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What is the state of youth climate activism in New York City?
The momentum of the climate protests at the start of the 2019-20 school year may have slowed since the pandemic, and many students remain apathetic, but climate anxiety continues to fuel some students into action.
Producers Sanaa Stokes, a senior at Manhattan’s Professional Performing Arts High School, and Aponi Kafele, a junior at Manhattan’s Essex Street Academy, tackle the issue head on — and help make a difference along the way.
They spotlight the work of Alice Schwartz, an Essex Street student, who has been tirelessly pushing to implement a mandated composting program at the school, only to be met by bureaucratic hurdles and logistical challenges.
But her persistence — and the power of student journalism — pay off. As the producers dig into the reasons for the delayed composting program, they connect Alice with an Education Department official, who realizes the oversight and rectifies the situation. It’s a moment of triumph and hope, revealing how climate advocacy and holding institutions accountable can lead to small victories.
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P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation.
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Read transcript below
Aponi: Welcome back to P.S. Weekly the sound of the New York City school system. I’m Aponi Kafele. Remember this?
Students chanting: Save the earth! Save the earth!
News Clip: Huge crowds of people gathered in lower Manhattan, many skipping school for the day.
News Clip: Today, they traded class for climate changes action
Speaker 1: Change is coming, whether you like it or not.
News Clip: We begin tonight with the march that filled the streets of lower Manhattan today with climate change activists of all ages. A lot of the protesters were students excused from school for the rally
News Clip: These future leaders skipping school to demand real action on climate change from those in charge. Now,
Aponi: When I was 11, I was out protesting for climate change. Okay? I was with my middle school buddies. We were coming back from the protests. We were just waiting at the bus stop when all of a sudden, this man in his luxury car stops driving in the middle of the road to come and yell at us 11 year olds like y’all can’t make me stop guzzling my gas. I’m gonna continue driving this car, and you can’t tell me what to do, leading to a surge of fifth graders yelling at him in the middle of the street. Well, a lot has happened since then, and I miss that enthusiasm. So girl, how do you feel about climate change?
Sanaa: I’m Sanaa Stokes, and I don’t really have any feelings about climate change because I feel like there’s nothing I can do to make a change myself. So yeah,
Aponi: Wish I had that dog in me. I do not. I’ve had climate anxiety since I was a kid, so it’s always surprising to me when people can kind of not freak out about it. It’s kind of strength, if you think about it,
Sanaa: I don’t think about it…
Aponi: Right? I’ve always wondered about other people’s opinions on it because of my own strong feelings towards it. So in the spirit of this episode, we decided to go ask a couple students from our school.
Andre: My name is Andre and I’m in the 12th grade.
Amandre: My name is Amondre and I’m in the 12th grade.
Kat: My name is Kat and I’m in the 12th grade.
Kai: My name is Kai and I’m in the 12th grade.
Anneliese: My name is Anneliese and I’m in the 12th grade.
Sanaa: Okay, guys, also don’t feel like you need to show off for these questions. Just be completely honest. Like that’s what we’re just trying to ask. How do you feel about climate change?
Kai: I don’t really care for climate change. I’m sorry.
Amandre: The thing is, I feel like in our education system, they don’t really teach us to know about climate change a lot or have that much knowledge about it. So in my opinion, I don’t really care.
Kat: I don’t know much about climate change, or care to know much about climate change.
Andre: I don’t care, and we haven’t learned anything.
Anneliese: I know it’s destroying our planet and it’s gonna kill us in the end, but our planet’s gonna still be here, because that’s how it’s gonna work.
Sanaa: Do you feel like you have a good understanding of what is causing climate change? Why or why not?
Andre: Not really. Because all I really know is that, like the fires are burning by no climate change causes, like the forest fires and all that. So that’s, you know, maybe a big concern.
Amandre: Also, I know it has something to do with like pollution and everything, but that’s really it.
Kat: Not really, but I’m assuming something to do with factories.
Kai: It has to do something with like fires and gas.
Anneliese: I agree with Kat it has to do with like factories and like the gas going into the earth.
Aponi: This feels a little crazy to listen to because of what we’ve gone through in the last couple of years. The NYC isn’t thought of as a city that goes through a bunch of crazy climate catastrophes. We’re not LA, we’re not Florida, but just in the last couple of years with the flooding from Hurricane Ida and the wildfire smoke blowing over from Canada, I feel like I’ve seen my own perception of like the safety of New York City change, and I know certain friends of mine’s perceptions have changed too. So I just thought that we’d hear a lot more from students who are worried about this. I
Sanaa: I didn’t apparently, I and all these people are anomalies. Considering earth.org, reported about 1/3 of New Yorkers from 16 to 25 said they were extremely concerned about climate change.
