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A PROUD MOMENT FOR HVME PICTURED FROM LEFT
TO RIGHT
Pilot : funding thus for applied: submittal date - 11/15/04 - EPA Environmental
Education grant - rejected Project Name: REUSE-A-BUS: Learning with Leftovers Project Location: Hudson Valley (Long Island - Albany) Project Period: 24 months for full pilot - a more detailed proposal is available upon request. This version stipulates the exact nature and locations of our proposed residencies.
USDA RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT GRANT REVISED SCOPE OF WORK REUSE-A-BUS: Learning with Leftovers Project: This two-year initiative will fund further development of programming for rural school communities to facilitate awareness of materials issues, specific re-use initiatives, and the mobilization of faculty and student “Reuse Ambassadors” in conjunction with an interactive traveling exhibit on a green-powered, double-decker REUSE-A-BUS. Our plan is to set precedence so that these kinds of programs can be replicated first statewide and then nationwide. To bring its unique opportunities for learning and professional development to a much wider audience, HVME will purchase, outfit and bring into communities a vintage double decker bus whose first level will carry our materials for distribution, with the top level a traveling classroom. When it is not in residency at schools, businesses or community organizations, the REUSE-A-BUS will be at community events. The bus will be powered by "green (environmentally appropriate) fuel" such as biodiesel or solar energy or hybrid applications allowing us to "drive our talk" and expand our environmental education mission to include air quality and transportation issues. Purchased and outfitted with community and state support, Reuse-a-bus program development and delivery for the two-year pilot phase will be financed by USDA’s Solid Waste grant, supplemented by program fees, materials sales and other grants. Though we have yet to receive the funding to purchase and outfit our permanent vehicle this will not prevent us from moving forward with this project since we have an interim vehicle, our truck, while not ideal, will still allow us to have a substantial presence in the community we have targetted, rural communities in the 9 counties of the Hudson Valley. With this premise we are proposing the following activities to be performed in schools, municipal transfer stations and public events throughout these counties. This USDA Solid Waste Technical assistance grant will fund 165 days of activity devoted to presentations, hands-on workshops, and research about best practices for reuse with the ultimate goal of resource conservation through training of varied populations in the target area to identify reuse opportunities as well as opportunities for extensive waste reduction. Our premise is that once our target population understands the resources and environmental impact of the manufacture of unneccessary products that they will think twice before purchasing. Another goal is to establish a more mainstream notion of reuse through the promotion of programs like ours in our region. Part of participant training will be to define the word “unnecessary” and identify indvidually what those products are. The first year of this project will focus on program development. Each level of development as will be piloted in active programming like classrooms and other public venues. We propose 165 days of work on this program during the 12 month grant period of October 2005 through September 2006. Of those 165 days between 70 and 82 of them will be spent off site in the community at varied venues with the Reuse-a-Bus. The bulk of our “on the road” activities will take place during the months when winter is not an issue. The heaviest winter months will focus on evaluating progress to date and expanding activities as well as creating displays and gathering information literature from our partnering agencies. The following activities are proposed of which HVME will be either one participant among many or HVME will coordinate the full activity: - 1 transfer station residency – 3 days –
year two will have more
Since our initial USDA pre-application proposal the following changes have taken place. We have added many new partners and have lost one for the most part due to lack of funding for the position of the organization personnel project liason (New York Rural Water Association). We have added the following partners: - Sarah Wells Girl Scout Council (Orange Co council) All tasks involved and their subsequent expenses are focused on coordinating, developing and implementing our presence in our community through the above named targets and their associated entities named below in the proposed timeline. All told we propose to reach to assist 11,000 – 13,000 people in varying degrees of intensity. The purpose of this is to evaluate the minimum and maximum amount of training needed to effect behavior change in consumption and what are the environmental benefits of this change in quantified resources. PROPOSED TIMELINE One school assembly and one 6th grade class workshop with “Bash the Trash” accompanied by a class trip to HVME. This class will be our primary school partnership. We will be spending the entire school year from October through May with programming in this school. A great deal of future programming will be developed in this school. A parallel pilot will take place in another elementary school of another partnering school district. These two pilots will involve about 60 students intensely and about 400 students all-inclusive. During this pilot we will work with teachers, students and operational staff to explore reuse possibilities and what circumstances stand in the way of success. All results will be quantified. Assisted entities are faculty and students at: Elementary schools three 60-90 minute workshops with students from entities
listed below with the focus to train volunteer “reuse ambassador”
to help carry the message into their communities and schools. 30
students/workshop one 15 hour teacher inservice in one of the participating rural communities – exact entity to be determined Staff involved in performing each task is Jill Gruber, Dan Einbender, Melissa Everett, qualifications listed below. Winter activities - December 2005, January, February
2006 – most work during this period will be spent at HVME
on-site further developing and fine tuning curriculum and evaluation
details and criteria like conducting surveys, media outreach, constructing
displays, booking inservices and working towards program sustainability
by obtaining permanent funding with the NYS Dept. of Education and
other community activities as well as gathering additional materials
from our business wastesteam. We expect to meet at least monthly
with participating partners to evaluate progress and brainstorm
activities. 7 meetings/month are anticipated. We will also continue
to visit both participating elementary schools, perhaps weekly.
