Current Activities & Priorities

• This problem is important in view of the disproportionate number of waste incinerators in the region, especially in Greater Lawrence. We focus especially on collaboration with city officials, community leaders and nonprofit agencies in Lowell.
• Our specific activities are:

1. America Recycles Day, November 14-15, 2001. We will hold a) educational events at various schools during the day on November 14—for more information contact Carol McCarthy 978-454-5738 or c.a.mccarthy@worldnet.att.net; and b) a panel discussion, open to the public and free of charge, in the evening of November 15, at the Mercier Center, Market St., Lowell—for more information contact Julie Villareal 978-34-4677 or Julie_Villareal@uml.edu. We are also cosponsoring a public panel on energy, organized by the Merrimack Valley Climate Action Network, in Andover on November 15—for more information contact Bruce Wilson 978-749-7041 or brucensara@earthlink.net

2. Participation in the Composting and Vermiculture Project. This project seeks to increase the amount of restaurant waste in Lowell that is composted, among other things through vermiculture (worm-based composting). For information contact Julie Villareal 978-34-4677 or Julie_Villareal@uml.edu.   For more information on composting, go to www.oldgrowth.org/compost
3. Community Forum on Trash & Recycling Choices for Lowell, 4/26/2000. For a summary report on this forum, click here.  For a full report, click here.

• For more information on trash and recycling, we recommend the following websites:

a) Government agencies—

www.epa.gov/payt (The Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) site on Pay As You Throw); www.epa.gov/osw (The EPA site on solid waste); www.epa.gov/opptintr (The EPA site on pollution prevention and toxics); www.state.ma.us/dep/recycle (The Mass. Department of Environmental Protection site on recycling); www.Lowell.recycle.org (Lowell Mass. Recycling Program); www.lexingtonma.org/swat (Lexington Mass Solid Waste Action Team—had many useful reports and links); www.ci.worcester.ma.us/dpw (Worcester Mass Department of Public Works, which handles their trash and recycling); www.metrokc.gov (King County, Washington, which has interesting program

b) Non-government agencies--

www.grrn.org (Grassroots Recycling Network, who have several campaigns); www.ilsr.org (Institute for Local Self-Reliance, who have written many reports on recycling, and other community-based economic and environmental programs); www.tellus.org (Tellus Institute, who have done research and consulting in the US and abroad on solid waste, energy and risk analysis);  www.keeplowellbeautiful.org (Keep Lowell Beautiful); and www.peoplefortheenvironment.org (People For the Environment in Andover, mainly concerned about trash and incinerator issues throughout Greater Lawrence).

Since 2000 these have included:

• Neighborhood Cleanups in Lowell, May 2002. We will hold educational events in collaboration with the city’s Cleanup Days, which take place on two consecutive Saturdays. These will also be part of our celebration of Earth Day. For more information contact any of our co-directors—click here

• A discussion on environmental justice, April 5, 2001. The panelists were Professor Julian Agyeman (Tufts University, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy) and representatives of five citizen groups in Lawrence and Lowell. This was part of the sixth annual Day Without Violence: MV2050 was a co-sponsor. ]

• A discussion on service-learning for sustainability, 11/8/00. This was led by Professor John Duffy of the Mechanical Engineering Department at U.Mass. Lowell. Other participants in the discussion were several of Prof. Duffy’s students, and middle-school-aged youths from Lowell. For more details of Prof. Duffy’s programs, go to www.eng.uml.edu/Dept/Energy; for more information on service learning in general, go to www.nsee.org (National Society for Experiential Education)

• A discussion on lighting pollution, 11/15/00. This was led by Suzanne deLesdernier of the Acre Youth Center (Lowell YWCA) and co-sponsored by Keep Lowell Beautiful. For more information on this problem and possible solutions, go to www.darksky.org (International Dark Sky Association)

• Community workshops on scenarios of sustainability. A pilot workshop regarding Lowell will take place in spring 2002, with funding from the National Science Foundation. MV2050 will help organize this workshop. It will apply principles and lessons of successful workshops already held in Europe. For more information on these workshops go to www.Loka.org (Site of the Loka Institute, who promote democratic control of technological change, and efforts to conduct sustainability scenarios in Europe and the US). If you are interested in the Lowell workshop, contact David_Turcotte@uml.edu, 978-934-4682.
• Presentations and workshops on The Natural Step (TNS). TNS is an innovative approach to building consensus and stimulating action about humans’ interactions with ecosystems and each other. We have held one training workshop on TNS. For more details of TNS, visit www.naturalstep.org (The national organization promoting The Natural Step in the US and www.2nature.org (Second Nature, which focuses especially on The Natural Step in higher education)
• Continuing our work with youth on all of our issues. We would be happy to partner with schools, agencies or community groups.
• Giving additional workshops on indicators of sustainability. We are very interested in working with agencies and groups in the region—not only environmental ones but ones with any kind of focus.
• Alternatives to car transportation.

This space is open to the public. We have collected some reports, brochures and other materials, both on trash/recycling and on other environmental and social issues. These are located in 500 O’Leary Library, UMass. Lowell, South Campus. This space is generally open during the semester Mondays-Thursdays, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; and during the summer and January vacations on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:30 a.m.-12 p.m. For more information contact John_MacDougall@uml.edu, phone 978-934-4303.

We welcome your suggestions!

We would love to hear comments and suggestions from people in all walks of life about future activities. We are open to organizing activities on topics other than those listed here. These could be events organized by other groups, in which MV2050 could be a partner but not the prime sponsor. To contact us with your ideas, click here.