We’ve been talking a lot about trash these days. Whether it’s about the pilot composting program or the new Big Belly Solar Bins hitting the streets, garbage is a serious problem for Greenpoint and high time it got fixed.
Say hello to Curb Your Litter, a GCEF grant winner and trash program designed to figure out why Greenpoint looks like a gigantic festering rats nest and how best to get rid of the filth. The three year project in connection with the Greenpoint Chamber of Commerce has big plans to go block by block and get down to the nitty gritty of our garbage issues. They want to know what kind of trash is being discarded, and who or what is causing such a mess.
Is it stores? Coffee houses? Restaurants? Your neighbors? Out of towners? Or maybe the source could be as simple as the piglet in front of you who mistook your foot for a trash can. No one knows yet, but Curb Your Litter is determined to find the answers and ways to fix it.
To begin searching for clues, Curb Your Litter had the first of four Clean Up Days on May 30th. What they discovered painted a truly repulsive picture. Over 65 volunteers cleaned up 29 blocks which resulted in 400 lbs of trash taken off the streets. And make no mistake, those 400lbs weren’t from regular trash cans, this was strictly discarded litter clogging our sewers and sticking on the streets. What comes next will be an analysis of the garbage to identify offenders and specific problem areas.
If you thought this kind of program couldn’t come at a better moment, then you are in luck. This Saturday, June 27th, On July 18th Curb Your Litter will be hosting their 2nd Clean Up Day and this time their sights are set on the northwest quadrant of Greenpoint. So if you want to help make our neighborhood a cleaner place then bust out those plastic gloves and head over to the Curb Your Litter’s Facebook page for rain dates and additional information on how to participate on Clean Up Days.
In addition to the Clean Up Days, the group is also looking to put more trash cans and Big Belly Solar Compactors along under-served areas such as West and Franklin Streets. Soon Curb Your Litter will also be unveiling an interactive website where neighbors can make comments about trash issues and chime in on trash can placements.
So you heard it folks. Enough trash talk, it’s time to hit the streets. So join in the fun on Saturday, June 27th at 10 am, at the Greenpoint Reform Church and help make Clean Up Day a success!
*UPDATE* Due to tomorrow’s rain forecast, Clean Up Day is postponed until July 18th. Stay tuned for more updates.
This isn’t one of those roll up your sleeves community members soon to be priced out and clean up a piece of land worth millions, rather than make the property owner do it days is it? The volunteer clean up of the India Street and Bayside Fuel area was just a parody of real community clean efforts of derelict abandoned properties, from when times were in fact hard.
Hurray for composting! Boo to convoluted compacting!