2023 Environmental Leadership Awardees

Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority (HRRA), a regional, governmental, waste management and recycling authority serving fourteen municipalities in western Connecticut and a population of over 266,000 people. HRRA municipalities include: Bethel, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Danbury, Kent, New Fairfield, New Milford, Newtown, Redding, Ridgefield, Roxbury, Sherman, Weston, Wilton. The goal of this project is to create a self-sustaining closed loop composting system for transforming residential food waste into an end-product for community and agricultural use. This innovative project demonstrates that municipalities can manage food waste locally, reduce the carbon footprint of offsite disposal and contribute to the waste diversion goals of the state. This project uses an “Aerated Static Pile (ASP) Composting” process. This project increases access to compost for residents, community garden groups, and local farmers for use as an alternative to synthetic fertilizers. It also provides the municipality with readily available compost for storm water management and erosion control.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished in the HRRA region, starting with the first organics dropoff program of its kind in 2014 to building a self-sustaining composting system in Ridgefield in 2021-22. I look forward to duplicating the system across the region to advance organics recycling at the municipal level.” — Jennifer Heaton-Jones, HRRA Executive Director

Inner City Green Team (ICGT) is a nonprofit environmental organization focused on poverty alleviation and community development. Our mission is to protect the environment and help transform the lives of residents living in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments through recycling outreach/education, job training, and paid work that can lead to a lifetime of employment and civic engagement. To achieve this end, we are working to create an effective, sustainable, and replicable recycling infrastructure at NYCHA with job creation and community revitalization at its core.

“ICGT has not only developed a solution to help divert more materials from the waste stream at NYCHA developments, but also in the process, created needed living-wage green collar jobs in the communities where it’s needed the most. As a life-long steward of Mother Earth, I have been compelled to form what I call my “green ministry” to shed a bright light on one of the many environmental injustices plaguing my community” — Brigitte Charlton-Vicenty Founder/CEO

Prince George’s County established a 250-acre organic compost facility, one of the largest facilities on the East Coast. In 2013, the County Council passed legislation mandating the piloting of food composting. In 2017, a pilot curbside food waste collection program was introduced. The Public-School Food Scrap Diversion Program, in parallel, covers 11 public schools and the William Schmidt Center. The County collects and transports the food waste to its organic facility for conversion into compost, which is later returned to the schools for use in gardening. The program has generated significant benefits to the County in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by diverting food waste from the County’s landfill, reducing transportation costs, and influencing parents to be food waste diversion advocates. The program puts emphasis on education as the key to sustain it and to ensure that the benefits redound to the local populace and the environment.

“With the support of key staff, children at local schools are learning about the composting process. Some are “Compost Monitors” in the school, with a mission to collect organic waste; supervise the school compost bins; and inform the wider school community about the benefits of composting.”