Friday, April 16, 2004
Call to celebrate Earth Day by recycling hazardous waste
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Most people of T&V country, if not most New Yorkers, carry heavy burdens of social consciousness with them. One of them is a concern about the protection of our environment, such as guarding against the pollution of our air, water and soil. This is one area where we can exercise some personal initiatives, such as recycling and reduction of waste, and experience a sense of satisfaction.
These thoughts were expressed by a neighbor who goes shopping with a canvas bag or two, and refuses to accept the plastic ones supplied by the supermarkets and Union Square farmers. That is one way to reduce the creation of waste. There are others, as outlined by the NYCWasteLess.org web site, maintained by the city’s Department of Sanitation (NYCDS). For example, consider writing to the Direct Marketing Association, requesting that your name be removed from national mailing lists. Consider donating away your old furniture, clothing, appliances and books. Bring a reusable bag to the supermarket, a la my neighbor. Use less products of the toxic variety, and be careful in disposing them, and do some composting of organic waste, not too practical a suggestion in a crowded city apartment. Also, consider offering those pesky polystyrene packing peanuts that surround your mail-order purchases to stores that ship goods, for reuse.
Recycling, particularly that of hazardous waste, is difficult but important. It is therefore good to see that the ST/PCV and the Lower East Side Environmental Center (LESEC) will celebrate Earth Day (April 22 )once again by offering free drop-off of unwanted electronics at their recycling bins on Saturday April 24, at 278 First Avenue, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on the following Sunday April 25 at Union Square North Plaza, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Bring computers and particularly their lead- filled monitors, laptops, printers, fax machines, TVs, VCRs, cell phones and household batteries.
Household batteries were identified as the main source of mercury in the waste stream some years ago. Consequently manufacturers eliminated mercury from household batteries and nowadays you can safely dispose of your alkaline AA, C and D cells . Rechargeables are a different matter. Used in portable tools, digital cameras and cell phones, they should not be dumped. Auto batteries contain lead and acid. Other toxic household materials include pesticides, paints and cleaning materials. Buried in landfills they still produce leachage that eventually seeps into the water systems and eventually into our body systems. Closing Fresh Kills on Staten Island, the world’s largest landfill, and transporting the waste by truck and rail to other landfills in poor areas of Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina only postpones the destruction process. Don’t let me get started.
Doing ecologically sound everyday disposal of hazardous waste in NYC is a hardship. NYCDS has set up Special Waste Collection Centers in faraway places. Ours is at the NYCDS garage, 605 West 30th Street (11-12 Avenues), which accepts on Fridays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., all automobile waste (batteries, old oil and other fluids, tires), latex paints and cleaning products, in limited quantities. One has to be truly dedicated to environment protection to make the long pilgrimage, by bus or foot, although a neighbor with a car can help.
To go back in history, until the 1980s waste in NYC apartment houses was largely incinerated. Buildings had chutes, a burner, and the ash was taken out at the end of the week. The air was filled with soot; today’s air, by comparison, is relatively clean. A 1989 law banned incinerators, giving landlords a four-year phase-out period. Waste reduction programs were imposed and a recycling program was installed, to be fully implemented by the late 1990s. Actually incinerators were banned in new buildings from 1971 on, following the guidelines of Nixon’s federal Clean Air Act of 1970, now in the process of having key provisions quietly defanged by current Washington appointees. In NYC Mayors Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani put on special efforts to get the city streets and air cleaned up, eventually succeeding.
Recycling was suspended by Mayor Bloomberg during the fiscal crisis, when 515 sanitation workers were laid off. It was reinstated with a give-back of $11 million, which opened a stream of major sales tax, state and federal funds, resulting in a package of $164 million for the NYCDS.
This is not bad progress for the city, considering that slaughterhouses were banned from within the city limits as early as 1676 , the first sewer was built in 1703, overseers of cartmen (waste collectors) and scavengers were appointed in late 1700s, a Metropolitan Board of Health was formed in 1866, soon thereafter followed by a Department of Health, and a Department of Street Cleaning (subsequently Sanitation) in 1881.
