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Politics & Government

Bike Carting Presentation

Greg Todd, a local permaculturist and Community Board 8 member, will be making a presentation about bike carting to the Community Board 8 Sanitation and Environmental
Committee on Tuesday, February 21st at 7 PM.

The committee will be meeting at the Center for Nursing and Rehab (recently renamed "CenterLight Healthcare") Board Room, 727 Classon Avenue, between Park Place and
Prospect Place.

Bike carting as proposed by Mr. Todd will involve picking up the organic wastes from restaurants, coffee bars and juice bars in our neighborhoods with bike carts and converting these materials to compost. Bike carting will create living wage jobs for under-employed youth in our communities, decrease the truck traffic on our congested streets and provide much needed compost for community gardeners, landscapers and others interested in growing plants without chemical fertilizers. Bike carting is now being done in Philadelphia and Northhampton Mass, among other
cities.

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At present the City of New York is spending $1 billion annually on collection and disposal of municipal solid wastes (MSW). A similar amount is spent on private waste carting, that is, carting for restaurants, offices, hospitals, factories and other institutions. About a third of this money is spent on shipping wastes up to 600 miles to other states. About 18% of our MSW is food waste. By keeping these wastes local and converting them to a usable product such as compost, we not only can save the City significant amounts of money, money that can go improve our hospitals,
schools and other public and private institutions, we will also reduce air pollution and the reliance of foreign oil. (Source: NYC Dept of Sanitation, NYC Mayor’s Office)

Permaculture is a set of design principles developed by Bill Mollison and others. Permaculture attempts to create sustainable systems that maximize the use of local resources. Its three chief tenets are “Earth care, people care, fair share.” More information on permaculture can be found at www.green-phoenix.org.

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Community Board 8 is chaired by Nizjoni Granville. Ede Fox is chair of the Sanitation and Environmental Committee. Community Board 8 encompasses Crown Heights North from Flatbush Avenue to Ralph Avenue between Eastern Parkway and Atlantic Avenue. For more information on Community Board 8, go to www.brooklyncb8.org.

We would encourage all community gardeners and bike activists to attend this presentation to learn how
we can make bike carting happen in North Brooklyn

Contact Greg Todd at gn.todd@verizon.net for additional details.

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