An Important Message from Al Gore

He's our favorite. We can't help it. Here is his webcast from Wednesday specifically going out to college students (but we can all learn something from it). 

WATCH THE WEBCAST

and, please, send it to those young people in your life!!!

learn more about wecansolvit

Our Friends at Green Edge

You may have noticed our emails indicate that our challenges are presented in partnership with Green Edge Collaborative NYC. that's because they're our official partners (and friends). In short, Green Edge NYC is a social network that connects people with businesses, organizations and resources we need to build a sustainable future.

We invite you to link up with this great network. Think facebook, but for green folks in NYC. Their neighborhood supper clubs are spreading and are a great way to get out and meet like-minded individuals for dinner.

Join GreenEdge Collaborative.

Good News for People Who Like Good News

Mayor Bloomberg made an announcement today that the city would expand its pilot public recycling program by adding 33 new outdoor recycling locations throughout the City. By partnering with BIDS, the program will pass on little burden to us taxpayers. The colorful blue and green bins will let individuals drop their bottles and cans, and newspapers and magazines. What this means to you: 

NEW Brooklyn Recycling locations:

McCarren Park

Prospect Park (9th Street and Prospect Park AND the corner of Ocean and Parkside Avenues)

Intersection of 5th Ave and Ridge Parkway

Intersection of Church and Flatbush Avenues

Intersection of Adams, Fulton and Willoughby Streets

Intersection of Hastings Street and Oriental Boulevard

Intersection of Avenue S and East 32nd Street

Intersection of 44th Street and 7th Avenue

Learn More

Going Up Gowanus

Toll Brothers, a major suburban home builder, won approval from a Community Board 6 committee for its proposal to rezone two canal-side blocks currently restricted to manufacturing use so it can build 447 units of mixed-income housing, community and commercial space and a swath of open space.

The Land Use and Landmark Committee voted 12 to 1 in favor of the controversial project, with two abstentions. Those in favor said that residential development, which has set aside 30 percent of its units as below-market rate, will spur the cleanup of the canal.

Toll is in contract to buy land bounded by Carroll, Second, and Bond streets and the canal, part of a larger area that the Bloomberg Administration has tabbed to become the next housing frontier. The committee vote now goes to the full community board, then the borough president, Department of City Planning and City Council — all steps in the eight-month rezoning process.
Opponents say the project is too large for a piecemeal rezoning and should be delayed until the city reviews the larger neighborhood plan for pockets of housing, commercial and industrial use in the canal zone.

Community Board 6 will vote on Toll Brothers’ proposition at its Nov. 12 meeting at 6:30 pm. The site is to be determined. (718) 643-3027 to learn more.

Read on at The Brooklyn Paper
Who are these Toll Brothers?

Gimme 5!

For those of us who are eager to recycle all we can, but perhaps don't live near the Park Slope Food Coop ... some good news.

Recycline, the company that brings us cool toothbrushes, razors, and a host of products made from recycled content, now will take your number 5 plastics! (because as you know the city only takes bottles and jugs, meaning any of your yogurt containers and take-out stuff CANNOT be taken with your recyclables). Before launching the program the company assessed the benefits and found that the plus of keeping #5s out of the landfill and giving them new life outweighs the negative of you shipping the 5s to them.

Here's how it works:

you mail your plastics to

Preserve Gimme 5

823 NYS Route 13

Cortland, NY 13045 - questions? 888.334.7296

•	Many common food containers – yogurt cups, sour cream containers, hummus tubs, ketchup bottles – are #5 plastics.
•	We accept any CLEAN plastic item with a #5 stamp on the bottom. Please check to make sure that there are no other materials (paper, screws, other number plastics) on the items that you send to us.
•	Make sure that the #5 plastics are clean – the cleaner the plastic, the cleaner the recycling process.
•	To help make this program a win for the environment, it is important that you send your plastics back to us via ground shipping (as opposed to air). Reuse a box if you can!
•	Shipments should weigh at least 5 pounds and no more than 50 pounds. Any package greater than 50 pounds must be pre-approved by Recycline.
•	Make sure to include your return address on the box and add your name and email address inside the box so we can thank you for your good work.

