The report, published by the global environmental research organization Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), finds that China’s CO2 emissions surged back to a pre-lockdown level in May as power plants and factories reopened in the country. Emissions of health-harming pollutants such as PM2.5, NO2, and SO2 rose by 4% to 5% year-over-year, signaling an unwanted “dirty” recovery that might ruin the country’s efforts to go green over the past few years, the researchers say.

“All eyes are on China, as the first major economy to return to work after a lockdown,” the report said. “It’s obvious that once the economy starts to recover and production and transport to resume, much of the air pollution would return.”

 The study suggests that Chinese provinces that rely heavily on industrial productions are driving the increase, such as the coal-intensive Shanxi in central China and the chemical plants-filled Heilongjiang in the northeast. Meanwhile, air pollution was less severe in megacities like Beijing and Shanghai, which rely mostly on the service sector. 

 Lauri Myllyvirta, senior analyst covering China’s air quality and energy trends at CREA, suggests that the extent to which air pollution will rebound depends on the sources of pollution in different countries. China, for example, is dominated by industrial pollutants from its manufacturing sector, while most European countries are more concerned about carbon emissions produced by cars and other private transportations. Either way, “high-polluting industries have been fastest to recover from the crisis, whereas the service sector is left behind. [That’s why] the pollution has rebounded faster than the economy,” Myllyvirta said during an interview.

 From early February to mid-March, China’s strict lockdown measures caused the air pollution level to plummet by 25%, according to CREA’s analysis of the latest government data. And China is not alone. An article published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change shows that by early April, daily global carbon emissions dropped by 17% year over year, of which China and the United States were the biggest contributors.

 Prior to the pandemic, the Chinese government had laid out ambitious plans to cut pollution and ease the climate crisis, such as decreasing its energy consumption by 15% before 2020. Yet as the pandemic took its toll, the country chose to prioritize its economic recovery over meeting those targets. In late May, China’s Premier Li Keqiang scrapped a key measurement on energy consumption, speaking only vaguely about “a further drop in energy consumption per unit of GDP” while he was expected to set a clear percentage decrease.

 The resurgence in air pollution in China after COVID-19 reminds Myllyvirta of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, for which China shut down factories within 300 miles of the capital but reopened shortly after the games. “I remember the extremely blue sky in Beijing during the Olympics,” Myllyvirta said. “But after that, the pollution comes back. It comes back even worse in the following years.”

Other countries are expected to follow suit. In Europe, where public transportation is being discouraged for the sake of social distancing, “congestion levels and private cars emissions are roughly back to the pre-COVID level even though people are moving around less.” In India, “even the recovery is slow, there is still a risk of pollution coming back next winter because winter is the pollution season.”

Some environmental experts hold a more positive view about the post-COVID outlook on climate change. Jochen Markard, researcher at the Group of Sustainability and Technology in Zurich, and Daniel Rosenbloom, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of political science at University of Toronto, co-wrote in the May issue of Science Magazine that “COVID-19 recovery presents a strategic opportunity to transition toward a more sustainable world” if governments around the world implement greener COVID recovery plans, such as shutting down carbon-intensive companies and encouraging remote working. 

A 48-page report published by the Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment also refers to fiscal recovery packages as the “biggest driver of the long-term impact on climate.” After surveying 231 key policymakers around the world, the report finds that there are multiple ways to meet both economic and climate goals, such as encouraging clean physical infrastructure investment, building efficiency retrofits, investing in education and training to address structural unemployment from decarbonization, etc.

Myllyvirta agrees that the solution lies in increasing the capacity of public transportation and supporting cleaner businesses rather than energy-intensive projects. Otherwise, the rebound “could cause strong reactions after the extremely pronounced clean air in the first half of this year.”

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But they may not plague these city streets much longer.

New York State lawmakers passed a bill in early April outlawing the majority of single-use plastic bags across the entire state of New York. They are hoping the ban will will help not only to limit the flow of litter into streets, streams and oceanfront, but also that it will minimize the greenhouse emissions caused by their production.

