NCRA News NCRA is a non-profit trade organization of recycling businesses, community groups, municipalities and individuals. We promote waste reduction, reuse, salvaging, recycling and composting as vital tools for resource and energy conservation and costeffective, environmentally sound methods of disposing of discards. Founded in 1978, the majority of our 344 members are located in Northern California; we also have members sprinkled across the US. Our office is in Oakland CA. Not a member - yet? Please join and encourage your associates to join membership is $60 per year. Benefits include this publication, access to the NCRA Jobs Board, discounts on tours, classes, workshops and conferences, inclusion in the Member Directory and listing in the Services Directory. For more information, visit www.ncrarecycles.org, look for us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube or send a note to the NCRA office via our on -line contact form.
CONTRIBUTORS
Laura McKaughan, Juliana Gerber, Hilary Near, Liz Bortolotto, John Moore, Susan Blachman, Susan Miller Davis, Tom Wright, David Tam, Alina Bekkerman, Alex Bradley, Steve Sherman, Editor Portia Sinnott and the members of NCRA's Committees.
April 2018
ANNOUNCEMENTS GROUPS LEGISLATION MARKETS PRESS EDUCATION
ZERO WASTE WEEK 2018 A GREAT SUCCESS! Thanks to the NCRA Board, staff and members that helped produce Zero Waste Week 2018! With 444 registrations, Recycling Update beat all attendance records, as did the jam packed post-conference Green Drinks. The Zero Waste Youth Convergence, with over 130 participants, kicked off the week with a very productive brainstorm followed by a shoreline cleanup. The ZWYC conference keynote, Maricela Mares-Alatorre of Greenaction in Kettleman City, was very inspiring, speaking on Resilient Communities Fight Back: Equity in Zero Waste.
Salvage Spring Fling - photo by Alina Bekkerman
The 40th Anniversary Celebration - Salvage Spring Fling, was a wonderful addition to the ZWW line-up. Fifty members and friends enjoyed a beautiful evening with refreshments, food, art and dancing at Ohmega Salvage in Berkeley. The event, produced by EJ Harkness of Extra Meta Design featured the work of Bay Area salvage artists, who created interactive art in an immersive upcycled environment. There will be additional ZWW coverage in future issues. See page 7 for a Spring Fling photo collage To see Party and Tour originals, click Alina Bekkerman and Alex Bradley.
2018 MEMBER MEETING 2017 Accomplishments, 2018 Goals and Plans, Straws Film and Dinner!
With special guest, Jackie Nunez, founder of The Last Plastic Straw
Thursday, April 19, 6pm-9pm StopWaste,1537 Webster St. Oakland Directions RSVP Free to Members Green Drinks follow first beverage is on NCRA!
WORLD CLEANUP DAY? Let us know if you willing to be NCRA’s volunteer WCD coordinator and/or help write press releases, track events or write newsletter articles. On September 15, 2018 people in 150 countries will stand up against the global trash problem and clean up waste, making it the biggest positive civic action the world has seen. Imagine a powerful “green wave” starting in Japan and ending in Hawaii with (Continued on page 7)
(More Member Meeting content on page 7)
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
THANK YOU RECYCLING UPDATE 2018 SPONSORS!!
NEXT BOARD MEETING, MAY 17 Plan to meet with us in Oakland on Thursday, May 17, at the law offices of Henn, Etzel and Moore for a light dinner at 6pm followed by the meeting at 6:30pm. The address is 1970 Broadway, Suite 950 - near the 19th/Broadway BART station. Coming late? Let the office know in advance so someone can be prepared to let you in; the doorperson leaves right at 6pm. Directions RSVP Things Do Change: Before coming to any meeting, check the website and calendar for agendas, minutes and updates. Board Meetings: All interested parties are welcome to attend! Held on the third Thursday of most months; often but not always at John Moore’s office in Oakland. Note the board does not meet in September or March. This year, the Annual Meeting is on Thursday, April 19; details on Page 1. Zero Waste Advocacy: Second Wednesday of most months. The next meeting is May 9 at John Moore’s office in Oakland. RSVP Membership, Outreach and Activities: Conference call at noon the 2nd Tuesday each month. RSVP. Communications and Newsletter: Meet as needed by phone. Open tasks include writers, researchers, photographers and photo editors.
