chambers St., New York, NY. There will be two sessions of the hearing: 1pm and 6 p.m. You can attend just to listen and support others, or write out a statement of your own to read. If you want to read your own statement, there will be a sign up list when you get to the hearing. You can also submit your comments about the latest proposed regulations (SGEIS) by mail or email to the DEC until December 12. For some tips on writing an effective letter about these regulations, see this valuable resource suggesting the different topics you might want to comment on. If you can, please write to the DEC now and/or ...

The October 21 New York Times featured an article titled, Lunch, Landfills, and What I Tossed . Author Mireya Navarro counted up the waste she produced in a week's worth of take out lunches: "Saving all the packaging from a week’s worth of takeout food, I ended up with three plastic yogurt containers, a paper salad box, a paper cereal bowl, two Styrofoam plates, one plastic salad-dressing container and seven plastic food containers — the rigid ones with snap-on lids. Also, five plastic cups (each with a plastic straw), a paper cup with a plastic lid, a plastic water bottle and a plain old paper cup (it held milk for my cereal). Also, one plastic fork, one plastic knife and two compostable plastic spoons, which I threw out rather than composting." Besides the individual trying to brown bag it and otherwise cut down on waste, there is another problem--New York City is lagging behind many others in its recycling: "A survey by the Natural Resources Defense Council this...

There's still time, though not much, to write a letter to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) about the proposed hydrofracking regulations. The deadline is December 12. If you're at the coop this weekend, why not stop at the workshop to help you write an effective letter to the DEC commenting on their proposed fracking regulations: Saturday, November 26: 1-3 pm Individual letters make a difference--the DEC is required to read every one, whereas form letters are merely counted. You can stop by any part of the workshop. Handouts will be available if you want to do your writing at home or share the information with others. Bring friends—coop members and non-members are all welcome!

Boulder, Colorado visionary Eric Lombardi has a plan to help that city and others move towards zero waste. His plan includes changing America's waste management system by shifting subsidies to green approaches, reducing the amount of waste generated by producers, funding appropriate recycling facilities and, ultimately, mandating recycling by law. Lombardi said the economics of recycling have never been better. "The value of recyclables is out of sight. It's now $150 a ton for the basket of goods I've been recycling for the past 20 years, and everyone I know in the business is looking at their landfills and incinerators and saying ‘why am I burying and burning $150 a ton?' It doesn't make sense." Learn more .

If you're at the coop this weekend, why not stop at the workshop to help you write an effective letter to the DEC commenting on their proposed fracking regulations: Saturday, November 19: 2-4 pm Individual letters make a difference--the DEC is required to read every one, whereas form letters are merely counted. The deadline for submitting comments is December 12--fracking may start in early 2012 if we don't speak up. We will help you complete a letter at the workshop and mail it for you. Stop by at any point during the workshop sessions. One more session will be held right after Thanksgiving: Saturday, Nov. 26: 1–3 pm Bring friends—coop members and non-members are welcome! We are very, very lucky to have access to clean, drinkable tap water in New York. Let's not take it for granted and assume that this problem will go away or that someone else will take care of it. Everyone's help is needed.

Write to the DEC before the December 12 deadline . For pointers on composing an effective letter to the DEC, see this resource from the Sierra Club and/or this resource from Sourcewatch . It needn't be perfect; it needn't be long Use the linked resources to make your words strong We all tend to wait, but please don't delay If you care for clean water, please write today!

Would competitive recycling inspire more people to recycle? A Boston company called Greenbean Recycle is trying to make the act of keeping bottles and cans out of the landfill into a fun, competitive and engaging game for students at MIT. The company has converted a recycling machine on MIT's campus into a point tabulator of sorts. When students approach the high-tech trash can to dump in their recyclables, they punch their phone number on a touch screen. A bar-code reader in the machine counts the number of cans, bottles and the like that the person has dropped off - and then uploads that data to Greenbean's website. The hope is that even non-recyclers may be inspired to do their part and sporadic recyclers to do even more. Read more .

It's hard to image 3.6 million pounds of plastic bags—and that NYC residents throw away that much every week . You can print Grow NYC's new poster and post it in your building or workplace to help others reduce their usage of plastic bags. There are so many nice reusable bag options today—there's no need to rely on plastic!

Slowing Down the DEC on the Fast Track to Frack New York State Governor Cuomo and the Department of Environmental Conservation are putting the Energy Industry on a fast track to frack New York State. Why the hurry ? The NYS DEC recently issued a Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) which, if accepted, will allow hydro-fracking to begin. We have until December 12 to send comments to the DEC. The Environmental Committee is organizing a series of workshops to provide guidance for writing an effective letter to The DEC commenting on their regulations. Individual letters make a difference--the DEC is required to read every one, whereas form letters are merely counted. We will help you complete a letter at the workshop and mail it for you. Stop by at any point during one of the workshop sessions: Sunday, 11/06: 12-2 pm Saturday, 11/19: 2-4 pm Bring friends—coop members and non-members are welcome!

Stop by the Park Slope United Methodist Church at Sixth Ave. and 8th St. on Thursday, November 3 for a screening of Gasland, followed by a Panel Discussion w/ fracking experts from the Park Slope Food Coop, NY H2O, United for Action, the Brooklyn Food Coalition and Assemblyman Jim Brennan, plus refreshments Film starts at 6:30pm; panel discussion begins at 8:30pm Find out what you can do to protect our water and our food from fracking.