The best thing in life is free. Really. Especially when the free stuff aligns with your belief. In particular, I am talking about recycling. New York City recently made a big push to get more organic recycling to happen. For a brief time, it became mandatory, fine would be issued if houses have no compost bin out for collection. Sadly, people complained loudly and now there is no fine, I am sure some people just take that as a sign not to bother participating. I really like that after separating out paper, metal, plastic, and now organic stuff, there is little left of garbage. The City pays a lot of money for garbage to leave town, on trains destined for some neighboring or faraway states.
Anyway, what's the use of collecting all that organic waste and not making use of the end product? Free compost! It's a bit of a challenge to sign up for these events. You need to check in regularly, the dates are open for registration for like two weeks ahead. I managed to snatch a ticket for this past Saturday May 31, from the NYC Department of Sanitation depot up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn North. It's a long drive but for ten 40-pound compost, it's worthwhile. I like that it was in the morning, traffic was low and I was home by ten or so, still time to do other things. I plan to share my loot with members of my local Buy Nothing Group, in Bath Beach/Gravesend.
While waiting for the depot to open, I happened to discover the Kingsland Avenue entrance of the Newtown Creek Nature Walk. I first discovered the Walk's Paidge Avenue entrance but I was in the area for something else and didn't have time to actually visit it. It was a few years ago, I vaguely recall it was Phase I of the Walk. It is a great idea. All these waste treatment plants are already all over the area. Instead of fighting them, the Walk just meanders alongside them. Granted there are walls to keep the Walk away from the facilities, some tanks are so huge you cannot avoid seeing them. Along the Walk, there are trees, bushes, benches, waterside seats, and more. Look out the water and far away you would see the skyscrapers of Manhattan, plus a few in bustling Long Island City. I only walked a few steps in from the Kingsland entrance because I didn't want to miss the queue of cars quickly forming outside the DOS Depot. After I got my freebies, I made a leisurely visit to traverse the entire Walk and back. The sky looked like it would bust open any minute so I didn't take the chance of making a big loop south to Greenpoint Avenue and back.
Free walk, free compost, wait, it got better! By chance, in the afternoon, I happened to notice a freebie event at the Latino church near my house. From far away, I thought it was a fund-raising event for the church, perhaps the items were offered at low price. No, they were totally free! Clothes, shoes, some packaged food, some toys, and dear and near to my heart, music CDs! Call me old school if you must, but I still like to play music from CDs. I do have a collection on my phone, but it's a nice feeling to just pop a CD into a player, and play the music loudly in the living room. Or in the car. I have a portable DVD player that can handle music CDs just fine. I got a stack of music CDs, mostly from the 80s. It was a great weekend.
