Waste? Not!
It’s chips and guacamole night at your house; Do you know where your moisturizer is? Well mine was already in the trash, before I learned the power of the scrap. Yup, according to the blog Care2.com, not only can your used avocado peels provide a great moisturizer, but your morning coffee grounds will scrub away your end-of-day grime. The article offers a handy guide to using food scraps a second — or third — time that could allow the trashiest Brokester to save bushels on everything from garden fertilizer and feed (egg shells and tea leaves!), cleaning agents (lemon halves!), deodorizer (more tea bags!) and vegetable stock (cheese rinds!). Read the rest of this entry »
Water bottle sculpture in progress. Photo via Fickr's Pavement Pieces.
Recycling: an important part of life in the city and yet still a mystery to some. Do you know what those little numbers on the plastic container mean? What about the printer cartridges or microwave pizza disks: can you even recycle those? Can you can make a serious difference by just recycling that Poland Spring (or not buying one at all)? If you want to do your civic duty but you’re scratching your head when standing at the bins, we have some free, entertaining ways you can learn about going green in Greenpoint this week. Managing waste in these tight quarters is, after all, a
cost we all share.
Read the rest of this entry »
No longer will you have to wait for those semi-annual E-waste roundups to dump your old click-wheel iPod or busted college-era microwave: as of April 1, all manufacturers such as Apple or Sony must take back your old electronics for recycling at no cost or hassle to you. The goal is to cut down on the 3.2 million tons of waste the country produces annually, 72 percent of which ends up thrown in New York’s already crowded landfills. Manufacturers registered through the Department of Environmental Conservation with information on where you can send/drop off your old machines for free. Get used to it, because by 2015, it’ll be illegal to throw electronics in with the regular trash. And just in case you’re a Luddite who stumbled upon this post, Brokelyn’s got you covered too.
One of our favorite spring rituals is piling up e-crap like our rotary cell phones and the Mac laptop that’s been dead since we tried to millennium-proof it 12 years ago. Then we put it in the corner until… next spring. This year IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT, we tell you, because GrowNYC is just out with their spring electronics recycling dates in Brooklyn, and they include Park Slope this Saturday (March 26), Clinton Hill, Dyker Heights, Gravesend and Cobble Hill. They’ll take computers, stereo components, TVs, phones, and more (full list here) and it’s tax deductible. So bye bye, Fire Wire, whatever you are. BTW, anyone have a better deal for printer-ink cartridges than Staples?
Your old iPod deserves a better fate
If Santa granted wishes for a new computer or camera this year, you’ve probably got a pile of obsolete old machines taking up space in your apartment. We’re sure you know already how hazardous E-waste is when mixed with regular trash, but here’s an extra incentive to recycle this month: The Lower East Side Ecology Center and TekServe are teaming up for weekend recycling days all over the city. Every recycler can enter to win a MacBook Air or a sweet “I recycle NY” shirt, plus you can get discounts on Apple products. Take your computers, phones, VCRs and other trash to the two Brooklyn locations: Prospect Park West and 3rd Street on Jan. 16; or Habana Outpost in Fort Greene on Jan. 22. Check the full list for all acceptable recyclables and locations.
Dealing with Coke can pay off
If you’ve ever spent your working hours navigating a gray cubicle maze or strangling yourself with clothing hangars at a retail job, just about anything seems like a valid career alternative. Even, we’ll admit to daydreaming, joining those guys who pick bottles and cans out of your apartment trash every morning. Fresh air! Exercise! The thrill of the hunt! Maybe it’s a little messy, but we had to look at dead bodies at our last newspaper job, and you can’t turn corpses into nickels. Walking to work one day, the two of us wondered whether those humble trash pickers are really laughing their way back to McMansions in Jersey. So we decided to find out for ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »
Recycling in Brooklyn Heights. Photo by Mo Riza.
Sunday, Nov. 15, is America Recycles Day, and we’re celebrating 1) with a guilt trip and 2) a list of all the places to dump your stuff, other than a landfill. First, the guilt: There is an island of garbage twice the size of Texas floating around the Pacific. Do you want to add to this mess? We didn’t think so.
The city-run NYC Stuff Exchange offers a comprehensive directory, searchable by borough, for where to donate or sell nearly anything. The site is organized into 17 categories from your old beat up car to your child’s once cherished game of Battleship. NYC WasteLe$$ also has some handy tips for getting rid of your unwanted stuff. Here are ours: Read the rest of this entry »
Good news, keepers of geriatric laptops, fax machines and cell phones — there’s going to be a permanent e-waste dropoff spot in Gowanus, thanks to the Lower East Side Ecology Center, those great people who have been doing roving events around Brooklyn. You may have thought that the Gowanus was already an e-waste dropoff spot (dada ching!) but starting Jan. 31, you’ll be able to bring your unwanted electronics to a new warehouse at 469 President St. at Nevins, Mondays through Saturdays. Full hours here, and full list of recyclables here. There’s also a launch par-tay at the warehouse on Sat. Feb. 4 from noon to 4 where you can enjoy refreshments while finding what becomes of your orphaned Razr phone and 56K modems.
