Recycling Project with NC DEQ
Meet Carlos Morales, a 2nd year student in the UNC MPA program.
I grew up in Columbia, SC, and originally went to school for audio engineering, spending time in Nashville, TN, and Atlanta, GA, working in the music industry. During that time, I also cooked in commercial kitchens and began connecting with our food system through a culinary lens. My passion for community and food eventually outpaced my love for music, leading me to Washington state, where I worked as a food educator and had the opportunity to farm. There, I learned regenerative practices that focus on building a relationship with the land you tend. These practices take a holistic, systems-thinking approach — stacking functions and expanding networks to identify key players and strategies that create resilience within both food systems and the communities they serve.
Teaching others how to grow food and leading cooking classes for everyone from pre-K students to senior citizens helped guide me toward pursuing an MPA. I’ve had the privilege of working alongside several nonprofits in Washington and have seen the far-reaching impact they can have. At the same time, I became more aware of the barriers to access — and how policy can be used as a tool to reimagine and create new opportunities for both community members and the organizations that serve them.
Earning an MPA from the UNC School of Government is preparing me to better serve North Carolinians across the state. It has provided me with tools to understand our structures of governance and to navigate them to find solutions to issues as they emerge in our food system and environment. Being a graduate of this program will help me become a stronger partner, facilitator, policymaker, bureaucrat, and community member — all with a focus on building resilient systems that reflect the diverse needs of residents from the mountains to the coast.
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This summer, I’ve had the honor of serving the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) with the Organics Recycling team in the Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service, as part of my Professional Work Experience (PWE) for the MPA program. I’ve seen firsthand the impact of their work in advancing much-needed waste diversion in the state — reducing landfill use while offering technical assistance and grant funding to support the growth of composting infrastructure. I’ve especially appreciated how the team uses creative, systems-level thinking to center economic development by reinforcing a circular economy. This approach reduces the consumption of new materials by creating pathways to produce and purchase recycled or reused materials right here in North Carolina.
So far in my role at DEQ, I’ve had the opportunity to:
• Strengthen the agency’s compost facility database
• Update and analyze data from annual reports to help identify infrastructure gaps across the state
• Collect, organize, and visualize tonnage data to support a Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) rate study
• Research food waste depackaging technologies to inform permitting and regulation as this part of the market continues to grow
These are just a few of the projects I’ve been proud to support — and it’s been a true honor to contribute to such essential public service for our state and environment.
