Whether you’re staying on campus for January term or visiting for the weekend, there are plenty of green ways to spend your time in NYC.
Brooklyn Flea gathers some of NYC’s finest artists and clothing collectors to sell sustainable products. If you have last minute holiday shopping or just want to treat yourself for the new year, Brooklyn Flea is a NYC favorite.
Contributed by Alesha Bradford
It’s the holiday season once again, which marks a time of giving to loved ones and those in need. Perhaps you’ve practiced an environmentally conscious lifestyle for some time now, or maybe you’ve just started the journey!
For the old and new, these are some green gift ideas to give or do that’ll get everyone in the sustainable-spirit and start the next year on a green note.
Buy gifts from a sustainable source
If you’re willing to do some research, buying a gift from a sustainable source is a great way to support eco-friendly companies. To find out about a company’s practices, you can look on their “FAQ” page on their website, check their product descriptions or even contact a representative if you’re still unsure. Asking these questions not only encourages informed consumerism, but will also lead to companies making this information more accessible to the public so they can more easily make environmentally-conscious shopping decisions.
Contributed by Brianda Hickey
Happy Thanksgiving Week!! Here is a lovely picture of a Pumpkin Spice later in my thermos to help you get into the fall spirit:
Living zero waste has become more natural, but I wouldn’t brush it off as “easy” nor would I say it is an accessible lifestyle for all. My morning routines have turned into a just-in-case checklist:
Bamboo utensils? Check.
Mason jar? Check.
Reusable bag? Check.
Coffee mug? Check.
Cloth napkin? Check.
This article is the first in a series on Green Grants: The People Behind the Projects. Below is an interview with Jason Pessel (NYU Stern MBA ’15), who received a Green Grant for his project, Reefill. Reefill is a network of stations that gives members access to cold, filtered tap water throughout NYU’s campus and the greater NYC community. This year, Reefill memberships are free to all NYU students.
JP: It started as an idea when I was walking through Manhattan. There’s no water fountains that you can find or anything–they just don’t exist in the middle of Manhattan. So I bought bottled water, and I was with my cousin and he started screaming at me, saying “That’s tap water! What are you doing? You are making all this waste!” So I started researching and realized that like 50% of bottled water is tap water, and disposed water bottles lead to problems with plastic in our oceans. In doing that research, before I was even at NYU, I realized when we buy bottled water, we are just buying tap water–it’s chilled and filtered, and then they are putting a fancy label on it and we are spending a lot of money on it and it is creating all this waste. But tap water is pretty much everywhere, so why couldn’t we find another way to make chilled and filtered tap water on-the-go that’s easier for people to access? So that kind of became the idea.
Halloween is a holiday dedicated to ca pumpkins and candy comas, but what happens to all the squash and sugar on November 1st? Over 1 billion pounds of pumpkin are produced during the Halloween season, the vast majority end up rotting in the landfill. And the sweet stuff? Americans buy 600 million pounds of candy a year with that hard-to-recycle wrapper.
I know I want to reduce my waste for Zero Waste Month, and if you do too you might want to take a tip or two from what I scoured on the waste-free web.
Graphic by Katherine Facchini
