Environmental Speaker Series 2022, Journey to Zero Waste

Part 2: Reduce, Reuse, and Donate
Posted on: May 24, 2022 - 3:16pm

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Thursday, June 2, 2022, 7-8 pm with a Question and Answer Period to follow.

Join us for Part 2 of our Journey to Zero Waste when our featured speakers are volunteers and members of Wachusett Earthday’s Board of Directors. With a firm commitment to this journey, they’ll bring us knowledge of how to live a life of less waste in a consumer-based society. Learn how to reduce, reuse, and donate your unwanted items, and see your “trash” in a whole new way.

Wachusett Earthday Board of Directors Featured Speakers

Helen Townsend, President began her recycling journey in the mid-sixties when a simple recycling program of glass and newspapers began in her hometown, with the town eventually taking over what a small group of volunteers started. In the early nineties, she became involved in Wachusett Earthday as a volunteer and has continued to participate on the Board of Directors. Her passion for recycling, reuse, and reduction of waste is evidenced in the way she lives: to minimize trash generated and divert usable materials. Besides her work with Wachusett Earthday as both volunteer and President, she is the Principal Assessor in East Brookfield and serves on the Board of Assessors in Princeton.

Norma Chanis, Clerk began working for Wachusett Earthday and the Recycling Center while getting her master's degree in Environmental and Organizational Sustainability. She joined the board 10 years ago and has been involved in launching several new initiatives, including latex paint and Styrofoam collection, and funneling furniture and other household goods to furniture banks. She volunteers beyond WWRRC with other organizations and zero-waste events, performs outreach to find allies in reuse, and attends frequent DEP meetings to stay on top of what’s going on locally. She also serves on the West Boylston Solid Waste Advisory Team (SWAT) and volunteers in several food-related programs, including No Kid Hungry programs focusing on nutrition for low-income families.

Mark Koslowske, Operations Manager first started volunteering for Wachusett Earthday at the Wachusett Watershed Regional Recycling Center in 2015. A ceramics engineer by profession, his interest was to learn firsthand what happens to the various materials outside of curbside trash and recycling. As a board member for Wachusett Earthday from 2016 to 2020, he assisted with annual town DEP grant applications, one of which was used to launch the mattress recycling program and site improvements. Since 2019, he has fulfilled the role of Operations Manager, overseeing all aspects of the site from logistical decisions to budgetary issues. 

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Princeton Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.