Light Electronics Recycling in Park Slope Today

There is a modest opportunity to recycle electronics at PS 321’s Winter Carnival today in Park Slope. From 10AM-4PM cell phones, cell phone chargers, cell phone batteries, PDA’s and MP3 players can be dropped off for recycling. As far as we understand, they are not accepting computers or other large items. PS 321 is on Seventh Avenue between Second and Third Streets. There will be games, prizes, face painting, food, entertainment and a rummage sale with children’s clothing, games, toys, books and DVDs. There will be a raffle with money being used to buy math books that have been cut from the education budget.

Bklink: Sustainability in the Slope

“The Park Slope Civic Council hosted a great Sustainability Meeting titled PlanPS2008: How You Can Start Fighting Climate Change Today last night, well attended by over a hundred people. Introductions were by PSCC trustee Eric McClure and Ken Freeman, PSCC’s president.”–I’m Seeing Green

Park Slope Food Co-op Banning Bottled Water?

The Park Slope Food Co-op will ban the sale of bottled water if its members vote to approve it. Bottled water has become a big environmental issue as an estimated 30 million bottles a day end up in landfills and manufacturing the bottle consumes an estimated 1.5 million barrels of oil a year. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the ban is expected to pass. A co-op member who started a discussion on the topic a couple of years ago via the Park Slope Parents group told the paper that “Bottled water is a completely unnecessary product for most people, and only serves to harm the environment.” Many co-op members suggest a switch to good old-fashioned New York City tap water, which is actually subject to higher purity standards than those set by the Federal government for bottled water. The ban wouldn’t apply to carbonated water or to other bottled beverages. Intense Park Slope debate to follow.

Upcoming: Park Slope Civic Council Sustainability Forum

The Park Slope Civic Council is hosting a community forum on sustainability on March 6. It’s called “PlanPS2008: How You Can Start Fighting Climate Change Today.” Per the PSCC:

The forum will be chock-full of everything from easy-to-implement, everyday, eco-friendly tips to how-tos on solar-panel and green-roof installations. Expert panelists will provide you with the know-how to start making Park Slope a greener community today.

Featuring presentations by the Director of the Mayor’s Office on Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, Rohit Aggarwala, solar-power expert Anthony Pereira, green-roof guru Rob Crauderueff and Garbage Land author Elizabeth Royte.

The location is Old First Reformed Church on Seventh Avenue at Carroll Street in Park Slope. The session will run from 7PM-9PM. For more info, click here.

Carroll Gardens Subway Asbestos Removal Anger Has Not Abated

Whatever the MTA was doing in terms of asbestos removal at the Carroll Street Station this weekend had wrapped by up by yesterday afternoon, but a local City Council Member Bill de Blasio said he was “deeply concerned” about the work and criticized the MTA for not notifying the community in advance. Yesterday, we reported that neighbors were angry that they woke up on Saturday and found a big red dumpster with those ominous asbestos removal warning signs at the corner of Smith and Second Streets. Making matter worse, the dumpster was left open until a resident confronted workers and demanded that it be closed. A truck with warning signs and what appeared to be air monitoring equipment was parked at the station entrance near Second Place.

Residents were taken by surprise. They say that no signs were ever posted in the station and that there were no notifications made or any explanations given–which certainly would have allayed fears if the work was benign in nature. (The open dumpster is another matter.) Signal work was supposed to be going on over the weekend (and the Carroll Street station was closed, one of many on the F & G lines that had no service over the weekend), so residents were especially surprised and alarmed by the asbestos dumpster and truck. Last night, City Council Member Bill de Blasio sent us an email saying he was “deeply concerned” about the situation and had contacted the MTA for an explanation. He added that it was “unacceptable that the asbestos removal occurred without the proper notification of the community” and said he was working “to get to the bottom of this.” Residents had also contacted the Department of Environmental Protection on Saturday. One resident with asbestos removal experience said he was concerned that it appeared that appropriate safety measures hadn’t been taken.

This email posted via the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association by resident Barbara Brookhart was typical of the reactions we heard:

Pretty outrageous that the MTA forgot to tell the community, our elected offices, and the Community Board. Wouldn’t you think that the MTA should be leafleting in advance of their abatement? We all know that the answer is “no”, as letting the community know in advance would be too intelligent for the caliber of bureaucrats that run the MTA. I certainly don’t want to go down into the confines of the subway station tomorrow morning to get to work. Get out your gas masks!

We will post any explanation that comes from the MTA about the nature of the work that was going on in the middle of the busy neighborhood.

