Residents can drop off food scraps at the new MacDonald Park food
waste drop-off site at 87-20 Queens Blvd.
TIMESLEDGER | Q 2 NS.COM | MAY 14-MAY 20, 2021
BY ERIN YOON
The Green Team of Benjamin
N. Cardozo High School
held virtual climate education
sessions for fourth- and
fifth-graders at P.S. 203, since
the first week of April.
The Green Team initiated
such an effort with the hope
that teaching younger students
about environmental
conflicts would encourage
the growth of sustainable
habits in their everyday lives.
In the previous month, the
elementary students have engaged
in discussions on how
to overturn different types of
pollution.
“Climate education improves
my knowledge on the
environment,” said Jason
Jin, a fourth-grader at P.S.
203. “I learned that gas makes
the air dirty, and that noise
pollution harms the Earth.”
Many students have found
the program to be immediately
intriguing, as it suited
well with their personal
interests.
“I feel that climate education
is great because I’m a
science guy,” said Andy Liu,
a fifth-grader. “This class
teaches me a lot. I learned
about a lot of different types
of pollution and how to fix
them.”
Learning about climate
change, continued Liu, has
not only enhanced his knowledge
on current crises, but
has caused a shift in his attitude
toward the environment,
as he now understands
more about the problems that
surface as a result of it.
Other students said that
participating in the climate
education program has motivated
them to take action.
“I enjoy it very much
because we are taught examples
that most of us can
connect to,” said Priscila
Blanchet, a fifth-grader.
“Thanks to the Green Team,
I learned the importance of
taking care of the Earth.”
According to Blanchet,
receiving climate education
has inspired her to attend a
park cleanup with friends
and use fewer plastic bottles.
The high school students
of the Cardozo Green Team,
too, feel that working as educators
in the climate education
program has been a
rewarding and enlightening
experience.
“Teaching the students of
P.S. 203 has opened my eyes
to the importance of early
education,” said Jasmine
Germany, Secretary of the
Green Team. “Giving lessons
to others about the environment
is such a positive
thing, and I am proud to be a
part of it.”
Despite having to host
the program virtually, the
Green Team takes pride
in the beneficial progress
that it has made in the first
month of it.
“It is not ideal, as we are
teaching from home due to
the pandemic,” said Daniela
Rodriguez, a member of the
Green Team. “But the team
knows how to make the best
of it.”
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Curbside food and yard
waste collection will return
to Forest Hills on Sunday,
May 16, thanks to the Forest
Hills Green Team (FHGT), the
Queens Botanical Garden and
Friends of MacDonald Park.
The new MacDonald Park
food waste drop-off site, located
at 87-20 Queens Blvd.,
comes more than a year after
Mayor Bill de Blasio slashed
$28 million from the fiscal
year 2021 budget, suspending
citywide food waste collection
and composting to fund
emergency responses to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Recently, the mayor announced
the return of the
curbside service for communities
where it was offered
prior to the pandemic, but
Forest Hills was not among
them, according to FHGT.
There was only a weekly food
waste drop-off site at the Mac-
Donald Park greenmarket on
Sundays, and the volunteerrun
Compost Collective on
Yellowstone Boulevard and
Kessel Street on Saturdays.
“There are a couple of sites
where people can drop off
weekly waste, but it’s just not
enough,” said Mark Laster,
chair of FHGT, a volunteer initiative
launched in 2018 that
has revitalized and helped
start gardens at Metropolitan
Expeditionary Learning
School and Forest Hills High
School. “So, we decided to
partner with the Queens Botanical
Gardens and Friends
of MacDonald Park to provide
another composting location
and opportunity.”
Residents will be able to
come by and drop off their
food scraps to FHGT volunteers
from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
at the site, which is adjacent
to the Greenmarket. Queens
Botanical Garden will pick up
the containers and compost
the food waste at its main facility.
The finished compost
will be returned to the community
for distribution at
MacDonald Park.
Courtesy of Steve Melnick/Friends of MacDonald Park
Ever since the service was
suspended, residents were
asked to discard food scraps
and yard waste with their
trash, which has resulted in
a tremendous loss of momentum
for these vital programs,
Dan Miner, co-chair of FHGT,
said in an op-ed.
“Community outreach will
have to be redoubled before
their reintroduction. We urge
the mayor and City Council to
restore funding to composting
and recycling programs
as soon as possible, and to invest
in community education
about the many benefits of
composting,” Miner said.
According to Miner, composting
is critical to saving
the environment.
“When food waste isn’t separated
from regular garbage,
it’s often burned in incinerators
or buried in landfills,
where it produces the greenhouse
gas methane, which is
responsible for global warming,”
Miner said.
According to FHGT, Methane
is up to 34 times more
powerful than carbon dioxide.
Municipal solid waste
landfills are the third largest
source of human related methane
emissions in the U.S., and
produced about 15 percent of
U.S. emissions in 2018.
“Landfills around the
country are filling up, and becoming
more costly for cities
to use for their waste,” FHGT
said in a op-ed. “To meet the
city’s goal of sending zero
waste to landfills by 2030, we
will need to prioritize composting
our organic waste.”
Queens Botanical Garden
is seeking other organizations
willing to host food waste dropoff
locations in their community,
according to FHGT, encouraging
other local groups
to partner in the effort toward
a sustainable future.
Members of the Forest
Hills Green Team, have also
developed a community beautification
project at the LIRR
overpass on Yellowstone Boulevard.
FHGT has organized
events and conducted advocacy
about environmental
issues and climate change
response.
FHGT members Evan Boccardi
and Sheila Shapiro will
coordinate the site. To volunteer
with FHGT to assist in
the compost project, contact
fhgtinc@gmail.com.
Reach reporter Carlotta
Mohamed by e-mail at
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at (718) 260–
4526.
The Green Team of Benjamin N. Cardozo High School taught
elementary school students at P.S. 230 about the importance of
climate education. Screenshot via Zoom
Cardozo H.S. students
teach elementary school
students about climate
Forest Hills Green Team
brings back composting
site at MacDonald Park
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