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Go Green OC is a local nonprofit organization headquartered in Ocean City, Maryland, whose primary focus is on achieving zero-waste goals through innovative composting initiatives. The organization works towards advancing sustainability initiatives in Ocean City particularly through waste reduction and recycling programs. The organization has developed partnerships with over 25 businesses in Ocean City to collect food waste to bring to their composting farm. They have established the first citywide composting program on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The program has diverted more than 650,000 pounds of waste from incineration contributing to environmental conservation efforts. Founded by Josh Chamberlain, the organization was created in 2018 in response to concerns about the environmental justice impacts of municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration and its effects on communities in Chester, Pennsylvania.^[1]

GoGreenOC was founded after Josh Chamberlain researched where Ocean City's waste was trucked off to. This led to a visit to Chester, Pennsylvania where he the environmental and health conditions faced by residents living near the Reworld Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility. Motivated by these experiences and a notice of a lack of local action in Ocean City, he created Go Green OC to reduce Ocean City's contribution to the incineration and to promote more sustainable waste management practices.

Chester is home to the Reworld (formerly Covanta) Delaware Valley Incinerator, the largest waste-to-energy facility in the United States and a major source^[2] of industrial air pollution in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Ocean City, Maryland, partners with this system through a waste management contract that sends apporximately 34,000 tons of MSW a year to the Chester facility.^[3] This contract, established in 2010, reflects a broader regional reliance on waste-to-energy incineration, a practice that has been criticized for its environmental and public health impacts despite being promoted as a form of “beneficial reuse” for electricity generation.^[3][4]

The organization wants to rebrand how the Ocean City community views waste. In order to accomplish this, the organization has set forth "The Strategy" to achieve their goals. Go Green OC proposes:

• Waste stream reduction, through composting organic materials, with a target of removing 30% of total waste.
• Recycling expansion, including the development of drop-off centers and improved collection systems.
• Policy mechanisms, such as Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) programs to incentivize waste reduction.
• Zero-waste events, including certification standards for sustainable event management.
• Public engagement and rebranding, aimed at shifting community perceptions of waste and sustainability.

One of Go Green OC's primary strategies is the implementation of a citywide composting program. The program has diverted more than 650,000 pounds of organic waste from incineration.

The organization has grown their composting operations, expanding from a single participating business in 2018 to more than 25 businesses by the 2025. Annual waste diversion increased from under 2,000 pounds in 2018 to over 300,000 pounds per year by 2023-2025.^[5]

In addition to composting, GoGreenOC has created recycling initiatives aimed at reducing landfill and incinerator-bound waste. One of the organizations initiatives was that it restructured waste management practices at OC BikeFest, resulting in the recycling of approximately 110,000 aluminum cans since 2019. The organization also advocates for expanded recycling infrastructure, including cardboard recovery systems, and dual-stream recycling for businesses.

The listed end goals for Go Green OC are for Ocean City to implement a recycling system and for the city to become Zero Waste. The short-term goals are to continue expand operations and write legislation. In 2025 alone, Go Green OC diverted 305,000 pounds of food waste through only partnering with 22 businesses.^[5]

The organization's work connects between waste management practices and environmental justice communities. 79% of waste-to-energy incinerators are located in low-income communities and communities of color, and 40% are in communities where both the thresholds for poverty and the percentage of people of color are above 25%.^[6] Incinerator siting has been a major issue and even one of the contributing factors to the start of the environmental justice movements.^[6]

Go Green OC's overarching goal is to make Ocean City the first zero-waste resort town in the United States. In addition to Go Green OC's efforts reduce Ocean City's contribution to regional waste incineration, the organization also works towards regional coordination and policy reform to reduce the burden placed on other communities.^[5]