The UN AND the Composting Toilet!

Last year, I reported on the cutting-edge composting toilet being installed at the Hollenback Garden on Washington Ave.  Saturday is the inaugural flush!On Saturday, May 10^th, Hollenback Community Garden in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn will play host to a delegation from the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. Adding to the excitement, the garden will unveil a new composting toilet, adding to the significant “green” activities already underway at the Clinton Hill oasis. Standing on the sight of the old Hollenback Family Mansion, the Hollenback Community Garden has been a green oasis in the city for more than 25 years. Currently, 40 active garden members work the land, growing vegetables, recycling tons (literally) of community food and garden waste into compost, harvesting rain-water from the rooftop next door, working with P.S.11 students to teach them about growing food, and being an active part of the Clinton Hill and urban gardening communities.

Last year, the garden installed a composting toilet, the first of its kind in a community garden in Brooklyn. Won via eBay auction from the Battery Park Conservancy, it took an almost insurmountable effort by garden volunteers to then get it delivered, installed, and ready to turn the community’s collective poop into brown gold! This year, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UN CSD) is taking delegates around the state to visit urban gardens, farms, and other green spaces being used to sustain and build local community.

On Saturday, May 10^th, to mark the occasion, and to share our experience as an urban garden with some of our international friends, Hollenback is hosting one part of a larger tour sponsored by WHY (World Hunger Year) for the attendees of the conference held by the UN CSD. 60 international visitors will be touring the garden from 10:30-11:30 a.m. to see our space and talk about our efforts to be not only a good neighbor, but to actively improve the community in which we live. That same day at 3p.m., we will be hosting the Ceremonial First Flush of the composting toilet followed by a free community barbeque.

Please join us as we mark not only a notable visit from international guests seeking to engage communities in questions of green urbanism, environmental remediation, and ongoing sustainability, but also the equally momentous opening of the first composting toilet in a community garden in Brooklyn. Contact Mike Dimpfl at 718 288 3509 for more details or with questions.