Neil wrote a feature article, published in 2 parts in Resource Recovery Magazine (2024), on the history of the Zero Waste movement and its impact, highlighting the progress of Zero Waste.
On the Path to Zero Waste
On the Path to Zero Waste
Neil wrote a feature article, published in 2 parts in Resource Recovery Magazine (2024), on the history of the Zero Waste movement and its impact, highlighting the progress of Zero Waste.
Summary of Neil’s review: In Edward Humes’ Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal the World, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author provides an excellent introduction to the plastic crisis, combining revealing facts with profiles of entrepreneurs, researchers, and activists working on waste solutions. Humes’ clear prose describes the ubiquity of microplastics and their…
Mary Appelhof and Jerry Goldstein had a considerable impact on our recycling, composting, reuse and Zero Waste movement.
Putting Low-Income Youth in Charge At the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in the early 1970s, our projects started in our own community of Adams Morgan in Washington, DC. Our first foray was involvement with the Neighborhood Planning Councils (NPCs), elected youth organizations that represented a unique local institution formed immediately after the 1968 riots in…
A Review of Robert Gedert, Untangling Plastics: The Missing Link in Mitigating Climate Change (River Grove Books, 2026), and Judith Enck with Adam Mahoney, The Problem With Plastic (The New Press, 2025) By Neil Seldman Every age leaves behind a defining environmental legacy. The nineteenth century was the Age of Coal. Its factories transformed economies,…
Presentation by Rick Anthony and Neil Seldman, November 19, 2024 The U.S. recycling movement emerged organically in the 1970s from grassroots activism across the country, catalyzed by events like the 1969 Survival Walk from San Diego to Sacramento and the first Earth Day in 1970. What began as drop-off centers evolved into curbside collection programs,…
Summary of Neil’s review: In Jack Buffington’s book, “Reinventing the Supply Chain,” he draws parallels between George Orwell’s call for local decision-making in the 1930s and a modern-day solution to 21st-century challenges. Buffington advocates for a decentralized political economy, leveraging 3-D manufacturing and Blockchain technology, alongside significant investments in STEM education. He emphasizes the importance…