Aponi: See that makes sense but, I think climate change is a very New York problem. NYC is projected to lose 80,000 homes due to climate change in the next 15 years, according to The New York Times,
Sanaa: I think that’s really sad. Maybe it’s sets like these that lead to cynicism we saw in a lot of our peers who seem to have given up on helping our environment.
Aponi: But not everyone has lost hope. For the past three months, my friend Alice has been trying to get a compost bin set up at our school. Now composting is mandated in New York City, especially from schools. Yet our school never got anyone to pick up our bins, so it just goes in with the rest of the trash. Alice is looking to change that.
Aponi: What sparked your interest in environmental work?
Alice: If I’m being completely honest, I joined the Sixth Street Community Center Team Climate. Justice program so that I could get community service hours. But then I absolutely fell in love with climate activism, and I just my passion grew over time, and I like the more you learn, the more you realize what an important like issue this is, and how like it’s impossible to avoid being inspired by like an issue so vast and so important.
Aponi: Let’s see, was there a specific moment that kind of piqued your interest?
Alice: I think probably when I went to Albany for the first time to lobby with assembly members and state senators with Sixth Street Community Center, I find the policy and political aspects more inspiring and just empowering. I just felt very strong when I was talking to politicians and actually asking them to directly make change that would have major impacts on climate change.
Aponi: What is the composting program here at school>
Alice: Okay, so the composting program doesn’t actually exist yet, because I joined Green Team about like, let’s say three or four months ago, and immediately I was like, Hey, I heard you guys were working on compost. And they were like, no, not really, but do you want to do that? And I was like, yes, so it’s a work in progress, because there’s so much bureaucracy that you have to go through, and it’s really like a project that is so large that you have to have people to help you. In order to do it, I can’t take out six compost bins every day by myself. I have other things I need to be doing, like class, and also, I can’t carry six compost bins.
Aponi: Can you describe, like, if the program was to go into motion, what it would entail? Like, what is it, step by step?
Alice: Okay, so ideally, we would be able to receive brown compost bins from the city, because the, the DOE or the, I mean, I guess it’s the sanitation department. They have something called curbside compost pickup where you can, they’ll give you bins and you can put your compost in them, and then when at the end of the day, you build them out to the curb and a sanitation truck will pick them up. However, for some reason, our school does not receive curbside pickup. So ideally, we would have compost bins that we would have seniors wheel over to the nearby elementary school, and so we can use their curbside pickup privilege.
Aponi: So then, what are the issues you’ve been running into as far as actually instituting the composting program?
Alice: Well, I had conversations with our school custodian, like head custodian. I’m not sure what her official title is. Shout out Teresa, I think. And I was basically like, she was like, Come back when you have a plan, and I’ll help you get the bins. However, like a plan entails having specific people who are in charge of transporting the compost bins, and I haven’t been able to get that. So we haven’t been able to receive the bins. And also, even if I was to receive the bins, they would have to, we’d have to receive them through the DOE, which moves extremely slowly and never gets anything done quickly, which is stressful because we have five weeks left of school. So the DOE is the way I see it is like a giant spider web, for lack of a more original metaphor that basically you like every problem you have that you need to take with the DOE, you’re like an ant crawling in to the web, except you’re actually hoping for death, because you want the spider to grab you and pay attention to you, but most of the time, your problems don’t get recognized.
Aponi: That was amazing. Thank you.
Aponi: That was Alice Schwartz, who goes to my school at Essex Street Academy. Later on, we’ll check back in with her to see how it’s going.
Sanaa: So clearly, Alice really hasn’t given up on climate activism like the other students we talked to, no she hasn’t. Alice’s interview made us think about how Youth Activism starts in the first place. At the start of this episode, we heard from students who said they weren’t taught about climate change at all.
Aponi: Right,
Sanaa: Climate families is an organization trying to change that with family friendly activism like recently, the co-founder, Liat Olenick told me about a visit to New York State Governor Kathy Hochul office for a campaign they’re calling Hurry up Hochul.
Liat: Because we need her to hurry up and lead on climate and pass important climate bills like the New York H.E.A.T Act and also ensure that the city is meeting the mandates of our state climate law. We have, we created a character, Kathy Slowchul who’s a snail version of the governor. So we did an action outside her New York City office, where we had, like someone dressed up in a giant snail costume, but with a blazer and pearls on. And we wrote a story book about Kathy Slowchul and kids telling her to hurry up and lead on climate. We had kids who were at the action dressed up as little snails.
