Composting Day

Today, May the 29th, Memorial Day is being celebrated in the U.S.A., because it's the last Monday in May. As you most likely know, the date for a given Memorial Day varies from year to year. I have written about this fact in a number of prior entries here on Blogger. But, there is another holiday occurring today that is always honored on this day.

The holiday I'm referring to is Learn About Composting Day. Holiday Insights (HI) created this special day in 2011. HI proclaims to be "strong advocates of the 'Go Green' environmental movement." And they state "Composting is easy. We believe everyone can practice composting, to leave a better world for our children." 

Furthermore HI "follows the Boy Scout motto 'Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle.'" And their author reminds us that "Composting is a great way to re-use a wide range of things that otherwise would go un-necessarily into the waste stream.... (one) can use  compost around plants, to feed them, keep the weeds down, and to help retain soil moisture." 

HI reminds its readers, "If you don't have a yard, you can give it away to family and friends that do. Your reward will be flowers, vegetables or herbs from thankful gardeners."

An organization in NYC, known as GrowNYC, makes composting a do-able practice for a number of New Yorkers. GrowNYC "is the sustainability resource for New Yorkers: providing free tools and services anyone can use in order to improve our City and environment."

Their mission "is to improve New York City's quality of life through environmental programs that transform communities block by block and empower all New Yorkers to secure a clean and healthy environment for future generations."

One of the many things they do to fulfill their mission is to set up places where individuals can bring their composting materials. "NYC residents can drop off food scraps at 42 participating Greenmarkets, Youthmarkets, and Fresh Food Box locations throughout the five boroughs, and 18 new commuter sites conveniently located near transit in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx." 

I am fortunate to live nearby two of their compost drop off locations. One of these drop-off places is located at a greenmarket which is held on Sundays. This particular market is on a sidewalk which runs parallel to the Columbus Avenue side of The American Museum of Natural History.

A very partial view of the aforementioned market can be seen in the image below. The numeral one affixed to the image (left) indicates the location of GrowNYC's booth when they are at the Sunday UWS Greenmarket. Numeral two (middle right of image) indicates the composting station, while the double-sided arrow indicates the bins where one deposits what they've brought to the area for the purpose of churning to compost.

This photo as taken from the vantage point of Theodore Roosevelt Park.

"This Upper West Side park surrounding the American Museum of Natural History is named to honor Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). Roosevelt served as New York City Police Commissioner, Governor of New York State, Vice-President under William McKinley, and following McKinley’s assassination, the youngest man to serve as President of the United States."

In any event, there is a dog run at the northern portion of this little park. "The dog run, once called Teddy’s Dog Run, was renamed Bull Moose Dog Run after Roosevelt’s Progressive Party. Today, Theodore Roosevelt Park pays tribute to a dedicated conservationist and serves as a place of rest and recreation for local residents and museum visitors alike."

At the entrance to this dog run, there is a wire basket (as seen below),

for folks to repurpose plastic bags by "donating" them to dog-walkers to use when they need to pick up after their dog. This means that once a person's dropped off materials for composting, they can take care of re-purposing plastic bags.

And with that, dear reader, I'll close with the hope that on this Composting Day, I've given you ideas on how to make use of materials than can be re-purposed and re-cycled. Keep in mind the fact that GrowNYC offers very extensive info on their web-site.

Additionally, on this day, if you do decide to prepare materials for composting, please, join in with the following figurines, and take some time to think of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.