Awhile back I wrote about some of the things I would like to see happen in my building in terms of greenness. And I, personally, have made an estimated zero progress, people. Now…individually there are a few fellow communal livers who have taken on some green ways..not sure I can steal credit there too much or at all actually, but what the hell…most of them don’t read this anyway.

Electricity …the building did install timer lights in the laundry room which should reduce the time those lights are on by about 20 hours a day…seriously. I had planned to go to the board meeting and yammer on about installing CFLs and obnoxiously announce that our electric bill was reduced 20% just by switching to a little over half CFL use alone. But I didn’t get to. The Pres. announced that the building has, in fact, been switching over gradually to the CFLs. He even wants the building to have household CFLs on site for people to purchase- reducing trips to store. (Many city people do not drive and the stores with good prices on these things aren’t trainable…yes that is a word…maybe.) I’m not sure what other practical steps can be taken in that direction. He seemed to have it covered…I guess that is why he is the Pres. and I’m just a whiner with a blog.

Garden and Compost . Remember my high hopes of a garden? Well…I had pretty much thought it was a dead end after being told there were "liability issues" with our insurance.  I was wrong.  After some gentle nagging, the Pres. informed me that the area in question is due to be rebuilt over the summer due to some leakage issues into our garage and that he is actually going to have it redesigned slightly to better accommodate a small garden AND actually have it filled with appropriate soil.  Dare I hope for an all organic garden? As far as the security issues…he seems to think we can find away around them.  Yippee!  (Now…I don’t expect this to happen over night…we are dealing with NYC contractors.)

Waste Reduction … This seems to be the area that the most work could be done but absolutely nothing has been done. Almost all of the waste is on an individual level…so people would either have to be inspired to change their behavior through more awareness or through building fines. The fines won’t happen…too much backlash. The Pres. of the Board keeps telling me I should work through the house committee on the issues of composting and recycling…that the board is overwhelmed and, although interested, the budget etc. is taking up everyone’s time. Why not join the house committee? Well…the house committee does a lot of stuff I really have no interest in…like planning the holiday parties…writing naughty notices…and generally taking everyone’s grief about everything from unsatisfactory child art being displayed on doors to ingrown toe nails. (There are a lot of high maintenance folks in this building. Including one who wrote a letter to the management complaining that nannies and children shouldn’t be seen in the lobby. Doesn’t look good to passer-byers. Nice guy, huh?) Not exactly my idea of a good time.   They produce a newsletter for the building every few months.  I could, if I really wanted everyone to be completely sick of me, write a piece for that offering simple suggestions to reduce paper, plastic, etc. waste.  Need to think if I want to be THAT person.  Let me run a sample by you guys to see if I’m up to the challenge.

ATTENTION ALL RESIDENTS WHO ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY READING AND/OR LOOKING AT THE PICTURES OF WHAT IS RECYCLABLE PASTED IMMEDIATELY ABOVE THE CANS…

Things That Are NOT Paper : food, wire hangers, Styrofoam clam shells with half eaten french fries, a broken flip flop, a broken radio with the batteries still in it, a bag of your dog’s crap, lasagna, or anything that is not, in fact, paper.  If you are still unsure if what you hold in your hand should go in the paper bin ask your self this question…IS it paper?  No…move along then, Sparky.

If you still have any questions, please schedule an appointment with my not-yet-3 year old so he can show you how to sort properly.

Now this would be just part 1 of a 4 part installment. Part 2 would obviously be Things That are Not Glass for our more advanced recyclers.

It is fairly amazing any one talks to me at all.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 11:55 am and is filed under building projects, energy, recycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.