Vails Gate Elementary is very close to our facility, which will
allow us to develop a very well fleshed out program by the end of
the school year. March, April, May 2006 – in addition to ongoing work in schools we will do: one community event – Annual Water Festival presented by the Orange County Water Authority – held at Orange County BOCES in the Town of Goshen – population 7237 (with Goshen Village subtracted) – workshop and disseminate HVME information. We will service about 400 people one community event – Orange County Public Works Household Hazardous Waste collection day – disseminate information - New Hampton, Orange County - population 3056, MHI - $61,033. We will service about 700 people. one inservice – 25 hours – expanding work of 15 hour inservice. 10-20 people two Earthday events at the pilot schools that will involve the entire school. 400 people one 3 day residency at Town of Gardiner, Ulster County Transfer Station – during this residency we will work with Gardiner staff to identify usable materials coming into the station and explore possibilities for separating them. In addition we will have the Reuse-a-bus in residence distributing both materials and information. 300 people June 2006 – evaluate school projects and coordinate second year one community event – 3 days – Croton
on Hudson, Westchester County – Population 7606 –MHI:
$84,744 July, August, September 2006 – Four -six community events - County fair residencies
- 28 to 36 days – at these events we will sell our materials,
conduct how-to reuse workshops and distribute information about
the local recycling practices of the resident county and waste characterizations
of the business/industrial wastestreams of the county and distribute
information. 4-6 proposed for this grant period in the following
counties. Since county fairs are traditionally attended by upwards
of 50,000 people the possibility exists that they will all come
to our display but on the conservative side we feel comfortable
projecting that we will service about 300 people/day. Total for
28 – 36 days is 8400 – 10,800 EXPERIENCE OF THE APPLICANT TO PROVIDE THE PROPOSED SERVICE, INCLUDING EXPERIENCE OF KEY STAFF MEMBERS AND PERSONS PROVIDING THE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING. HVME has been in existence for 11 years. It is expert in identifying usable waste in the industrial wastestream and possible uses for these materials. key personnel: services provided by both currently
employed and contracted personnel. Barbara Oliver – 6th grade teacher at Vails
Gate Elementary in whose class we will focus the bulk of the school
pilot – Ms. Oliver has been teaching for many years and also
has a substantial environmental background. In previous education
incarnations she has been a program specialist in the Newburgh school
district and a 10 year user of HVME materials in her work as an
educator. In addition she has also conducted workshops for HVME
at our events. Dan Einbender , Environmental Educator- HVME project educator, design and conduct all teacher training. Mr. Einbender has thirty years experience in this field. Dan is known for his Kid Friendly Music (www.kidfriendlymusic.com) Jan BerlinJan Berlin of Everything Animals (www.everythinganimalsresources.org)
Melissa Everett, Executive Director, Sustainable Hudson Valley, curriculum development consultant, trainer, and Ulster County project component coordinator – Wallkill High School, Ulster Community College, SUNY New Paltz project liaison Bash the Trash, as its name implies, is all about
building musical instruments from unusual materials. This could
include just about anything, ranging from recycled junk to discarded
stereo components to old children's toys. 3. we plan to make two trips to long island this first year to one community event (Yaphank, pop. 5025, MHI - $70,500) and one school (site to be determined). If we do not go this first year we will go in the second year, however, staff time in coordinating and researching the details of the trips will be, in part, charged to the first year as that will be when the groundwork will be laid. The difficulty in executing the community event part of our long Island program is that the Yaphank event takes place during the first week of October which is the beginning month of the first year. Attendance at this event, we feel, would be better left to October 2006, which, if we are funded by USDA for the second year, would fall into the second contract schedule. BENEFITS OF THIS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND
TRAINING The nature of this program, that is use of HVME materials, should allow beneficiaries to more easily grasp a reuse and resource conservation concept because of its focused, simplistic and concrete hands-on activity which will, for them, foster an early success in their efforts for which they can see immediate results. Our goal is to instill a notion of attainability in their practices so that they can move on to other conservation practices in their daily lives over and above the use of our materials. HOW GOALS AND OBJECTIVES WILL BE MEASURED
AND EVALUATED During this pilot we will work with teachers, students and operational staff to explore reuse possibilities and what circumstances stand in the way of success. All results will be quantified, for instance, we will seek to replace tissue paper use in the building with one of our materials, napkin paper butt rolls. All replacements will be tracked and the resulting resources saved will also be quantified. These resources will consist of but not be limited to water and energy consumption in all aspects of the manufacture of these products.