Many New Yorkers were pleased with the announcement, and some hope it leads both lawmakers and residents to think about other steps toward a more sustainable future.

There are a few exemptions to the ban, including bags for newspapers, restaurant takeout bags and bags used for garments.

The ban will go into effect in March of 2020.

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Monica Hunken, of Brooklyn, leads a chant outside of Long Island City’s DEC building calling for a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing. Photo by Alyana Alfaro

When Eileen Hamlin first moved to her property in rural Kirkwood, N.Y. almost 30 years ago, she never imagined her 26-acre property—complete with a freshwater pond, a patch of woods and home to a family of red fowls—could become a drilling site for natural gas.

Now, as Governor Cuomo’s decision on hydraulic fracturing or fracking— looms Hamlin, 77, says she is worried for the area she and her husband, John, have called home since 1981.

“We expected to be able to live here and age in place as they say,” Hamlin said. “That apparently is not to be if the Governor allows fracking here.”

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of drilling and injecting fluids into the ground at high pressures in order to fracture shale rocks and release natural gas to be used as energy. While no definitive studies have been done, fracking has been linked to health and environmental concerns in many areas and the possible decision to bring fracking to New York has been especially controversial.

After over 4 years of indecision on the topic—and a moratorium in place that continues to put off the decision—if a pronouncement on fracking is not made by Cuomo and the Department of Environmental Conservation by Feb. 27, the issue will once again be up for review and will remain in contention, leaving homeowners like Hamlin, who rely on wells for drinking water, unsure of what the future holds.

“What they are trying to do here is drill in neighborhoods where there are a lot of houses,” Hamlin said. “Some engineers told us that about 10 percent of the water comes back so that water is not like golf course water that just goes in the soil, it is deep in the Earth. It is trapped. What is left down might seep out of the cracks in the shale and pollute our aquifers.”

With the upcoming government decision, the past two weeks have been a time of action for New York’s anti-fracking initiative. Rallies, such as one organized on Feb. 6 outside the Long Island City offices of the DEC, have happened all over New York State urging the government to officially reject fracking.

Dave Publow , 46, attended the DEC rally with members of his organization, Occupy the Pipeline. For Publow, the water contamination issues associated with high-pressure fracturing are what have driven him to make a “pledge of resistance” to resort to whatever means necessary to block fracking if it is put into practice in New York. The pledge, which is an initiative of the group Don’t Frack New York, has over 6,500 signatures statewide.

“If they do try to frack, we will block them,” Publow said. “We will use civil disobedience if we have to and we will not allow them to frack in this state.”

FrackingNY_1-2

Protester Monica Hunken rallies the crowd.

Vera Scroggins, 62, lives in Susquehanna County, Pa., one of the regions with the most natural gas drilling in the United States. Scroggins gives what she calls “citizen tours” of her area to show visitors what it is like to live in a region where fracking is a major industry.

“I show people from all over the world and New York in particular what it is like to live with fracking and near fracking in our neighborhoods and our countryside,” she said. “I take them out for about four hours or more and show them the different stages all the way from the drilling, to the the fracking, to the flares.”

For Scroggins, while fracking has been economically beneficial to the Pennsylvania economy, the risks are not worth the rewards.

“I see a lot of polarity, a lot of conflicts in our area,” Scroggins said. “People take sides, those who want it badly, those who don’t want it, those who are in the middle. We have a very polarized society now and community.”

For Hamlin, whose property is surrounded on three sides by land that is leased and zoned for fracking, the Governor’s decision may change her life forever.

“I cannot tolerate having well pads on two or three sides of my property,” she said. “I don’t like the idea of the animals I see on my property or the birds hurt and I don’t care to have my house made worse because Governor Cuomo decides to go through this.”

Hamlin, though she says she loves her area, said she would probably relocate if the moratorium on fracking was lifted.

“I am very saddened about it because I don’t like the idea of having to give up my home,” she said. “I really feel like we are being invaded by this industry.”

