CEO

The Challenges of Developing SB 1383 Organics Infrastructure

California currently has more than 160 permitted compost facilities. When SB 1383 is fully implemented, California will need to divert at least an additional 14 million tons of organic waste, and currently available capacity is not sufficient to meet the targets established by the regulation. Even though there is available capacity organic waste, mostly in Southern California, most of that capacity is for green waste and not for mixed organics.  Moreover, 68% of the compost facilities today do not have any plans to expand.

Siting a new composting facility or expanding an existing one has become more challenging. The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) is in the process of implementing Order WQ 2015-0121-DWQ, which is having a significant financial impact on composters. This new requirement may inhibit facility expansion once facilities are in compliance with the General Order (because improved pads and lined ponds will define organics throughput capacity).  Similarly, once a facility has gone through a time-consuming process with the AQMD/APCD, it is very costly to expand the facility.

Composters will need significant incentives, from processing contracts to other financing mechanisms, to make the necessary investments in infrastructure to meet the goals of SB 1383. The primary reason organics processing facilities expand is to increase feedstock capacity for new collections programs. It has become too costly, time-consuming, and risky for facility developers to create new processing capacity without a dedicated contract for feedstock.

Environmental Officer

Oceanside's Journey to SB 1383 Success

In 2020, Ms. Foster led the City of Oceanside to be one of the first cities in California to roll out a SB 1383 comprehensive and mandatory based commercial food scraps recycling program, almost entirely overnight and during a Pandemic!  Through collaboration, grit, and a commitment to achieving sustainability through the nexus of economic recovery, community resiliency and environmental justice, Ms. Foster will present on the City’s journey, to bringing food scraps services to over 1,000 businesses within 6 months as well as enhanced organics programming for residents.   Presentation details will highlight detailed task management for a roll-out of this nature, rate modeling strategies for both commercial and residential customers, as well as unexpected barriers and subsequent strategies for success in zero waste and organics program implementation for all customer types.

Executive Director

Civil Engineer

Leadership in Organic Waste Management

With the final version of the Senate Bill 1383 organics recycling regulations on the books, Los Angeles County is working to expand its award-winning edible food recovery and organic waste recycling programs.  Hundreds of new facilities are needed throughout the State of California to achieve the SB 1383 targets of reducing landfill disposal of organic waste and emissions of methane, a powerful short-lived climate pollutant 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of near-term atmospheric warming.  Counties and cities are responsible for planning to ensure adequate infrastructure capacity to process their food waste, green waste, and other organic waste.  Through InfrastructureLA and the Southern California Conversion Technology Project, Los Angeles County has been engaging local Cities, facility developers, waste haulers, and other stakeholders to prepare for SB 1383 compliance.  This presentation will provide an overview of planning efforts that led the County to new insights and the development of new programs. The presenter will also share lessons learned to help other jurisdictions implement similar strategies. 

Founder

What I Learned From Studying Street Furniture for One Year

We have a furniture waste crisis. Waste generated from furniture and home furnishings has soared to over 12 million tons in 2018, an explosive 600% increase in just 60 years. To contextualize this crisis, I take it to a neighborhood level. Since Jan. 2019, I have been photographing street furniture in my Oakland neighborhood. In the first 15 months, I catalogued over 50,000 pounds of street furniture within two miles of my home. The results are as overwhelming as they are insightful, and I believe provide important clues for how we think about and respond to this perennial challenge. In this presentation, I will zoom in to share my data analysis and observations from photographing street furniture, and then I will zoom out to give a high-level overview of how different industries are responding to the furniture waste challenge/opportunity as the circular economy starts to gain traction locally, in the furniture industry, and beyond.

Executive Director

Returning to Sender: Re-Addressing Dumping and Litter

Tedd Ward will discuss the Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority’s strategies to reduce, collect, and enforce controls on dumping in a rural coastal county with >75% public land and without mandatory collection requirements.  Innovative aspects include a set of local ordinances that enable cleanup and enforcement based on dumped materials that can be tied to an address, and a program that engages unhoused residents cleaning up areas of encampment.

