David Tonjes

Education:

• BA (Liberal Arts), St. Johns College (MD)
• MS (Comp. Sci.), New York Institute of Technology
• MS (Tech. Sys. Man.), Stony Brook University
• MPhil (Coast. Ocean.), Stony Brook University
• PhD (Coast. Ocean.), Stony Brook University

Research Interests:

Dr. Tonjes conducts research on environmental management. His primary areas of research are solid waste processes and management, and estuarine and coastal management.

Solid waste research topics have included waste generation and management methodologies, including assessments of local programs and helping local governments plan and implement effective strategies. Landfill impacts on the environment are another topic of interest, including assessments of leachate quality and treatment methodologies, and tracing impacts to groundwater and surface water systems following releases of leachate to the environment, including creating and maintaining groundwater models of the affected systems.

Estuarine research has included assessing the effects of New York City sewage treatment plant effluents on New York Harbor, and developing a monitoring plan to support the Hudson River Estuary program. Dr. Tonjes has recently been involved in the creation of a mosquito control program for Suffolk County, and has worked on management programs for local salt marshes.

Long Island Recycling Project

• Assessment of Recycling on Long Island
  • Part I - Doing the Right Thing (Municipal Recycling Programs on Long Island in the 1990s)
  • Part II - Comparing Apples to Oranges (Municipal Recycling Tonnages and Rates on Long Island in the 1990s)
    • A. Data Report
    • B. Data Analysis
  • Part III - Plumbing the Unknown (Recycling Practices, Tonnages, and Rates in the Private Sector on Long Island in the 1990s)
  • Part IV - Extending the Definition (Waste Reduction, and Municipal and Private Sector Recycling Rates on Long Island in 1994)
  • Part V - Going for the Goal (Long Island and the New York State 1997 Recycling Mandate)
  • Part VI - Silk Purse or Sow's Ear (Evaluating Recycling on Long Island in the 1990s)
• Tonjes and Swanson
  • What Hath Albany Wrought? (Long Island and the New York State Solid Waste Management Plan), 1993
  • Long Island's Solid Waste Perplexities, 1994
  • How Do We Measure Them? (Lessons from Long Island on Computing Recycling Rates), 2000
  • Where Does It All Go? (The Size and Methods of Disposal of Long Island's Solid Waste, 1986 and 1991
• Municipal Solid Waste Assessment, Nassau and Suffolk Counties, Long Island, New York, 2006
• Long Island Garbage Index , 2002-2003