Activist Finalists & Winners

2021-2024

The Reusies Activist of the Year award honors the individual changemakers and heroes who are championing reduce, refill and reuse solutions in their communities.

Learn more about past years’ finalists and winners.

2024

  • Maria Gastelumendi

    Founder of The Rising Loafer Cafe in Lafayette, CA, Maria contributes to citywide reuse efforts while also modeling her mission via her business. She has operationalized reuse in all parts of her business, partnering with Foodware To Go for takeout orders and using only reusable foodware onsite—among other creative initiatives like repurposing doors to create her cafe tables. An Indigenous Peruvian immigrant, Maria grew up in a village where she learned the fundamental values of her relationship with food, land, and planet.

  • Kendra Schneider

    Over the past three years, Kendra Schneider has been working hard to create a reusable takeout system—called Takeout Takeout—as well as a broader reuse ecosystem in Lansing, MI—with particular attention to equitable economic access to reuse. Confronting barriers to scale from funding to health code requirements, Kendra has forged ahead with pilots that have saved over 3000 items from landfills so far and has been met with enthusiasm from partner businesses and community members.

  • Alisa Shargorodsky

    As a Sustainable Business Network Board Member and Director of ECHO Systems—a nonprofit network focused on waste reduction—Alisa drives reduce, reuse, and refill initiatives in Philadelphia while juggling other jobs. From leading a speaker series, to drafting policy, to helping street festivals reduce their waste and coordinating reuse with four grocery stores, Alisa is a catalyzing force within the organizations and communities she engages with to accelerate reuse in her city.

2023

  • Daniel Vukelich - Winner

    Taking on the one-way throw-away paradigm from a unique angle, Dan provides hospital management and policy makers with the tools to reduce greenhouse emissions, cost, and waste through the safe reuse of "single-use" medical devices.

  • Jennifer Navarra

    Jennifer leads Zero Waste Hawai’i Island, which is partners with organizations and municipalities across the Island on zero-waste initiatives. Jennifer and ZWHI are also engaged with policy work to pass EPR for packaging that prioritizes reduction and reuse.

  • Stephanie Compton

    Stephanie is an ardent reuse advocate who produces and hosts zero waste events; volunteers as a zero waste expert; and coordinates and consults on zero waste events around the city of Baltimore.

2022

  • Alejandra Warren - Winner

    After noticing that many marginalized communities were being systematically excluded from important conversations about reuse, Alejandra co-founded the non-profit Plastic Free Future. Her work has contributed significantly to the policy victories of Reusable San Mateo County in CA.

  • Yayoi Koizumi

    Yayoi is the volunteer leader of Zero Waste Ithaca. Her initiative “Ithaca Reduces | BYO” asks businesses to display a sticker to indicate they welcome customers to Bring Your Own containers, bottles, utensils, bags etc. – an important first step in the transition to reuse.

  • Jacqueline Omania

    A grade school teacher in California’s Berkeley Unified School District, Jacqueline’s been educating her students about reuse for many years and helped pass the groundbreaking Disposable Free Dining Ordinance in Berkeley.

2021

  • Crystal Dreisbach - Winner

    Crystal founded Don’t Waste Durham and the projects GreenToGo, Bull City Boomerang Bag, and The ReCirculation Project. She became the CEO of Upstream in 2023.

  • Anukampa Freedom Gupta-Fonner

    Freedom's activism is informed by her training in management and design. She founded Design By Freedom with the goal to mainstream zero waste grocery delivery service.

  • Craig Cadwallader

    Craig serves as the Policy Coordinator for Surfrider Foundation South Bay Chapter. He's also a volunteer independent consultant on environmental protection initiatives. His efforts have helped facilitate ordinances and legislation around the reduction of single-use foodware.