Field Placement:  US Environmental Protection Agency
Location: New York, NY
Preceptor: Dale Carpenter
Student Name: Michelle Hashemi
Year: 2008

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is a federal agency concerned with protecting human health and the environment.  The EPA is divided into ten regions across the United States, each of which is lead by a Regional Administrator (RA).  Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the EPA is led by its Administrator, Stephen Johnson, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005.  Each of the ten regions of the EPA is also led by an administrator.  EPA, Region 2, the location of my field study, encompasses New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, and is headed by Regional Administrator Alan J. Steinberg. 

Within the regions of the EPA, there are numerous divisions that specialize in different aspects of environmental protection, along with the necessary administrative and public affairs duties.  The section in which I conducted my internship was in the Division of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP), led by Walter Mugdan, which is responsible for all of the major media programs, including air, water, solid waste, oceans, and hazardous waste.  DEPP includes the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Programs Branch (RPB), of which Adolph Everett oversees.  Within Adolph Everett’s branch is the section in which my preceptor, Dale Carpenter, is the Section Chief, and this section is titled the Resource Conservation and Special Projects Section.  My involvement in the EPA through the Keep it Out, Keep it Green project, was thus with the Resource Conservation Challenge, a program in the Resource Conservation and Special Projects Section.

The Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC) is a “national effort to conserve natural resources and energy by managing materials more efficiently.” The corresponding goals of the RCC are to (1) Prevent pollution and promote reuse and recycling, (2) Reduce priority and toxic chemicals in products and waste, and (3) Conserve energy and materials.1  In the pursuit of these goals, an effort is made to decrease solid waste production, disposal, and use. Some noticeable results of the RCC includes trash being used as a resource, more untapped resources remaining free from human exploitation, and actively reducing the human impact on the increasing temperature of the earth.1

In order to reach the aforementioned goals, Keep it Out, Keep it Green addressed three of the voluntary programs of the EPA, including Recycle on the Go, WasteWise, and Waste Minimization.  The EPA designed voluntary programs to assist the general public, as well public and private companies in reaching new environmental goals for their specific environments. The three voluntary programs I was involved in emphasized solid waste reduction, hazardous waste reduction, and increased recycling efforts.  The key people who I worked with in my section on the voluntary programs mentioned are Joseph Malki, who is involved with reducing priority chemicals and hazardous waste in the waste stream; Lorraine Graves, who has extensive experience in solid waste, and additionally, emphasizes the composting of organic waste; and Shane Nelson, who is experienced in recruiting universities and other partners into our solid waste programs.

Through outreach and recruitment, Keep it Out, Keep it Green was successful in its efforts to increase waste diversion in the EPA Region 2 territories, specifically locations in New York and New Jersey. 

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