What Happens To Our Recyclables? A Visit To The Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility

photo above  courtesy of www.simsmunicipal.com

Have you ever wondered what happens to the curbside recycling that the New York City Department of Sanitation picks up weekly in front of our buildings? If you live in Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Gowanus and surrounding neighborhoods, what you collect in your blue and green recycling cans is transported directly to the Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility, which is operated by Sims Municipal Recycling (SMR).
The three year old state-of-the art facility is located on an 11-acre City-owned pier at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to learn about the facility on a tour organized by Community Board 6. It was and led by Eadaoin Quinn, the Education and Administrative Coordinator for SMR. After visiting the exhibit at the education center, where Quinn answered all sorts of questions related to recycling and re-using, the group got to see the actual sorting of material. It was fascinating and inspired me to be even more committed to recycling.

SMR, a division of Sims Metal Management Limited, has a twenty year contract with the City's Sanitation Department "to provide processing and marketing services for 100% of the metal, glass and plastic and approximately 50% of the paper collected in the largest curbside program in North America."
SMR and DSNY work as partners to make curbside recycling efficient and effective in order to keep trash out of landfills.

Recyclable material is transported to the Recovery Facility from all five boroughs by truck, rail and barge. Here, mounds of plastic, glass, and metal is sorted by sophisticated machinery. The sorted material is then bundled so that it can be sold and shipped out to processors and manufacturers, which will repurpose the material.

Our paper and cardboard is also shipped here. After the paper is sorted, it is directly shipped to a manufacturer in Staten Island who will use the pulp to make pizza boxes, tissues and other assorted paper products with it.

It is humbling to see the cheer volume that gets thrown out every day. Luckily, all these empty cans and bottles will stay out of landfills. So for all who still don't sort out their garbage into the proper bins because they believe that the Sanitation Department throws everything together anyway, that is simply not true.

Recycling, as well as composting, matters for us and for future generations. So, please, just do it!

To take a tour and learn about recycling and sustainability, and witness it in action, contact the Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility here.

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Hey! What Happened To Trash Pick-Up Here In Carroll Gardens?

Could it be that the New York City Department of Sanitation has forgotten about Carroll Gardens? According to emails that PMFA received from readers in the past few days, there has not been any reliable trash pick-up in the neighborhood for the past week. I noticed the same on my block. Though recyclables were picked up a few days ago, the garbage and compost were not.

I took a quick walk around the neighborhood and sure enough, filled trash cans were standing by the curb from First Place to Fourth Place, on President Street, Carroll Street, and from First Street to 5th Street.

What's going on? We all understood when there was a disruption of service after January's snowstorm, but there has not been any significant snow since.

In January, the community was told that Sanitation would only pick up bulk items like couches and mattresses on an 'as needed" basis. The temporary slow down is related to the recent expansion of the organic waste collection in the neighborhood.

That, however, would not explain why there seems to be a slow down in garbage pick-up.

Meanwhile, it looks rather grimy with all the piled up trash in the neighborhood. To make things even worse, Monday is a Holiday, so no pick-up till Tuesday at least for some folks.

Has Sanitation picked up on your block in Carroll Gardens this week?

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Organic Waste Collection To Start In Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, And Red Hook This Fall

If you, like me, have faithfully saved your food scraps and brought them to the Carroll Gardens Greenmarket for composting every Sunday morning for the past few years, you will be very excited by this news.
Being 'green' will be a lot easier starting this fall, when the NYC Department of Sanitation is expanding its organic collection into our neighborhood.  This means that we will all soon have a brown collection bin in front of our house, which will be emptied by Sanitation twice a week.

From a recent announcement by Community Board 6:
This Fall, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Columbia Waterfront, Gowanus, Red Hook and North Park Slope will start to receive a twice weekly organic waste sanitation collection which includes food scraps, food-soiled paper, and leaf and yard waste. Central and South Park Slope began receiving this service since Spring 2014.

How will it work?
Starting October 1st, the Department of Sanitation will deliver brown organics collection bins and starter kits to all single family homes and residential buildings up to nine units.