Summary Statement - what will be accomplished and by whom. by whom - HVME is an environmental 501 (c) 3. Our mission is to promote environmental stewardship by educating consumers about the benefits of and opportunities for reuse of industrial waste. We implement our mission through the operation of a "Community Warehouse," redistributing materials rescued from the business/industrial waste stream focusing on arts, education and building materials. Though open to the public, HVMEs outreach is focused on the education community which we regard as the most effective way of changing consumption behavior. What will be accomplished - reuse-a-bus: learning with leftovers: This two-year pilot will mobilize the above described program further develop programming for school, municipal and non profit communities to facilitate awareness of materials issues, specific re-use initiatives and the training of faculty and student "Reuse Ambassadors" in conjunction with an interactive traveling exhibit on a green-powered, double-decker REUSE-A-BUS. We will set precedence so these kinds of programs can be replicated first statewide and then nationwide. C. Problem Statement & Project Overview background information - average consumers do not know that the amount of industrial waste (produced before a product reaches the store - 8 billion tons/year) accounts for 97% of waste generated in this country annually (EPA numbers). EPA itself seems to be changing its waste management focus as demonstrated in a speech by Tom Dunne, Acting Assistant Administrator, EPA OSWER, Beneficial Reuse Summit, Kansas City, MO. 11/8/04. Mr. Dunne, "&this country must make a sharp and profound change in national policy. &we still spend the lion's share of our time, budget, and energy on waste disposal, while resource recycling, reuse, and the more efficient use of input materials are second-tier issues. & Materials management is now the tail on the dog of waste disposal. In the future, it must be the dog itself.." Need to carry out this project -this project educates consumers in all walks of life about the need for conscientious consumption and provides them with an opportunity to implement that education. This project is capacity building and precedent setting. It builds the capacity of the consumers to use newly attained waste management knowledge by providing them with the opportunity for alternative consumption through the use of materials available through our program. HVME is best suited to carry out this project because it has been in existence for 12 years and is an expert in the field of rescue and reuse of industrial waste in this particular type of program. In addition, HVME through its constant networking has established a wealth of relationships with organizations in the Hudson Valley region. It is poised to mobilize its program and its region is ready to receive it. 2. Project Overview - objectives, strategy, what we will do, why and how. To bring its unique opportunities for learning and professional development to a much wider audience, HVME will purchase, outfit and bring into communities a vintage double decker bus (or other suitable vehicle) whose first level will carry our materials for distribution, with the top level a traveling classroom. When it is not in residency at schools, businesses or community organizations, the REUSE-A-BUS will be at community events. The bus will be powered by "green (environmentally appropriate) fuel" such as biodiesel, solar energy or hybrid applications allowing us to "drive our talk" and expand our environmental education mission to include air quality and transportation issues. Our signature school based programs will provide a basis for community outreach to promote waste reduction and appropriate recycling practices using an understanding of the industrial wastestream as a catalyst for behavior change. Classrooms will explore and implement reuse engaging both administrative and operational levels, creating a student-centered replicable model for the whole school system with materials use as a learning community capable of changing institutional purchasing decisions. The curriculum will draw students to answer the question "Where am I in all of this? " and to bring their newly acquired conservation practices into home and community life. purpose Establish an ethic of zero waste and a culture of resource stewardship in communities of the mid- Hudson Valley region of New York State and become a model that can easily and cost effectively be replicated throughout the State and ultimately the country. Every one consumes resources and every community generates useable industrial waste. This is demonstrated by the existence of the 4 waste recovery facilities in New York State from Long Island to Buffalo. Our reuse-a-bus project with its "Learning with Leftovers" component serves as a model program with wide application. Because of its mobility it is therefore able to reach individuals who might not otherwise have access to these materials in a large geographic area and diverse circumstances. Since our materials are available to all in the community, these school-based educational experiences will translate easily into community initiatives that are at the heart of this proposed project. Delivery method -The REUSE-A-BUS will be the primary delivery method. It will travel throughout the region and will be in residence in a variety of venues. It will house and distribute HVME materials and offer a wide array of separately funded workshops on lifestyle