Drop your Rechargables and Phones at Greenmarkets

Beginning this week, the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) is placing collection boxes to recycle old rechargeable batteries and cell phones at select Greenmarket farmers markets across the city.

CENYC has joined the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation’s (RBRC) national Call2Recycle^™ program which will help NYC residents conveniently recycle their cell phones and portable rechargeable batteries. All of the materials collected through the Call2Recycle program are recycled and used to create other types of materials, including new batteries and scrap metal. None of the material broken down from the recycling of rechargeable batteries and cell phones makes its ways into landfills.

BK sites:

TUESDAY

8am-6pm

Brooklyn Borough Hall

Court & Montague

SATURDAY

8am-6pm

Brooklyn Borough Hall

Court & Montague

8am-4pm
Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket
NW Entrance to Prospect Park

8am-4pm

Fort Greene Park Greenmarket
Washington Park at DeKalb

8am-3pm
McCarren Park Greenmarket
Driggs & Union

http://www.cenyc.org/recycling/batteries

Greenmarket Comes to Town

For those of you who live in Windsor Terrace, a new greenmarket will be there for your shopping pleasure.

Prospect Park West & 15th Street
inside park entrance
Wed 8am-4pm
May to November

Speaking of the benefits of greenmarkets, check out this guide to making your NYC restaurant local. Courtesy of Glynwood Center, a 225-acre farm, landscape, and conference center in the Hudson Valley. Glynwood helps communities address change in ways that conserve local culture and natural resources while strengthening economic well-being. This includes the daunting task of sustaining local agriculture.

Tips for the Farmers Market

Yes it's cold, but the hearty farmers and food-sellers at Union Square, Grand Army, you name it, are still outside selling. Here are some things to consider when you're shopping

Arrive Early: before everything's been picked over - if you want the choicest goods

Walk the Place Before Purchasing: I know I get overwhelmed, but as the selection changes every week, depending on the season, and as you should scope out who has the best stuff, take a stroll. Follow the pros - you can spot them.

Ask Questions: Everybody there cares about food, where it comes from, how it was grown, and how to cook it, so ask the farmers and other shoppers.

Think Beyond Produce: there's lots of other things on your list you can get at the market, including milk (in glass bottles which are returnable), cheese, meat, honey, bread, etc.

Bring Cash and Tote bags: For obvious reasons, also, reuse your clear plastic produce bags from last time, so you're not taking new ones each time

Lastly, if you're in NYC, bring your textiles to the Goodwill Van - they will take them and either sell the clothes or turn them into rags (Everyday of the Greenmarket at Union Square, Saturdays at Grand Army)

Source: some common Sense and some Domino Magazine

Produce and Local Products: Coming to a Indoor Permanent Market Soon

Set up just outside one of the former Fulton Fish Market buildings by a nonprofit group called New Amsterdam Public, the one-day event was meant in part to build support for a permanent indoor public market selling pristine local food. Similar events are planned for the spring and summer.

Many New Yorkers have to piece together a cook’s pantry from Chinatown shops, farmers’ markets, FreshDirect, Fairway and other stores. Soon New Yorkers may be able to have a large, permanent market with local and seasonal produce, cheesemongers, butchers and a selection of staples including canned vegetables, oil, and granola. We may start to see this happen. For one thing, the infrastructure for getting local farm products into the city is about to change drastically. In a speech in December Gov. Eliot Spitzer told the New York Farm Bureau that ground would be broken this year on a wholesale farmers’ market somewhere near the massive wholesale food complex in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. The governor called it the Pride of New York Wholesalers’ Market, but it would also sell food grown in surrounding states. A big, modern warehouse with good storage facilities and a steady stream of buyers could assure schools, hospitals and grocery stores of a reliable supply of local produce. And it could finally give local farmers a new way to bring their produce to town, particularly those with midsize farms of 50 to 200 acres. Selling wholesale could work for growers who are too small to make direct deals with big chains or not specialized enough for a stall at one of the city’s 46 Greenmarkets.

Lots of debate about who,where, what, and when, but it seems like there is a move to finally provide a one-stop center for all your local needs!

Source: Michelle V. Agins, NYTimes

Outsource Your Compost!

The Lower East Side Ecology Center maintains a booth at the Union Square Greenmarket, where they not only offer fresh NYC dirt at 1 buck/per lb. (from thier composting project), but they also take your food scraps and make them into compost! Tip - you can throw them in a grocery store bag and keep them in the freezer (to keep it from smelling) and bring once a week, once a month, whenever. The Greenmarket is located on the North West corner of Union Square (East 17th and Broadway) and runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday from 8-6 year-round. Check it out and bring your scraps! OR you can drop off at the Lower East Side Ecology Center Garden (North side of East 7th Street between Avenues B and C) Open year-round: Sundays 8am to 5pm. Other times drop off through the opening at the gate

Why compost you might ask?
The average New York City household discards two pounds of organic waste each day—adding up to more than one million tons of organic material a year. When we discard this "waste," we lose a potential resource that can help beautify our parks, gardens, and blocks…even our windowboxes and houseplants.

What to Compost:
All fruit and vegetable peelings and pits
Non greasy food scraps or leftovers
rice, pasta, bread, cereal etc.
Coffee grounds with filter, tea bags
Dairy items: cheese,butter
Hair and nails (animal or human) - gross but true!!!
Egg and nut shells
*Cut or dried flowers, wreaths
*Houseplants and potting soil
*Please keep flowers, plants and soil separate from your kitchen scraps in an extra bag.