Sanaa: Climate families are trying to make activism fun.
Liat: The climate crisis is very scary, and the best way to mediate that is to engage children in things that are purposeful and empowering, and the fact that they’ll be able to look back and remember, oh yeah, I went to, like, all these protests with my parents, and we did all these fun, like, kooky, creative things, and sing songs about climate change, and made art and all that. I think that’s like the most reassuring thing I could offer them in facing climate change and the climate crisis. So that’s also really important to me.
Sanaa: That was Liat Olenick, co-founder of climate families,
Aponi: Coming up after the break, a breakthrough in Alice’s story.
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Aponi: This is PS Weekly. I’m Aponi.
Sanaa: And I’m Sanaa. Let’s check back in on Alice’s story.
Aponi: Alice and I decided to talk with our principal together about the status of her composting program. But when we arrived in his office, he called up someone completely different, a real expert. Hannah Epstein is a sustainability specialist for the DOE, and she worked with schools to educate and improve sustainability protocols.
Aponi: So can you state your name and what you do?
Hannah Epstein: My name is Hannah Epstein. She/her pronouns. I am a sustainability specialist for districts two and nine in New York City, Specialist at the New York City Public Schools Office of Energy and Sustainability.
Aponi: Well, actually, I’m gonna let Alice explain to her to you what the kind of composting project at our school has been looking like.
Alice: Okay, hi, so, um, we, I was like, Okay, how do we get compost in the schools? And I heard about the curbside compost pickup that’s supposed to, like, go to every single school. But when I talked to our like, Chief, like, like, our custodian, Chief, custodian person, so I don’t know her official title, she was like, No, we don’t get curbside compost pickup. And I was like, okay, that’s like, makes this a lot more complicated. I wonder why. So my current plan is to have students take the compost bins over to the nearby elementary school, who does receive curbside compost pickup. But I was just kind of wondering why we didn’t get the curbside compost pickup.
Hannah Epstein: So all, all public schools do receive curbside composting. That being said, not every school has had it set up yet, and that’s kind of where I come in. So for schools that don’t receive the composting service, sometimes there’s a few different reasons. Sometimes the school has changed location, or it’s under l ike lease ownership, and it’s not a property that’s owned by New York City public schools. Sometimes the school is like a brand new building. And so sometimes there’s just issues with Department of Sanitation and there’s updates that they’re not familiar with. So as of now, there really shouldn’t be any need for you guys to bring your way to the elementary school, though, I absolutely love that enthusiasm to do that. But really, the next step is to like work on the education custodian engineers, which is the formal title custodian engineers, are trained that if the waste is highly contaminated, just treat it all as trash. So if the waste you know if there aren’t bins in the first place, or if there are bins, but students either don’t care, or they don’t know how to properly store it if the waste is contaminated, Department of Sanitation will not collect it as compost or even the recycling. They will just put it in with the trash, because it’s not up to them to sort it.
Alice: Okay that? Yeah, totally I agree. And I’m I was, like, planning on educating once we had, like, a system in place, and I knew it was worth it. So just like. Clarify. Are you seeing that we are in process of having curbside compost, pick up, come to our school or, like, is that not gonna happen?
Hannah Epstein: Your school should definitely be receiving composting. In fact, I’m actually gonna pull up the back end when you guys should have started receiving this service. Let’s see. All right. Oh, so this is actually kind of a fun fact according to our data. I mean, of course, in our data is not like 100% flawless, but it’s pretty close to it. Your school building should have been receiving compost since fall of 2014 which is one of the very first schools when this program initially started, over 10 years ago. So the fact that you guys have not been receiving service is definitely kind of, like troublesome to know. But like I said, this is kind of where I come in, so I would love to talk with you and, you know, get education sorted. And, you know, while my waste manager is handling the operation side of such the Department of Sanitation, you know, this is the kind of thing that we really like. We love to hear the activism from students and that get them really engaged in this, because this wouldn’t have been a problem that, like, I would have heard about, if not for you, and the Department of Sanitation wouldn’t have complained anything, because you guys have a compactor, so there was no way for them to know that you weren’t composting, because your trash just goes. It’s handled separately.