The post With fracking decision looming, New Yorkers worry about water appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Fracking companies routinely plow plots of land in order to run pipelines through the countryside. Here a clearing in the mountains of Sullivan County, Pa Photo by Eric Zerkel

LYCOMING COUNTY, Pa -Tucked between sprawling green hills and meandering creeks, where the roads run narrow and dirty, Drake Saxton and Andrea Young take refuge.

For Saxton and Young, life in Moreland Township is a labor of love, 25-years of dedication to perfect their dream bed and breakfast, each log, each stone, each building hand built over-time; a place where they could retire to the unspoiled serenity of central Pennsylvania.

That is until the methane gas from the nearby hydraulic fracturing well seeped into their drinking water, rendering it unusable and threatened to end their business. Dangerous levels of the cancer causing gas radon followed, with levels jumping to over 23 picocuries per liter, more than 6 times the safe limit suggested by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“This took us 25 years to build, and it could all be gone,” said Saxton, 64 as he recounted the 14 years he and Andrea spent living in a rehashed chicken coop as they worked on their house. “Once the water is gone, my property is worthless, just like that,” he said.

Saxton and Young are just one example of many Pennsylvanians who have been dealing with the negative side effects of the boom of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” – a process for harvesting natural gas. Their experiences have left them politically dejected, and now they find themselves outcasts in the middle of a hot environmental debate that could boil over in the upcoming presidential election.

“We have told state legislators, we have lobbied their offices, but there is no use in telling them because they have already been told again and again,” Saxton said.

All along the Pennsylvania countryside pads are cut into the forested areas, breaking up the continuity of oaks and birches with the dull rumble of drills, compression pumps and other equipment necessary to tap the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation below ground.

Drake Saxton indicates how contaminates get into his well water. Photo by Eric Zerkel

“We are in the sacrifice zone, said Ralph Kisberg, 56, a native of Lycoming County. “The rights of people are secondary to what the country wants to do.”

In many cases, access to these drill sites is proprietary, and the mineral rights are exclusive to the property owner. As a result, gas companies with names like Anadarko and XTO send “land men” to knock on the doors of the farmhouses and old Victorians that dot the landscape, offering exorbitant amounts of money for leased mineral rights to their land.

The minimum gas royalty in Pennsylvania is 12.5 percent of all the gas taken from the wellhead. Simply put, the more gas pumped out, the more money a landowner can collect, sometimes into the millions.

“It’s not unusual to see that,” Kisberg said, as he pointed out a sheen green tin roof atop a dilapidated old farmhouse, just feet away from a drill site. “People around here are poor, so when they get their check from leasing their land they run out and by new roofs, new trucks, things they never dreamed of affording.”

Kisberg is the president of Responsible Drilling Alliance, an organization that aims to educate Lycoming County residents on the potential consequences of shale gas drilling. Kisberg, like many others, leased his mineral rights to his property north of Williamsport.

“The land owners, they are all in on it, including myself,” said Kisberg. “They are all rubbing their hands together while they count their royalties.”

But John Trallo, 60, never wanted in. His home, located in the heart of Sonestown in nearby Sullivan County, was supposed to be a refuge from the environmental hazards that marred his past. The wife of his four children died at the age of 42, Trallo said, due to cancer directly related to exposure to the pesticide DDT, sprayed across the farms of his former residence just outside Philadelphia.

“I wanted to get away from the pollution,” said Trallo. “Sullivan County is called ‘the gem of the endless mountains’ for a reason; it’s supposed to be dedicated to preserving that beauty, that peace and quiet.”

Now the land Trallo sought refuge in, has turned against him.

“When you turn on your faucet and what comes out looks like chocolate and smells like diesel fuel, it’s easy to see something’s not right,” said Trallo.

Trallo said he hasn’t had potable water in over 15 months. He said his water source had been contaminated by leaking gas from a fracking well atop North Mountain, just a half mile behind his house. Tests on his water showed shocking results, traces of methane, barium, strontium and arsenic were flowing out of his tap.

