Come Support Seattle Magazine's Earth Day 5K with Sustainable Seattle

When we heard there would be an Earth Day race at the beautiful Myrtle Edwards Park, we just knew we had to get involved.  After learning the proceeds go to restoring our local urban parks and forests, we laced up our Brooks sneakers and ran to help faster than good 'ol Speedy Gonzalez!

Saturday, April 20 the downtown Seattle waterfront park will turn into a big, sweaty green gathering for Seattle Magazine's first ever Earth Day 5K. Sustainable Seattle will be there, in full force, with a passionate group of volunteers that we hope includes Y-O-U!

To support this event, whose proceeds go to Green Seattle Partnership, we're gathering volunteers to take on various tasks during race day.  You can sign up here and view the full list of volunteer positions.

Zero-waste never tasted so good!

Last month on August 27, Sustainable Seattle volunteers supported the NewBelgium Clips of Faith beer and film tour at Gas Works Park by providing the compost, recycling, and trash bins, making it a zero-waste event. With help from CleanScapes, over 200 pounds of waste was kept out of the trash! But that wasn’t the only highlight; all proceeds went to the Nature Consortium while participants enjoyed tasting New Belgium beer throughout the night while watching homemade movies that reflected sustainable behavior in many different ways (recycled clothing fashion shows, skateboarding, biking…) It was a perfect Seattle summer evening for laying down a blanket with friends and enjoying some good entertainment (and good beer!) in the outdoors. If you missed it this year, don’t worry, it will be back in 2013. In the meantime, stay tuned to Sustainable Seattle’s website to learn about, and get involved in, other sustainable events in Seattle! 

Hey HP and Canon – make it easier to recycle printers!

Have a computer or TV to recycle? There’s a free and convenient solution! Have a printer to recycle? It’s not so easy.

That’s why Zero Waste Washington is asking the two biggest printer manufacturers in the U.S. for free and convenient recycling programs for desktop printers. You can join us by sending postcards asking HP and Canon to step up and do more.

We’re asking for something called producer responsibility, and it’s already happening for computers and TVs here in Washington. Throughout the state, you can recycle your computers, monitors, and TVs through the E-Cycle Washington program. Zero Waste Washington fought hard for this manufacturer funded program and, as a result, over 39 million pounds of electronics were recycled last year. That’s about 2,200 units diverted from landfills and incinerators each and every day!

With this approach, manufacturers take responsibility for their products from “cradle to cradle,” including providing and paying for recycling programs. Residents, small business and schools can drop off their unwanted computers, monitors and TVs for free recycling at about 260 locations throughout Washington. The manufacturers have agreed to recycle responsibly, which helps keep our discarded computers and TVs – that contain mercury, lead and other toxic materials - from being sent to developing countries. It’s good for the economy, too. E-Cycle Washington has brought additional recyclers to the state and created close to 80 new jobs.

But printers aren’t collected as part of the E-Cycle Washington program. The 2006 state legislation that mandated the program didn’t include printers or other peripherals. While some manufacturers have voluntarily set up printer mail-back programs (often for a fee), that just isn’t very convenient for most of us.

Zero Waste Washington thinks printer manufacturers can do better! We are working to have producer responsibility for desktop printers in Washington. You can help us make it happen! Please ask HP and Canon to make it easier and more convenient for consumers in Washington to take back printers for recycling. You can click here to sign on and we’ll send postcards to HP and Canon on your behalf.

Here’s one final reason to support producer responsibility. When manufacturers pay to recycle the products they make, they have a financial incentive to design products that are less toxic, longer lasting, and more recyclable. And that means less waste and greener, safer stuff for all of us.

Post written by guest post from Suellen Mele, Zero Waste Washington’s Program Director Zero Waste Washington advocates for the design and production of healthier, safer products that are continually recycled and reused.

Beer, Film, and Zero Waste. The Sustainable Future for Events in Seattle.

Sustainable Seattle is pairing with New Belgium Brewing and the Clips of Faith Beer and Film Tour to produce a local, creative, artistic, and zero waste event at Gasworks Park in Seattle on July 29th.

This event, which is only two years old this year, will travel to 18 cities across the United States. Each city which is visited will have a local organization supported by the proceeds from the festival. The proceeds for Seattle will go to the Nature Consortium. Attendees will be able to view films from all different genres, lengths, and backgrounds, including one from a Seattle filmmaker Sam Nuttman called "The Millionaire's Club."

Sustainable Seattle will be responsible for organizing the recycling at the event. Zero waste is a trend which is beginning to catch on in many different locations and events. For example, upon entering Safeco Field to attend a Mariners game, you might see a large sign that depicts their efforts to make the ball field zero waste. It shows pictures of what can be considered compost, what can be considered recycle, and what might be trash. Only when we are able to create products and behaviors which result in zero items which must be "trashed" can we create a world where zero waste is the norm instead of the alternative option.

