Often people who donate food do not recycle, and those who recylce may not donate food, I have come up with a program to address both of these at once. The city of New York in 2005 issued a report stating that 36% of recyclable material is thrown away into landfills. The idea of recycling is simple when something is manufactured as one thing it can be reused as another thing. Whether it's a bottle that becomes another bottle or paper combined to make more paper the philosophy behind it all is anti-consumerist. And it works. Some of the most recent data on recycling comes from the UK with the BBC reporting in 2006 that recycling reduced carbon emissions by 10-15 million tons a year. Clearly the less we recycle the less carbon we prevent from polluting the atmosphere. So my issue is localized as I would be working in NYC, but also global as pollution travels. The second issue I address is the food shortage in NYC regarding feeding the homeless. The Food Bank is responsible for feeding 1.5 million New Yorkers a year and the number is expected to rise as fuel costs rise and as the economy continues to fail. I am an undergraduate pursuing a B.A in the Public Policy of Sustainable Urban Development from NYU. The environment is not only my school major but also my career choice. I have been a dedicated environmentalist since elementary school, harassing my family to recycle every possible item I could find.

My project really accomplishes two feats in one. First I purchase a recycling receptacle and bring it concerts I attend. I after the concert I collect the recyclables. Public concerts are such a rich environment for collecting recyclables because most concert-goers drink beverages that come in recyclable containers. These recyclable containers are some of the most valuable of all recycled plastic containers according to the Waste Management Recycle America plant that I work with. I pile all of these containers in my truck and drive them to the recycling plant in New Jersey to exchange them for cash. By doing this I have saved materials that can be reused avoiding them from being thrown away only to be replaced by newly manufactured cups and bottles. The environmental impact is clear. But this is only the first step. The next step is taking this money and donating it to the Food Bank. The weather is changing and there is less opportunity for the homeless to get money from the streets. Living in New York for quite some time I know how cold winters in NYC get. With less money homeless individuals can't buy the same food and water. That's where the Food Bank steps in. The Food Bank not only helps the homeless but also aids troubled families that are not on the streets. Low income households rely on Food Stamps but some 700,000 people who are eligible do not receive the aid. The Food Bank offers relief to these individuals. And the numbers are expected to rise as I mentioned earlier given our current economic situation. My father always says "one man's garbage is another man's treasure." In this case a whole lot of garbage can be recycled at a plant to raise a whole lot of treasure to feed a whole lot of people.

Over the past year I have been developing a social entrepreneurial company called WeCycle INC. With the help of a Youth Venture grant I was able to purchase my very own WeCycle receptacle and use it at public concerts over the summer. I recycled all of the materials and collected a total eighty two dollars that I then donated to the Food Bank. I covered the rest of my costs by selling advertisement space on the receptacles to local businesses and restaurants. I intend on purchasing more of these receptacles so I can recycle more materials. I would like to be the central free private recycling company for all NYC concerts. Every company needs people and my vision for WeCycle is for it to be completely student-run. I would like to reach out to other NYC universities like Columbia Pace Fordham and Hunter and see WeCycle receptacles on all of these campuses. I want to show how much of a difference students can make if we all work together. But I have to start somewhere. I can measure the success of my project by the amount of cans bottles and cups I recycle that would have otherwise been thrown away. It's hard to quantify how many but certainly enough to fill my current receptacle a couple of times. I have participated in this recycling effort already at concerts over the summer. I raised eighty two dollars through direct recycling and donated this money Food Bank. I know that through my efforts some struggling families can eat and have one less thing to worry about. Through recycling I have over 1,300 plastics in the first three concerts alone.

By recycling on their own; by donating money from returnables to the Food Bank