Alice: Oh, that makes so much sense. Thank you so so much. Actually, like, I’m really happy this is, like, actually gonna get work. Would you do the education? Or would it be up to, like, students in school or teachers in school, or would you send someone in? It’s a little
Hannah Epstein: It’s a little bit of both. I mean, typically, like, what I’ll do is, I’ll come in, I’ll do like, a kickoff meeting with principals and with a custodian engineer and with the sustainability coordinator, and basically explain to them, like, why it’s so important. Because usually you kind of have to explain in the first place, which is, you know, I kind of suck, but, you know, it’s understandable if you’ve been doing something for so long, especially with COVID. You know, I can’t tell you how many schools I work with where they have a great recycling and compost system set up, but then two years of remote school, students kind of forgot how to sort and bins were misplaced or broken or something because they weren’t being used. And this could be even the case for your school. I often see that, you know, we kind of have to, like, kick it back up again. Sometimes, you know, I can only come in, it’s like an assembly, or sometimes I will go into the cafeteria, and, you know, in real time during lunch periods, I’ll help students to sort their waste. I love working with Green Teams and with students. I mean, you guys are high schoolers. You, you kind of know that. You know teenagers, they kind of need to be, like, convinced a little bit more. And you know that’s where, like, in the kickoff meeting, they kind of discuss, like, what works best for that school and that school’s culture.
Aponi: Thank you so much.
Alice: Thank you so much. Thank you for meeting with us, that was so educational.
Aponi: Very much so.
Hannah Epstein: Yeah, and I’m hoping to come visit your school at some point, either this week or next week. So I’d love to meet you guys in person, really, and kind of carry on the momentum that you’ve started.
Alice: Oh, yes, us too. I’m like, That sounds perfect. I can’t wait to, like, actually get the ball rolling in this process, because it’s been kind of, like, slow and, like, lot of stops and goes. It’s like kind of ,
Hannah Epstein: Yeah, I believe it, and I can definitely give you an update when my colleague hears back from Department of Sanitation as well.
Alice: Yeah, thank you so so much.
Aponi: Thank you.
Hannah Epstein: Yeah, of course, it was so great talking with you guys.
Alice: Yeah, you too. Have a nice afternoon.
Hannah Epstein: Thank you. You too.
Aponi: Bye!
Aponi: Alice, you’re literally the goat.
Alice: No literally, that was so–She’s gonna come and meet with us. I don’t know how much you were listening, but we’re gonna get compost!
Sanaa: Wow. So it was that conversation that finally got your school to start composting.
Aponi: I think so. I mean, I believe it when I see it, but you know, right after that call Alice and I caught up to see how she felt.
Aponi: Where did you feel like you were before we talked to Hannah?
Alice: Struggling, not really. I didn’t really think I was gonna be able to implement compost this year. Thought I was gonna be the senior year situation, which stressed me out. Stressed me out even more because college apps, they’re a lot so I was kind of like disappointed in the progress that I was making.
Aponi: And I’ve kind of been making this podcast about, kind of like, how we’re passing off the climate change problems to different things. And I think sometimes when we talk about student activism, and like, the wins that we get with student activism, we tend to place a lot of emphasis on, like, Oh, these kids did this thing, like, by themselves. They figured it out. They didn’t need anyone else. But I feel like in this situation, it’s actually coming together with the people who are responsible for the composting program that got us what we need.
Alice: Yeah, I find that. A lot of activism is just asking for stuff. When I lobby in Albany, I ask politicians to support the laws that we created. Like, you’re not expected to, like, save the world and like, create all this stuff. A lot of it is just asking, like, capable adults to do their jobs.
Sanaa: Cheers for composting.
Aponi: It made me really happy that speaking up about what we saw at our school inspired our principal to take action, even though it’s not going to solve global warming, it’s a step in the right direction.
Sanaa: I’m happy for you. You’re right. It’s not going to solve global warming, but it’s nice to see that small changes can still happen when we advocate for what we want to change.
Aponi: P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between the bell and Chalkbeat made possible by the generous support from the Pinkerton Foundation, the Summerfield foundation and FJC.
Sanaa: Producers for this episode were me Sanaa Stokes
Aponi: and me Aponi Kafele.
Sanaa: Our executive producer for the show is Ave Carrillo and our executive editors are Amy Zimmer and Taylor McGraw.
Aponi: Additional production and reporting support was provided by Mira Gordon, Sabrina DuQuesnay and our friends at Chalkbeat. Our engagement editor is Carolina Hidalgo.
Sanaa: This episode was made using Hindenburg pro music is from Blue Dot sessions, and the jingle you heard at the beginning of this episode was created by Erica Huang. Shout out to our mentor, Lena Richards
Apoini: And my principal, Wallace Simpson.
We make transcripts available for our episodes as soon as possible. They are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.
