New Yorkers Recycle Half Million Pounds of Textiles at Greenmarkets

The Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) has announced that New Yorkers have recycled 530,000 pounds of used clothes, shoes, linens, towels and other textiles since 2007, the year that it launched its textile-recycling program at its greenmarkets.

The program is a partnership between CENYC and textile recycling company Wearable Collections. More than 20,000 people have participated in it, at greenmarkets city-wide, including those at Grand Army Plaza, Fort Greene and McCarren Park.

Collected textiles are taken to a sorting facility and categorized based on reusability and type of fabric. They are then taken to specific markets where they are in demand.

For more information about CENYC’s textile-recycling program, visit www.cenyc.org/recycling.

Back to homepage   

Brooklyn Green Team Raises 1K at Party

The Brooklyn Green Team held a party at Bar Reis in Park Slope, in celebration of its second anniversary of grassroots activism last weekend. The group of friends, who got together after seeing the film The 11th Hour, raised $1,000 at the party, which they are donating to Park Slope green home goods store 3RLiving, the Lower East Side Ecology Center and Partners In Health for Haiti relief.

Money was raised through a cover charge and a silent auction. Some of the items included a gift certificate to Park Slope restaurant Aunt Suzie’s, a $100 gift certificate to Green Apple Cleaners, a nature photograph donated by Green Team founder Amanda Gentile, a greenmarket basket donated by the Council on the Environment of New York City and a free yoga class.

The Brooklyn Green Team, pictured here at the party from left to right, is Robert Weinstein, sisters Amanda and Noelle Gentile, Jennifer Bartels, Melissa Browning and Johanna Voutounou.

Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Green Team.

Back to homepage   

Cold Weather Getting You Down? Head to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Chase away the winter blues at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG). According to the its web site, exposure to daylight, even on a cloudy day, can help restore energy, alertness, and contentment. BBG has a wealth of ongoing programming, from classes to public tours.

Choose from an extensive list of adult classes this winter: register for one in Tai Chi Cuan, or one in designing a brownstone garden. GreenBridge, the community environmental horticulture program at BBG, offers free workshops (space is limited) in topics such as starting seeds indoors or street tree care.

Coming up this Sunday, Feb. 7, there will be a special theme tour to rid you of the winter blues: an hour-long wintertime walk conducted by Lynne Spevack, LCSW, a licensed psychotherapist and veteran BBG tour guide . Two tours remain this season, one this Sunday, Feb. 7, and one on Sunday, March 7, beginning at 1 p.m. Meet at the Visitor Center, dress warmly and wear comfortable shoes. Rain or shine.

Or, you can visit the garden on your own. Admission is free on weekdays from now until March 2.

Photo courtesy of BBG.

Back to homepage   

City Tech Professor's Solution to Climate Change: Resources From Space

City Tech physics Professor (and Bed-Stuy resident) Gregory L. Matloff recently released a new book he co-authored called Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth.

The book outlines how space resources and space-based power generating systems can work together with Earth-based conservation to meet industrial needs and forge a sustainable future.

Matloff co-wrote the book with Les Johnson, deputy manager of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Advanced Concepts Office at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Al.

“With an ever-increasing share of the human population making the transition to the ‘developed’ world,” said Johnson in a press release, “will come increasing stress on the Earth’s environment, natural resources and ability to produce enough food. The modern environmental movement is tackling these problems head-on by promoting energy efficiency, recycling and renewable resources. While these strategies and technologies are vital, they will be woefully insufficient to provide for a prosperous, long-lived global society with a moderate-to-high standard of living.”

The solution to a progressively worsening environmental situation and its negative impact on society will require “drawing upon the vast energy and material resources that space alone can provide,” said Matloff in a press release. “Doing so will enable us to create a cleaner, healthier environment essential to sustaining life on Earth far into the future.”

Paradise Regained is published by Springer Science & Business Media and is available on Amazon here.

Back to homepage  

Brooklyn Green Team to Host Second Anniversary Party

This Saturday, Jan. 30, the Brooklyn Green Team will celebrate its second anniversary with an 80s-themed party at Bar Reis on 375 Fifth Ave. in Park Slope. For a $10 cover charge, sample local and organic drink specials and participate in a silent auction. Items in the silent auction include a gift certificate to Park Slope restaurant Aunt Suzie's, a $100 gift certificate to Green Apple Cleaners, a nature photograph donated by Green Team founder Amanda Gentile, a “greenmarket” basket donated by the Council on the Environment of New York City, a free yoga class, and more.

City Council Member Brad Lander will speak at the party, and a DJ will spin 80s music starting at 11 p.m. Attendees will receive $20 gift certificates to Green Apple Cleaners, while supplies last.

Money raised at the party will benefit Haiti relief efforts and will also aid local electronics recycling, according to Gentile.

The Brooklyn Green Team is comprised of a group of friends — sisters Amanda and Noelle Gentile, Melissa Browning, Jennifer Bartels, Johanna Voutounou and Robert Weinstein — who got together after seeing the film The 11th Hour and wanted to inspire positive change. They hold regular eco-challenges to raise environmental awareness.

Photo above is from the Green Team's first anniversary party. From left to right: Noelle Gentile, Johanna Voutounou, Amanda Gentile, Jennifer Bartels, Melissa Browning and Robert Weinstein. Courtesy of the Brooklyn Green Team

Back to homepage 

Brooklyn Public Library Announces Power Up! Winners

Last week, the Brooklyn Public Library announced the winners of its sixth annual, Power Up! business plan competition. One of the second place winners, taking home a cash prize of $5,000, submitted a plan with a green theme.

Prospect Heights resident Vandra Thorburn (above left) proposed Vokashi Kitchen Waste, a simple, natural solution to disposing of kitchen refuse. This business will give residential households a small catering companies the tools to recycle their food waste — primarily, a product that ferments discarded food and distributes it to composting sites where it becomes organic soil. The process is natural and easy.

Read about the rest of the winners here. 

It seems Power Up! winners commonly have green business plans. One of last year's second place winners was Elissa Olin, who proposed the plan for a green home goods store, Green in BKLYN, which she then opened in Clinton Hill on Earth Day last year. 

Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Public Library

Back to homepage 

New Yorkers Recycle — A Message From CENYC

In December, I caught up with David Hurd, director of the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE) at the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC), and Jae Watkins, Brooklyn's recycling outreach coordinator, for a story about recycling. During our interview, they showed me a video CENYC compiled of New Yorkers talking about the guidelines for recycling in New York City. Hurd explained that the video was a "good way to extend [CENYC's] outreach," and get the message out to more people about recycling. Check it out:

Back to homepage