Senior Environmental Specialist Shelley Stewart led a group of 15 people across PSE&G’s Environmental, Electric, and Gas teams to create a company-wide employee initiative that made recycling easier and more popular among employees.
“Recycling can make a huge difference in the amount of waste that goes into a landfill or is burned,” she said. “I hate to think of recyclables ending up in a landfill when they could be repurposed into something else. We also get credits for recycling so it’s a win-win.”
Even at a green-friendly company like PSEG, it can be tough to change ingrained habits. But finding solutions that make the choice to go green convenient is Shelley’s specialty.
“The hardest part is that when everyone is responsible for something, no one is. So, we went to the different districts and helped sort the trash into recyclables. We then tried to determine which groups are generating the recyclables and put a recycling solution at their particular site to make it easier,” she said.
Stewart has always had a passion for the environment and even focused on environmental studies in school. She plans to keep tracking the data from the recycling initiative and keep environmental topics at the forefront of discussion with the districts and divisions.
When she’s not working, Shelley likes to garden in her backyard. An empathetic person by nature, she is also a member of ABLE, an employee business resource group (EBRG) for employees with disabilities and their caretakers.