NCRA JOBS
Click here to access NCRA’s Jobs Page for development & job opportunities. A volunteer is needed to highlight a few jobs in the newsletter per month. Interested?
ASSOCIATED GROUPS AND PROJECTS PLASTIC POLLUTION COALITION: TELL STARBUCKS - BREAK FREE FROM PLASTIC Starbucks serves more than 4 billion nonrecyclable plastic-lined paper cups per year. That number doesn't even include the masses of single-use plastic lids, its signature green straws, plastic stoppers, and cutlery. Write: Take 15 minutes to go to your local Starbucks and hand a letter to the manager. Find everything you need here. Take photos and send PPC an email to tell us you did it! Call: Our partner Stand.Earth has a simple phone script you can use to demand corporate responsibility. Email: CEO Kevin Johnson by filling out this form. Sign the petition! Tell Starbucks to live up to its promises now.
ZERO WASTE USA APRIL AND MAY CLASSES The Zero Waste USA now has 26 Bay Area students working toward certification as Zero Waste Community Associates. There are a few more openings for experienced students to test-in to the series. Class 2 - Zero Waste Principles and Tools, will be held in San Jose on Friday, April 20 and in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, April 25. Class 3 - Zero Waste Community Planning, will be held in both locations on Thursday, May 24. Register!
FLUSH - THE DOCUMENTARY
Film Screening, Thursday, May 3, 2018 (May Turd!), 6:308:30 pm, PLACE for Sustainable Living, 1121 64th St, Oakland 94608. Co-sponsored by NCRA Board Member Hilary Near. More info at PLACE Facebook event page FLUSH is the surprising story of what happens after we "go," and a growing movement to change the way we think about waste. Filmmaker Karina ManguWard wonders if the unprecedented damage from Superstorm Sandy, the drought out West, and the future of our food supply has a lot to do with how we flush. So she gives herself a challenge: follow one flush from beginning to end. FLUSH is the story of everything that happens next, and the cultural, political, and corporate forces shaping the way we deal with bodily waste in America today. Learn about our local wastewater treatment system at a brief panel to follow the film screening, and meet Poop Project Founder and Executive Director Shawn Shafter. WHOIS PLACE (People Linking Art, Community & Ecology) is a public-serving, experiential learning center to showcase and foster sustainable living practices, urban homesteading, community resiliency and preparedness,
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social justice and artistic expression. Our goal is to incubate a local sustainability hub to allow people to see solutions in practice; to gain access to the knowledge and resources to empower them to take action in their own lives, neighborhoods, towns, cities and bio-regions. We hope to grow this green-center model into communities across the world in partnership with community centers, schools, park & recreation facilities and other local organizations. Read more… PLACE
SONOMA COUNTY ZERO WASTE WEEK
The 2nd annual Sonoma County Zero Waste Symposium will be held Tuesday, May 10 at Sonoma Mountain Village in Rohnert Park. The keynote speaker will be Captain Charles Moore founder of the Algalita Marine Research and Education and co-chair of the Albatross Coalition the initiator of AB 2770 Connect The Cap Bill now on its way to the state Assembly. The Symposium is the headline event for the local Zero Waste Week, May 6-12, 2018. A multitude of events are being planned - for youth, for schools, for the public, including Zero Waste Curious classes, 5K Zero Waste 5K run and a Santa Rosa Reuse and Repair Tour . This ambitious event is being organized by members of the Zero Waste Force (ZWTF). The ZWTF was established in 2017 by the Sonoma County AB 939 Local Task Force on Integrated Waste Management as a stakeholder collaborative. The resulting ZWTF 2018 Zero Waste Initiative will be used to ask the cites, towns and the County of Sonoma to adopt a 2018 Zero Waste Resolution with substantive goals and policies. Read more… ZWS
This very important bill will ensure that all plastic bottles collected in California’s bottle deposit/ CRV program have caps connected so they don’t escape into the environment and add to the ocean plastic pollution problem.
