Let's Talk Trash, Beyond the Can

Our project wants to acknowledge the concerns of our community, by providing park users with the opportunity to donate trash cans. We appreciate their concerns, and want donors to feel listened to and empowered. Donated trash cans will have logos that read "Donated by the Friends of the Astoria Park Alliance". These cans will not be removed from Astoria Park, but will be permanent fixtures, unlike other cans which may be shifted out according to city wide usage. Can count will be significantly increased, keeping loose garbage down, and properly disposed of. We hope to decrease garbage over the sea wall as well.

We will launch our "Let's Talk Trash, Beyond the Can" Campaign. We want to create stakeholders out of park users. We want to encourage stakeholders to invest, not just in the number of trash cans in Astoria Park, but also in the problem of how budget cuts impact staffing, and the importance of volunteerism. We aim to create an active dialogue with stakeholders, and share our organization""s institutional awareness of the processing of garbage in Astoria Park. The "Let's Talk Trash" campaign will explain on our bulletin board, Facebook Page and through our Greeter's Program, the many ways park users can help keep the park cleaner. We hope to create new advocates who will continue to press elected officials for funding for park staff and seasonal employees. Our donors will be celebrated with a "Logo Party", in which we will invite the donors to come and help logo the cans prior to their installation by park staff. Once our cans are installed, we will continue our outreach efforts. As Park's Greeters, we will pass out garbage bags, and encourage large parties to bring their own bags, and use them properly. Hopefully we will have laid the groundwork for ongoing trash awareness, bringing us "Beyond the Can".

Park users are dismayed and discouraged by the overflowing trash cans and the amount of garbage that is strewn in Astoria Park. According to the NYC Parks Dept, the summer of 2010 saw 110,000 people use the pool alone. We don't seem to have enough cans for the mountains of garbage, especially on the weekends. In addition, our trash in Astoria Park can easily spill over the sea wall, onto the shore and directly impact the river. We dream of implementing a recycling program in the park, but are daunted by our inability to deal with regular garbage. Many of us vent and rant about the inadequacy and laziness of the park staff, but are unaware of the huge, to the bone, budget cuts that the Parks Dept. has experienced. We are frustrated, but are not sure what we can do.