Participating is easy:
Collect food scraps and food-soiled paper in your kitchen.
Place food scraps into your brown organics bin.
Set out brown organics bin for DSNY collection on your normal trash schedule. Set out extra yard waste next to the brown bin in lawn and leaf bags or unlined containers.
Why participate?
Collecting food scraps and yard waste helps us limit greenhouse gas emissions, achieve zero waste goals, make compost, a valuable soil amendment for gardening and agriculture, and generally contribute to a cleaner, greener City.

We hope that everyone will take full advantage of this expanded service. Interested in how the existing program is going? Sanitation put out a series of three reports on their organics collections program which you may find interesting.

Sanitation representatives will be presenting their expansion plans to our Environmental Protection Committee at their next upcoming meeting on Monday, September 28th if you'd like to learn more about this. Check our calendar for committee meeting details. You can also visit nyc.gov/organics.

According to the NYC Department of Sanitation, Organic waste accounts for about 31% of all waste generated by residents in New York City. Let us hope that the program will soon be available city-wide.


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Sanitation Department Is On The Job On Smith Street

Seen on Smith Street near the 2nd Place F train subway entrance.
I wonder how long these bicycle frames have been there.

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Get Rid Of Potentially Harmful Household Products At Sanitation Department Event In Brooklyn

Spring 2013 NYC SAFE Disposal Events

(Solvents, Automotive, Flammable, Electronics)

Don't know what to do about those old paint cans that you have accumulated during various home improvement projects?  Do you have some old electronics that you want to get rid of?  How about old household cleaning products that you don't use any more?
Community Board 6 just sent around news of a NYC Department of Sanitation SAFE event, at which you will be able to dispose of some of these more dangerous.
One of these events will be held in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn SAFE Disposal Event

Sunday, April 7

10am-4pm Prospect Park, 

Park Circle corner of Parkside Ave & Prospect Park SW

 (cars approach from Ocean Ave & Lincoln Rd)

The NYC Department of Sanitation is holding five SAFE Disposal Events this spring (one in each borough) to provide NYC residents with a one-stop method to get rid of potentially harmful household products. If you cannot attend any of the events, see harmful household products.
The blue and green recycling bin mascots will make appearances at all the SAFE disposal events.

Commonly used household products can be harmful to you, your family, your pets, city workers, and the environment if improperly stored, used, or discarded.

when & where
who can participate
what to bring
how to package materials
what happens to this stuff
poison help hotline
SAFE events go social
event organizers
public notification

ALSO SEE:
harmful household products
electronics recycling

For more information, click here




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Two Ways To Recycle Your Christmas Tree In The Neighborhood

Now that the holidays are over, its time to put the decorations away and to recycle your tree.

One way to do that is to bring it to the yearly Cobble Hill Neighborhood TreeCycle event held next Saturday, January 5th.  Here is the info:

MulchFest 2013

Cobble Hill Neighborhood

HOLIDAY TREE RECYCLING

In Cooperation with the Brooklyn Parks and Recreation Department

Saturday, January 5

9:30 am – 1:30 pm

Cobble Hill Park: Clinton and Verandah Place

Drop off your Holiday trees at the location below.  Wreaths and garlands cannot be accepted.
Please remove lights and decorations. No artificial trees!  Cobble Hill Park: Clinton and Verandah Place.
Mulch bags will be available for those whiting to take mulch for their gardens or tree pits.
Trees will only be accepted during the scheduled times.  Wreaths and garlands cannot be accepted.
Sponsored by:
Cobble Hill Tree Fund , Cobble Hill Association, and Boy Scout Troops 213 & 815
www.CHTreefund.org

Another way to recycle your tree is to put it at the curb in front of your house.

The City of New York's Department of Sanitation will begin recycling Christmas trees starting tomorrow Wednesday, January, 2, 2013. The program will run through Saturday, January 12th.

Residents should remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from trees before they are put out at curbside for removal. Trees must not be placed into plastic bags. Clean, non-bagged Christmas trees that are left on the curb between Wednesday, January 2nd and Saturday, January 12th will be collected, chipped, and made into compost
For more information on Christmas tree collection and recycling and/or Mulchfest 2013, visit www.nyc.gov/sanitation or www.nyc.gov/parks or call 311.

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