Neil and Mike have been with us from the beginning-- it's for us to come through for them-- pls donate @ this link below (and join them for Zero Waste Dutchess Zoom tomorrow 8 pm!)

pls give what you can(!): https://zerowasteusa.org/donate/

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Join Neil Seldman of Zero Waste USA (founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance), Mike Ewall (Energy Justice Network founder/director), Judy Malstrom of Zero Waste Dutchess, and yours truly tomorrow (Mon. Dec. 11th) at 8 pm Eastern time for our weekly Zero Waste Dutchess Zoom-- to celebrate how the entire Democratic Caucus of the Dutchess County Legislature just voted Dec. 7th for Minority Leader Yvette Valdes Smith's budget amendment to add a RFP for ZWIA-certified consultant services/report/plan to map out how Dutchess can move towards zero waste and away from incineration(!):

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81121606552?pwd=qbRSS5aw092J2awCDuZad8POss2jbN.1

Meeting ID: 811 2160 6552 Passcode: 567791

Share FB event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/854613789776460

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Neil Seldman of Zero Waste USA (Institute for Local Self-Reliance founder) and Mike Ewall of Beyond Burning (formerly Energy Justice Network) have been with us in the fight to shut the incinerator for years. Most recently they meet with us every week and collaborate with us every step of the way. Neil and Mike do not charge for their services to scores of grassroots organizations such as Zero Waste Dutchess across the USA-- they really and truly rely on folks like you to subsidize their crucial work with communities like Dutchess.

So please consider making a small contribution to the

Recycling Cornucopia Program of Zero Waste USA on their behalf!

All donations will be shared evenly between their two remarkable organizations in support of their work with Zero Waste Dutchess County.

My mother (Judy Malstrom) and I thank you for your help!

To remit via PayPal or credit card: https://zerowasteusa.org/donate/

To remit via electronic transfer:

GrassRoots Recycling Network/Zero Waste USA

Wells Fargo Checking

Routing Number: 121042882

Account Number: 2067160891

To remit via check, mail to:

Recycling Cornucopia Program/RCP

GrassRoots Recycling Network/Zero Waste USA

1028 Fair Oaks Avenue

Alameda, CA 94501

Attn: Ruth Abbe

Fact: This August, after an initial wake-up-call email from Doreen Tignanelli, Neil and Mike started joining my mother (Judy Malstrom, Zero Waste Dutchess Co-Director) for our weekly Zero Waste Dutchess Zooms to educate/organize local residents to come out to speak up at Sept. Co. Leg. meetings re: vote on Solid Waste Management Plan for Dutchess (this worked-- together with Mothers Out Front, Beacon Climate Action Now, and the Sierra Club, as a de-facto coalition our various organizations were able to mobilize quite a bit of testimony).

https://www.thedailycatch.org/articles/landfill-in-the-sky-dutchess-countys-new-solid-waste-management-plan-leaning-heavily-on-incineration-heads-to-crucial-vote-thursday/

Fact: Neil was the headline speaker at an Oct. 9th forum at Vassar College cosponsored by the Vassar Department of Environmental Studies, Bard Center for the Environment and Humanities, Hudson Valley Air Quality Coalition, Communities for Local Power, Zero Waste USA, WHVW 950 AM/96.5 FM, Concerned Citizens of Dover, Dutchess Greens, Working Class Dutchess, Westchester Alliance for Sustainable Solutions, & Zero Waste Warren County-- attended by 50+ folks from all over county.

https://zerowastedutchess.org/2023/09/30/hello-world/

http://miscellanynews.org/2023/10/26/news/zero-waste-dutchess-hosts-sustainability-panel-at-vassar/

Fact: Because of Neil and Mike steadfastedly educating so many local activists and elected officials, the entire Democratic Caucus of the Dutchess County Legislature just voted this past Thurs. (Dec. 7th) for Minority Leader Yvette Valdes Smith's budget amendment to add a RFP for ZWIA-certified consultant services/report/plan to map out how Dutchess can move towards zero waste and away from incineration (of course the current GOP Co. Leg. majority shot it down-- but the fact that whole Dem caucus strongly supported it is quite a big deal).

https://mailchi.mp/7eb6d3d08c78/4egcc4n3u9-16907500?e=01576d4b71

Fact: Fourteen years ago all the way back in March 2009 Neil and I collaborated to convince the County Legislature to vote unanimously for Dutchess to draw down federal stimulus funds for zero-waste planning (of course Steinhaus/Akeley/Molinaro/Wrafter/Serino didn't do this).

https://dutchessdemocracy.blogspot.com/2009/07/re-zero-waste-for-dutchess-missed.html

Fact: For years now Mike has been indispensable with hard-to-find EPA/DEC data to publicize specifics re: toxic emissions of Dutchess incinerator (100,000 tons of global warming pollution, 7 lb.'s of mercury, etc.); last year he and I collaborated on a number of public Zoom meetings to educate Dutchess residents re: public comment being accepted on the then-proposed Solid Waste Management Plan for Dutchess County.

https://www.beyondburning.org/pdf/emissions-NY-Dutchess.pdf

Fact: Five years ago this month Mike joined Manna Jo Greene (then Clearwater Envir. Dir.), Johanna Fallert of DCPAA, Peter Van Aken, Michael Anton, and yours truly in Dec. 2018 for a press conference we held directly in front of DCRRA HQ (where the county incinerator is located in Poughkeepsie) calling for it to be shut down

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10158057400910744

Fact: I was first introduced to Neil back in Dec. 2008 at the first real statewide zero-waste conference in NYS in Albany (I had been invited there by Laura Haight of NYPIRG); shortly after that I had him come speak at Vassar and in the actual chambers of the Dutchess County Legislature. Both Neil and Mike were guest on my radio shows on WVKR and WHVW for decades. Neil has been a nationally known expert on recycling/zero waste for decades-- having been quoted in the NYTimes in the 80's and since then frequently by CNBC, Washington Post, NPR, etc. Neil founded the extraordinary Institute for Local Self-Reliance in 1974.

https://www.change.org/p/move-dutchess-county-towards-zero-waste-and-away-from-incineration

https://savethepinebush.org/news-2008-11-12-zero/

https://ilsr.org/neil-seldman-recycling-cnbc/

https://zerowasteusa.org/2023/01/reflections-on-neil-seldman-upon-his-retirement-from-ilsr/

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/27/1101522591/we-never-got-good-at-recycling-plastic-some-states-are-trying-a-new-approach

https://nrcrecycles.org/mobius/nrcwp-content/uploads/2022/12/NRC-December-2022-Newsltr-Second-Recycling-Revolution-Seldman-Kinsella-MP.docx.pdf

https://www.governing.com/gov-institute/voices/col-recycling-survival-china-restrictions.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/24/opinion/l-waste-disposal-crucial-in-reducing-pollutants-297187.html

https://ilsr.org/about-the-institute-for-local-self-reliance