INTERESTING LINKS
Wellness in the Schools (WITS) is a grassroots organization that promotes children's environmental health, nutrition and fitness within the NYC public schools. Projects include Chef-in-Residence, Wellness Café, Lunch Break Sports, Clean, Green Schools, and Advocacy on topics of health and nutrition.
http://www.wellnessintheschools.org/
Plastics Industry Spent Over $5 Million on Lobbying in 2007-8
Submitted by Recycling News on 2/12/09
The American Chemistry Council spent $5.7 million on lobbying in California in 2007 and 2008, the sixth highest amount any organization spent on lobbying in the state over the two-year period. The ACC, which represents plastics and chemical manufacturers, lobbied against bills that would have reduced toxins in products, decreased plastic pollution and increased recycling.
http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?_c=xrirvhd4iotpcf&issueId=
xrgncrs6ymxqs4&xid=xrgpaf269c1ulj
FDA relied heavily on BPA lobby
Regulators actively reached out to industry, e-mails show
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/45228647.html
Panel Rebukes F.D.A. on Plastic Safety, 10/29/08, 12:55 PM
By TARA PARKER-POPE
A scientific panel has issued a blistering report against the Food and Drug Administration, saying the agency ignored important evidence in reassuring consumers about the safety of the controversial chemical bisphenol-A.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/panel-rebukes-fda-on-plastic-safety/?emc=eta1
The Grinning Planet
The migration of styrene from a polystyrene cup into the beverage it contains has been observed to be as high as 0.025% for a single use. That may seem like a rather low number, until you work it this way: If you drink beverages from polystyrene cups four times a day for three years, you may have consumed about one foam cup's worth of styrene along with your beverages.
http://www.grinningplanet.com/2008/04-08/foam-cups-polystyrene-cups-article.htm
NY Styrofoam Ban:
http://www.petitiononline.com/bdb6091/petition.html
Cap Carbon- NY
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/cap_2009?qp_source=an1
NYC WasteLe$$
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/home/home.shtml
Composting Information
THE NYC COMPOSTING PROJECT
Rikers Island is the site of one of the world’s largest correctional institutions, whose ten detention centers house approximately 20,000 inmates and guards. This complex generates between thirty and forty tons of food waste daily. Because all food preparation takes place in cafeterias, all scraps and spoiled food can very easily be segregated as a separate, uncontaminated organic waste stream. The presence of so much organic waste, concentrated in a small area, prompted DSNY and the New York City Department of Correction to collaborate on an innovative project to collect and compost this material at an indoor plant designed expressly for this purpose.
http://www.nyccompost.org/program/dsny-rikers.htmlare2.com/
http://www.nyccompost.org/program/dsny-leafwaste.html
COMPOSTING PILOT PROJECTS AND STUDIES:
Large scale on-site composting
In 2005, DSNY worked with the New York City Economic Development Corporation to assess the potential for composting organic waste generated at the Hunts Point Produce Market and the Fulton Fish Market (which was located in Lower Manhattan at the time, but has now been relocated to Hunts Point). These two facilities generate approximately 85 tons of food waste every day. Half of this waste is collected and disposed by DSNY, and the rest by private carters. The City is also interested in helping these public wholesale markets reduce their waste disposal costs, which continue to rise especially for wet, dense materials such as spoiled produce and fish cuttings. The development of an on-site facility to recycle these materials could potentially reduce disposal costs while increasing New York’s overall waste diversion rate.
The study concluded that the most promising technology for recycling the type and quantity of food waste generated at Hunts Point is anaerobic digestion. In anaerobic digestion facilities, organic waste is mixed with water and allowed to ferment in sealed tanks. The resulting methane gas is extracted and used to generate power, whereas the remaining solid matter can be cured as a soil amendment similar to compost. Further research is required to determine whether such a facility could sustain itself financially.
http://www.nyccompost.org/program/dsny-pilotprojects.html
LES Ecology Center composting workshops:
http://www.lesecologycenter.org/
Degradable, Biodegradable, Compostable
http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/197/1/Degradable-Biodegradable-Compostable.html
Reaching for Zero, on composting
http://www.consumersunion.org/other/zero-waste/compost.html
Related Sites of Great Interest
Annie Leonard's "Story of Stuff"
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
TIDES FOUNDATION:
The Values of ECO
Tides believes that a powerful, effective progressive movement is essential to protect nature, restore the environment, and provide opportunity and prosperity for all communities. To achieve its full power to transform society, the progressive movement must be rooted in values of economic justice/opportunity, civil rights, social and racial justice, participatory democracy, and environmental protection and balance.
Coordination is key. Supporting fruitful and effective connections between traditionally separate issue areas, or micro-movements, will increase our impact in this work. Given the urgency of environmental, social, economic and civil society issues confronting the nation and the world, moving beyond fragmentation and toward a shared vision is imperative.http://www.tidesfoundation.org/eco/index.html
Educating Tomorrow (in association with the UFT Green Schools Committee)
http://www.educatingtomorrow.org/initiatives
Reaching for Zero: A The Citizens Plan for Zero Waste in New York City
By Resa Dimino and Barbara Warren
NYC Zero Waste Campaign and Consumer Policy Institute / Consumers Union June 2004
http://www.consumersunion.org/other/zero-waste/
NY Coalition for Healthy School Food
The New York Coalition for Healthy School Food (NYCHSF) is a statewide nonprofit that works to improve the health and well-being of New York's students by advocating for healthy plant-based foods, including local and organic where possible, farm to school programs, school gardens, the elimination of unhealthy competitive foods in all areas of the school (not just the cafetseria), comprehensive nutrition policy, and education to create food- and health-literate students.
http://www.healthylunches.org/index.htm
Lower East Side Ecology Center
http://www.lesecologycenter.org/
INFORM Inc.
http://www.informinc.org/
The Council on the Environment of NYC (CENYC)
CENYC is a hands-on non-profit that has been improving New York City's environment for over thirty years. CENYCs dedicated staff green our neighborhoods, create the environmental leaders of the future, promote waste prevention and recycling, and run the largest farmers market program in the country. CENYC achieves its mission through the following projects and programs: including the Greenmarket, Recycling Outreach, Community Gardens, and Environmental Education
http://www.cenyc.org/
Healthy Schools Network, Inc., NY program page
With support from a broad-based coalition led by Healthy Schools Network, New York State has adopted environmental reform policies embodied in a five-point, child-centered set of "Guiding Principles for School Environmental Quality". Healthy Schools Network has since worked to secure new laws, funding, and regulations to promote healthier school environments, including the measures for occupant health in schools under renovation, notice of pesticide use, bans on arsenic and elemental mercury, and an executive order on "green" cleaning products that has been extended to all public and private schools state-wide.
http://www.healthyschools.org/ny_program.html
Nutrition For Empowered Women
holistic nutrition and healthy living
http://www.nutritionforempoweredwomen.com/
Students from Debby Lee Cohen's 3D Studio, Body in Time class at Parsons the New School for Design, constructed a sculpture made from about 1,000 used trays. The dirty trays were collected (and washed) from NYC public schools including PS 41, NEST+m and PS 163. The intention of the project was to communicate the enormity of theenvironmental problem created by the use of these trays. |