Basement of (Environmentally-friendly) Blood

Habana Outpost, a popular eco-friendly eatery here in BK has another arm you may not know of. Habana Works, an green education nonprofit for NYC youth. As part of it's teen program, Break It Down, students from The Green School in Williamsburg have been working alongside Habana Works to create a subterranean scarefest for us public in the basement of Habana Outpost. High school students created ghoulish scenes from everyday garbage, and will present a recycled haunted house, which is free and open to the public today, tomorrow, and Sunday! 

Break It Down offers project-based internships to HS students that bring discarded resources back into use and on the market. For example, for the upcoming holiday season, interns will produce craft items from the wood, metal and glass in Habana Outpost's waste stream. Products made will be available for sale at Habana's seasonal holiday Market. 

About Habana Works: a nonprofit founded by Sean Meenan, owner of Habana Outpost, New York's only solar-powered eatery. Habana Works offers free programs that educate, unite and engage Fort Green in environmentally conscious thought and action. These programs use art, architecture, videography and design to instill a greater understanding of the community's role in the betterment of our planet. 

Sushi Smarts

We Brooklyn Green Team members are very excited to see this anticipated guide to sustainable sushi come out today! Three versions of the sustainable sushi guide are available from Blue Ocean Institute, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Environmental Defense Fund. According to the guides, top sustainable sushi eats include U.S.-farmed abalone (awabi), albacore tuna from North America (shiro maguro), and farmed Arctic char (iwana). Besides downloading the guide from whichever source you choose and practicing sustainable habits at your sushi bar, here is what you can do to further the cause:

Engage Your Chef in a Conversation. Let the chef know that you appreciate seasonal, sustainable seafood choices and that you'd like to explore new flavors. Ask if the seafood is farmed or wild, how it was caught and where it's from.

Spread the Word. At Seafood Watch we know from experience that consumers matter—just a few simple actions on your part can make a big difference. Leave behind our Chef Feedback Cards - an easy way to share your point of view and to encourage restaurants to serve sustainable seafood. Download the Chef Feedback Cards

Become an advocate. If you're passionate about healthy oceans, become a Seafood Watch Advocate and share information about sustainable seafood with your favorite sushi chefs, as well as your family, friends and co-workers. Become a Seafood Watch Advocate

Join the Party. Help us celebrate the launch of our new Sushi Pocket Guide by planning your own sustainable dinner at your local sushi bar anytime through October 28. You can get details and "RSVP" for the party on Facebook. Invite a few friends and get sustainable!

DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE! (from Monterey Bay)
or from Environmental Defense Fund or from Blue Ocean Institute

For Those of Us Who Drop Our Compost

Here's what Lower East Side Ecology Center has to ask us drop-bys...

As a result of your committed compost schlep, we've seen our organic waste collection nearly DOUBLE in the past year. Each week two truck loads of your food scraps are composted in our in-vessel composting system, beneath the Williamsburg Bridge in East River Park. This adds up to 5,280 pounds a week and 130 tons a year! That's one pile of compost and we need your co-operation.

When you drop off your food scraps that is just the beginning of their journey to become compost. Your coffee grounds and beet greens are wheeled away from market, to be handled another 5 times: unloaded from truck into in-vessel compost system, shoveled out of compost bins into worm beds, screened twice and then packaged into bags before returning to Union Square as finished compost.

To make the journey of kitchen-scraps to finished compost a little less labor intensive, we're asking you to empty your plastic bags or containers of food waste at our stand directly into our big grey barrels.  Alternatively, if that idea is not appealing to you, we would like to introduce you to the fully compostable Biobag (made from corn), which can be tossed directly into our big grey bins. We will have Biobags (5 bags for $1) available at our stand, starting October 27th, or they can be purchased at Whole Foods Market.

Thank you LESEC for taking all of our compost!

Oysters Save Planet!

While at the Red Hook Harvest Festival, green team members spotted NYNJ Baykeeper. Here is what they learned...Oysters are vital to the ecological well-being of our Estuary.  Baykeeper has been working to restore oyster beds in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary since 1997.  When Henry Hudson first explored the region in 1609, oyster reefs covered 350 square miles of Estuary. After 1900 the oyster population fell dramatically thanks to overharvesting, polluation, disease, and siltation.  Baykeeper restores oyster reefs by planting a shell-base before planting the oysters. The base raises the oysters off the moddy or sandy bottom so they don't get buried. 

