We are thrilled to bring you a new opportunity to support the youth led work to create Zero Waste and Development Without Displacement in Baltimore. South Baltimore youth leaders Terriq, Taysia, Maria, Charles and Sarah have built a new zero waste social enterprise taking pieces of Baltimore’s failed waste system to create stunning works of art. Baltimore Broken Glass is a project to sustain and grow the youth led movement that gives us a real chance to end incineration in Baltimore and build a new Zero Waste system for communities, workers and the environment. We are asking for your generous support with 3 ways to help:
1. Sustain our work at our patreon page here and get a beautiful gift,
2. Buy individual pieces at our etsy store here for yourself or a friend,
3. Watch and share our launch video here to help spread the word!
What do we need?
It is important to us to share the ideas and challenges at the center of Baltimore Broken Glass that pushed us to bring it to life. We, as youth who live within a mile of two toxic incinerators and a landfill in South Baltimore, recognize that our leaders and our system have failed us. We see the evidence for this everyday. The dangerous increase in methane emissions, the persistently sky high asthma rates and unsafe working conditions all tell us something major is off. But it is what we do not see that is even more concerning.
Think about it, our schools, universities and anchor institutions serve hundreds of thousands of tons of food in and around Baltimore and yet we have zero permitted composting infrastructure within 30 miles. Instead, policy choices to support trash incineration with millions in public subsidies takes something as solvable as managing food scraps, upwards of 40% of our waste stream, and turns it into a paralyzing challenge.
From the perspective of our long term human survival this system makes no sense and is a total disaster. But, from the perspective of controlling short term gain by dumping costs and externalities onto our communities and future generations it is just the standard operating procedure. It is clear to us that this system is broken. How we change it in time is a question we all must internalize and act on.
| Right now, we are acting on this challenge by working to get all food out of the waste stream in Baltimore through the development of local compost infrastructure. This will help us end our city’s decades long reliance on trash burning incineration. It will create good union jobs for local residents. It will reduce climate change causing methane while producing soil healing compost. It is achievable and will make next steps in our Zero Waste transition much easier. But make no mistake it will not happen without ongoing organized and sustained pressure.This is why we created Baltimore Broken Glass as a way to help raise the resources we need for the movement, while doing something we enjoy with our hands and making something beautiful for the world as we confront a broken system. |
We believe that failure to address global climate change with the urgent action required at all levels will be the single biggest mistake in human history. Once we identify a concrete solution, we must unify and do what it takes to ensure implementation.
Thank you for your commitment and support to grow the movement in Baltimore and beyond.
