rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/petition/march-to-zero-waste-stony-brook-waste-free-campus?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-petition-area-march-to-zero-waste-stony-brook-waste-free-campus' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Long Island Progressive Coalition https://actionnetwork.org/groups/long-island-progressive-coalition https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/petitions/photos/000/680/583/normal/TOWN_HALL___MARCH_(1).png Do you believe in clean air, clean water, and less pollution for your community? Join us in fighting for a waste-free campus! Sign our petition A waste-free campus means we will continue the tradition of Stony Brook University as an institution of higher learning and public health that went tobacco-free. We believe that this petition is an extension of that. A waste-free campus means we need Stony Brook University to create a plan to reduce waste to zero, which would be 100% diversion from landfills. As of the 2022-223 academic year Stony Brook University was only at 36%. According to Stony Brook University’s Spring 2025 STARS report, we produce more waste than we recycle. During the 2022-2023 academic year, we sent 9,688 Metric tons of waste per person to the incinerator to be burned and then dumped in the landfill, compared to 2,337 Metric tons recycled, 3,007 Metric tons composted and 8.32 Metric tons reused. This rate is far below that of other public universities such as UCLA, which in the same academic year had a diversion rate of 54%. It is also significantly below the SUNY Climate and Sustainability Action Plan mandate of 75% for SUNY as a whole by 2030. While Stony Brook University recycled more waste in 2022-2023 than in previous years, we still send waste to incinerators or landfills, harming those of our community members who live near these sites. The most recent Weigh the Waste event, aimed at reducing food waste, recorded 50 lbs of post-consumer food waste over the course of three hours. Unfortunately, at time of writing, we do not have post-consumer composting to divert that waste from incineration or landfilling. We believe we can increase our waste diversion rate to closer to 100% by creating a Zero Waste plan as municipalities like Delaware County, PA have done. We therefore call on Stony Brook University to co-create a Zero Waste plan with impacted communities. Additionally, many of us are in campus groups that already contribute to waste reduction on campus. We believe that together we can go further in our waste reduction practices to all but eliminate the need for landfilling and incineration completely. Community impacts & Public Health Stony Brook University is a part of a larger community in the Town of Brookhaven. Therefore, what happens on campus has real life impacts outside of campus. The Brookhaven Landfill is 270 feet high, in operation for 50 years by the Town of Brookhaven and is on the traditional land of the Unkechaug Nation now known as Brookhaven hamlet.   According to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation this area is deemed a “Potential Environmental Justice Area.” According to the NYS Climate Justice Working Group this area is deemed a “disadvantaged community.” According to professor, and cofounder of BLARG, Dr. Abena Asare, the Brookhaven landfill is a ‘monument to racism on Long Island.” Some of the real life impacts of all of these distinctions that the community has experienced have been deadly. North Bellport has had the highest ER visits for asthma in Suffolk County. Many teachers, staff and students at Frank P. Long school have been diagnosed with cancer and other illnesses that have sadly led to multiple premature deaths. These premature deaths have also contributed to the fact that North Bellport has one of the lowest life expectancies on Long Island.   To learn more about Frank P. Long School consider watching the documentary, Sick School Climate change:“Dr. Robert Bullard: climate change is the defining global environmental justice, human rights, and public health issue of the twenty-first century, and one that disproportionately affects the most vulnerable populations in the United States and around the world.” In NYS, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act passed in 2019, which mandates that New York State reduces emissions across multiple sectors such as buildings, transportation, and waste. Landfills make up about 14% of U.S. methane emissions, which is a greenhouse gas that's a significant contributor to global warming and climate change (reported in 2022 by the EPA)   “We have a duty and mandate to reduce our emissions. Reducing our waste is instrumental in that struggle.” ~Monique Fitzgerald, BLARG co founder, Climate Justice Organizer at the Long Island Progressive Coalition *For more information, access the Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group’s website. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/march-to-zero-waste-stony-brook-waste-free-campus