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Published on 4/19/08
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Aside from the usual crowd of protesters, break-dancers and produce vendors that fill Union Square on any given Monday, keen observers will notice a Goodwill van parked at the north end of the park. From 8am to 6pm, a steady trickle of visitors stops by the vehicle, bearing clothing, fabrics and other textile donations. Material Mondays, as the weekly event is known, was started in 2007 by the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE): Since then, more than 31,000 pounds of jeans, T-shirts, bed linens, shoes and the like have been collected for eventual resale at Goodwill stores around the city. Its success sparked a sister program—Second Chance Saturdays, in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza—and plans are underway to add textile drives in other boroughs by the end of the year.
But clothing collection is just one of the ways OROE encourages New Yorkers to reduce their overall garbage output. A division of the nonprofit Council on the Environment of New York City, the group also oversees waste audits (which ensure apartment buildings are complying with current trash-disposal regulations), electronics-recycling events, community swap meets and a curbside campaign called “The Recycling Game,” in which passersby are tested on their blue-bin expertise. “We try to put a face on recycling and fix people’s misconceptions. We want to help them learn,” says Christina Salvi, an OROE recycling-outreach coordinator.
OROE is always in need of volunteers, and they’ve made getting involved easier than separating plastic and aluminum. Just attend a 90-minute training session (free pizza included) and register on the group’s Listserv for details on upcoming events. Last September’s Farm Aid saw more than 200 volunteers manning the OROE booths on Randalls Island, but volunteers are free to sign up for whatever projects they find appealing and contribute as much or little time as they can spare. “It can be frustrating to see how much isn’t done—New Yorkers only recycle about half of what they could,” says Salvi. “This is a very direct and personal way to correct the balance.”
For details on specific OROE programs, call 212-788-7964, e-mail csalvi@cenyc.org or visit cenyc.org/recycling.
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