Alina Bekkerman is a zero waste and materials management consultant with 15+ years of professional experience in program management and relationship development and 8 years of experience working with cross-functional teams toward waste diversion. Alina has worked directly with corporate, nonprofit, and municipal organizations, developing and implementing programs to divert waste from landfill, and educating end-users on proper waste disposal.
Before formally taking on environmental consulting, Alina worked as an eco-educator and waste sorter at events with Mary Manut of Green Mary, an environmental veteran and founder of a certified woman-owned business in event greening. This first taste of diverting hundreds of pounds of material from events inspired Alina to continue creating a career in zero waste education and outreach. Since 2015, Alina has worked with organizations like Neustar, HP, Microsoft, and Genentech to support green teams and zero waste program implementation.
Most recently, Alina’s work has supported municipalities. For the city of Sausalito, Alina developed an outreach program and assembled a team of consultants to educate restaurants and food purveyors about a new ban on single-use plastic. Working with the county of Marin, Alina assessed the 470,168-square-foot Civic Center and provided recommendations and best practices for recycling and composting bin systems and signage in compliance with AB 341, AB 1826.
At the start of the pandemic in 2020, Alina took on work with Envirolutions and the San Francisco Conservation Corps as a contract supervisor, leading a team of corpsmembers in recycling collection at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and at six San Francisco MTA locations. Alina spearheaded the development of detailed contamination tracking and staff training that brought to light issues with waste sorting and helped mitigate fines, while also educating civic service employees in San Francisco on proper materials management.
Alina currently serves on the Board of Directors as the Secretary for the Northern California Recycling Association (NCRA) and previously helped launch the Diversity Equity and Inclusion committee as co-chair.