Most people of T&V country, if not most New Yorkers, carry heavy burdens of social consciousness with them. One of them is a concern about the protection of our environment, such as guarding against the pollution of our air, water and soil. This is one area where we can exercise some personal initiatives, such as recycling and reduction of waste, and experience a sense of satisfaction.
These thoughts were expressed by a neighbor who goes shopping with a canvas bag or two, and refuses to accept the plastic ones supplied by the supermarkets and Union Square farmers. That is one way to reduce the creation of waste. There are others, as outlined by the NYCWasteLess.org web site, maintained by the city’s Department of Sanitation (NYCDS). For example, consider writing to the Direct Marketing Association, requesting that your name be removed from national mailing lists. Consider donating away your old furniture, clothing, appliances and books. Bring a reusable bag to the supermarket, a la my neighbor. Use less products of the toxic variety, and be careful in disposing them, and do some composting of organic waste, not too practical a suggestion in a crowded city apartment. Also, consider offering those pesky polystyrene packing peanuts that surround your mail-order purchases to stores that ship goods, for reuse.
Recycling, particularly that of hazardous waste, is difficult but important. It is therefore good to see that the ST/PCV and the Lower East Side Environmental Center (LESEC) will celebrate Earth Day (April 22 )once again by offering free drop-off of unwanted electronics at their recycling bins on Saturday April 24, at 278 First Avenue, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and on the following Sunday April 25 at Union Square North Plaza, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Bring computers and particularly their lead- filled monitors, laptops, printers, fax machines, TVs, VCRs, cell phones and household batteries.
Household batteries were identified as the main source of mercury in the waste stream some years ago. Consequently manufacturers eliminated mercury from household batteries and nowadays you can safely dispose of your alkaline AA, C and D cells . Rechargeables are a different matter. Used in portable tools, digital cameras and cell phones, they should not be dumped. Auto batteries contain lead and acid. Other toxic household materials include pesticides, paints and cleaning materials. Buried in landfills they still produce leachage that eventually seeps into the water systems and eventually into our body systems. Closing Fresh Kills on Staten Island, the world’s largest landfill, and transporting the waste by truck and rail to other landfills in poor areas of Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina only postpones the destruction process. Don’t let me get started.
Doing ecologically sound everyday disposal of hazardous waste in NYC is a hardship. NYCDS has set up Special Waste Collection Centers in faraway places. Ours is at the NYCDS garage, 605 West 30th Street (11-12 Avenues), which accepts on Fridays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., all automobile waste (batteries, old oil and other fluids, tires), latex paints and cleaning products, in limited quantities. One has to be truly dedicated to environment protection to make the long pilgrimage, by bus or foot, although a neighbor with a car can help.
To go back in history, until the 1980s waste in NYC apartment houses was largely incinerated. Buildings had chutes, a burner, and the ash was taken out at the end of the week. The air was filled with soot; today’s air, by comparison, is relatively clean. A 1989 law banned incinerators, giving landlords a four-year phase-out period. Waste reduction programs were imposed and a recycling program was installed, to be fully implemented by the late 1990s. Actually incinerators were banned in new buildings from 1971 on, following the guidelines of Nixon’s federal Clean Air Act of 1970, now in the process of having key provisions quietly defanged by current Washington appointees. In NYC Mayors Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani put on special efforts to get the city streets and air cleaned up, eventually succeeding.
Recycling was suspended by Mayor Bloomberg during the fiscal crisis, when 515 sanitation workers were laid off. It was reinstated with a give-back of $11 million, which opened a stream of major sales tax, state and federal funds, resulting in a package of $164 million for the NYCDS.
This is not bad progress for the city, considering that slaughterhouses were banned from within the city limits as early as 1676 , the first sewer was built in 1703, overseers of cartmen (waste collectors) and scavengers were appointed in late 1700s, a Metropolitan Board of Health was formed in 1866, soon thereafter followed by a Department of Health, and a Department of Street Cleaning (subsequently Sanitation) in 1881.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 6:30 AM 
