Eight CUNY campuses are participating in recycling plastic bag efforts. Is your school one of them? The Ernesto Malave Leadership Academy, formerly known as CUNY Leadership Academy, is responsible for this. The Malave Leadership Academy is composed of 25 student leaders throughout CUNY. "The Academy is where students come together with faculty and other leaders to develop the skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to become global as leaders." The year long program allows participants to grow together as leaders and create a strong network across CUNY, while doing service.
The 2009-2010 Malave cohort successfully established the CUNY Green Fellows project, aka; "Banlastic." We had phenomenal leaders who guided us in the right direction; former Executive Director, Dr. Joe McManus, Coordinator for Special Programs and Professional Development, Christina Joseph, and Program Coordinator Julie Agosto.
The Malave leaders collaborated and created the CUNY Green Fellows project to raise awareness and increase recycling in CUNY. Under the leadership and guidance of Julie Agosto, the Malave fellows met once each week to discuss the implementation of this project. We diligently researched the importance of recycling plastic bags, and learned that they are extremely detrimental to our environment.
Did you know that plastic waste kills thousands of marine animals each year because they confuse the plastic with their food? According to PlasticBagRecycling.org; "Plastic bags can be made into dozens of useful new products, such as building and construction products, low-maintenance fencing and decking, and of course, new bags."
The U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually, but we recycle very few of them. We decided that as CUNY leaders, we needed to step up and make a difference.
We met with Buildings & Grounds and the Sustainability Committees of each school, and they agreed to have these recycling bins on their campuses. We were also successful in getting recycling plastic bag efforts into the sustainability plans at most of the schools.
Helix Poly, the largest manufacturer and recycler of retail bags in the United States, donated plastic bag recycling bins to the Malave Leadership Academy to be used on the 8 campuses participating in the bag recycling program. The bins are currently in use (or soon will be) at the College of Staten Island, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Kingsborough Community College, LaGuardia Community College, New York City College of Technology, Queensborough Community College, Queens College, and York College.
The Vice President of Marketing & Environmental Affairs at Helix Poly, Mark Daniels, stated "Through education programs like the recycling initiative undertaken by CUNY, this market will continue to grow adding valuable green jobs throughout the nation. The participation by the students at the CUNY campuses is greatly appreciated, as we recognize their environmental stewardship towards a sustainable future."
The 2009-2010 Malave Leadership Academy cohort worked vigorously last year to get these recycling bins onto the 8 CUNY campuses. We sincerely thank Dr. Joe, Christina, Joseph, and Julie Agosto for their support. Now it's time for you to start recycling plastic bags at your CUNY campus!
Katrina Hannan is a CSI student, and Daysi Manzano is a Baruch graduate student, 2009-2010 Malave Leadership Academy fellows.