OCEAN DAY 2018
Since 2005, Ocean Day has been bringing advocates to Sacramento to discuss important ocean issues with state legislators, aides and other officials. Tuesday, February 20 was the fourteenth and by far the largest Ocean Day to date. Nearly 170 attendees from all over the state participated and there were approximately 150 meetings held by teams of advocates who pressed for passage of pending legislation covering: offshore oil and gas, micro-fiber plastics, smoking ban on state beaches, surfing the state sport, tethering of plastic bottled beverage caps and more. Co-organized by Surfrider Foundation, AZUL and Environment California. Participants represented a variety of groups such as Albatross Coalition, California Coastkeeper Alliance, CSU COAST, Ocean Conservancy, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Natural Resources Defense Council, Heal the Bay, 7th Generation Advisors, California Coastal Coalition, Clean Seas Coalition, Unite Here, COARE, Blue Frontier… The Ocean Day 2018 handout is attached.
MARKETS AND MATERIALS NEW HORIZONS IN FOOD RESCUE AROUND CALIFORNIA
LEGISLATION
By NCRA Food Waste Reduction Committee Members Susan Miller Davis, Infinite Table and Susan Blachman, Blachman Consulting In 2016, Governor Brown signed SB 1383 which, among other things, requires 20 percent of edible food that is currently disposed in landfills and incinerators to be recovered for human consumption by 2025. CalRecycle is holding workshops on May 7 and 8 to share draft regulatory language with which local jurisdictions will have to comply, to discuss the implementation process and solicit feedback. Although the regulations will not take effect until 2022, they will be adopted in 2019 to allow regulated entities approximately three years to plan and implement necessary budgetary, contractual, and other programmatic changes.
NCRA SUPPORT RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CALRECYCLE’S ACTIVE PRIORITY BILLS, 2018
Local jurisdictions are beginning to mobilize resources - here are a few examples of local efforts underway – Los Angeles, Alameda County, Silicon Valley and Boston!:
CONNECT THE CAP NEWS!
Los Angeles: The City of Los Angeles has incorporated food recovery into its new franchise agreement. Under the agreement, the haulers are required to partner with local nonprofit organizations to set up Food Rescue and Materials Reuse Programs. In exchange for recovery services and estimates of tonnage recovered, each hauler is obligated to donate to their subcontracted reuse organizations at least $1,000 per 100 customers in their service zones. The exact amount given to each organization and the tonnages recovered or services provided in exchange is negotiated between each hauler and nonprofit individually. The program began January 2018.
ZERO FOOD WASTE FORUM – OCTOBER 2018 The NCRA Food Waste Reduction Committee is planning the October 2018 Bay Area Zero Waste Food Forum. The focus will be showcasing model food recovery programs and helping to prepare local communities with SB 1383 compliance. If you are interested in serving on the committee or being a sponsor, contact the Committee.
During this second half of the 2017-2018 California Legislative Session, as of 3/17/18, Cal Recycle lists 25 new Bills that have been introduced, 18 Assembly and 7 Senate. Visit our Legislative page for abbreviated descriptions of each. For further details and up-to-date status visit CalRecycle’s Current Bills of Interest.
AB 2779 (Stone/Calderon) – Connect the Cap - formerly AB 319 aka Leash the Lid, passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committe 7-3. Our thanks to Chair Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, Author Assemblymember Mark Stone, Richard Bloom, Assemblymember Monique Limón, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, Assemblymember Ed Chau, and Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman! The bill now heads to the Assembly Floor.
Alameda County: ALL IN Alameda County is an innovation incubator within county government, a multi-
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stakeholder collaborative, working together to end poverty. One goal of All In is to establish a professionalized, paid food recovery sector, including job training. Towards that end, All In will be rolling out a 3 month food rescue pilot using two refrigerated vehicles purchased by the county. Drivers will be recruited and hired from Peralta Service Corporation (PSC), the Unity Council’s social enterprise, and trained by the County Environmental Health Department on safe food handling. The program will recover food (fresh produce) from local farmers' markets and deliver it to two recipient organizations: the Unity Council and Satellite Affordable Housing Associates. The plan is to continue the program once the three months is up, and including evaluating how the project can be sustained.Read more… NCRA or Page 6.
basically a small aerobic digester. The company sells the equipment around the world and in the U.S., mainly to the Army and hotels but also to some U.S. hospitals, grocers, a stadium and one large waste hauler. Power Knot President Iain Milnes sees the solid waste industry becoming a prime client type in time.
SMART BIN STARTUP BIN-E CELEBRATES SEVERAL MILESTONES
… There are other types of equipment besides Power Knot’s liquid composter available for commercial use in the U.S. One is a true compost machine, which mixes waste over a couple of weeks and converts it into compost. However, it requires a lot of space, and generators have to produce about a ton a day for payoff, according to Milnes. Then, there is a dehydrator that dries food into a powder. These machines don’t make compost themselves, but the powder can be further processed into compost, reducing volume but still generating greenhouse gas emissions.
