Events

Upcoming Meetings

The Brooklyn SWAB meets on the first Monday of the month to discuss solid waste and environmental issues [If the first Monday is a holiday, we often move to the following Monday. Check our calendar for the most current info.] Meetings are open to the public and participation is encouraged. The meetings typically take place at Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm and on Zoom for a hybrid meeting. 

If you would like to be added to our email list to receive notifications of upcoming meetings and events, please complete this short form.

Meetings Recordings

Past meeting recordings are available on our YouTube channel. 

Calendar of Events

See below for the Brooklyn SWAB's monthly meeting, committee meetings, and other related waste-prevention events. 

Want to submit an event to the BkSWAB calendar? Add the event to your own calendar and invite swab.brooklyn@gmail.com. Our Executive Committee will review and approve appropriate submissions.  

Upcoming BkSWAB Events

Check back for upcoming events!

Recent BkSWAB Events

Get Your Bins in Order

Thursday, October 12, 2023 6:00-7:30 pm

The Brooklyn Solid Waste Advisory Board hosted a virtual panel discussion for Building Staff and green champions on Thursday, October 12, 2023 at 6pm to learn how to successfully set up Curbside Composting in your multi-unit residential building. 

Check out the recording from this event!

Plastic Packaging: Threats to Human Health - Teach-in with Jenny Davies, MD, MPH

Tuesday, July 26, 2022 6:00-7:30 pm 

Plastic is a significant component of our packaging waste stream. It is also the most harmful to the environment and to humans, and the least-recycled and least-recyclable.

The Brooklyn and Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Boards invite you to learn from Cafeteria Culture's public and environmental health advisor, Jenny Davies, MD, MPH, JD, as she explains the ways in which plastic interacts with our human biologic systems.

Then find out about the latest, urgently-needed, clear, and effective New York State legislation that you can help advocate for to confront the plastic pollution crisis by stopping it at the source.

Check out the recording from this event!

Waste, Environment & Race: A Community Conversation - Part 2

Link to video on our YouTube Channel!

BkSWAB hosted Part 2 of its Waste, Environment & Race - A Community Conversation event series on March 16, 2022. This event addressed the intersection of food, health, and waste and its impact on vulnerable communities. A panel of community leaders and organizers, moderated by BkSWAB, spoke to their ongoing work to address racial, environmental and climate injustice.

Featured panelists:

Jesi Taylor Cruz, Discard Studies Researcher and Zero Waste Advisor

Justin Craig, Farm Coordinator - Red Hook Houses Farm, Red Hook Initiative

Steve Affat, Program Manager, Green City Force

Moderated by BkSWAB members Akhmose Ari-Hotep and Rhonda Keyser.

Curbside Composting is back! All you need to know

Tuesday, August 31, 6:00-7:30pm  |   Zoom and livestream 

DSNY Curbside Composting Sign-up is open now and pick-up is returning starting this October and November. Find out more details on the program itself, how you can help spread the word, especially if you live in a multi unit building, and how to get involved at this free, public interactive information session, hosted by the Solid Waste Advisory Boards (SWABs) of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx in partnership with Big Reuse.

Featuring a presentation from the Department of Sanitation (DSNY), this event will provide further information on the return of the Curbside Composting or "brown bin" program, and provide a forum for questions.

Agenda:

⦁ Allie Gumas, Outreach Coordinator, Organics Outreach (DSNY) will provide details on when, where and how the brown bins will be returning, and how to sign up and express interest;

⦁ Brooklyn SWAB will provide further information and tips on how to engage your neighbors, what to do if you are not the primary decision maker in your building, and how to compost in the interim

⦁ Q&A and open discussion

Facing the Plastic Pollution Crisis: A Talk with Judith Enck

Join the Brooklyn and Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Boards and the Bronx and Queens SWAB Organizing Committees (via Zoom) on Tuesday, January 19 from 6:30 until 7:30 pm for a talk with Judith Enck of Beyond Plastics to hear about how single-use plastic is harming our environment from production to disposal and what we can do about it. Moderated by Dior St. Hillaire from the Bronx SWAB Organizing Committee.

Link to video on our YouTube Channel!

Judith Enck has a long and distinguished career in government and in the non profit community on a range of environmental protection issues. She was appointed by President Obama to serve as Regional Administrator at the US Environmental Protection Agency and served as Deputy Secretary for the Environment in the New York Governor's Office. She is the founder and President of Beyond Plastics, a national project with the goal of eliminating plastic pollution everywhere. Enck is a regular panelist on the public affairs show, The Roundtable, on WAMC, a local NPR affiliate. She has been a visiting faculty member at Bennington College since Fall 2018 and became a senior fellow in the Center for the Advancement of Public Action in Spring 2019. Enck currently serves as President of Beyond Plastics.

This is a free event; if you would like to contribute to Beyond Plastics please visit their website. 

Waste, Environment & Race: A Community Conversation – Part I

Watch BkSWAB's recording on our YouTube channel of our October 2020 event on the management of waste and its impact on vulnerable communities. A panel of community leaders and organizers, moderated by the BkSWAB, spoke to their ongoing work to address racial, environmental and climate injustice.