APRIL 26th- Upcoming Vote for Zero Waste Fee-Based Plastic Packaging Collection








Upcoming Vote for Zero Waste Fee-Based Plastic Packaging Collection
When:  April 26th, Tuesday night, 7pm General Meeting

Where:  St. Francis Xavier School, 763 President Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues

What:  Phase II of the TerraCycle collection will allow for collection of a very broad array of plastic packaging waste from products sold at the coop.  This waste will be upcycled and repurposed to create long lasting useful items (e.g., decking and fencing, planting barrels, garbage cans, etc.)

This vote is for a year long trial which will allow for a full assessment of use and participation.  It should be noted, the Coop is under no contractual obligation with this program. We can discontinue the trial at anytime, if needed.

How: In addition to our current participation in 6 free brigades (small bulk bags, food storage bags, cling wrap; Brita filters; baby food pouches; toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes; cereal bag liners; and energy bar wrappers), if approved, we will participate in TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Fee-based Plastic Packaging Waste Collection.

When are collections:  Collections for the free brigade items (see above) are currently the Second Wednesday of the month (4 to 6pm) and the Fourth Saturday of the month (2 to 4pm).  If approved, the plastic packaging waste will be added to these collection times. We expect to add additional collection times in the future.

Cost:  Participation fee for the Zero Waste Plastic Packaging Collection is $208 per bin (15 x 15 x 42 inches and includes shipping costs). Based on preliminary compressing trials, these bins will hold a very high volume of compressed plastic packaging waste.  The proposal is capped at a budget of $5000 for the year, which allows for 2 bins per month. Members can choose to make a donation when making deposits to help with the cost.

Participation: Participation for deposits to the 6 free brigades is open to members and non-members.  Deposits to the fee based plastic packaging collection will be limited to coop members only—a coop membership card will need to be shown prior to a deposit.  All free brigade waste will be sorted first into appropriate collection bins and remaining plastic packaging waste will go into the fee-based bin.

Members will be asked to limit their deposits to plastic packaging waste generated from produce/products bought at the coop.

Let’s be responsible with the waste we produce and see to it that our plastic packaging waste is upcycled and repurposed and not sent to landfills.

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