“Fracking companies have done more than just change the land, Trallo said. “They have completely transformed it.”

Trallo’s home sits well outside the 2,500-foot zone of “presumed liability” that forces gas companies to assume responsibility for any negative effects of tapping the wells, which he said has left him with few political options.

“I don’t think there is a political solution,” said Trallo. “As long as they (politicians) don’t have to stand in someone’s kitchen and watch as someone lights brown liquid coming out of a faucet on fire, they can deny it.”

Trallo said he had exhausted the same options as Saxton, and was so frustrated with the political climate that he planned on throwing his hat into the political arena, writing himself in as a representative of the 110th District of Pennsylvania.

“I don’t care if I win or lose the election,” said Trallo. “If I can just get people to understand the effects of this industry, that’s all I want.”

On the back deck of his bed and breakfast Drake Saxton stood, staring out over the shallow banks of Little Muncy Creek.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it,” he said with a somber smile.

View from the hill overlooking Drake and Andrea Saxton's Bed and Breakfast. Mr. Sexton said he recently learned that a gas company plans to drill atop the hill, potentially threatening his drinking water. Photo by Eric Zerkel

For the first time the Pennsylvania wilderness offered no refuge.

“No matter who we vote for we run the risk of losing all of this,” said Saxton. “When does it end, and who helps us? No one.”

The post GOP Primary: Living with Fracking appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

The Shubert Theatre, home to the Broadway musical "Memphis," lit up the night April 26. The Broadway Green Alliance has overhauled all Broadway theatre marquees with energy efficient bulbs.

On 51st street, Glinda the good witch makes a perky entrance via her bubble in “Wicked” while six blocks down, the disfigured and tormented title character of “The Phantom of the Opera” makes a chandelier crash onto the stage below.

It’s opulent. It’s fanciful. It’s Broadway.

Yet between recreating the land of Oz and a 19th century opera house, Broadway has managed to look past the bright lights and find unique ways to go green.

The Broadway Green Alliance, an industry-wide network of theater professionals, encourages the adoption and implementation of environmentally friendly practices. Members of the New York theater community formed the organization in 2008 after sharing ideas for greening activities.

“It all really came together with the Broadway show “Wicked,” said Charles Deull, co-chair for the Broadway Green Alliance. “They had been practicing green activities in their own operations and they called together a ‘town hall’ of theater professionals to talk about what they were doing.”

Jennifer Hershey, head of the group’s venues committee and Vice President of Building Operations for Jujamcyn Theaters, said the transformation began on the outside and slowly worked its way in.

“Our primary goal was to change the light bulbs in all of the exterior marquees of our theaters,which is an absolutely tremendous goal because there were 39 theaters that we were trying to get onboard,” Hershey said.

Within a year, the organization replaced most of the incandescent lights with more energy efficient bulbs.

“We’re saving around 80 percent of energy usage,” said Deull, adding that changing the bulbs is costly at first but worth the investment.

Other changes include using re-chargeable batteries in microphones and swapping the bleach used to mop theater floors for more diluted, eco-friendly options. The group’s green efforts also invite the participation of theater patrons; recycling bins have been placed throughout venues to collect discarded playbills and box office ticket envelopes are now made from partially recycled paper stock.

But initial investment to go green could be an obstacle for smaller theater companies.

“Many of the initiatives that the BGA has taken actually provide a very quick return on investment, particularly in terms of energy consumption,” said Michael Mehler, vice-president of programming with the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. “That being said, smaller theatre companies do not necessarily have the resources to pursue those initial investments.”

College and university theater programs may have access to some resources, he said, “but given the current state of education funding at the public level, those programs are also limited in terms of what they can do right now.”

Paul Brunner, assistant professor and head of the Theatre Technology department at Indiana University, added that green methods are already used in the theater.

“The construction and deconstruction (strike) of scenery is meticulously planned to maximize the salvaging and reuse of materials,” Brunner said.

