Mayor Breaks Ground on Recycling Facility

FACILITY IN SUNSET PARK THAT WILL PROCESS ALL OF CITY'S METAL, GLASS AND PLASTIC RECYCLABLES
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today broke ground on a new Sims Municipal Recycling Facility that will serve as the principal processing facility for all of the City's metal, glass, and plastic recyclables. The recycling facility is part of the City's landmark Solid Waste Management Plan, which establishes a cost-effective, equitable, and environmentally sound system for managing the City's waste for the next 20 years, and it is a key part of the City's effort to achieve PlaNYC's goals of improving air quality, cutting traffic and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The new, state-of-the-art facility located at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park will minimize the distance that collection trucks travel between pick-up sites and receiving centers, allow Sims to expand its barge and rail-based transport systems, eliminate over 260,000 vehicle miles traveled annually from City roadways, and create 100 new jobs when the facility is opened, which is expected in December 2011.

Learn More.

Unclogging Your Drain

A couple of green team members were in standing water for weeks. A drain that's not draining isn't pleasant. It's tempting to go for drano when a snake just isn't cutting it, but it's SOOO bad for water.

After bubbly cleaning liquids disappear down our drains, they are treated along with sewage and other waste water at municipal treatment plants, then discharged into nearby waterways. Most ingredients in chemical cleaners break down into harmless substances during treatment or soon afterward. Others, however, do not, threatening water quality or fish and other wildlife. In a May 2002 study of contaminants in stream water samples across the country, the U.S. Geological Survey found persistent detergent metabolites in 69% of streams tested.

PLUS... (according to Organic Consumers Association) The most acutely dangerous cleaning products are corrosive drain cleaners, oven cleaners, and acidic toilet bowl cleaners, according to Philip Dickey of the Washington Toxics Coalition. Corrosive chemicals can cause severe burns on eyes, skin and, if ingested, on the throat and esophagus. Ingredients with high acute toxicity include chlorine bleach and ammonia, which produce fumes that are highly irritating to eyes, nose, throat and lungs, and should not be used by people with asthma or lung or heart problems. These two chemicals pose an added threat in that they can react with each other or other chemicals to form lung-damaging gases.

WHAT TO DO...
Instead, try using a cup of baking soda followed by a cup of white vinegar down the drain. Let it sit for a half hour and then follow down with 2 quarts of boiling water. You may have to do it more than once. You can also go at it with a hanger (as we wound up doing) b/c the all-natural product we were using truthfully didn't cut it. Or call the plumber!

Gowanus Garbage

Watch this disturbing video depicting trash and sewage flowing freely in our beloved Gowanus Canal.


What can you do about it? Volunteer with Gowanus Canal Conservancy! Email volunteer@gowanuscanalconservancy.org to volunteer and be a steward of this waterway.

Let Companies You Care About Thier Green-ness

A fellow blogger from softwareadvice.com posted this interesting survey, asking readers if their purchasing decisions would be influenced by a company's efforts to go green. You can find the survey here: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/scm/does-going-green-matter-lessons-from-5-eco-friendly-supply-chains-1092110/.

This survey coincides with an article I've written about five companies that are greening their supply chains. In the article, I discuss the efforts of IBM, Whole Foods, Wal-Mart, Patagonia, and Pepsi to reduce their impact on the environment, which are certainly commendable. But should they be doing more? What are the real motivations behind a greener supply chain? Are consumers even aware of these efforts?

Let them know it DOES make a difference!

Green Clothing Store Comes to BK

It's a little expensive, but for those of you who can afford it...

It's official: Kaight has opened a second location in Brooklyn! Help celebrate by popping by next Saturday for the opening party and toasting to a new space. Cava and a few nibbles and offering 15% off all purchases that night.
When: Sat., Sept. 18, 6 p.m - 9 p.m.
Where: Kaight (382 Atlantic Ave., between Bond & Hoyt)
What: Toast the opening & shop new fall collections. Cava and nibbles. Tunes by DJ Sonny Choo of Sidewalk TV.

Visit Kaight online.

Recycling Update

our friends at GrowNYC tell us...

Mayor and City Council Update NYC Recycling Laws
On August 16 Mayor Bloomberg signed a series of new laws to update and expand recycling. The law of most interest to our readers is likely the expansion of plastic recycling to include all rigid containers like yogurt cups and take out containers. But don't go piling up your plastics just yet! This change won't go into effect until a new recycling facility is built in Brooklyn, scheduled to open in 2012.

Other laws include the addition of 700 more public space recycling bins over the next 10 years, household hazardous waste collections for residents, expanded clothing and textile recycling, improved recycling at city schools and agencies and more leaf and yard waste composting.

Get all the news, including e-waste and textile recycling dates here!

Another Natural Gas Controversy

From Gotham Gazette

Melissa Checker Aug 2010

While New Yorkers hotly debate the safety of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method for extracting natural gas from upstate rock formations, a second natural gas issue has quietly started to simmer.

Houston-based Spectra Energy filed a preliminary federal application to construct approximately 20 miles of new natural gas pipeline across northern Staten Island and southwestern New Jersey, under the Hudson River and into Manhattan's trendy meatpacking district where it will connect to Con Edison lines around Gansevoort Street and the West Side Highway.

