More Compost Please

A study by the EPA estimated that Americans generate roughly 30 million tons of food waste each year, which is about 12 percent of the total waste stream. All but about 2 percent of that food waste ends up in landfills. By increasing the availability of locations for Brooklyn residents to drop off food waste for composting, we could increase the amount turned into rich soil for gardens, parks, homes and trees.

Councilman Brad Lander has set aside 1 million dollars for community projects and is asking Brooklyn residents to vote on how it should be spent. One of the projects would be increasing drop off sides for food waste and would cost only $165,000.

If Brad Lander is your Congressman, you can vote for this project (and/or other projects). Just bring proof of residency to one of the following voting locations:

Tues., March 27 - Thurs, March 29
Councilmember Lander’s District Office
456 5th Avenue, 3rd Fl
7:30am - 8:00pm

Saturday, March 31
Windsor Terrace Library
160 East 5th Street
10:00am - 4:30pm

PS 58
330 Smith Street
(Enter on 1st Place)
10:00am - 6:00pm

Old Stone House
336 3rd Street
10:00am - 7:00pm

Sunday, April 1
Beth Jacob Day Care Center
1363 46th Street
10:00am - 5:00pm

Old Stone House
336 3rd Street
10:00am - 5:00pm

Carroll Park
Carroll Street between Court and Smith
10:00am - 5:00pm


image courtesy of East Fourth Street Community Garden in Brooklyn

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NYC Lags Behind Other Cities in Recycling

Image
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...
Read more

Worried About Climate Change?

Image
Worried about climate change? With the largest climate demonstration in history coming to our town next Sunday it’s a good time to think about how plastic contributes to climate change. Plastic use releases hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year – an amount that could be greatly reduced by recycling more plastic and finding alternatives to everyday plastic items that we really don’t need. Think about it the next time you’re in the coop pulling plastic bags off the roll for your produce or bulk items. Just by getting into the habit of reusing plastic bags or replacing them with cloth bags, each of us can decrease our personal contribution to climate change while we’re lobbying world governments to take the big, urgent actions needed to avert climate disaster. Want to make your own cloth bags? Come to the Coop Environmental Committee's Big Sewing Event, Sunday, November 9, beginning at noon in the community room upstairs at the coop.
Read more

A Banana for Your Thoughts

Image
We're all about reducing waste, and it makes it easier if you have a great new use for would-be waste. Banana peels, for instance. Did you know that a banana peel can be used to remove splinters, polish silverware, polish shoes, reduce the itch of insect bites, and more. Get the details on reusing banana peels . Thanks to Kat G. for passing on this tip! After you're finished using your banana peels and other food waste, you can compost them. If you don't have your own compost, the Grand Army Plaza green market as well as others accepts compostable waste .
Read more