Waste Reduction in the City of Poughkeepsie 2019-2020
Our community project this year is mainly about waste reduction. In order for us to educate the public about properly disposing of their waste, we ourselves have to learn about it too. We went to the waste to energy facility to learn where our garbage goes, we also worked with the Hudson Valley Mappers, who are students of Vassar College, to see how much waste is being improperly disposed and how many garbage cans are on each block of the main street. We learned about single-use plastics and micro-plastics. We created PSA’s to share our information with the general public.
Visiting Dutchess County Waste to Energy Facility
Dutchess NCLI went to the Waste-to-Energy Facility to learn about where the city of Poughkeepsie sends its garbage and how it is disposed of or in this case reused. This visit allowed us to see where our waste goes and the very tedious process it takes to discard it. This visit was interesting. We learned a lot about how it is converted into energy and we also learned about the waste to energy process being a more efficient way for garbage to be disposed of because landfills are not good for the environment. This visit definitely made us think of more ways to reduce our waste and allowed us to add more relevant facts about waste reduction to our community project.
Learning About Microplastics
NCLI went to Norrie Point for a demonstration on microplastics. While we were there we learned about how microplastics are made when plastic items (plastic bags, polyester, plastic containers, styrofoam) break down in the environment. We also got to go down to the river bed to pick up plastics along the shore, and see if we could find any microplastics in them. After that we put what we picked up under a very high powered microscope and got to see the different microplastics under it. From this we started to incorporate this into our community project.
Dutchess Single-Use Plastic Pollution Prevention Campaign Display Board
We made a display board that encompasses what single-use plastics are, what alternatives and strategies could be used instead of using single-use plastics, and why single-use plastics are a problem. This ranged from statistical data about single use plastics in New York state to alternative ideas and how to effectively use them. The display board is used to educate people on single-use plastics and can be easily shown around during events.
Creating aTrash Mapping Survey with the Hudson Valley Mappers
The NCLI team and the Hudson Valley Mappers created a survey to locate where the most garbage was in Poughkeepsie . We went to Main Street to test out the survey and to see how we can improve the survey. We gained a lot of information and used that to create the trash mapping survey for the community. Some of the questions included the condition of the block, the types of litter, are you next to a trash can, and the amount of people nearby.
2019-2020 NCLI Crew
Emily
Emily is a senior in High school. She plans on studying pre-med to then specialize in forensics. She likes to hang out with friends and play video games. Her favorite activity in NCLI was the Day in the life of the hudson harbor.
Taznir
Taznir is a senior at Poughkeepsie High School. In the future, she hopes to become an Obstetrician/Gynecologist. She loves to play Softball and Tennis. Her favorite thing to do with NCLI is to go hiking and observe nature.
Kevin
Kevin is a junior at Poughkeepsie High School.
Damion
Damion is a sophomore in high school. His favorite activities are riding his bicycle, playing basketball ball, and soccer. His favorite event in NCLI was winter survival hiking.
Tywana
Tywana is a sophomore in high school. Her favorite part of the No Child left Inside program is that we get to go outside and experience nature one on one. She loves to do graphic designing ,make YouTube videos, help others, singing, etc...
Olivia
Olivia is a sophomore in high school. The thing that she enjoys most about the program is all the new experiences that she’s had and working with everyone in the program. After high school, Olivia hopes to either go into accounting or the Air Force.