Turning Garbage into Gardens

By Adriana Cappelli

Shabazz Jackson and Josephine Papagni through their company, Greenway Environmental Services, have worked to unite the concepts of permaculture and zero waste.  In their work, materials are recovered and cycled back to be used in the home, in the community, and to restore and enhance public environments. They recently spoke to Ramapo College students about their business of recycling food waste into garden soil.

According to The Valley Table Magazine, “For nearly 35 years, Jackson has been acting on a single mission-how to deal with the consequences of waste from our over-packaged, over-producing and overly consuming culture.  Jackson has led his own non-profit, worked for local government and run his own business.  He was a pioneer of the early recycling movement and later found a niche remediating environmental contamination in the Hudson Valley.”

I believe Jackson and Papagni are an inspiration and an example to follow.  Their dedication and love for the environment are greatly appreciated by those who are conscious about the importance of saving our environment. 

Jackson’s proposal about how to utilize our food waste to fertilize our backyards is simple and efficient.  By doing this process we will contribute to securing a clean and safe future. 

The United States is known for it’s high demand of food production and consumption, which leads to having an incredible amount of “waste.”   People may think that just by throwing out their garbage it will be gone once garbage companies collect it. Once it gets into the garbage dump though, a long process must occur. Even now the garbage isn’t completely gone because all the pollution is in the air. Everyone must do their little part in recycling and reuse their waste just like Jackson and Papagni.