The benefits: 

oysters purify the Estuary as they filter water to get their food. An adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day!

Hundreds of animals use oyster reefs as their homes including fish, grass, shrimp, anemones, and crabs. 

You can get involved by being a volunteer. You can become an oyster gardener, prepare shell bags, participate in reef building, or do some office stuff. 

Learn more at Baykeeper

The Three E's

Economy, Energy, Environment

"We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change." 

-Al Gore

If the massive and imperfect Wall Street bailout has proven anything, it's that we can gather enormous amounts of money in times of perceived crisis. Which raises the question: Why wait for a crisis? Our sputtering "Main St." economy, stubborn dependence on energy from abroad, and rapidly warming planet can be dealt with concurrently for a fraction of what we taxpayers just coughed up to the bankers. As Van Jones wrote in his new book, "Let's find another $350 billion (which) absolutely and positively could retrofit and re-power America using clean, green energy - and create millions of new jobs, in the process."

Read this great article from Good about the Sustainable Stimulus

More Reasons to Solar Your Brownstone

As the debate on the prudence of this month’s Congressional bailout package continues to rage, one thing is clear: the renewable energy stimulus component of the bailout package will prove an effective weapon in Main Street’s arsenal against runaway energy costs -- and for energy independence.

The Main Street component of this economic package stimulates renewable energy markets by an estimated $230 billion and creates or retains nearly 440,000 green jobs by providing businesses and citizens across America with rich new incentives to go solar.
Among the bill’s provisions are:

Extending investment tax credits for residential and commercial solar installations for eight years (They previously set to expire in two months.);

Eliminating the $2,000 cap on the investment tax credit for residential solar electric installations placed into service after December 31, 2008;

Allowing filers of the alternative minimum tax to claim solar investment tax credits;
Allowing public utilities to claim solar investment tax credits;

Authorizing $800 million in new clean renewable energy bonds;

Creating a new category of tax credit bonds called Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds to finance state and local initiatives to reduce carbon emissions;

Extending deductions for energy-efficient commercial buildings;

Establishing new tax credits for purchasers of plug-in electric-drive vehicles;

Extending research and development tax credits to stimulate green jobs.

Source: Daily Green

The ASES National Solar Tour is the largest grassroots solar event in the U.S. To learn how to get involved, host a tour or become a sponsor for next year’s event, visit www.nationalsolartour.org.

Learn about Solar1's I Heart PV Campaign here in NYC

Learn about how to get some rebates now from NYSERDA

Since You're Going To Watch It Anyway

Here are a few green-themed debate watching parties happening this evening:

Debate Watch Party @ Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo
8pm
Join us for the next Presidential Debate projected on our 12'X12' screen.
Galapagos is located at16 Main Street at the corner of Water Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn
16 Main Street (near Water Street, and near the water)
Learn More

Brooklyn Goes Veg Week! Debate Watch Party
7:30pm
Red Bamboo, Fort Greene (Adelfi Street at Corner of Dekalb)
Join SuperVegan for our Presidential Debate Watch Party to cheer/sneer at the final showdown between "that one" and that one. Where else would you be able to enjoy a full bar and vegan goodies like Red Bamboo Brooklyn's famous creole soul chicken, buffalo bbq wings, and cajun fried shrimp while you cringe in anger and barfiness while that man with the not so steady hand from the Palin ‘08 ticket calls you one of his “friends”? In honor of (wink, wink) the Republican’s 2008 presidential/vice presidential nominee, who can see Russia from her igloo in Alaska (!!!), there will be discounted Vegan White Russians for just $5!
Learn More

Debate Watch Party at Solar1 right on the East River in Manhattan
9pm - 11pm
Learn More

MillionTreesNYC is giving away more free trees...

Thanks to Amex, 1,250 trees will be available this weekend through New York Restoration Project.

Here's the 411 for BK: 

Saturday, October 18

9am-2pm

Sunset Park CENYC greenmarket

4th Ave between 59th and 60th Streets

This Halloween Go as A Carbon Footprint!

or not...

