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Mark Naef has been a tireless voice for recycling and the environment since the early 80’s.  He was a canvasser and field manager at the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) for 3 years, working on the bottle bill, community right to know and the state superfund law. During that time he went door to door educating citizens and soliciting funds from Rochester to NYC.  He then became a community organizer in East New York, Bed Stuyvesant and Brownsville for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) working on community empowerment and environmental justice issues.

After a stint as a social studies teacher at Central Square, Baldwinsville and Onondaga schools in the late 80’s, he became the canvass director of Recycle First in Onondaga County. The group amassed over 3000 paid members in little over 3 months leading to the award winning recycling program here in Onondaga County.

Mark then went to work for the Empire Returns/Resource Recycling Technologies (RRT) corporation as a recycling specialist and was an integral player in citing, operating and sourcing material for the first merchant Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in NYS. RRT pioneered the existing blue bin program and built recycling facilities from Maine to Florida.

He briefly worked as a consultant for the Northeast Industrial Waste Exchange headquartered in Syracuse where he designed a comprehensive plan to recycle C&D for Onondaga County. As more curbside recycling programs came on line in the early 90’s Mark went to work with Daystar Recycling Corporation and began paying municipalities all over NYS and Pennsylvania for their newspaper helping to create sustainable recycling programs. This is now the cornerstone of for profit recycling facilities.

During this time Mark, a life long Democrat, ventured into Green politics and twice ran for county legislature, once for state senate and attended the national Green nominating convention in Denver as a delegate for Ralph Nader.

In 2002 Mark opened his dual stream recycling center in East Syracuse, helping to preserve the quality of recyclables in Onondaga County. Through his facility he has opened up markets for new recyclables and attempted to educate the public about recycling; offering tours and sponsoring an annual scholarship for high school seniors.

He is a long time board member and past vice president of the New York State Association of Reduction, Reuse and Recycling (NYSARRR).  He helped found the Buy Recycled Alliance of New York (BRANY) and is one of the leading proponents of the Go Green Initiative (GGI) locally and serves as the state Chair. He was voted NYSAR3’s 2005 NYS recycler of the year.

He is currently president of Greening USA, a national group that advocates for sustainable communities to the benefit of local economies and environments. They are the creator of the twelve traits of sustainability. He is a member of the education committee and serves as the co-chair of the Syracuse Sustainability Academy, which will be holding community sustainability workshops in conjunction with the City of Syracuse School renovation project.

He has spoken to hundreds of audiences over the years regarding reduction, reuse, recycling and sustainability.