Recycling in the Cap Reg

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome is throwing down the proverbial recycling gauntlet. The mayor recently announced that the city by the bay will be upping its recycling efforts to ensure 70% of consumer waste is recycled. That got me thinking--what is Albany doing?

New York's capital city has been recycling for over a decade, but it turns out that the city will only accept plastic items labeled 1 or 2. I was really surprised and a little disappointed by this.

On a related note, most Price Choppers AND Hannaford Super Markets are now accepting plastic bags for recycling.

Albany Earth Day Electronic Drop-Off Day

Heads up to all those who've been hoarding their old air conditioners, VCR's and mother boards...Jerry's coming to your rescue. This Saturday, April 26th, the City of Albany is hosting a free event for city residents to recycle their unwanted electronics.
Acceptable items include:

• Computer monitors
• Televisions (no console TVs)
• Computer parts
• VCRs
• Telephones, PDAs
• Radios
• Room air conditioners

Unacceptable items are the following:

• Console / cabinet TVs
• Consumer appliances
• Microwaves
• Computer software, CDs, Disks
• Computer manuals and /or mousepads
• Fans, vacuums, lights
• Stereo speakers
  
• Calculators
  
• Batteries or fluids / oils

If you're a city resident and want to participate in this event, you need to call 518-434-CITY (2439) to attain a coupon to attend. Ironically, this event isn't occurring within Albany proper...it's in Colonie, 1960 Central Ave (the Taft Furniture parking lot) and runs from 7:00am till 1:00pm.

Congestion Pricing

Let's face it, it's been a tough year for the Empire State. With Spitzer and Paterson doing the governors' shuffle, the New York State budget was bound to be flawed and late, at that. Unfortunately, one of the biggest items on the table was the congestion pricing deal for New York City. Congestion pricing was introduced in an effort to curb traffic and, therefore, carbon dioxide emissions in NYC. Contingent upon the NYS Legislature approving the plan to charge people driving below 60th Street, NYC was set to receive $354 million from the federal government to assist the city make much needed transit and infrastructure improvements. Sheldon Silver, Majority Leader of the Assembly, wouldn't even let the State Assembly vote on the measure (his district would have been affected by the pricing). It's not worth speculating why this critical piece of legislation was not even allowed to come to a vote--it's simply frustrating. Considering that climate change and air quality in urban areas are both well covered topics, it's disheartening to think that legislators failed to support congestion pricing, many claiming that it would adversely impact New Yorkers. Failure to pass congestion pricing legislation now does not bode well for future pollution mitigation efforts. Kudos to London, though, for setting a global example that congestion pricing is viable and it can work.

New Digs

Welcome to the new home of the Upstate Green Team!! We've moved locations (kind-of) to allow for a greater freedom for contributors to this endeavor. While it's not possible to move all of the existing posts over, we hope that the new location will make the UGT a more interesting and informative read with a wide-range of points-of-view.