You don't see Michael Myers running amuck grabbing candy with lots of unneccessary packaging and decorating the house with cheap decor shipped from across the world...

Here are some suggestions compliments of Grsit on reducing your environmental impact this halloween!

The Decor. Nothing simultaneously creeps out the neighbor kids and reduces energy use like a dark, spooky house, so give your filaments the night off. Send the message that you're still home and not merely hoarding the goods with a strand of LED lights or a jack-o-lantern on the porch. If you light with candles, choose beeswax or soy. BYO bag. As for a bag, use something you already have on hand, like a pillowcase or a canvas tote.

The Pumpkin. Take a tip from Cinderella and use a pumpkin from your 'hood -- if you can find one. If you can, try to get a gourd from a nearby farm or farmers market, or find organic ones at the hippie store nearest you. And once you're done carvin' and cannin' and roastin', compost the ghost of lanterns past.

The Candy. Trick or fair-trade treat. Nobody wants to be goblin high-fructose corn syrup, pesticides, or hormones. Thankfully, there's a plethora of alternatives, like fair-trade chocolate. Equal Exchange sells organic dark-chocolate minis, and Endangered Species chocolate which come in Halloween sizes and benefits "species, habitat, and humanity" by partnering with nonprofits. There's even fair-trade vegan chocolate minis. Other tasty options include organic candy, cocoa, and raisins, or Glee Gum, seeds, and all-natural fruit snacks or fruit leater. They also make organic lollipops if you can find them

The Outfit. Whether you use thrift-store components or stuff you already have, DIY costumes are cheaper and lack the excess packaging of store-bought ones. Plus no chemicals from the making of and breathing in of masks. If you do "need" a mask, the Green Guide says it should smell like balloons (latex), not a shower curtain (vinyl). Community trading site Zwaggle is a free source of secondhand Halloween costumes; putting your used goods up for trade earns "Zoints" with which you can acquire other's costumes.

The Superhero Route. Use the holiday as an excuse to do some good. Request a free kit (you pay the shipping) of fair-trade chocolate and be part of the second annual Reverse Trick-or-Treating, in which younguns give adults the goodies with a card explaining cocoa-industry exploitation. Or trick-or-treat for UNICEF, raising money for clean water, medicine, and education for kids in need. Alternatively, skip candy and cash and head straight to the big leagues -- personal electronics -- by asking people for their old cell phones. The Good Deed Foundation provides a postage-paid envelope for the phones; recycling them helps get women and families get out of poverty through Good Deed's partnership with the Women's Funding Network.Who knows? Maybe altruism is the sweetest treat of all.

Learn More
Learn Even More

Fresh Direct gets a little bit greener

For the past few years, many Fresh Direct customers have been concerned about their excessive, and often, wasteful packaging. Thanks to the response of many individuals, Fresh Direct just got a little bit greener. They have announced that they have eliminated over 50% of the Styrofoam™ from their packaging and are working to remove the rest. In early 2009 their goal is to dramatically reduce the number of boxes containing just 1 or 2 items. This will result in 1,000,000 fewer boxes each year sent into their customers' homes and recycling bins. Way to go Fresh Direct!

Seeing Green

Yet another green space in NYC to do something other than watch TV at. . .

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert C. Lieber and Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC) President Leslie Koch today initiated the demolition of Liberty Village, a cluster of 10 buildings on the island’s southern end not built to City building code standards. The demolition of the three-story buildings, built in 1988 as housing for the Coast Guard, will provide access to half of the island never before open to the public, creating more than eight acres of new open space that will be available to New Yorkers next summer.

In addition, the demolition will open up the island’s entire 2.2-mile waterfront promenade for walking and biking. The new amenities will enhance the island as a destination for New Yorkers, after a record number of visitors this year. By the end of this weekend, more than 125,000 people will have come to the Island, twice the number of visitors last year and more than five times the number in 2006.