The idea of zero waste has been in the news lately for it's use in reality television, grocery stores, and the first zero waste energy plant.

Austin, Texas seems to be leading the way in innovative sustainability. A reality television show was produced by the City of Austin's waste management program called "Dare to Go Zero" aired on their government access channel. It lasted five weeks and the family with the highest percentage of waste reduction at the end won a $2,000 sustainable home improvement package. Their goal was to help the people of Austin learn more about recycling and reducing their waste. Another way residents can do this, coming in October, is to shop at a zero packaging grocery store. In.gredients will allow shoppers to bring their own containers and take as much or as little of different items they want. They want to help reduce waste from single use packaging of products (often sometimes double and triple wrappings) as well as processed food.

Had the concern over waste reached this extreme years ago, there wouldn't necessarily be a need for a $65 million zero-waste energy plant like the one which is being built in the Pampanga province. They have such a problem with waste that Mackay Green Energy (MGE) and Pampanga Green Management Inc. paired up to create and implement technologies which can use the province's waste to create green energy. You can read more about this innovation here.

So on July 29th Seattle will again join New Belgium Brewery and the Clips of Faith Beer and Film tour to create a zero waste event. This represents a great stride in a continued quest for sustainability in the city and will help put Seattle on the map with cities like Austin.

Seattle Yellow Pages Opt-Out Registry (LAST CHANCE TODAY!))

A Notice from Board member Heather Trim on behalf of the Zero Waste Seattle Steering Committee

We are pleased to announce, in case you haven’t already heard, that Seattle’s YELLOW PAGE OPT-OUT is up and running ….and further that on May 9, U.S. District Judge Robart denied an injunction request by publishers Dex, SuperMedia, and the trade group Yellow Pages Association, ruling that they had not shown they were likely to ultimately succeed on the merits of the case related to their assertion that the opt-out infringes upon their First Amendment right to free speech.

The great news is that the new Seattle opt-out program is enforceable! Any books that are delivered after someone has opted-out in a timely way (30-days in advance of delivery) will be potentially subject to a $125 fine.

ACT NOW! The next phone book delivery in Seattle scheduled is Dex in June. In order to ensure that you won’t receive this delivery, you need to opt-out by May 16 at Seattle’s official site:

http://www.seattle.gov/util/Services/Recycling/ReduceReuseExchange/StopPhoneBooks/index.htm

When you get to the Catalog Choice website, you will have to register and then will be able to specify your request. Catalog Choice (the city’s vendor for the opt-out) will then record your request and the yellow page companies are required to use this information when they are doing deliveries.

Please let Zero Waste Seattle know if you have any problems with this system.

In addition to the yellow page opt-out ordinance, other zero waste successes last year included getting a requirement for landlords to provide compost pickup for apartment buildings (this will start in September), a pilot effort by the city to address plastic stretch film, and some additional actions to address construction and demolition waste. And we are looking forward to even more zero waste progress in the next year.

New World Habits: Disposable Cup Campaign

A post by Karin de Weille

What can we do to help the earth that requires no money, new infrastructure or technology, no legislation or political will, not even time (to speak of)?

I’ve been wondering, why not kick our disposable cup habit together and make an instantaneous, collective shift? Take three weeks. New World Habits has created a website and partnered with Sustainable Seattle and others--Zero Waste, Green Fest. Coffeehouses are also supportive, including Caffe Ladro, Grateful Bread, and Cafe Javasti. So a structure is in place, something to work with. But it’s continuing to evolve—the messaging, the posters, the outreach (getting individuals as well as coffeehouses on board--it's easy--a flier on the site is all you need to approach your own local shop/cafeteria/office). You can help grow this!

We’re launching the 3-week campaign soon--May 21 with GreenFest, so it’s time to spread this. A signup process is in place through The Point (see JOIN NOW on the site…)

Some stats… We Americans throw away almost half a million cups every 15 seconds. Last year, paper cup usage created close to 400 million pounds of solid waste, and that represents almost a third more than just 4 years earlier! When our addiction to throwing away spirals out of control, it’s not enough to compost or recycle. The rule is reduce first. The disposable consciousness has got to go. There’s a moving video on the site about this. Take a look. NewWorldHabits.org. On the facebook page Disposable Cup Campaign, you can join with others who want to contribute creative ideas and help shape the campaign.

Richard Conlin is a supporter, seeing this as a great opportunity for Seattle to do what it’s good at—test out something new that then spreads. So for those of you who are thinking you want to make this shift in your personal habits or would like to help grow the movement, this is a clear opportunity to explore the power of collective impact.

And if you're looking for last-minute (or belated) gift ideas for the Earth, just sign up now!