Clean Community Supervisor

Approaching Illegal Dumping Through Engagement, Encouragement, Education, Enforcement and Eradication

The Call Center at the City of Oakland receives tens of thousands of calls every year related to illegal dumping.  A small team of professionals staff the City in four different zones trying to educate residents and businesses about the impacts of illegal dumping, including “Zone Walks”.  These same staff also enforce the illegal dumping ordinances and laws using Administrative Citations, Civil Penalty’s and “24hr Order to Abate” notice process.  Finally, the City staff also work on eradication to get abandoned waste removed from the streets.  This includes their "Bulky Block Party" events. During this presentation, attendees will learn more about how the City of Oakland strives “to maintain the health and aesthetics of our city streets, through Engagement, Encouragement, Education, Enforcement and Eradication in an effort to Keep Oakland Clean & Beautiful!

Executive Director

Trainer of Record

Performance & Sustainability of Compost Products for Construction Sites

Sediment control and stormwater runoff control Best Management Practices (BMPs) may be specified on a wide variety of construction and industrial sites. The products and materials used may include straw, rock, plastic, compost, coconut, and more. The decision tree for the selection, design, specification, installation, maintenance, repair and disposal can include a wide range of considerations as the types of pollutants being targeted, the phase of construction, form of stormwater flow, contributing area and many more.

This presentation will include a case study comparing compost socks and straw rolls for temporary and permanent applications including check dams and slope stabilization at a remote landfilling operation in the foothills of California. The question will also be raised as to when and how we will begin using compost socks for removing oil and grease in the stormwater runoff from our construction sites.

Director of Research, Technical, & Environmental Services

Performance & Sustainability of Compost Filter Socks for Stormwater Filtration

Compost-based BMPs including compost filter socks offer many ecosystem service benefits to maintain our economic, environmental, and human health. These benefits include soil erosion and sediment control, storm water reduction and biofiltration, maintenance of natural cycles, waste reduction, and carbon footprint reduction and climate regulation. Case studies and peer reviewed university research demonstrate compost socks’ diverse capabilities and high-performance results in these applications. Compost filter socks are part of CalRecycle’s wildfire debris recovery specifications for erosion control, in part because current research shows removal of key pollutants often found in post-fire stormwater runoff. This presentation will focus on how these environmentally sustainable management practices use natural processes to achieve high performance results to minimize and treat stormwater, conservation water, reduce waste and carbon footprint.

Senior Scientist

Muncipal Policy Mechanisms for Specifying Compost and Compost-based BMPs

Municipalities have many tools at their disposal for implementing compost and soil restoration activities. Starting in 2022, SB 1383 requires local governments to procure and utilize recycled organic materials, such as compost and mulch. This presentation will review several mechanisms that municipalities can use to implement the use of compost and mulch. Development project-related policies, regulations and requirements will be discussed along with examples including compost-based sediment and erosion control BMPs (e.g. compost socks, compost blankets, compost berms) on construction sites, soil conservation and restoration practices, green stormwater infrastructure measures, etc. Attendees will take home ways that their jurisdiction can meet stormwater permit and SB 1383 requirements.

Environmental Scientist

Organizer

Green Army International

Nikhilesh Paliath Vinod is one of the founding members of a Youth Volunteer Network in Trivandrum India called Green Army International. Green Army focuses on imparting concepts of Zero Waste, Climate Action and other Sustainable practises in an Urban landscape to School children. Nikhilesh has worked as Program Coordinator for Zero Waste & Climate Action program at Thanal (a prominent Environmental NGO in Kerala, India) during the period 2017-2019. During his stint with Thanal, he got the opportunity to work on Projects with GAIA Asia Pacific, State Govt. of Kerala, CANSA, State Govt of Sikkim and other consultancy projects. Prior to Thanal, he gathered corporate experience at an Engineering Conglomerate, Larsen & Toubro. He is currently pursuing Masters in Environmental Systems Engineering & Management at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. He is part of Zero Waste action team of Social Justice Cooperative Newfoundland & Labrador and continues to mentor volunteers of Green Army in Kerala.

Organizer

Tour "Garbage City"

Wagdy Wageeh is a young environmental expert with an engineering background who has led tours of his hometown of Mukatam, a district in Cairo known as ‘Garbage City.’ It is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Cairo that has created a small functioning informal economy based on collecting garbage and recycling it. He has used design thinking to provide 50 solar water heaters and more than 70 biogas systems for the neighborhood.

