Loretta Gendville didn’t want to become a bag lady.
But a law enacted last year required Gendville, owner of Brooklyn’s Area chain of children’s stores, to put out large containers to collect and recycle plastic bags. So the reluctant bag gatherer recently took a drastic step: she eliminated bags altogether.
Dena Robins got hooked on composting after speaking with NYC Compost Project reps at a recent farmers’ market in the Bronx.
Robins, who grew up in the Patterson Houses during the 1960s, recalled the pollution pumped out by the trash incinerators in the Mott Haven community.
“The cinders used to go into your eyes during the daytime,” said Robins, who now lives in Williamsbridge. “It was all unsanitary and polluting.”
Old computers, iPods, cell phones – Brian Boyd’s got ‘em all.
But when Boyd, who runs a social media company, TrakVu, out of his Upper West Side apartment, wanted to get rid of some of his electronics, he didn’t know what to do with the stuff.
Standing next to 30-pound sacks of organic soil on the 49th floor of 7 World Trade Center, Dominic Vigliotti talked excitedly how his Long Island company is selling tons of compost for roof gardens.
Ten feet away, Ken Hillman of Green Street Construction showed floor tiles made of recycled glass, and a piece of carpet woven entirely from wool. “It’s sustainable and it grows back every year,” Hillman noted. “Instead of wearing a sweater, we can make a carpet.”
Vigliotti and Hillman were among the dozens of exhibitors who came to the Building Green Expo in Lower Manhattan as part of April’s Earth Day celebrations to network with other green industry entrepreneurs, make new connections – and draw new customers.
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