Waste Watchers Workshop

ACES is excited to announce the kick-off of its Waste Watchers Workshop (WWW). On February 11, representatives from municipal departments and commissions will meet at the Parker River Wildlife Refuge Visitors’ Center to expand and develop programs to reduce solid waste.

ACES has been convening members of the public over the last 14 months to gauge interest and expand awareness about the need to reduce solid waste. In 2021, the Massachusetts DEP published a target to reduce solid waste by 30% by 2030 and by 90% by 2050 from 2018 volumes. Reducing waste benefits our planet, reduces costs to our communities and improves health for everyone. This imminent mandate presents challenges to communities; ACES aims to build strength through collaboration between public and private sectors across the region, using these workshops as the launching point. 

Newburyport Mayor Sean Reardon has been instrumental in bringing this series to fruition, championing the effort among his peers. “Newburyport is incredibly proud of its leadership in sustainability and environmental stewardship. From the creation of our Sustainability Manager position to the many milestones it has helped advance including water quality improvements, composting initiatives, and more we remain committed to building on this progress. We look forward to expanding our efforts and sharing both our successes and lessons learned with other communities. We are grateful to ACES for leading the way.”

Workshop 1 is the first in a series of 3 sessions and will convene representatives from Newburyport, Amesbury, Salisbury, Merrimac, Groveland, Newbury, Rowley and West Newbury, including the Pentucket and Triton Regional School Districts. The session will bring the various communities together for peer learning and brainstorming, along with learning about successful models and available resources. Speakers for session 1 include Molly Ettenborough, Sustainability Manager for Newburyport; Kathi Mirza and Bryan Walsh from MA DEP; and Claire Galkowski, Executive Director of the South Shore Recycling Cooperative.

The second workshop will be held in March, bringing together private sector collaborators who are already working on solid waste management and reduction or who have unique experience and opportunity to support the municipalities in their efforts. The third workshop will bring the two cohorts together in April. Each community will complete the series equipped with actionable, sustainable projects that they can grow within their communities. They’ll also have a large community of peers for support, continued learning, and momentum to get to the the Commonwealth’s ambitious goals. If you represent a private sector organization, company or collaborative that would like to partner with local municipalities, or if you would like to provide financial support to underwrite this series, please reach out to Lyndsey Haight, ACES team member and WWW facilitator, lyndsey.haight@aces-alliance.org.