Still, it can be difficult at times to convince people within the theater to go green.

“We’ve made great strides where we can, but it’s hard to educate people,” Hershey said. “People are still very lazy. It still requires pushing and educating and telling people how they can make a difference.”

Yet Hershey said the Broadway Green Alliance remains steadfast in its mission.

“The theaters are doing their best to lay a good foundation,” she said, “so that the people that work here, the shows that perform here and the patrons that come visit have a sense that we’re committed.”

The post Broadway finds new ways to go green appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Bill Odle, 70, stands on his property, less than 400 feet from the Arizona-Mexico border. Photo by Rachel Morgan

Conchise County, Ariz — Bill Odle lives 385 feet from the border wall that separates Arizona and Mexico — so close he can see it from his straw-bale house.

And he’s seen firsthand the environmental degradation the 670-mile fence has inflicted on the surrounding area.

The $3.7 billion fence was intended to serve as a solid barrier between Arizona and Mexico to prevent illegal immigrants and drugs from passing over the border. What it has done instead is fragment an already stretched environment and prevent animals from accessing large portions of their habitats, which is pushing some toward extinction. It has even caused flooding in border areas.

“It’s just so enraging to have this put up, and it’s only harmful,” Odle said.

Odle’s 50-acre plot is located along the border in Cochise County, Ariz. He moved to the area in 2000, so he’s seen the area before, during and after construction of the wall, which went up in his area about two and a half years ago.

“When this first went up, I’d drive along and deer would be ahead of you; and they’d go a ways and try and go south, and they couldn’t cross,” he said. “I followed them a mile or so, and they eventually just went north.”

While Odle is not a rancher, he is very much an outdoors man — his eco-friendly straw-bale house and solar energy use can attest to that. A former Marine and Vietnam veteran, he wears a denim shirt, khaki shorts and a stained white hat. He drives a massive white truck with a National Rifle Association sticker affixed to the back window. Odle also cares deeply about the local wildlife.

“We’d see rabbits — rabbits can’t get through. Or roadrunners,” he said. “Well, who cares about rabbits and roadrunners? Well, I do. And it really pisses me off that this thing affects those critters the way it does. It’s really tragic.”

Bill Odle, who lives next to the border wall, says he's seen first-hand its negative environmental impact. Photo by Rachel Morgan

About a mile from Odle’s property, the wall abruptly ends over the San Padro River. There, the only barriers are sparse, steel beams low to the ground. If they can fly under the radar of the Border Patrol, who regularly patrols this area, it seems almost effortless for humans to cross here.

Animals don’t have it so easy.

They don’t have critical thinking and reasoning skills like people do, Odle said. “The animals aren’t like, ‘The word’s out; we can cross here.’ It doesn’t work like that.”

Odle isn’t the only one who sees the wall as a serious environmental hazard.

Environmentalists warn of habitat fragmentation, habitat destruction and hydrological issues.

“We’re talking about a solid barrier that’s chopping ecosystems in two,” said Dan Millis of the Sierra Club’s Rincon Group. “Migration corridors are being blocked, and that can have a huge impact, not only to (animals’) access to food and water, but to their genetic variability and basically the strength of the whole species.”

Randy Serraglio of the Center for Biological Diversity points out that habitat destruction is more extensive than most people realize.

“There’s a lot of other land that’s disturbed along with the border wall than this tiny little strip of land that everyone thinks is so innocuous,” he said. “(The Border Patrol) still has to drive will-nilly all over the desert to apprehend these people. … The operation support activities do more damage than the wall itself.”

In 2005, The REAL ID Act allowed for the waiver of 36 environmental laws  so the wall could be built, laws that conserved migration patterns, maintained clean air and water, and protected endangered species.

Now, species such as the mountain lion and the endangered ocelots and jaguarundi are feeling the effects of the fence, Millis said. Other environmentalists name the jaguar, the long-nosed bat, the masked bobwhite quail and the Sonoran pronghorn as species that have suffered.