Megan Greenwalt, Recycling Today, 3/28/18 A year after securing its first investor, Bin-e, a Poland-based smart waste bin startup, has acquired a second. The addition pushes the company beyond the prototype phase and onto signing a production contract with a factory and landing its first client. Bin-e created a bin for automatic waste segregation. Its functionality is based on a combination of mechanical and electronic elements along with software and elements of artificial intelligence. … Bin-e’s first client is Interseroh, a provider of integrated environmental services that makes a huge contribution to the spread of the Zero Waste idea in Poland. It will use Bin-e for automatic waste segregation and compression in the office, contracting for the sale of the first 100 devices. “Automatic waste sorting frees users’ minds from a humdrum task, which, especially in the office area, is a good idea and lets people focus on work challenges,” says Anna Grom, chairman and recycling expert at Interseroh. “Also, Bin-e fits modern office décor, which is an important quality. People want to work in nice spaces and surround themselves with friendly technology. The more of that we provide, the more happily will employees join the recycling effort.” No longer a prototype, Bin-e recognizes, segregates and compresses waste automatically. It is based on an object recognition system that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms. Bin-e also has a fill control sensor and notifies the waste disposal company automatically when one of the bins inside is full. It is connected to an Internet of Things (IoT) platform that manages the data collected by the device. Read more… Recycling Today
ARE LIQUID COMPOSTERS THE NEXT FRONTIER FOR SMALL AND MIDSIZED ORGANIC WASTE GENERATORS?
Arlene Karidis, Waste 360 4/5/18 Ace Natural, a New York City-based distributor of organic produce and other foods, doesn’t pay to have food scraps hauled anymore. Rather, it uses a liquid composter installed on its property, negating the need to collect, wrap and load waste on to pallets and eliminating the need to store waste in its refrigerator and ship it to a composting facility. Designed and manufactured by Power Knot in San Jose, Calif., the machine is called a liquid food composter, but it’s
The liquid composter sits in a kitchen where food waste is continuously fed into it and processed inside a sealed drum. Water is periodically and automatically injected into the drum, and then a proprietary blend of micro-organisms is placed in the vessel, creating a large surface area to accelerate decomposition. Depending on the material, it will digest within 24 hours.
“The third machine is our type that digests waste through an aerobic process, so there are no smells, and what’s left is grey water that goes down the drain and into the sewer,” says Milnes. The load on the public wastewater system is minor: about 0.3 percent of sewage waste leaving his hotel clients’ properties comes from the machines, and the liquid composter uses only about 0.1 percent of the hotels’ energy, according to Milnes. Read more… Waste360 and Power Knot’s Ace Natural Case Study
HOT OFF THE PRESS WATCH: MICROFIBERS FROM OUR CLOTHES ARE POISONING THE OCEANS AND PORTLAND IS TURNING DRINKING WATER INTO ENERGY
Our Planet, ATTN:, 3/18 ATTN: is a media company that breaks down important societal topics and conversations into digestible, entertaining videos and series across all platforms. Read more… Attn:, Watch... Ourplanet - Microfibers and Portland
WATCH: AMERICA VS TAIWAN: RECYCLING
"America Versus," explores the political, social, and cultural differences between the U.S. and countries around the world. Watch … America Versus
CALIFORNIA AG LAUNCHES ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE UNIT FOCUSED ON POORER COMMUNITIES
Peter Fimrite, SF Chronicle, 2/22/18 Frustrated by declining federal regulation of the environment and health disparities between poorer and wealthier communities, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Thursday appointed a team of lawyers to fight pollution. The four attorneys assigned to the new Bureau of Environmental Justice will focus on low-income Californians and people of color who suffer a “disproportionate share of environmental
