Composting Pilot Program Introduced at Greenmarkets in Brooklyn, City

If you're like me, every time you throw out food scraps or egg shells, you feel a little guilty. But I don't have a worm bin, and to be honest, it grosses me out a little (yeah, I read and saw No Impact Man, I know about all the bugs you get when you compost in your apartment. Otherwise I'd jump on that bandwagon). So I'm super happy about GrowNYC's new composting program.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and GrowNYC, joined by Ron Bergamini of Action Carting, announced the launch of a pilot program to provide composting services to NYC residents at six new Greenmarket locations, 10 in total. The pilot was developed by GrowNYC’s Greenmarket and Office of Recycling Outreach and Education programs.

In Brooklyn, composting services will now be available at the McCarren Park Greenmarket (Union Ave between Driggs and N 12th St) on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Fort Greene Greenmarket (Washington Park at DeKalb) on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the Borough Hall Greenmarket on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Composting drop-off sites were already in place at the Fort Greene Greenmarket (conducted by the Fort Greene Compost Project), the Union Square Greenmarket (held by GrowNYC and the Lower East Side Ecology Center) and two Greemarkets in Queens (conducted by the Western Queens Compost Initiative).

Accepted materials include fruit and vegetable scraps, non-greasy food scraps (rice, pasta, bread, cereal etc.), coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, egg and nut shells, pits, cut or dried flowers, houseplants and potting soil. Unacceptable materials: meat, chicken, fish, greasy food scraps, fat, oil, dairy, dog or cat waste, kitty litter, coal or charcoal, coconuts, diseased and/or insect-infested houseplants/soil or biodegradable/compostable plastics.

Food scraps can be collected in large yogurt containers or other covered plastic containers, plastic bags, milk cartons or in commercially-available compost pails. To reduce odors at home and at the Greenmarket, store items in the freezer or refrigerator. A layer of shredded newspaper at the bottom of your storage container also helps.

Food comprises about 17 percent of NYC’s waste stream. When this material is sent to a landfill it contributes to NYC’s disposal costs and creates greenhouse gas emissions. When composted, food scraps and other organic waste become a useful product that adds nutrients and improves the quality of soil for street trees, gardens and more.

“Last year in my Food Works speech one of our goals was to get more people to compost their scraps. You could throw a banana peel or apple core in the garbage but that’s just wasting valuable energy,” said Quinn. “I’m  thrilled to be able to support the opening of these new compost drop-off sites, and what better place to offer them than at the Greenmarkets, where many of the fruits and vegetables sold benefit from the rich, nutrient-filled compost NYC residents will be contributing to every time they drop their food scraps.”

“We’re thrilled that Speaker Quinn and the New York City Council is helping us offer residents a tangible resource that will shrink their trash pile-up and create a precious resource that will benefit local gardens and farms,” said GrowNYC Executive Director Marcel Van Ooyen. “Compost collection complements other services GrowNYC offers city dwellers looking to lower their environmental impact, including Greenmarkets, textile collections, cell phone and battery recycling, environmental education and technical and material assistance we provide community and school gardens.”

Based on the success of the pilot, GrowNYC will explore running the 6 new collection sites on a permanent basis.

Project LeafDrop Collects Leaves From NYC Residents for Composting

Two years ago, due to budget cuts, New York City stopped collecting leaves separate from garbage. In response, a Park Slope community garden called 6/15 Green decided to expand its already large composting center to accept leaves from non-members, in order to divert those leaves from the landfills. That year the garden collected one-and-a-half tons of leaves.

Last year 6/15 Green teamed up with 23 other community gardens, botanical gardens, greening groups, environmental organizations, City agencies and community partners to form NYCLeaves, and together they created Project LeafDrop, a mission to reduce organic material in the city’s wastestream. Over eight tons of leaves were brought to Project LeafDrop sites and turned into compost and mulch for garden beds and street trees.

This year Project LeafDrop is back, with participating sites across the city. In Brooklyn, sites stretch from Williamsburg to Kensington/Ditmas Park, Sunset Park to East New York. Neighborhood residents are welcome to bring their leaves in clear plastic bags without twigs or trash to participating locations on specific dates. To find information on times and locations, view an interactive map here. 

Pictured above is a 2008 photo of the three-bin compost system at 6/15 Green Community Garden in Park Slope.

Green Block Party Coming Up in Carroll Gardens

On Oct. 2, local non-profit GreenHomeNYC will hold a free block party — "The NEW New York GreenHomeNYC's DIY Green Street Festival" — focusing on teaching New Yorkers how to green the built environment. It will take place on Third Street between Hoyt and Bond streets in Carroll Gardens, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

During the day, attendees will have opportunities to learn how to install and plant a green roof, learn about worm bin composting, complete an energy audit and learn how to capture and reuse rain water to water plants.

Various exhibitors will be on hand to showcase environmental programs, such as Brooklyn-based Vokashi with its compost system and kits and Foro Marble presenting eco-friendly counter tops. Also have the opportunity to see the Jerko, a motor-less houseboat with a built-in wetland, rainwater harvesting, solar thermal, solar photo voltaics, and a composting toilet.

