RECYCLING ROUND-UP: CENYC’s Recycling Awareness Benefit Supports
Initiatives in Public Housing

On Tuesday, May 12, 2009, the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) hosted the first Recycling Awareness Benefit aboard the Queen of Hearts, a 3- level paddlewheel ship donated for the evening by the Salsberg Group. Apart from the stunning views of the NYC skyline and guests dancing to the jazzy music of “Old Rugged Sauce,” more than 250 guests had the opportunity to learn first-hand the accomplishments of CENYC and its Office of Recycling Outreach and Education and future plans to increase outreach in public housing.

“CENYC has made great strides in expanding recycling participation” said Steven Salsberg, CENYC Vice-Chair and the evening’s Master of Ceremonies. “I am proud to serve an organization which utilizes grassroots efforts and community involvement as catalysts for building a greener New York City.” Edward Skyler, New York City Deputy Mayor for Operations, Honorable Congressman Michael McMahon and Anthony Pratt, CEO of Pratt Industries were honored at the event with handmade light-bulb terrariums made from all salvaged materials by Emelia Hiltner of Materials for the Arts. The host committee included Rachel Amar, Jordan Barowitz, Helena Durst, Robert Kafin, Wendy Neu, David Refkin, Alex Santiago, Steven and Orly Salsberg, Andrea Schaffer, and Erica Keberle.

CENYC has been promoting recycling and waste reduction at NYC public housing buildings in Manhattan through a position created with a one-year grant from the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board. But the funding for this position ends on June 1, 2009. The benefit allows CENYC to keep on a Public Housing Recycling Outreach Coordinator position, currently focused on Manhattan Housing stock. This coordinator can expand outreach to New York City Housing Authority properties in other boroughs and also focus on expanding composting and additional opportunities to collect items that are not included in the curbside recycling program, like textiles and electronics. At Fort Washington Houses, for example, the current Public Housing Coordinator has visited more than 200 apartment units to conduct one-to-one recycling education with building residents. As a result, Fort Washington Houses has increased recycling
from a handful of bags per month to 140 bags of paper, metal, glass, and plastics set out for recycling in February 2009.

CENYC’s textile collections at Greenmarkets, now in partnership with Wearable Collections, have diverted over 300,000 pounds of used textiles from incinerators and landfills. Last year, OROE partnered with NYC & Company, GreeNYC and NBC Universal to host “Green Screens,” a two-day, five-borough electronics recycling event that collected over 350,000 pounds of televisions, computers and other electronic items for recycling.

In total, CENYC raised more than $50,000 towards its recycling initiatives. “We’re very thankful to all our supporters and attendees who helped bring in the funding necessary to support our public housing efforts and our city-wide textile and electronics recycling,” said Marcel Van Ooyen, CENYC Executive Director. “Thousands of New York City residents rely on CENYC’s recycling services, spearheaded by OROE Director David Hurd, and through them we are able to divert significant amounts of recyclable materials from ending up in our landfills.” The event was generously sponsored by Pratt Industries, Hugo Neu Corporation, Sims Metal Management, Tetra Pak, Waste Management, Tomra, Omni New York LLC, The Durst Organization, as well as the Glass Packaging Institute and the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Since 2006, CENYC's OROE office has made tremendous progress toward increasing the
awareness of recycling among residents through community outreach, corporate partnerships, and the wonderfully successful Remix ad campaign aimed at increasing paper recovery. In this short amount of time, they have helped divert thousands of additional tons of paper, 600,000 pounds of electronics, and 300,000 pounds of textiles from disposal, while providing one-on-one recycling education to over 25,000 NYC residents. Recycling is the “everyday way” to help fight global climate change because it reduces methane emissions from landfills.

About the Council on the Environment of New York City: The Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) improves New York City’s quality of life through environmental programs that transform communities block by block and empower all New Yorkers to secure a clean and healthy environment for future generations. CENYC achieves its mission through the following projects and programs: Greenmarket, which runs 49 farmers markets throughout the city; Open Space Greening, which creates and rejuvenates community gardens and builds rainwater harvesting systems; Environmental Education, which offers meaningful projects in the
areas of conservation, alternative energy and more in intermediate and high schools; the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education, which promotes recycling and waste prevention; Learn It, Grow It, Eat It, which promotes healthy eating for teens; Youthmarkets, which oversees youth-operated urban farm stands; and the New Farmer Development Project, which helps agriculturally experienced immigrants become self sufficient farmers. For more information, visit us at www.cenyc.org.