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pollution and public health hazards,” according to Becerra’s office. … Becerra has filed 30 lawsuits against the federal government, including challenges of Trump administration moves to open the California coast to offshore oil drilling, suspend the Clean Water Rule that sought to protect streams and wetlands, and repeal the Clean Power Plan that was intended to fight global warming. Nearly half of the lawsuits were attempts to enforce laws ensuring that children have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink, the attorney general’s office said. The office said it has so far won favorable rulings in seven lawsuits, including a Feb. 15 ruling by a U.S. District Court judge in San Francisco that the Department of Energy failed to implement energy efficiency standards for several polluting products, including portable air conditioners. Read more… Chronicle
AMERICAN FARM BUREAU FEDERATION LAUNCHES NO TASTE FOR WASTE CAMPAIGN
American Farm Bureau Federation, 4/3/18 The American Farm Bureau Federation has joined a collaborative effort to reduce food waste and loss. The “No Taste for Waste” campaign features an interactive website, , special edition “bookazine” and social media resources for consumers interested in reducing household food waste, and for farmers and ranchers who are taking steps to fight food loss in their fields. Campaign collaborators included AFBF, Land O’Lakes SUSTAIN, Valent BioSciences Corporation and FLM Harvest, CropLife Foundation and Meredith Agrimedia. Read more... AFBF
NESTLÉ'S PLASTIC INITIATIVE CALLED 'GREENWASHING' BY GREENPEACE
Perry Wheeler, Greenpeace, 4/10/18 "Nestlé's statement on plastic packaging includes more of the same greenwashing baby steps to tackle a crisis it helped to create," Greenpeace oceans campaigner Graham Forbes said. "It will not actually move the needle toward the reduction of single-use plastics in a meaningful way, and sets an incredibly low standard as the largest food and beverage company in the world. The statement is full of ambiguous or nonexistent targets, relies on 'ambitions' to do better, and puts the responsibility on consumers rather than the company to clean up its own plastic pollution." “A company of Nestlé’s size should be setting a strong standard to actually move toward the reduction — and eventual phasing out — of throwaway plastics. It should know by now that recycling efforts are not going to clean up our oceans, waterways, and communities. On the contrary, the company’s business as usual will only accelerate plastic pollution.” Read more...Greenpeace
GLOBAL GREEN TO EXPAND BIOGAS PROGRAM TO 2 SO CAL CITIES
Global Green, BioGas Magazine, 3/26/18 Non-profit, Global Green USA announced March 23 it will select two Southern California cities as partners to participate in a new food waste recycling program, using an EcoAmbassador resident outreach model. The two cities will be chosen based on existing access to food-waste-to-biogas production, or an interest in investing in biogas production
infrastructure, as well as their focus on underserved communities. Global Green resource recovery experts have nearly a decade of expertise in waste and biogas. This free assistance is being provided under an Environmental Champions grant from Southern California Gas Co. The estimated dollar value of this technical assistance is approximately $7,500 per city, and will be offered at no expense to the two cities selected for the program. No matching funds are required. Read more… BioGas WHOIS: Global Green USA is the American affiliate of Green Cross International, founded by President Gorbachev to foster a global value shift toward a sustainable and secure future. For 20 years, Global Green USA has been a national leader in advancing smart solutions to climate change that improve lives and protect our planet. We create transformative model projects and advance new policies that build sustainable and resilient communities and affordable housing. We help local governments, schools, and public agencies integrate sustainable design, clean energy, and water reduction measures and we help people reduce waste, live better, and act more sustainably today--and in the future. Global Green USA has influenced more than $20 billion dollars worth of building construction by encouraging the integration of green building and sustainability practices, and we’ve educated millions of people about climate-friendly solutions through our five annual events, including the green event of the year, our Pre-Oscar Party.
