Melisa Edwards

Background

About Melisa Edwards

Sustainability, Zero Waste, Plastic Free OceansI am a leader and influencer creating the solution for a sustainable future and zero waste through education, community engagement, program and project management, and innovative research all focused on this defining problem of our time.As an environmental scientist, I declared war on waste in my personal life, and my goal is to influence as many people and organizations as possible to do the same. Much of my graduate work at Johns Hopkins University was focusing on this very issue; how to convert waste to resources while creating a sustainable economy. My passion is focused on plastic and food waste that has become an ever-growing problem for both the environment and society. We need to reduce the use of single-use plastics and to use non-recyclable waste as a secondary product such as conversion to fuel via waste-to-fuel technologies, use of plastics as building material for roads and homes, or finding some other innovative method to reuse and repurpose plastics. Food waste reduction through better policy and distribution can help feed those less fortunate and other food waste can be repurposed through composting for the growth of sustainable crops. I believe that oceans should be protected since they are the essence of planet Earth and humankind, producing more than half of all oxygen in the atmosphere and absorbing the most carbon from it. After living in Hawaii for almost five years and conducting research or visits to the Galapagos Islands, Bahamas, Iceland, the Adriatic Coast, and both coasts of the United States my determination is even stronger to try and protect oceans and their beauty by working on plastic-free oceans.