The eight acres of open space that will be created after the demolition of Liberty Village represents one part of the open space development underway on Governors Island. Ultimately, the island will offer a total of 90 acres of publicly accessible open space. Last December, the City and State announced the selection of internationally renowned design firms West 8 / Rogers Marvel Architects / Diller Scofidio + Renfro / Quennell Rothschild / Urban Design + to design three new open spaces comprising the 90 acres: a two mile Great Promenade along the water's edge; a new major park located on the southern half of the island; and an improved park design within the northern Historic District. The Great Promenade and forty-acre park will provide places to relax, play sports and explore, all with a unique view of the Statue of Liberty. In the National Historic District, visitors can continue to enjoy acres of green space that include buildings and homes dating from 1810.

The design process of these open spaces began earlier this fall, with extensive and ongoing opportunities for public input, including a new blog, a survey, facilitated workshops and an exhibition on Governors Island. All ideas will be shared with the design team as they craft the park master plan that will be unveiled in the spring of 2009.

Source: NYC.gov
visit Governors Island

Waste Management Waste's Not

Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WMI) has announced that it plans to use its expertise as the nation’s largest developer of landfill to gas energy (LFGTE) projects to partner with private and municipal landfill owners to develop the country’s untapped landfill gas resources. Waste Management is the first in the waste management industry to launch such a program.
Waste Management’s third-party LFGTE development team recently broke ground on a LFGTE facility at the municipal owned Madison County landfill near Syracuse, New York. There, Waste Management will develop a 1.4-megawatt LFGTE facility.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has endorsed landfill gas as an environmentally wise alternative energy resource that reduces the country’s reliance on fossil fuels like coal and oil. Landfill gas is also an important source of waste-based, renewable energy that can generate distributed base load power. There are currently 445 LFGTE sites in operation across the country, but the U.S. EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) has identified 535 additional sites (out of 1,700 total operating landfills) as promising candidates for LFGTE facilities. Fully developed, LMOP estimates these additional landfills could produce over 1,200 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 1 million homes.

Landfill gas, produced when microorganisms break down organic material in the landfill, is composed of approximately 50-60 percent methane and 40-50 percent carbon dioxide. At most landfills in the United States, the methane is simply burned off. LFGTE facilities use methane gas to power generators offsetting power otherwise generated from fossil fuel.Waste Management is North America’s largest operator of LFGTE facilities, with renewable energy projects at 112 of its landfills. Upon completion of the 60-project expansion begun in 2007, Waste Management expects to generate over 700 megawatts of energy from its landfills, enough to power 700,000 homes.

Source: Environmental Expert
related CNN article
Read what NRDC says about whether landfill gas is green

Jersey Gets Windy

Regulators in New Jersey awarded the rights on Friday for construction of a $1 billion offshore wind farm in the southern part of the state to Garden State Offshore Energy. The rights, which include access to as much as $19 million in state grants, is part of New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan, which calls for 20 percent of the state’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. The decision comes on the heels of decisions by Delaware and Rhode Island to allow the installation of offshore wind farms.

Energy experts say that these approvals could prompt regulators in New York to support projects off the south shore of Long Island and New York City. The proposal by Garden State Offshore Energy includes the installation of 96 turbines to produce as much as 346 megawatts of electricity, enough to power tens of thousands of houses, starting in 2013. The turbines would be arranged in a rectangle about a half-mile long by one-third of a mile wide and would be placed 16 to 20 miles off the coast of New Jersey’s Atlantic and Ocean Counties, much farther out and in much deeper water than other proposed wind farms. Deepwater Wind, which will work with P.S.E.G. to build the wind farm, said it could affordably build turbines in 100 feet of water with the same technology used to build oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and other places.
Because the wind blows more reliably during the day farther offshore, the company expects to be able to more readily tap into the higher prices available on the power market at peak times. And by putting the turbines so far out, the company hopes to blunt opposition from environmentalists and residents who say that turbines diminish ocean views and damage wildlife.

“People don’t have to choose between clean energy and a clear view,” said Nelson Garcez, a vice president of P.S.E.G. Global. Mr. Garcez said the deep-water turbines would produce enough power to help the company break even in about seven years.

In August, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that the city would solicit proposals from companies interested in building offshore wind farms and placing turbines atop buildings in the city. The projects being approved in neighboring states could increase the chances for approval of offshore wind farms in New York, where a vast majority of wind turbines are on land and upstate.