and consumption choices (how to save water, energy and money, build green, etc) to compliment the background information of the origin of these materials. During the curriculum development period, primarily the first year, HVME will also offer this same programming at its facility. In addition, "REUSE AMBASSADORS" from each participating school will be trained to implement effective waste management practices which include but are not limited to the use of HVME materials. Most of our REUSE AMBASSADORS, general public outreach will be featured at existing festivals such as county fairs. Classrooms and their community settings - Our goal is to infuse the concept of resource conservation through reuse into school systems and thereby into the family lives of students. With our age appropriate and interesting materials the likelihood of successful learning increases with hands on experiences. recruitment plan and incentives - Each direct participant in the school-based program development students and teachers will receive $10.00 in shopping credits (reuse-a-bills) for use at the HVME warehouse in Newburgh - In addition to all education incentives and the fact that teachers will be free to spend one full day in training without having a concern for the welfare of their students, each teacher will receive $25 in HVME shopping credit (reuse-a-bills) In Ulster County, student leaders
have asked us for assistance because all four school facilities
have recycling infrastructure but low participation rates. On each
campus, small groups of interested students and faculty are engaged
in educating the wider communities as a foundation for action planning
to reduce, reuse and recycle. Last year, students at SUNY Ulster
attempted to establish a campus waste audit and build support for
more comprehensive recycling, but were not able to sustain the interest
of senior administration. These students are highly motivated to
educate the campus community and supporting cost-effective, sustainable
purchasing and waste management planning. On each campus, Synthesis
chapter events will serve as recruitment venues, with email and
class-based outreach to invite every student and faculty member.
Campus-based groups will identify research opportunities for independent
study projects such as life-cycle analyses of selected materials
available on the Reuse-a-Bus, providing additional student and faculty
incentives. strategy - our primary education partner is Newburgh Enlarged City School District, 9th largest school district in NY State and the school district within which HVME resides. Well formalize our knowledge weve gained from interviewing the teachers who use our materials in almost every academic discipline. Together with this partner we will develop an organized approach towards first informing teachers of our existence and then providing hands-on education opportunities on the bus and in classrooms. In addition well work with administration and operations staff can also incorporate the use of our materials and other reuse ideas. We will examine mindsets and circumstances that prohibit these changed behaviors. Based on the premise that the things that children learn in school set the tone for all aspects of their daily lives, students will be active partners in the exploration of options for re-use in school and home. activities - In general, HVME staff and REUSE AMBASSADORS will work with schools as learning communities to explore where "stuff" comes from, why there is so much waste, and how to make environmentally preferable purchasing and re-use decisions. An illustrative activity is an initiative that has sparked interest at Vails Gate Elementary school using the abundant HVME resources of brightly colored napkin paper roll ends from Amscan Paper Products and copy paper generated by Minolta from copier refurbishing tests. Classrooms will be invited to pilot the replacement of these two types of paper that are used in large quantity serving as a replicable model. Students will track waste reduction outcomes and share them with family members and community at an Earthday day event. A second illustrative activity is SHVs use of hands-on workshops for high school, college and adult audiences on (1) re-used and recycled materials for home improvement and public art (with exhibits and installations encouraged at residency sites); and (2) "Walk the Talk!" a critical thinking and decisionmaking workshop on sustainable consumption and lifestyle choices utilizing EPAs "Volunteer for Change: A Guide to Environmental Community Service" (EPA 530-K-01-002) as well as the More Fun, Less Stuff Starter Kit from the Center for a New American Dream. Participants in these workshops will be invited into a Re-Use Ambassador Program in partnership with Synthesis, a youth-led environmental education and leadership development. These young people will create an outreach strategy to arrange at least a dozen Reuse-a-bus residencies on campuses throughout Ulster County. 