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.

Benefit for Green Theatre Collective Tomorrow

Tomorrow night the Green Theatre Collective (GCT), a Brooklyn-based theater group that uses minimal resources to perform in natural environments, will hold a benefit for its inaugural season. The benefit will be at Pianos NYC at 158 Ludlow St. in the Lower East Side of Manhattan from 7 to 10 p.m.

Attendees will hear live music from Reuben Chess of the band Quintus, Acoustic Electra and Sara Banleigh, and sample baked goods from Monicakes Bakery. The show will start at 8 p.m.

Suggested donation is $10, which will go to GCT’s production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, slated for summer 2011. For more information, visit www.greentheatrecollective.org. 

The Green Theatre Collective is founded by Windsor Terrace resident Hal Fickett. Read my story about it here.

Green Dry Cleaner in DUMBO, Cobble Hill

Recently I met with Ken Kinzer (above), a dry cleaner who has locations on Front Street in DUMBO and Court Street in Cobble Hill. After telling me about GreenEarth Cleaning, one of the methods he uses to dry clean — the other is wet cleaning, which simulates hand washing — I told him about a memory I have from when I was younger and got a sweater back from the cleaners. I smelled it, wanting to snuggle into my nice clean sweater, but I was immediately confronted by the most horrific chemical smell.

The smell was most likely perchloroethlyene (perc), a technically organic compound used by most dry cleaners. It's also a carcinogen. Kinzer's method, GreenEarth Cleaning uses silicone to clean clothes and it doesn't leave a smell.

“It’s safe for the clothes, it’s safe for the customer, it’s safe for the environment,” he said.

Read my story about Kinzer and his dry cleaning plants here.

The Million Pound Challenge: NYC Recycles Clothes to Reach Goal

Back in September GrowNYC — a non-profit geared toward improving the quality of life in the five boroughs through environmental programs — launched The Million Pound Challenge. This challenge calls on New Yorkers to bring unwanted or worn out clothes to eight weekly drop-off sites, with the goal of reaching the million pound mark by Dec. 31. Instead of going to waste, materials are sorted and redistributed to secondhand clothing markets, rag makers and fiber recyclers. So far, 830,000 pounds of textiles have been collected.

“When the City published the findings of its comprehensive Waste Characterization Study in 2006 we were shocked to see that 6 percent of our waste consists of textiles — this is after residents have sifted out items to donate to their favorite charities,” said GrowNYC Executive Director Marcel Van Ooyen. “There is no easier way to reduce this figure than to add textiles to your recycling routine. Our collections are unique in that we’ll take all of your clean, dry, unwanted textiles.  Now there’s a solution for what to do with those bleach-stained towels.”

Each ton of material kept out of the trash represents a savings to taxpayers, who foot the bill for sending discards to out of state landfills. Visit the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket in Brooklyn to drop off textiles for recycling.

Fabulous Fresh Finds, Weeks 7 and 8: Fall Fun

Well readers, it happens to the best of us: I've fallen off the blog train, as I have in the past and probably will again. But I really have been going to the GAP Greenmarket (though we did miss two weeks due to yet more weddings).

On Oct. 23, we stopped by on the way to a pumpkin carving gathering at Lowlands Bar in Gowanus, in the hopes of getting a pumpkin. Not only did we get a regular pumpkin, we also got two mini pumpkins for decorating and some ornamental corn, all from Lebak Farm (Burlington County, NJ). We got a bunch of Fuji apples and — because it's my favorite fall vegetable — butternut squash from Phillips Farms (Hunterdon County, NJ).

We harvested the guts of the pumpkin, then separated the seeds from the core. We used the core to brew a Brooklyn Brewshop Pumpkin Dubbel beer — by roasting the pumpkin with brown sugar and adding the mixture to the mash and the boil — and I toasted the seeds up with some salt using this recipe. The seeds made a delicious snack while brewing and for several days after. The beer is still fermenting; we'll bottle in the coming week. (You can read about our progress on our blog, beerunion.net. How's that for some shameless self-promotion?)

