On March 25, 130 9th Grade students from the United Nations International School (UNIS) helped us kick off our waste management initiative by taking part in a pop-up event in the park. Students helped us illustrate how much waste is collected in the park, created a pledge board to share ideas for reducing waste and spoke with visitors about the impact that waste has on the park’s wildlife and gardens.

Using paper links, students created a visual representation of each pound of waste that was collected in the park throughout the afternoon. They also used a signboard to track all of the trash and recycling collected during the event. Approximately 800 pounds of waste is collected in the park each day, and these efforts helped visitors conceptualize how impactful that amount of waste is.

Throughout the event, students also helped educate park visitors on waste reduction strategies, and spoke about the Conservancy’s recycling and composting efforts. For the first time, we publicly announced our goal to divert 40% of the waste collected in the park from landfills by encouraging park visitors to avoid single use items, recycle, and compost. We thank the students at UNIS for their hard work in helping make the park and the city a cleaner, greener place for all.