Related Post:
Subway Asbestos Removal Leaves Carroll Gardens Breathless

"Burning the Future: Coal in America"

Coal is not a “Brooklyn story” unless, of course, there happens to be a cool new documentary about the coal industry from a Brooklynite. Then, it’s very on topic. Chandru Murthi, who does the superb blog I’m Seeing Green, has put up a post about a new film called “Burning the Future: Coal in America,” by director and co-writer David Novack. I’m Seeing Green writes, in part:

Turn on your light switch and the lamp turns on. Do you really know where the electricity comes from? A surprising statistic is that over one-half of the electricity generated in the US comes from burning coal, arguably the most environmentally damaging of sources…Brooklyn director and co-writer David Novack’s documentary Burning the Future-Coal in America is a powerful-but-not-polemic, damning indictment of the coal industry in Southern West Virginia, a state whose politics, life and environment are heavily in thrall to the coal industry. Almost all of the electrical power generated in W Va. is from coal, and the industry contributes strongly to the political establishment there …” Burning the Future is the story of a few courageous people whose lives have been overturned by the process of mining coal called Mountaintop Removal. Which is exactly what it implies, the explosive destruction of mature forested mountain tops in order to get to the coal seams underneath.

For those who are into watching environmental nightmares take place, we also highly recommend the excellent five part VBS TV series, Toxic West Virginia, which is a relative of the Toxic Brooklyn series and of the Toxic Alberta series. All are excellent. Also, more about Burning the Future, here.

Preventing a Different Kind of Brooklyn Waterfront Boom

The Federal government is going to try to figure out whether there is unexploded ordinance at the bottom of Gravesend Bay that might cause a very unwanted kind of boom on the Southern Brooklyn waterfront. The issue has come up in the context of plans to dredge the bay so the city can open up a marine garbage transfer station. The latest development is that the Department of Defense is going to try to figure out if live ammunition is still down there more than a half century after a barge with more than 200 tons of live ammunition capsized. Depending on which story one listens to, it was either all recovered or there is a lot still sitting down there. The Brooklyn Paper calls it “a key win for opponents of a city plan to put a garbage transfer station near the possibly explosive site.” There are other objections to the dredging. Besides massive underwater explosions, some are afraid that dredging will stir up a “black mayonnaise” of toxins dumped into the water that have settled on the bottom. There is also a push to have the bay declared a Superfund site because of the toxic dumping thanks to an incinerator that was on the site of the proposed waste transfer station.

[Photo courtesy of gkjarvis/flickr]

Upcoming: Greening Flatbush

Sustainable Flatbush is sponsoring a “Greening Flatbush” event on Sunday, February 24. Here’s something from the release we got about it from Chris Kreussling, who is also the person behind the Flatbush Gardener blog:

On Sunday, February 24, residents and other members of the greater Flatbush community can learn what they can do to beautify and improve the environment of their neighborhood.

“Greening Flatbush: Garden Where You Are” is an afternoon of short lectures, demonstrations, and workshops on topics ranging from planting and caring for street trees to composting with worms in your kitchen…Greening Flatbush is Sunday, February 24, from 1:30 to 4:30pm at the
Flatbush Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library at 22 Linden Boulevard. The event is free, but space is limited. To register, or if you have questions about this event, please email greeningflatbush@gmail.com.

You can check out Flatbush Gardener’s post about the event here. Making things green is a nice thing to think about around this time of year.

Bklink: Green Williamsburg

The Burg is getting a green building at 439 Metropolitan Avenue. It will have a mix of apartments and office space from Helder Design. It’s NYC’s first LEED Platinum rating for a mixed-use buildings and one of several green buildings going up in Brooklyn, including the Greenbelt, another Williamsburg structure. The bad news is it’s right where there is a never ending flow of traffic turning off Metropolitan Avenue to get on the BQE.–Curbed

A Crappy Moment on the Gowanus

We don’t know for a fact that this brown mass we found floating on the Gowanus on Saturday is, uh, crap. However, it looks disturbingly like what might happen if King Kong had the runs at the Carroll Street Bridge. (Actually, we watched the mass of whatever it was float from the Union Street Bridge to the Caroll Street Bridge.) Or, maybe, they’re just decomposed leaves that got washed out storm drains. Regardless, the Gowanus suffers from what are known in the trade as Combined Sewage Overflows or CSOs, meaning that untreated sewage flows right into the canal when it rains hard enough. Friday, it rained hard enough to do this. So, this was Saturday’s treat. If it’s any comfort, the smell wasn’t as bad as one would have expected. The blueish sheen on the water is oil which constantly bubbles up to the surface of the water next to the Bayside Fuel Oil facility near the Union Street Bridge. There is a meeting on February 12 to discuss such issues.