Source: NYTimes

Design Your Own Tote

It's great to have reusable totes. Lower the impact of these bags even further by making one out of plastic bags. Click Here to Design-Your-Own!

Source: Plenty Magazine

ONE MONTH LEFT FOR FIVE-MINUTE SHOWER CHALLENGE!

Brooklyn Green Team in partnership with GreenEdge Collaborative NYC present
THE FIVE MINUTE SHOWER CHALLENGE!

It's getting cool in the mornings. You're no wimp. You know when to shut it off. No longer do you stand lavishing in the healing hot waters pouring forth from your showerhead. You get your satisfaction instead from being an environmental superhero. That's what you are. One Month to Go. We hope you continue to challenge yourself - if you've hit the 5 minute mark (or below) with no problem, aim higher, or in this case lower. Try to skim even more time off. For those of you who have not yet joined, or if you've joined and have friends who may be interested, CLICK HERE to sign up for the challenge!

Compelling reasons to inspire others to keep up the good work. . .

Here is what Sierra Club's Mr. Green has to say:

You better believe conservation is important. Waste precious water and you should be sentenced to take a cold shower with Dick Cheney. You can choose from gallons of arguments to convince people of this, but let's start with four points - pollution, wildlife, money, and stench.

When lakes, rivers, and underground aquifers contain less water (in part because more of it is irrigating lawns and dripping from faucets), pollutants become more concentrated. If we decrease water use, it could reduce the need for new dams and reservoirs that can mess up wildlife habitat. That might be enough to win over our outdoorsy types.

When dealing with those who don't give a damn about nature, aim for their wallets. Pumping and treating water in the U.S. uses around 56 billion kilowatt-hours a year - enough power for 5 million homes. Based on the average national electric rate (about nine cents per kilowatt-hour), that's more than $5 billion worth of energy. The cost of wasting water also affects individual households, where heating water typically accounts for about 14 percent of total energy use.

Finally, stench: Conserving water - 36 states expect to have shortages wtihin five years - helps ensure that we have enough H20 to keep us tolerably clean (and safely hydrated) for years to come.

Want to show the world your commitment to water conservation? Visit WeAddUp for a Shower Together T-shirt! You get your own unique number too.

Visit waterfootprint.org and be surprised to learn what your true water usage is - all things considered.

POW. YOU'VE BEEN GREENED!

Urban Foraging

Because of the name usually ascribed to it - Dumpster Diving – Urban Foraging often gets a bad rap. Urban Foraging is the simple act of taking “goods discarded by retailers, schools, homes, businesses, construction sites” in order to make use of them so they don’t go to waste. The picture often attached to this activity is not a pretty one, with countless photos of people rummaging through dumpsters to find a few stray potatoes or onions or sad looking pieces of fruit. These photos are accompanied by stories and advice for the best times to search the garbage, the types of foods you’re likely to find and what to do if you get caught. (Urban Foraging is perfectly legal according to a 1988 Supreme Court Ruling, unless the dumpster is literally against a building or inside an enclosed area that tells people to stay away)

But Urban Foraging is based on a set of principles both political and social. Practitioners believe that modern society, with the means of production and its global interconnectedness, is based on consumption and full of waste. Urban Foragers are searching for alternatives ways of living which minimize their participation in this consumer culture and make use of the perfectly usable products other people discard. The items are used for practical living, such as decorating apartments, but there are entire associations dedicated to more charitable endeavors, such as feeding the homeless. “Groups like Food Not Bombs recover wasted foods and prepare warm meals that they serve on the streets to hungry people to challenge a society that always has money for war but never enough to ensure that all are fed.”

Weather or not your intentions are political, social or financial, Urban Foraging happens on many levels in the current culture. Many New Yorkers have been known to leave furniture on the sidewalk to be picked up on a first-come, first-serve basis. Sites such as Craigslist.com and Ebay are examples of online Urban Foraging. And clothing swaps provide an excellent way to share our resources while minimizing the amount of waste now infesting our landfill.

For more information about the basic concepts behind Urban Foraging, click here

And for a cleaner, nature-based experience, our partner GreenEdge NYC Collaborative is holding an Urban Foraging expedition in Prospect Park.