August Forum: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Join GreenHomeNYC in August as we “talk trash”! Where does your waste and recycling go? What happens to a building at the end of its life? What about the waste that’s created during renovations and construction, even before residents have moved in? At this month’s forum we’ll be talking about apartment recycling, deconstruction, and construction waste recycling.

• Wednesday Aug. 19, 2009 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
• Where: Hafele Showroom, 25 East 26th Street @ Madison Ave
• Please RSVP below, or sign up for AIA credit here.

Some 50,000 tons of waste and recyclables are collected in New York City each day. With the 2001 closure of Fresh Kills, the last disposal site within the City, New York ships waste to landfills in other States like Ohio and Virginia. Full implementation of the City’s 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan is expected to increase recycling rates and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 192,000 metric tons annually by 2030 (about half of one percent of the annual reduction goal of 33.6 million tons set out in PlaNYC). Buildings impact the environment in many ways beyond just the amount of energy they consume once they’re occupied. The August monthly forum speakers will discuss disposal and recycling of waste created during construction, while in use, and at the end of a building’s life. Speakers:

• David Hurd, Director Office of Recycling Outreach & Education, Council on the Environment of New York City
• Nick Marangi, Owner and President of Eagle Recycling
• Max Rubinstein, Deconstruction program manager at Build It Green!NYC (BIG!NYC)

About the Speakers David Hurd serves as the Director Office of Recycling Outreach & Education at Council on the Environment of New York City, a privately funded, citizens’ nonprofit organization in the Mayor’s Office. The Office of Recycling Outreach and Education (OROE) was created in 2006 with the passage of Mayor Bloomberg’s landmark Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP). David is a nationally recognized expert in recycling program and market development, and community-based recycling enterprise initiatives, with 29 years of experience in environmental research and development, non-profit management, and economic development. He has managed the operations of several recycling businesses as Associate Director of Bronx 2000 and its R2B2 and Big City Forest recycling subsidiaries, and sold millions of pounds of recycled materials in national and international markets. He has written three manuals on best practices for reclaiming HDPE and PET plastic bottles and a book on the feasibility of recycling consumer batteries that served as a major independent policy document in several Northeastern states, leading to legislation in several. David received a bachelor’s of engineering in chemical engineering from The Cooper Union in New York City in 1981. Max Rubinstein spearheads the Deconstruction program at Build It Green!NYC (BIG!NYC). He has in that capacity salvaged over 50 kitchen cabinets in the past 12 months. As well as countless doors, windows, and bathroom fixtures which would otherwise have ended up as landfill. In that same period BIG!NYC also executed two full building deconstructions. Whereby saving literally tons of building material. Previously, Max worked as a fabricator, cabinetmaker, carpenter, and contractor. All in NYC. The recurring scene of perfectly good building material crushed at the bottom of a dumpster led him to BIG!NYC. Nicholas Marangi is a waste management professional who has enjoyed a career that has spanned more than thirty eight years in the solid waste, C&D and waste paper recycling industries. He has owned and operated hauling companies, MRF’s, transfer stations and recycling centers in New York, New Jersey and Florida in both the private and public sectors. About the forum The Green Building Forum is held on the third Wednesday of each month (except December) at 6:30 PM and features presentations by green building practitioners followed by discussion. The events are always free and open to the general public.