Kid-friendly activities will include solar car building and racing with SolarOne, and jewelry making from bike parts with Recycle-A-Bicycle.

The Lower East Side Ecology Center will be on hand for electronics recycling, Wearable Collections will be on hand collecting clothing and textiles, and Recycle-A-Bicycle will be collecting bicycles.

There will be boating on the Gowanus Canal in conjunction with talks about environmental remediation. The Jerko, the Gowanus Water Vacuum, an off the grid houseboat will take its maiden voyage, surrounded by a built-in wetland. Hudson, developer of J Condo and the Village at Atlantic Center, will give tours of Third + Bond which is expected to be LEED-Gold and EnergyStar certified.

This event will compost its food waste, minimize the use of paper, utilize bio-fuel, and offset its carbon footprint.

Brooklyn Compost Project Is Finalist in 'Green Heroes' Contest

Out of submissions sent in from across the country, a small Brooklyn program based out of P.S. 146 — The Brooklyn New School — is one of ten finalists in the “Green Heroes” grant program given by the Clorox Company.

Clorox, which makes a line of natural cleaners called Green Works, has offered a $10,000 grant to the five winners of the competition, to be determined by online voting at greenworkscleaners.com/greenhero. Anyone can vote on the web site, as many times as they want.

The Brooklyn program, “Feed a Worm, Not a Landfill” was conceived by Matthew Sheehan, a former fourth-grade teacher at The Brooklyn New School and a Master Composter, certified by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Sheehan said that currently there are 15 worm composting bins throughout the school maintained by several teachers. However, this only allows the school to compost between 40 and 50 percent of its food waste. Sheehan’s goal is to compost 100 percent of the waste.

His vision for this large-scale composting is a series of Vermiculture Compost Systems (VCS), which will hold 80 pounds of worms. “The worms can eat about half their weight in one day,” he said. The school’s food waste will be put in a different bin for every day of the week, allowing it time to start composting before more food waste is added.

Compost generated from these bins will serve two purposes: it will be added to the school’s garden, and it will be bagged and sold to raise money for the school, said Sheehan.

Also included in the project proposal is a plan for a “shredder house” said Sheehan. Schools in general produce a lot of paper, and all the paper from P.S. 146 will be shredded and added to the worm bins as the carbon component, aiding in composting.

Sheehan, while dedicated to the school as a former teacher and the parent of a kindergartner, was hopeful that “Feed a Worm, Not a Landfill” will help the surrounding communities and be an example for other schools.

“We want to bring it to the wider community,” he said, explaining that, having volunteered at Added Value in Red hook, he hopes to partner with them during the project as well.

“This is something that could really benefit the city, no doubt,” Sheehan said of his program, especially in light of recent cuts of composting programs citywide. “If the city can’t do it we can do it ourselves.”

And with the right tools, anyone can do it, he says — “[my son] has his own worm bin at home.”

Photo courtesy of Green Works

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Celebrating the Sun at Hannah Senesh

It wasn’t sunny by any means last Sunday, but that didn’t stop the Hannah Senesh Community Day School in Carroll Gardens from celebrating the sun with its Solar Fair.

Children and adults from the school and the surrounding community flocked to the fair, where they listened to sun-themed music, got their faces painted and made solar ovens and pinwheels. Recycled yogurt containers, used to plant sunflowers, were donated by the Park Slope Food Coop.

Master composter Marion Stein brought a worm composting bin and information from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on composting, and representatives from solar energy advocacy group Solar One led workshops where children built small solar-powered cars (above).

Borough President Marty Markowitz took the stage to congratulate the school, which he called “one of the best, not only in the neighborhood but in the entire city.” He presented Nicole Nash, who is the head of the school, with a proclamation and declared that day “Solar Day in Brooklyn U.S.A.”

Every year, Hannah Senesh sends their students to Jewish environmental education institute the Teva Learning Center, said science teacher Lisa Ochs. This year, the school and the institute decided to put on the fair in celebration of Birkat Hachama, a Jewish blessing honoring the sun that is said once every 28 years.

Birkat Hachama takes place next Wednesday, April 8, when, according to Jewish tradition, the sun will be in the same place it was when it was first created.

Hannah Senesh took this opportunity to teach the entire student body about the power of the sun. “In February and March, every grade in the school has been learning about the sun and solar energy,” Ochs explained.

Sixth-graders made the solar ovens, seventh-graders built a bike generator — which would generate electricity when pedaled — and eighth-graders worked together to build a solar cell.

Children came in droves and packed into the gym at Hannah Senesh to learn about solar energy, sitting with rapt attention as they watched a skit put on by the Teva Learning Center. The performance explained where we get our electricity right now, and demonstrated how much more efficient it would be to use only solar power.

“The sun is sending enough energy every day to the [entire] earth to power all of the earth’s energy needs for a year,” Ochs said.

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