Jacquie Ottman is on a mission to change consumption culture through the prism of zero waste

POPULAR ZERO WASTE TOPICS

NEW! Using Them Up: How the Whole World Makes Leftovers Taste Like New

With attention now focused on cutting down on food waste, it’s a perfect time to take a new look at the power to reinvent leftovers.

Forget Jello molds and mystery meat! This highly engaging talk will give you exciting new ways inspired by global cuisines, to save money, and cut down on climate emissions by “shopping your fridge” and reinventing what’s left over from last night’s dinner into something new and delicious. Plenty of time built in for questions and a lively, fun discussion. Free PDF of recipes for attendees. Learn More.

NEW! Get Everyone in Your NYC Building On Board with Composting — The “Compost Commando” Shows You How.

With food scraps collection now mandatory in NYC, its time to address the challenges of getting residents on board. Kitchens are small! NYC residents are afraid of rats! and Change of any kind is hard!

Jacquie Ottman — dubbed the Compost Commando — can advise your Board on how to get residents of multifamily buildings on board. As a member of her coop board and head of its Green Committee, in 2018, she successfully pitched her own building on the Upper East Side on the benefits of composting and food scrap collection. She got the pails, the green bags, and even threw a ‘drop in’ educational event in the lobby. 40 units signed up — about half of the building. Voluntarily! (They were so pleased with the results they actually paid a commercial waste hauler to continue to pick up their scraps once voluntary recycling was paused during COVID.) Jacquie can help your building to do the same. She can show you on how to set up a food scraps collection center, how to engage residents, and provide practical tips for how residents can collect easily (and without smell or insects!) in their kitchens, and help you make sure all new residents get on board quickly! You’ll all wonder why it took everyone so long to convert! Email Jacquie at jacquelynottman {@} gmail DOT com to learn more. Learn more about Jacquie HERE.

Beyond Recycling: Let’s Share, Swap and Borrow Our Way to Zero Waste Cities

How to cost effectively institute more reuse and sharing in cities. Exciting ways that apartment dwellers in cities from Barcelona to Boston are using apps, websites, and updated forms of Yankee ingenuity to share, swap, borrow, donate and gift all manner of household items, clothing and accessories, toys, sports equipment and more. (See VIDEO below)

How to Engage Residents of Multi-family Buildings in Recycling and Reuse

Learn what pioneering building managers and owners are doing to make recycling and reuse and organics collection convenient, easy, and part of the social norm, while tapping into Ottman’s insights into how to customize these strategies to the needs and culture of your own building. Read: Are NYC’s Buildings Ready to Rev Up Recycling?

______________________

Watch Videos of Jacquie Ottman Speaking about Zero Waste

NYC’s Bumpy Journey to Zero Waste: What Comes After Shopping?

Highlights of Waste Less, Live Better NYC.

Beyond Recycling: Sharing, Swapping, Borrowing, Donating, Gifting

New Metrics: How to Measure the Impacts of Sharing

Where Jacquie Ottman Has Spoken about Zero Waste

350.org
Bard Sustainable MBA
Barnard College
Columbia University
Etsy.com

Manhattan Community Board 8
Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board
Materials for the Arts
New York Society for Ethical Culture
New York University

Schwab House, West 74 Street, NYC
Sierra Club
Smith College
Sustainable Brands Conference
U.S. Zero Waste Business Council

_____

What Audiences Say about Jacquie Ottman’s Zero Waste Talks

What an engaging speaker! Such great ideas about opportunities to reduce more in our buildings and neighborhood.

-Rick Schulman, Environment Committee, Schwab House

I was so impressed by your amazing ability to inspire the audience with your enthusiasm and expertise! Presentations like yours are essential to helping bring sustainability understanding to the next level.

-John Cloud Kaiser, Director of Education, Materials for the Arts, NYC

Jacquie’s ‘WasteLess, LiveBetter‘ talk and workshop…was a great summary of the Zero Waste 2030 program in NYC. Now I feel more knowledgeable about how to do my part towards achieving a zero waste goal. Who knew there were so many easy ways to participate?

– Jason Grant, Zero Food Waste PopUp Initiative

Jacquie Ottman is one great speaker – so knowledgeable, inspiring, witty, and friendly. I appreciated the way you she got people to introduce themselves and interact… I have been much more conscious since her talk. During her talk about Wasting Less and Living Better, I got the idea to host a casual open house for the neighbors on my floor. I want us to be more of a community!