'PLOGGING,' SWEDISH FITNESS CRAZE FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO SAVE THE PLANET
Allison Klein, The Washington Post, 2/23/18 Sweden’s latest fitness craze — plogging — is making its way to U.S. shores. The term is a mash-up of jogging and the Swedish “plocka upp,” meaning pick up. In this case, litter. ... In the United States, it’s just starting to catch on among exercisers who are fed up with rubbish along their route. “I’m not going to just let litter sit there. I’m not going to just walk past that plastic bottle,” said plogger and Alexandria resident Emily Wright. “It’s not that I don’t think it’s gross to pick it up. I do. But I also think it’s gross for a person to not take responsibility for it.” Wright, 40, has been plogging for several months along the Alexandria waterfront, but just a few weeks ago learned that what she’s been doing has a name. Her partner used to lovingly tease her about her habit of going out for a run-walk for about an hour with a trash bag and plastic gloves. “He used to call it my trash runs,” said Wright, a writer and cellist. “A few weeks ago he said, ‘the Swedes have a name for your trash runs!’” She mostly picks up cigarette butts, bits of foam containers, plastic bottles and bottle caps. “There are an alarming number of full diapers,” she said. “They turn my stomach the most.” Plogging not only helps the environment, it’s quite good for your health. Think squats while jogging. According to the Swedish-based fitness app Lifesum, which earlier this month made it possible for users to track plogging activity, a halfhour of jogging plus picking up trash will burn 288 calories for the average person, compared with the 235 burned by jogging alone. A brisk walk will expend about 120. Read more… Washington Post
HOW THIS RECYCLING BIAS AFFECTS WHAT YOU TOSS WHERE
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NPR, 9/13 During an experiment, marketing professor Remi Trudel noticed a pattern in what his volunteers were recycling versus throwing in the garbage. He then went through his colleagues' trash and recycling bins at Boston University for more data. He found the same pattern, says NPR's Shankar Vedantam: "Whole sheets of paper typically went in the recycling, but paper fragments went in the trash." … Trudel and fellow researcher Jennifer Argo developed a theory, which has to do with how we perceive a product's utility. "When a product is sufficiently distorted or changed in size or form, consumers perceive it as less useful," Trudel says. "And when they perceive it as less useful, they're more likely to throw it in the garbage, as opposed to recycle it." Read more... NPR
CONTINUING EDUCATION ZERO WASTE PRACTICES: DIAPER REDUCTION OR EVEN ELIMINATION
BabyCenter, 1/16 Infant potty training is the practice of introducing your baby to the toilet or potty at a very early age – usually between birth and 4 months. Some parents who do this avoid diapers completely by racing their baby to the nearest bathroom whenever they anticipate a poop or pee. Others use diapers on and off. By 18 months, in most cases, their children have "graduated" – that is, they know when they have to use the toilet and get themselves there successfully. While the notion of potty training a very young infant seems radical to many American parents, it's not a new idea. Before 1950, most children in the United States were toilet trained by 18 months. And today, most African, Asian, and European babies are trained well before their second birthday. So why are American babies and their parents so attached to their diapers? Many think it's due in part to the changing views of experts about toilet training, as well as the invention of disposable diapers. … Infant potty training mimics the time-worn practices of women in parts of Africa and Asia, where mothers often carry around their undiapered babies. These moms manage to avoid being soiled by their bare-bottomed children by learning to anticipate their elimination needs: When a mom notices a signal or pattern that suggests her child is about to relieve himself, she holds him away from her body. In the United States, proponents of the method aim to get their baby quickly to a potty. Laurie Boucke, author of several books on infant potty training, explains, "It's not as if your baby is running around peeing and pooping everywhere. The method is very hygienic." And it doesn't require an unrealistic amount of attentiveness, says Elizabeth Parise, a spokesperson for non-profit DiaperFreeBaby and mother of five (two of them potty trained as infants). "You don't have to sit home and stare at your baby all day looking for signs. The awareness just becomes part of your routine – the same way you notice signals that your baby's hungry or sleepy." Read more… BabyCenter and DiaperFreeBaby
(New Horizons In Food Rescue, continued from page 3)
Silicon Valley: Silicon Valley Food Rescue (SVFR), a joint venture initiative of Santa Clara County and Joint Venture Silicon Valley, is working to supplement existing food recovery and hunger relief efforts with its planned “A La Carte” pilot, which will recover prepared food from currently untapped sources and also deliver food to insecure residents in new, more convenient ways. According to SVFR, A La Carte, which will pilot in the summer of 2018, is “a trendy looking food truck that will rescue surplus pre-packaged food from corporate and university campuses and deliver the food directly into neighborhoods where people in need have limited access to food.” SVFR hopes to expand the pilot to cover the entire county. The trucks do not contain cooking and washing facilities, so are designed to distribute prepackaged food only. According to SVFR, “the program is designed to offer a normal, dignified experience to those struggling to feed themselves and their families, always free of cost.” City of San Diego: In order to help achieve the City of San Diego’s goal of achieving “Zero Waste” by 