Tag: <span>waste</span>

Talking Trash, Effectively

My time at New York City’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is up, or at least my time as the Graduate Organics Outreach Intern is. My summer at DSNY went above and beyond my expectations of what a summer internship could give me: not only was I able to move back …

There’s Something About Waste…

There’s always been something very appealing to me about waste. This interest has led me to investigate the inevitability as well as the unfortunate reality that is food waste. I am a current Master’s student at Bard’s Center for Environmental Policy (Bard CEP). All Bard CEP students are expected to …

The Core of the Big Apple: Making the Most of NYC’s Organics Program–by Allie Gumas

Everybody eats. Everybody also accumulates some amount of food waste. Growing up, and well throughout my undergraduate career I thought like this: If you lived in a city, that food waste ended up in the trash can under your sink. At some point, the bag was tied up and tossed …

Toilet Talk–by Allie Gumas

During the Bard CEP Oaxaca course trip I learned about a new technology that I’ve been fixated on since: dry toilets! I’ve always specialized in waste management, but I’ve never had much exposure to human waste management. When we visited the community of Cieneguilla, our hosts mentioned dry toilets as …

Make Food, Not Waste

This past July, I played a large role in the planning and execution of the first-annual NYC Food Waste Fair, but it definitely was not a solo effort! Louise Bruce, Senior Program Manager, NYC Organics, Elizabeth Balkan, Director of Policy and Senior Advisor, Office of the Commissioner, Marcel Howard, fellow …

One Man’s Waste Is Another Man’s Food

NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) My internship is with DSNY, in the Office of the Commissioner, and my position is largely focused around one event in particular, the NYC Food Waste Fair. Under NYC’s Zero Waste Initiative to contribute zero waste to landfills by 2030, the city has been steadily …

From Environmental Health to Oil Sludge Treatment- NY to Geneva

Ever since I started my first year as a Bard CEP student, I wanted to intern at an environmental health institution to work on vector-borne diseases whose transmission is facilitated by climate change. This was not only my area of interest but was also my comfort zone. However, I’ve ended …

Let’s sort through trash for a less trashy tomorrow

Reposted from the Poughkeepsie Journal The way we deal with trash is a real mess. In 2010 alone, Americans created 250 million tons of solid waste, only 34 percent of which was recycled. Between overflowing landfills, high waste-collection prices, synthetic materials that never decompose and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it’s …