Christmas Tree Collection
NYC Department of Sanitation
January 3 through January 16
NYC residents can put their Christmas trees out for collection now. You should remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from holiday trees before they are put out at curbside for removal. Clean, non-bagged Christmas trees that are left at the curb between Thursday, January 3rd and Wednesday, January 16th will be collected, chipped, and then mixed with leaves to make compost which will be used in NYC parks, ball fields, and community gardens throughout the city. |
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Queens Botanical Garden
"Composting in the City" Workshop
Wednesday, January 9, 6-8 pm Free
Leaves, kitchen scraps, garden trimmings, and weeds can all become garden gold through composting. Making dark, rich, crumbly compost doesn't take much time, work, or space. This class covers the essentials: the composting process, how to compost even in small city yards and indoors, how to use the finished compost, how to avoid and solve problems, and which equipment and tools are helpful. Compost supplies at subsidized prices. Registration is encouraged. For more information and directions go to
www.queensbotanical.org/programs/events |
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Why Should I Compost? It is estimated that some 35 percent of the residential waste stream consists of compostable materials (kitchen and yard wastes). Encouraging backyard composting is one of the simplest, most effective steps that can be taken to reduce the amount of waste requiring transport to landfill sites. Composting cuts disposal costs, saves energy, and reduces air and water pollution. An added plus, composting generates large volumes of a highly desirable garden soil amendment.
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| Build It Green! NYC
Build it Green has a new program in conjunction with the Lower East Side Ecology Center to keep hazardous electronic wastes out of our landfills, which keeps our soil and water safe and clean. Residents can drop off home computers, cell phones and electronics at their Queens Warehouse at 3-17 26th. Avenue at 4th Street in Astoria any time during their business hours: Tuesday - Friday 10 - 6, Saturdays 10-5. www.bignyc.org How do computers in the landfills poison our soil and water? Discarded computers, televisions, printers, fax machines and copiers are hazardous wastes. When dumped into landfills or improperly recycled, they pose a hazard to the environment and human health. Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) in computer monitors, television sets, and other video display devices contain significant concentrations of lead, phosphorous and other heavy metals.
Each computer or television display contains an average of 4 to 8 pounds of lead. The 315 million computers that became obsolete between 1997 and 2004 contained a total of more than 1.2 billion pounds of lead. Monitor glass contains about 20% lead by weight. When these components are illegally disposed and crushed in landfills, lead is released into the environment. These heavy metals and other hazardous substances found in electronics leaches into and contaminates groundwater, posing a hazardous legacy for current and future generations.
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The Center for the New American Dream
This organization's website has simple steps that will allow you to get yourself off some of the major junk mail lists, ask Congress to create a national Do Not Junk Registry modeled after the wildly successful Do Not Call registry, and even more tips to help you prevent the flood of unsolicited mail. www.newdream.org/junkmail/index.php
Too much mail is irritating , but are there any real benefits to reducing it? While taxpayer subsidies to the logging and fuel industries might indeed allow advertisers to stuff your mailbox for mere pennies on the pound, the fact is that junk mail exacts a heavy cost on Americans' quality of life and on our environment. Read more... "Recycled" Fine Art Made in the MFTA
An exhibition of works created with reusable materials from Materials for the Arts
The Henry De Ford III Gallery at the Citi Center through March 5, 2008 Made in the MFTA brings together 10 artists who are familiar to MFTA either through the groups they represent or their affiliation with MFTA’s education program. The exhibition includes a whimsical time machine sculpture, and an environment with hundreds of yards of crocheted materials, including yarns, ribbons and plastic bags which cover a TV set, a chair and the family dog entiled BORBORYGAMI.
The show which will be up until March 5th 2008 was curated by Bob Bangiola, MFTA’s former Deputy Director with assistance from Daniel Larkin, FOMA’s Administrative Assistant. Check it out at 1 Court Square, Long Island City on the main floor. Easy to get to via the E,V, G or 7 trains.Go to: http://www.mfta.org and click on "News and Events" to find out more and see images.
Bottlecap Art Featured At MET Metropolitan Museum of Art
"Between Earth And Heaven"
Sculpture by El Anatsui
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has just acquired its first contemporary African sculpture. And its created exclusively with found and recycled materials!
On Tuesday, January 8, 2008, a wall of shimmering textilelike metal tapestry fashioned from bottlecaps, aluminum and and other scraps. Ghana-born artist El Anatsui is the most important contemporary African sculpture working today according to Alisa La Gamma, a curator of Africa Oceania and the Americas department. The piece will be up through the next year.
http://www.metmuseum.org for hours and directions. Can art help the planet? Yes! Just think about it. The best artists produce work that is ahead of its time, and the rest of the world catches up. More and more artists are using recycled and found objects in their work. We can be inspired to leave behind whatever preconceived notions we have about the "value" of reused and recycled materials, and be more apt to create more and more uses for those valuable materials in our own lives. And voila! Less use of new materials, less waste and the environment benefits. Seek out art and be inspired, or better yet, make some! For tips on how to get you and your children started on making art from recycled materials, visit ARTISTS HELPING CHILDREN website |
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