2040, the City has established a Food Waste Diversion Program which has diverted approximately 8,000 tons of food waste from the City’s landfill to date. Under this program, the 34 largest food providers donate food to local food banks; donors include the San Diego Convention Center, Airport, Zoo and Safari Park, and SeaWorld, along with several schools and universities. Donations represent approximately 8,000 meals per week. City staff’s experience indicated that the best way to overcome barriers to source reduction and food donation is to show businesses how much and what types of food they were sending to organics diversion via composting. And...Food for Free provides out-of-state inspiration Food for Free is a food rescue and redistribution non-profit operating in the Boston area since 1981. Recently, in response to growing demand from local businesses seeking to donate prepared foods to comply with the 2014 statewide commercial food material disposal ban (similar to SB 1383), Food for Free introduced a prepared meals program. The Food for Free kitchen processes about 900 lbs of donated, bulk frozen food per week, mostly from local university campus kitchens. The team has developed a process for breaking down the frozen food into individual meals, similar to tv dinners, which are packaged, sealed and labeled, and then distributed to a number of recipient hunger relief agencies. The meals have the advantage of being convenient for families and other food insecure residents those living in SROs, hotels or couch surfing; the elderly; students - who have limited kitchen access or other barriers to cooking, as they can be easily heated in a microwave. Program manager Fiona Crimmins describes the challenges of working with frozen product - the team has developed methods of breaking down the food that involves chisels, and can only work with food that separates in a manageable and appetizing way - but also the benefits in terms of extending the timeline for distributing the food. Similar programs on the Tufts and Harvard campuses, fueled by student volunteers, are processing surplus campus cafeteria food into individual, refrigerated meals for easy distribution. To learn more about model food recovery programs and Senate Bill 1383, consider attending the NCRA 2018 Zero Food Waste Forum this fall in the Bay Area. If you are interested in serving on the steering
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committee or becoming a sponsor, contact Ruth Abbe.. (Annual Meeting, continued from page 1)
ADVOCATE EFFECTIVELY IN LESS THAN 5 MINUTES PER DAY
By John D. Moore, NCRA Vice President and co-chair Zero Waste Advocacy Committee Every year many laws are proposed at state and local levels that impact zero waste; some for good, some not. NCRA does not have the required presence in Sacramento to influence legislation directly there and it is unlikely in the future to gain that. NCRA relies upon CAW to be a Zero Waste presence in Sacramento, but occasionally NCRA will have a different point of view from CAW. NCRA presently engages in writing letters of support/opposition. This is a good thing in general, but likely has less than optimal impact. Upon receipt of NCRA’s letters, the bill sponsor adds NCRA to an existing list of support/opposition letter writers. This advocacy is better than nothing.
(World Clean Up Day, continued from page 1)
hundred of millions of people taking positive action together on the very same day. Let’s Do It! has never been only about cleaning up waste. We also aim to unite the global community, raise awareness and implement true change to achieve our final goal - a clean and healthy planet. Read more... Let’s Do It World
But we know two things that can increase our impact: 1) Individual legislators pay more attention to people taking the time to call their office and register a support/oppose. All the caller needs to do is say “I am calling to express (support/ opposition) to AB XXX.” The legislative aide answering the phone will take down the person’s name and the city they live in, which leads to point 2; 2) legislators don’t care about the views of callers who are not constituents (voters) in their district. And while it is tempting to suggest that people lie about where they live and call legislators outside of their district, we can’t do that. By my count NCRA members live in 61 different California cities. Most, but not all, are in Northern California and the 9 Bay Area counties. Some hail from further north and south. Some live in the central valley. A couple live in southern California. There is untapped advocacy potential here. Especially in the twitter era.
Salvage Spring Fling - photos by Alina Bekkerman
If there was significant member interest, NCRA would develop legislative call lists tailored for participating members that would have the names of the two state legislators in their district and the telephone, fax numbers, and hashtags for each. When NCRA publishes a list of pending legislation along with its position to support or oppose, each participating member would be asked to call each of their two state legislators to provide their position on the particular bill and to provide the city in which they live and then post the position to each legislator’s twitter account and on the members’ other social media contacts. Each participating member would also be requested to assemble their own list of like-minded friends and acquaintances that they, in turn, would ask to contact their own legislators with the same support/oppose message. From there, in theory, NCRA’s advocacy reach increases exponentially. This tool could also evolve to include local city and county issues as they arise. In a democracy, decisions and policy are made by the people that show up. Please come to our annual members’ meeting on April 19, 2018 at Stopwaste in Oakland and tell us how to help show up for Zero Waste. ###
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