On Tuesday I went to the Union Square and Chelsea Whole Foods stores to check on the Gimme 5 recycling program. Union Square does not have it set up yet, but say it is coming soon. The Chelsea store never replied to my inquiry, and a visit there turned up no evidence of Gimme 5. Today I sent inquiries to the Columbus Circle, Bowery and soon-to-be-opened 97th Street stores and will let you know what I hear.
I also visited the Aveda store at Grand Central, where they happily took my handful of plastic bottle caps. Now that I know they can be recycled, I see them everywhere! I'm tempted to take a little walk around my neighborhood when I get home, just to see how many caps I can pick up.
PS- The Gimme 5 page has a list of participating Whole Foods stores. Here are the stores listed for NYC:
New York (10 Columbus Cir)
New York (270 Greenwich St)
New York (4 Union Sq S)
New York (95 E Houston St)
7 comments:
Hey Juli, I saw Christina at the textiles recycling up in Inwood (my 'hood) today and she said that the Chelsea Whole Foods is not participating in Gimme5. I wonder what's up with that? Glad to hear the others are though.
I'm seeing bottle caps (and other recyclable items) on the streets now everywhere too! I'm tempted to pick them all up (and I do sometimes) but I don't want to be that crazy lady with jars labeled "String too short to be useful" in my home, y'know?
Hahahahaha! Yes, I have that very same fear. I made that comment about picking up caps, and so far have only picked up ONE, while it seemed no one was looking.
Juli, Well done for highlighting recycling for plastic waste such as caps.
The most effective way of removing such waste is to promote Zero Waste alternatives.
Lush is my latest example with their unpackaged home cosmetic bars replacing aerosols, plastic bottles and all the associated caps. If Lush is successsful other companies will follow suit.
I was just thinking this morning how my brother says he always finds spare change on the ground. Me? I see things that need to be reused or recycled: rubber bands, soda caps, paper. I wish I could find change! Guess my head's in a different place. LOL
Argh, I went yesterday to Union Square and the two girls at customer service had NO IDEA what I was talking about...I hope this gets set up soon!
Megan
My experience at Union Square was similar until I insisted that I hade corresponded with the manager and he said they would be participating. This produced a phone call to the manager, and then I was told it was coming soon, but not ready yet.
BTW I also heard back from Columbus Circle WF- they are also participating...soon.
Juli,
I like your day of service idea! I've been having a hard time with the whole thing...
Whole Foods at Union Square has a small container for the Take Five program out by the other recycling containers. It is currently full of plastic bags and doesn't say anything about Brita. Still, it's a start, I guess...
Megan
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