Serraglio warns some species will go extinct if the problem is not remedied.

“Any further construction of the wall, and we can pretty much say goodbye to jaguars in the United States,” he said.

Flooding is another issue. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, in the Sonoran Desert area, and the cities of Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mexico, experienced flooding that some environmentalists attribute to the wall.

“You had six feet of water on the Mexican side of the wall, and only a foot or two on the U.S. side, so it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the wall is playing a part in the hydrological disaster,” Millis said.

The flooding in Nogales caused the death of two people in 2008. Today, in Nogales, Mexico, the ironic words, ‘Walls are scars on the earth,’ are scrawled across the metal wall in white spray paint.

It’s easy to see how the wall can cause flooding. Near Odle’s land, debris of grass, vegetation, clothing, shoes and discarded water bottles form somewhat of a dam on the Mexican side of the fence.

Debris can easily accumulate against the border wall, as it does near Bill Odle's home. Photo by Rachel Morgan

“The fact (is) that it affects the wildlife, the environment,” Odle said. “You can see the flooding that occurs down here — that’s another aspect of it. But it doesn’t stop people.”

The Department of Homeland Security sees it differently.

“I think there’s a misconception that the border fence is supposed to be a solution to any and all border problems,” said Colleen Agle, public information officer for the Tucson Sector of DHS. “It’s not the solution by itself. We see that as part of a solution that consists of our infrastructure, agents and technology.”

Opponents have referred to the fence as a multibillion-dollar “speed bump” that doesn’t really keep illegal immigrants from crossing; they said it only slows them down.

“That’s not my terminology, but that might be fair to say,” Agle said. “It allows our agents time to respond to an area so we can make the proper law enforcement response to whatever type of border incursion it is.”

Agle maintains that the border fence does, in fact, deter potential illegal immigrants.

“When our agents go in to make an apprehension, a lot of people realize they are going to be apprehended, and (they) run back across (the border),” she said. “If they’re going to have a challenge to get into the United States, our agents can respond. Also, if they’re going to have a challenge getting back into Mexico, there’s basically a certainty of arrest. If an individual knows there’s going to be a certainty of arrest, there’s a deterrent.”

DHS wouldn’t comment on the environmental effects of the wall.

Despite the Border Patrol’s arguments, local residents and environmentalists are not convinced the wall really does anything to deter illegal immigration and drug traffic.

“The nature of this wall is a knee-jerk political reaction to this anti-immigration hysteria that has swept the country since Sept. 11 and has intensified more recently,” Millis said. “What it is not is a solution to any of the problems it claims to address.”

Odle agrees.

“It doesn’t stop people,” he said. “So why was it put up? Well, it was put up because some lard butt up in Dubuque, Iowa, was sitting on his overstuffed chair, eating his supersaturated fats, watching his wide-screen TV and says, ‘Oh yeah, that’ll stop them.’ It would stop his fat ass, but it doesn’t stop some 20-year-old who wants to come up here, wants to work and is hungry.”

Even Odle’s dog Jake has wandered onto the Mexican side at various times. Once, he was gone for three months until a woman in Mexico called him and let him know. So Odle had to get his dog’s registration papers, then go get him and bring him back.

Millis points out the hefty price tag of the wall in relation to its overall effectiveness.

“Now (DHS is) saying what it really is is a speed bump,” Millis said. “It slows people down for five minutes or so, and then we have more time to respond. And that’s just ridiculous. How many billions of dollars do we have to spend on a five-minute speed bump?”

The wall, which isn’t finished and spans only 670 miles across the nearly 2,000-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico, already has a price tag of $3.7 billion.

As far as a solution to the rash of environmental issues that have arisen, some say baseline data research and funds allocated to mitigate existing damage could be the answer.

An ongoing protocol developed by researchers from the University of Arizona and U.S. Geological Survey will monitor the environmental effects of the wall. The protocol will study its environmental effects, including effects on wildlife and vegetation, hydrology, erosion, species migration and movement, and the isolation of species on both sides of the border.