I roasted the squash with some butter and cinnamon, then mashed it. As for the apples, they were great on their own, or also paired with some leftover Lynnhaven goat cheese and drizzled with honey from Brooklyn bees (which I purchased at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's "Bee Day" celebration back in June). Totally local and totally delicious.

This past Saturday (Oct. 30) we were back at the market, stocking up on another butternut squash from Phillips Farms — I can't be without it for too long during the season — and some spinach, garlic and green beans from Cedar Hill Farm/Kernan Farms (Cumberland County, NJ). We also got broccoli rabe from Evolutionary Organics (Ulster County, NY), which we blanched and sauteed, then added to orecchiette and topped it with shaved grana padano cheese, for a lovely Italian-inspired meal. We also snapped up some grapes from Buzzard Crest Vineyards (Yates County, NY).

Of course, I couldn't leave without a non-food item. I kept seeing people with these large bunches of green leafy flower-looking things, so I investigated Lebak Farm's stand. It was eucalyptus, and I had to get some. The bunch was so big I had to split it into two vases (and my hands got pretty sticky handling it), but it's gorgeous, and it smells great in our apartment.

The Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket is held on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. year-round. The city's Greenmarkets are a program of GrowNYC, a non-profit geared toward improving the quality of life in the five boroughs through environmental programs. This particular Greenmarket, founded in 1989, is GrowNYC's flagship Brooklyn market and is its second largest market behind Union Square.

Related:

Fabulous Fresh Finds, Week 6: Poor Planning
Fabulous Fresh Finds, Week 5: Adjusting Expectations
Fabulous Fresh Finds, Week 4: Change of Plans
Fabulous Fresh Finds, Week 3: On the Road
Fabulous Fresh Finds: Week 2
New Blog Feature: Fabulous Fresh Finds

Mayor Breaks Ground on Recycling Facility in Sunset Park

Mayor 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 new, state-of-the-art facility is located at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park and will create 100 new jobs when opened, which is expected in December 2011. 

“This recycling facility will reduce the distance that our collection trucks currently travel by more than 260,000 road miles each year by allowing recyclables to be delivered by barge,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “This will help advance two of the biggest goals of PlaNYC: cleaning the air we breathe and shrinking our city’s carbon footprint. The Sims recycling facility will also help us revive Brooklyn’s working waterfront.”

Sims Metal Management is investing $44 million to create the new 100,000-square-foot facility, which will include processing and storage buildings, and a Visitor Education Center where school groups and visitors can learn about recycling. The facility will receive collections from Brooklyn by no more than 100 trucks per day, while the remainder of the City’s metal, glass, and plastic recyclables will be delivered to the facility via barge from two existing Sims facilities in the Bronx and Queens.

The facility, designed by Selldorf Architects, will incorporate sustainable elements including green roofs and renewable energy production, on-site stormwater treatment, and landscaping that serves to offset heat and provide a pleasing visual aesthetic for the surrounding community. It will operate 24 hours a day, six days a week.

Currently, New York City spends more than $90 million each year to deliver recyclables collected by the Department of Sanitation to three different facilities in the Bronx, Queens, and Jersey City. The City is investing over $80 million on infrastructure upgrades to support the development of the Sims facility and an adjacent auto processing and cargo handling facility for the Axis Group, currently under construction.

Sustainable Flatbush's Fall 2010 Street Tree Walking Tour

On Sunday, Oct. 24, Sustainable Flatbush will host its second annual Fall Street Tree Walking Tour, an opportunity to enjoy beautiful and local fall foliage in Brooklyn's historic Victorian Flatbush. The neighborhood is filled with a variety of street trees, including some that are more than 100 years old. Tour guides this year will be Sam Bishop of Trees NY and neighborhood resident Chris Kreussling, aka Flatbush Gardener.

Throughout the tour, the guide will identify trees and their characteristics, explore local tree history, discuss the beneficial role of street trees in the urban environment and explain the basics of street tree stewardship.

Tours start at Sacred Vibes Apothecary, 376 Argyle Rd. just south of Cortelyou Road. at 11 a.m. and noon, rain or shine. Tours take about two hours to complete and are one mile in length. There is a suggested donation of five dollars.

For additional information, email info@sustainableflatbush.org, call (718) 208-0575 or visit sustainableflatbush.org.