3. benefit to environment, public health, the community and the organization. a. benefit to organization - This project will benefit HVME by increasing awareness and thereby greater use of its program. This will stabilize the organization and allow it to further fulful its mission in the community. b. benefit to environment, public health & community - Exposure to useable materials removed from the industrial waste stream is a point of entry for discussion of resources consumed as products are manufactured. Once consumers has a firm grasp on the amount of resources consumed in the manufacture of a product they may not need, the goal is that they will "think twice" before they purchase, allowing a program such as ours to be much further reaching than just use of materials available through HVME. Less manufacturing means less waste at all levels of product production resulting in reduced resource consumption, water pollution and air emissions. E. Response to Criteria - Threshold Criteria addressed -1. Project addresses a critical challenge and unmet need related to reducing waste, increasing recycling, recovering energy and products from waste, fostering "green" consumerism and business decisions, and properly managing waste. 2. applicant is a 501 c 3 non profit organization. ein 141778185 3.This pilot fosters both an innovative approach towards environmental challenge of resource conservation via industrial reuse and a more innovative outreach system within our organization. Mobilizing our program is both a new approach (idea) to marketing our program and its mission of reuse of industrial waste and an expansion an existing idea to a larger geographic region. We know of no other program in the country who is doing this. Two other programs in the state are considering this approach. This pilot will help them evaluate its merit. 4. how goals and objectives will be measured and evaluated The success of our project will be measured by the increased use of both HVME and other similar programs in the state. We will specifically track increases in materials used, tonnage diverted and the amount of donors. We will research and track changes in behavior in the schools that we work with in our residency programs. In addition success will be measured by the progress we make in convincing the New York State Legislature of the value of programs like ours throughout the state. 5. mobilizing our program will build new partnerships and strengthen existing ones by allowing us to be more present in their communities. Some of our partnering letters are from an EPA Environmental Education grant proposal submitted in 11/04 and pertain to the programming component of this pilot. Our partners are basically divided into two categories; education partners and municipal partners. Education partners are schools and non profits whose mission is to educate consumers about effective waste management. Some partners are new to us and others have been partners since our inception. Though we have been informal longterm partners with all county waste management authorities our stationary existence (our community warehouse) has limited them to directing their constituents to our facility. 6. potential for pilot results to be applied across geographic regions & programs. Since all communities have industrial waste it is conceivable that every community can benefit from programs like ours. To date there are only 4 programs like ours in the state. We believe that all teachers, students, PTO etc. should have access to programs like ours and the State Education Dept. should fund them. This would cost about $2,000,000 a year. If fully funded, instead of present State funds (NYS DEC-50%), materials could be free and we could then focus on the education that should accompany materials use in classrooms. NY State Legislature needs to adopt this policy and direct the State Education Dept. to implement it. To date, weve contacted the NY State chairs of education committees. Campaign should take several years to implement. An alternative plan for funding is to charge a fee for residencies. We are in the initial stage of a pilot with the Carmel school district and will do our first paid residency with them this spring. These funds will be augmented by sale of materials at public events.
Project timeline, milestones & partner involved Task 1 -procure & retrofit bus within first 6 months - HVME Task 2 - plan first year of residencies within first 4 months -all partners Task 3 - residencies months 5 through
24 with quarterly reports at months 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 task 4 -plan second year of residencies - months 11 and 12 - all partners Task 5 -final report - month 25 - all partners but coordinated by HVME primarily
Budget: covers evaluation criteria #8 - 2 year $300,000 project. U.S.EPA OSWER innovation grant will fund $50,000 to purchase the bus, an integral component. Budget is primarily leveraged by funds from New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC-50% of all nonEPA funds, funding partner only, not involved in planning/executing project). Remaining funds include foundation and corporate funding (to be pursued), materials sales (HVME-ongoing) and partner inkind and cash match. Work products will be reports, curriculum, bus and display. This one time investment is an appropriste use of limited EPA funds because of the potential for the expansion of awareness of quantities and nature of industrial waste as well as the actual tonnage of diverted materials through both the expansion of HVMEs program geographically and development of new programs in the NY State and the country. In additional, the program has a direct correlation in savings for disposal costs and money saved when substituting HVME materials purchased for new materials. We expect this project to double or triple program use. Our baseline savings in disposal and purchasing costs is about $150,000/year. Predicted increases will more than recapture initial investments.
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