FROM: The Lower East Side Ecology Center Petition:
To Sign Petition: HERE
“Each week, more than 3,500 households depend on LES Ecology Center’s compost program, which began on the Lower East Side in 1990 and is centered at the East River Compost Yard. We offer ten drop-off sites for food scraps, prevent hundreds of tons of organic material from entering landfill every year, and have been introducing countless New Yorkers to the benefits of composting. LES Ecology Center collects and composts these scraps at the Compost Yard, reducing truck trips to take the scraps farther away and providing additional opportunities for New Yorkers to learn the full lifecycle of composting. Local community gardens, schools, and block associations caring for street trees rely on our finished compost to help their plants thrive. The Compost Yard is at the heart of our local environment.
Now, the City is seeking a construction contract to destroy the East River Compost Yard and create a temporary lawn in its place. Not only will this cut off New Yorkers from composting and effectively kill our community compost program, but it will also be a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars that the City is trying to hide. The plan is moving ahead without any community input and was not even publicly announced at recent community board meetings.
If you support composting, please let the City know how you feel. We demand that the Compost Yard stay operational until the 2023 reconstruction for this section of the Park actually starts. We also demand that the City engage with the LES Ecology Center to finish the design for the renovated Compost Yard as part of the ESCR.”
Contact:
Mayor Bill de Blasio: BDeBlasio@cityhall.nyc.gov
Council Member Carlina Rivera: District2@council.nyc.gov
Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver:
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/home/mail/html/maildpr.html
Department of Design and Construction Commissioner Lorraine Grillo:
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/ddc/about/contact-form.page?recipient=Lorraine%20Grillo