In partnership with the City of Newark’s Office of Sustainability, the Fall 2013 Community Development Studio began a yearlong exploration of Newark’s industrial waste stream. The studio’s research supports the City’s development of a strategy for the productive reuse of manufacturing discards, including durable byproducts and shipping materials. This materials reuse strategy has the primary goals of job creation, waste diversion and manufacturing support, and reflects Newark’s mission to equitably advance social, economic and environmental health, as prioritized in the City’s recently updated Sustainability Action Plan.
To inform the City’s strategic planning efforts, the Fall Studio (1) conducted a literature review and online research to understand how these issues are handled in other places, (2) met with manufacturers and other experts to develop a site-based research methodology that will be implemented in Spring 2014, and (3) identified additional areas of ongoing investigation that might inform the City’s design of a reuse program. In their Fall Report Manufacturing Byproduct Reuse, the Studio Team summarizes their research findings and outlines their proposal for continued investigation in Spring 2014.