{"id":1475,"date":"2019-03-27T04:51:07","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T04:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=1475"},"modified":"2019-03-27T04:51:07","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T04:51:07","slug":"people-are-awesome-meet-the-woman-who-needs-to-make-8-million-new-yorkers-compost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=1475","title":{"rendered":"People Are Awesome: Meet The Woman Who Needs To Make 8 Million New Yorkers Compost"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve relaunched a GOOD online series, \u201cPeople Are Awesome,\u201d where we feature good people doing great things\u2014and seek their advice, inspiration, and ideas. This week\u2019s Awesome Person: Louise Bruce.<\/em><\/p>\n

The notion of putting your career on the \u201ccomposting fast track\u201d might seem a little, well, outlandish. And yet, take a peek at the path of 29-year-old Louise Bruce.<\/p>\n

When she moved to Brooklyn back in 2009, Bruce was only abstractly aware of composting as a concept. But when she learned more through NYC\u2019s Master Composter certification program, she took it on herself to launch a compost program at a vacant lot near her house. The site took off; soon hundreds of her neighbors\u00a0were pitching in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Flash forward to 2016\u2014Bruce is now in charge of the Department of Sanitation\u2019s organic waste programs for all of New York City. And considering New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio has set a wildly\u00a0ambitious goal to provide composting access for all <\/em>of New York\u2019s 8 million residents by 2018, her job is no small walk in the landfill.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s up to the task, though, and more than that\u2014she adores her work. Bruce recalls a recent compost inspection, looking through a batch of organic waste that was a pristine model of how scraps should be separated. \u201cI was standing there with all these chiefs from the agency, getting so excited like \u2018Isn\u2019t that just the most beautiful thing you\u2019ve ever seen?!\u2019\u201d she laughs. \u201cI think they were like, \u201c\u2018Oh my god, this lady is crazy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresh on the heels of Bruce\u2019s selection as one of UC Global Food Initiative\u2019s prestigious 30 Under 30, we decided to pick the brain of a compost titan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who is your hero?<\/p>\n

This probably won\u2019t surprise you (laughs) but it\u2019s New York\u2019s\u00a0sanitation workers. The men and women who collect this city\u2019s waste are just amazing to me. They move close to 10,000 tons of garbage every day, 2,000 tons of recycling, early in the morning, late at night. It\u2019s dangerous, too! Lots of on-the-job injuries. Going door-to-door in any type of weather. They\u2019re this invisible, crucial part of the city.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best advice you\u2019ve ever received?<\/p>\n

Make yourself dispensable. Looking back at the compost site I first set up, I hear about all the people who are involved now, doing amazing things. When I was there back in 2010, I started to realize how important it was\u00a0for lots of other people to take ownership. Not only did it make the project stronger and more interesting, it gave longevity beyond its founders. It\u2019s very important that something isn\u2019t totally dependent on you.<\/p>\n

How about the worst advice?<\/p>\n

My gut instinct is to flip this question and say that sometimes you’re going to get what seems<\/em> like bad advice, or advice that doesn’t work for you, but it’s critical you stay open. People just see things so differently from each other. Sometimes I\u2019ll stare and stare at a problem, not seeing the solution, then someone else comes along and sees it right away. It\u2019s just important to stay open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the last thing to make you really laugh?<\/p>\n

I really love the show Veep<\/em>. I don’t want to link it to my job because obviously it isn’t at all like that. Still, I really like that it brings a sense of humor to the government world. Plus I really love the Richard Splett character, he has all these great moments. He\u2019s kind of like the character everyone writes off, but in a lot of ways he is the most dedicated and optimistic one, in a world where everyone seems a little jaded. It makes me laugh, maybe it\u2019s because I am so optimistic, and I get so excited all the time. It seems culturally new to [the Department of Sanitation] to get excited.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you could be anywhere else in the world right now, where would it be?<\/p>\n

The first thing that pops into mind comes from this poem I read in college, in a Southeast Asian lit class. I took the class by happenstance, just needed an extra credit, but I stumbled on this beautiful translation of an Indian poem, set in a field. It just captured the fragrances and plants of Southern India so vividly. I\u2019ve never forgotten.<\/p>\n

But the truth is, as much as I love to travel and explore new places, I don’t want to be anywhere else! I feel very lucky to be right where I am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve relaunched a GOOD online series, \u201cPeople Are Awesome,\u201d where we feature good people doing great things\u2014and seek their advice, inspiration, and ideas. This week\u2019s Awesome Person: Louise Bruce. The notion of putting your career on the \u201ccomposting fast track\u201d might seem a little, well, outlandish. And yet, take a peek at the path of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}