Brenda Platt

Brenda Platt is the co-director of the nonprofit Institute for Local Self-Reliance, based in Washington, DC.  She has worked for 25 years on waste reduction, recycling and composting issues, and currently heads up the Institute’s Composting Makes $en$e and Sustainable Plastics projects.

She is the author of several groundbreaking reports including Beyond 40 Percent: Record-Setting Recycling and Composting Programs, and the U.S. EPA’s Cutting the Waste Stream in Half.  Her 2000 report for the GrassRoots Recycling Network, Wasting and Recycling in the United States 2000, includes a 10-page zero waste agenda for action. Her 2003 report, Resources up in Flames outlined the economic pitfalls of incineration compared to a zero waste approach.  Her most recent report, Stop Trashing the Climate, shows that aiming for zero waste is one of the fastest, cheapest, and most effective strategies available for combating climate change.

Ms. Platt is a member of the US Composting Council and chairs its Environmental and Legislative Affairs Committee.  She is a founding member of the GrassRoots Recycling Network and a past board member of the National Recycling Coalition and the Container Recycling Institute. She holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the George Washington University.