The project will expand and diversify an existing natural gas pipeline system between Staten Island and New Jersey. According to a Con Edison spokesperson, Chris Olert, the expansion will help meet growing customer demand for natural gas and improve the reliability of gas delivery. Currently, Con Edison delivers 225 billion cubic feet of natural gas a year to residential and commercial buildings. New pipelines will increase that capacity by 8 million cubic feet per day. In addition, Spectra estimates the project will create 100 new construction jobs when it launches in 2012 and 500 in 2013, when it goes online.

However, some communities along the new pipeline route, which include Staten Island's North Shore, Bayonne, Jersey City and Manhattan's West Village, have rallied to protest the project.
Safety ConcernsAlthough natural gas explosions are relatively rare (the US Department of Transportation reported only 47 serious incidents across all US pipeline systems in 2009), they can be dangerous. Project opponents point out that just this summer, natural gas leaks led to explosions and deaths in Michigan, Texas and South Los Angeles. Closer to home, last February, a natural gas explosion in Middletown, Connecticut killed five people and in 1994 a natural gas pipeline ruptured in Edison, New Jersey, causing damage in excess of $25 million.

Competing for Space
Part of the problem is that in dense urban areas, pipelines vie for space with other infrastructure. Last month, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection expressed concerns that the pipeline would have serious impacts on water and sewer lines along its routes in both Manhattan and Staten Island. In a January letter to U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy argued the pipeline would complicate city's ongoing efforts to service its aging water and sewer infrastructure.

On Staten Island's North Shore, which has the borough's highest asthma rates, proposed project construction would re-route heavy truck traffic from Richmond Avenue to residential streets. Traffic effects are less clear where the pipeline crosses the West Side Highway, but at this month's scoping meeting, Gonzalez promised to "minimize traffic interruption."

A Federal Energy Regulatory Commission spokesperson confirmed that it will accept comments by phone, mail and email until Spectra submits its formal application, which they project for December. Until then, Spectra stated that it would continue to adjust its route and respond to public input. For instance, just before the scoping meetings, they announced that they were considering moving the pipeline from Staten Island's heavily trafficked Richmond Terrace into the water around Shooters Island -- a World War I shipyard turned bird sanctuary.

Read the full article.

SORRY!

We're sorry to have been so delinquent in our posts. Summer is hard, us green team members are flying around trying to reduce carbon (not on planes of course, just with our capes).

We're back online now.

Now that we have your attention...mark your calendar for

NEW GREEN CITY
Wednesday, Sept. 29 @ Union Square (south of Greenmarket)

Want to Find Green in the City?

Green Sky Designs, a Brooklyn-based landscape architecture firm, came up with their GardenSpace NYC application for the iPhone, iPad and and iPod Touch. Users can green-thumb their way through this comprehensive directory of New York City’s hidden parks and secret gardens.

Using GPS, GardenSpace NYC maps the location of the nearest publicly accessible gardens – a handy tool for urban explorers, romantics looking for a quick green hideaway, or tourists hunting for the Big Apple’s flowery underbelly. The app also allows users to search green spaces by neighborhood. This interactive field guide, replete with stunning photographs of the gardens, along with a description and history of each space, give users key information about access, garden vibe and facilities present at each garden.

Though GardenSpace NYC currently features gardens in Manhattan, this gardening duo have plans to extend their app into New York City’s other boroughs in the near future.

check out the app.

BK District 39 Energy Challenge Launches Aug. 1

Brooklyn Green Team gets lazy in the summer. But on the bright side, we're on our computers less and instead are spending time outside. Which we hope you are too.

That means we've been lagging on our challenges but we'll pick up this fall!

From Brand Lander...

To help lessen the burden, I'd like to remind you to sign up now for our Reduce Your Use - Green Homes Challenge. It's the perfect way to reduce your energy consumption, learn about how to maintain a more sustainable home, and win prizes.

The challenge begins on August 1st, so please sign up today! In partnership with the NYS Energy Authority (NYSERDA) and ConEd, we are signing folks up by the day to compete with one another on energy savings. All it takes is filling out this quick online sign-up form: (www.surveymonkey.com/ReduceTheUseD39).

You will need to enter your ConEd account number, so please have it ready (you can begin the survey without your account number if you don't have it handy). Winners will be announced in two categories at the end of the challenge--the home with the lowest overall per capita electric bill, and the home with the greatest overall reduction in usage over the course of the competition. We'll also be keeping track of how different neighborhoods stack up against one another, so we can see which is the greenest neighborhood in our district.

Also, I hope you will join me at the kick-off event for the competition on Sunday, August 1st at 2pm at the Old Stone House in Park Slope. NYSERDA, ConEd and vendors of energy efficient equipment will be there to offer some good starting tips on greening your home. If you are not yet a part of the challenge, you will be able to sign up at the event. The Old Stone House is in J.J. Byrne Park at 5th Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets. Food and refreshments will be served. You don't have to attend to join in the challenge, but it will be a great way to get started.

SIGN UP HERE.

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An Invite from the North Brooklyn Compost Project

It's NBCP Potluck Picnic Social time, so break out those deviled eggs, potato salads, pies, ice cream and lemonades!

On Sunday, July 18th starting at noon, we will be gathering in McCarren Park in the leafy area along Driggs Avenue (right across the street from the dog run and compost site). It is a potluck affair so bring a dish/cold beverage to share.

This will be a casual get-to-know your fellow composters event, and is totally and absolutely open to non-NBCPers, so bring friends, families, and foes. Ball games, Frisbees, bocce, horseshoes, guitars and banjos, and anything else that's playable should come with you, too.

Check out North Brooklyn Compost Project in New York Magazine!
Learn more about NBCP.