“The problem is, we don’t have the baseline data on a lot of these species and how they use the border region,” Serraglio said. “So it’s really hard to tell scientifically what exactly the border wall is doing to them.”

Ideally, protocol would remedy this issue, deciding what areas along the border fence should receive funds to counteract the environmental effects of the wall. It is currently under review by DHS, said Laura-Lopez Hoffman, one of the UA researchers working on the project.

Money allotted to mitigate the environmental degradation is another point of contention. Currently the DHS and the Department of the Interior are embroiled in a bitter struggle over $90 million appropriated to repair environmental damage inflicted by the wall.

“It’s a little complex, with Homeland Security refusing to hand the money over to Department of the Interior, because they are worried about an obscure provision of the 1930 Economy Act,” Millis said. “There was supposed to be about $50 million per year dedicated to this effort, but it has been held up for two years now, and the wall continues to be an unmitigated environmental disaster.”

The post The Border Project: Border wall harms environment, some say appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Layman Lee, of GrowNYC, a non-profit enviromental organization, strings plastic bottles together to make a sculpture at Union Square Park. The sculpture was designed to draw public attention to recycling. Photo by Kwanwoo Jun

Layman Lee,  a local environmentalist, usually arms herself with pamphlets on recycling waste for when she meets people on the street. But on Wednesday, she prepared something different: a long fishing wire and hundreds of empty plastic bottles.

Stringing the bottles together, Lee, 26, made an “eye-catching” sculpture for the GrowNYC fair at Union Square Park on 14^th Street and Seventh Avenue on Sept. 29.

“Every year, New Yorkers throw 25,059 tons of recyclable plastic bottles in their household garbage,” read a nearby sign. “This sculpture represents the bottles trashed.”

In New York City, the biggest municipal garbage producer in the United States, half of the city’s recyclable waste is thrown in the garbage instead of being recycled. GrowNYC, a non-profit environmental group for whom Lee works, cites a lack of public awareness as the culprit.

Christina Salvi, 34, recycling outreach and education coordinator for GrowNYC, said about 35 percent of the city’s waste is recyclable, but only 15 to 17 percent is recycled in a city of more than 8 million.

The city’s Department of Sanitation handles 11,000 tons of residential garbage daily – about double the amount of Los Angeles and three times that of Chicago -, with another 11,000 tons of commercial waste handled privately every day, CNBC reports.

But New York City itself has no landfills. Instead, it pays other states to haul away its garbage.

“When people throw things away, they don’t think about it,” Lee said.

Lee said she and her colleagues discussed how to raise public awareness more effectively during the nine-hour environmental fair on Wednesday.

“Simple. Eye-catching. That’s all I need to be here,” Lee said, smiling, before climbing onto a chair to work on the top of her six-foot sculpture. “We just sat down for a whole day, drilled the holes through the necks and then strung them with a fishing wire.”

And, as it turns out, it worked well.

Many of passers-by, including tourists, were drawn in by the sculpture, giving Lee and her colleagues an opportunity to educate them.

“Every 50 seconds, New Yorkers throw away over 1,000 plastic bottles or jugs. So that’s what … the sculpture represents,” said Michael Rieser, 53, a GrowNYC coordinator from Brooklyn.

Rieser busily handed out pamphlets on the city’s recycling rules to people and explained what items should or should not be recycled. Displayed at hand for educational purposes were two transparent recycling bins: a green bin for collecting paper and a blue one for metal, glass and plastic materials.

People  took photos of the sculpture and listened to Rieser.

The sign by the GrowNYC sculpture displayed an array of ascending numbers of the plastic bottles dumped by the second in the city. It showed that 22 plastic bottles are being thrown in the garbage in every second, 45 in two seconds, 67 in three seconds, 89 in four seconds, and 1,116 in 50 seconds.

“That’s amazing. That’s crazy,” said Ellen Kuchli, 57, a tourist from Israel, in response to the plastic-bottle sculpture and statistics about New York City waste.

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