Waste? Not!
It’s chips and guacamole night at your house; Do you know where your moisturizer is? Well mine was already in the trash, before I learned the power of the scrap. Yup, according to the blog Care2.com, not only can your used avocado peels provide a great moisturizer, but your morning coffee grounds will scrub away your end-of-day grime. The article offers a handy guide to using food scraps a second — or third — time that could allow the trashiest Brokester to save bushels on everything from garden fertilizer and feed (egg shells and tea leaves!), cleaning agents (lemon halves!), deodorizer (more tea bags!) and vegetable stock (cheese rinds!). Read the rest of this entry »
Water bottle sculpture in progress. Photo via Fickr's Pavement Pieces.
Recycling: an important part of life in the city and yet still a mystery to some. Do you know what those little numbers on the plastic container mean? What about the printer cartridges or microwave pizza disks: can you even recycle those? Can you can make a serious difference by just recycling that Poland Spring (or not buying one at all)? If you want to do your civic duty but you’re scratching your head when standing at the bins, we have some free, entertaining ways you can learn about going green in Greenpoint this week. Managing waste in these tight quarters is, after all, a
cost we all share.
Read the rest of this entry »
No longer will you have to wait for those semi-annual E-waste roundups to dump your old click-wheel iPod or busted college-era microwave: as of April 1, all manufacturers such as Apple or Sony must take back your old electronics for recycling at no cost or hassle to you. The goal is to cut down on the 3.2 million tons of waste the country produces annually, 72 percent of which ends up thrown in New York’s already crowded landfills. Manufacturers registered through the Department of Environmental Conservation with information on where you can send/drop off your old machines for free. Get used to it, because by 2015, it’ll be illegal to throw electronics in with the regular trash. And just in case you’re a Luddite who stumbled upon this post, Brokelyn’s got you covered too.
One of our favorite spring rituals is piling up e-crap like our rotary cell phones and the Mac laptop that’s been dead since we tried to millennium-proof it 12 years ago. Then we put it in the corner until… next spring. This year IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT, we tell you, because GrowNYC is just out with their spring electronics recycling dates in Brooklyn, and they include Park Slope this Saturday (March 26), Clinton Hill, Dyker Heights, Gravesend and Cobble Hill. They’ll take computers, stereo components, TVs, phones, and more (full list here) and it’s tax deductible. So bye bye, Fire Wire, whatever you are. BTW, anyone have a better deal for printer-ink cartridges than Staples?
Your old iPod deserves a better fate
If Santa granted wishes for a new computer or camera this year, you’ve probably got a pile of obsolete old machines taking up space in your apartment. We’re sure you know already how hazardous E-waste is when mixed with regular trash, but here’s an extra incentive to recycle this month: The Lower East Side Ecology Center and TekServe are teaming up for weekend recycling days all over the city. Every recycler can enter to win a MacBook Air or a sweet “I recycle NY” shirt, plus you can get discounts on Apple products. Take your computers, phones, VCRs and other trash to the two Brooklyn locations: Prospect Park West and 3rd Street on Jan. 16; or Habana Outpost in Fort Greene on Jan. 22. Check the full list for all acceptable recyclables and locations.
Dealing with Coke can pay off
If you’ve ever spent your working hours navigating a gray cubicle maze or strangling yourself with clothing hangars at a retail job, just about anything seems like a valid career alternative. Even, we’ll admit to daydreaming, joining those guys who pick bottles and cans out of your apartment trash every morning. Fresh air! Exercise! The thrill of the hunt! Maybe it’s a little messy, but we had to look at dead bodies at our last newspaper job, and you can’t turn corpses into nickels. Walking to work one day, the two of us wondered whether those humble trash pickers are really laughing their way back to McMansions in Jersey. So we decided to find out for ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »
Recycling in Brooklyn Heights. Photo by Mo Riza.
Sunday, Nov. 15, is America Recycles Day, and we’re celebrating 1) with a guilt trip and 2) a list of all the places to dump your stuff, other than a landfill. First, the guilt: There is an island of garbage twice the size of Texas floating around the Pacific. Do you want to add to this mess? We didn’t think so.
The city-run NYC Stuff Exchange offers a comprehensive directory, searchable by borough, for where to donate or sell nearly anything. The site is organized into 17 categories from your old beat up car to your child’s once cherished game of Battleship. NYC WasteLe$$ also has some handy tips for getting rid of your unwanted stuff. Here are ours: Read the rest of this entry »
