Last night’s workshop was productive and insightful. At times it was uncomfortable, but we need to have these conversations in order to grow as individuals, and as a collective group.
You all know that I am all about ACTIONS you can take to make a difference. It’s always been, and always will be my goal to provide you all with actionable ways you can help to fight climate change, lower your impact on the planet, and fight for social justice and equality.
Below is a compilation of all the resources the amazing panelists called out.
Compost in NYC:
Tracker of all the active food scrap drop-off sites that are open: bit.ly/NYCdropofftracker
To Read and Watch:
Books
Robin Nagle’s book ‘Picking Up’: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374534271
Heather Rogers’ book ‘GONE TOMORROW’: https://thenewpress.com/books/gone-tomorrow
Samantha MacBride's book ‘Recycling Reconsidered’: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/recycling-reconsidered
Noxious New York: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/noxious-new-york
The Color of Law: https://www.epi.org/publication/the-color-of-law-a-forgotten-history-of-how-our-government-segregated-america/
Articles
Why Now, White People? https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/878963732/why-now-white-people
The BREATHE Act: https://breatheact.org/ or https://www.greenmatters.com/p/breathe-act-racial-environmental-justice
American Petrotopia: An Intimate History of Plastics: https://rebecca-altman.com/#new-page-2-section
'Asthma alley': why minorities bear burden of pollution inequity caused by white people: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/04/new-york-south-bronx-minorities-pollution-inequity
Podcasts/Videos
Everything Is Race: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/everything-race
Breathe Easy, A short story about the pollution problem in the South Bronx: https://vimeo.com/11327858
Watch the Story of Plastic: https://www.storyofplastic.org/watch
Websites
Nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization: https://colorofchange.org/
Fighting Plastic: https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/
Fighting Plastic: https://www.storyofplastic.org/
BIPOC*-centered community farm committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system: https://www.soulfirefarm.org/get-involved
Secondhand items: https://www.freecycle.org
Secondhand items: https://buynothingproject.org/
GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives): https://www.no-burn.org/about-gaia/
Petitions
Live near an airport? What’s in the air you breathe? You have a right to know!: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/eqa-live-near-an-airport-whats-in-the-air?fbclid=IwAR2IfmQdxyXnS8XQeu78c856BWBIMyFGxkAaek86Z697ktE5KBGTrb_KIyI
Protect Louisiana from Toxic Air, COVID-19 & Environmental Racism (via @browngirl_green): https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-gov-edwards-protect-louisiana-from-toxic-air-covid-19
Fighting Corporations on Plastic Pollution:
Summary of the BFFPPA: https://www.surfrider.org/coastal-blog/entry/federal-break-free-from-plastic-pollution-act-introduced
Call your legislator to ask them to co-sponsor the bill: https://p2a.co/ltgfncf
#BreakFreeFromPlastic Brand Audit Toolkit: https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/brandaudittoolkit/
From Single Use to Reuse is a collaborative effort of industry innovators, primarily America’s plastic makers, seeking to end plastic wastehttps://www.reuseplastics.org/learn/
Events:
GrowNYC Summer Garden Series 2020: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/grownyc-summer-garden-series-2020-tickets-109835484892?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
Foundation for New York’s Strongest:
Learn more about the official nonprofit organization of the NYC Department of Sanitation and how they are working with businesses and the community to reduce waste: www.nycstrongest.org
Follow them on Facebook and Instagram to learn about upcoming events and volunteer opportunities: @strongestnyc
Other Ideas from Robin Nagle:
Start a communication campaign addressing a specific company’s packaging and plastics use
When Freegan tours start up again, take one (an eye-opening way to learn about food waste)
Join or start a skill-share around repair, reuse, recovery
Explore how well or badly your place of employment is recycling (but don’t lean on the maintenance person who’s emptying the litter baskets and recycling bins; it’s an institutional problem, not the fault of individual workers)
Communicate with local legislators to actually enforce the plastic bag ban that was supposed to go into effect on March 1
Communicate also about restoring food-scrap drop-off at local greenmarkets
EDUCATE YOURSELF, and then share what you’re learning