Project Manager

Composting in Brunei

Amanina is a project manager in Brunei, 7,736 miles or 12,456 kilometers away from her alma mater UC Berkeley, where she served as the university’s first environmental justice coordinator. She has helped to launch campaigns such as #environmentalismsowhite in a student activism group to help bring EJ to the forefront of community awareness and she is always working to challenge the current narrative of environmentalism to seek for systemic change. Right now, she is the project lead at CIC environmental services for Brunei’s first industrial composting facility. She hopes to continue to grow Brunei’s environmental industry.

River Warrior Indonesia

River Warrior Indonesia

Captain of River Warrior, a youth environmental education and advocacy organization in Gresik East Java. Our vision is to make Brantas River Free From Plastic. I was interested in activism and environmental issues since i was little. I was raised in an environmental activist family. I started campaigning about plastic pollution in Brantas River, Gresik since 2019, started in my highschool, we held plastic exhibition and used social media to spread the words. Our recent project called "Info Mistik" focused on research and education on microplastic problem in Brantas River. We have found microplastic in Brantas River Water Sample. We used instagram to educate the viewers about microplastic.

Organizer

Special Project Manager

Post-Consumer Textile Characterization and Program Recommendations for CA

Clothing shouldn’t be disposable, but that is often how it is treated. In fact, textile waste is the 5th most common material found in California’s single-family waste stream and a costly burden on thrift stores of all sizes. The California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC) led a post-consumer textile waste study to characterize the garments not selling in local thrift retail before being baled and sold with rag and luxury garments mixed. The results of the study indicated a high reuse potential without major modifications and some garment categories were deemed more recyclable than others.

President

Recycling Nylon into High-Fashion Garments and Accessories

Aquafil, a global nylon manufacturer is an international leader in recycling nylon 6 waste into pure nylon 6 pellets that can be used to make new products including Speedo swimwear, Stella McCartney handbags, and nylon carpets. As a company, they invested time and money, and partnered with nonprofit groups that retrieve abandoned nylon fishing nets and bring them to Aquafil for recycling, all in an effort to clean up the ocean and recycle these waste products.

General Counsel & Director of Sustainability

Helping Organizations Achieve Sustainability Goals through Better Textile Management

Regent Apparel is using its 100 year history of apparel manufacturing experience to develop B2B textile solutions that support the environmental goals of tomorrow. They are incorporating recycled materials into their product line and working with both customers and suppliers to develop suitable workwear fabrics that do not rely exclusively on virgin materials. Regent is also engaged in pilot take back programs that support emerging textile recycling technologies.

Director of Donations and Aftermarket

Challenges with textile sorting and opportunities for expansion

Goodwill San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin’s guiding principle is that everybody deserves a second chance—and everybody deserves access to training, job opportunities, and support to succeed in our economy. Goodwill collects post-consumer goods, including textiles and clothing, and faces opportunities to expand sorting and grading through new technologies, job creations, and strategic collaborations.

Special Project Manager

Policy Director

A 360 View of Reduce and Reuse Policies

In 2021, reduce and reuse is being built in policies at the local, state, and federal levels in the U.S. and at a more macro level in Europe. This presentation will provide an overview of the policy landscape and set the stage for this panel, while other presenters will highlight more specific policy initiatives in play.

Coastal and Marine Scientist

ReusableLA Driving the Reuse Policy Agenda with Grassroots Advocacy

ReusableLA, a coalition of environmental and community advocates in Los Angeles, is  shifting the focus of City and County policy from bans on plastic to reduce and reuse solutions. This presentation will highlight the Coalition's work to implement reuse systems in Los Angeles food service and enact policies that will help them scale. The multi-stakeholder approach this coalition is using to drive policy across the finish line engages local businesses, community watershed groups, environmental justice organizations, and other stakeholders is seeking alternatives to single-use products that drive up food service costs and end up in incinerators or the local watershed. 

Policy Associate

State Policies in Play in California to Reduce Single-Use

The California legislature has often been a leader among states in responding to the plastic pollution crisis. From the first state plastic bag ban, to foodware policy that banned polystyrene foam packaging for state facilities, to a ban on microbeads to personal care products, California has been a beacon for other states. But in 2020, efforts to enact two comprehensive waste reduction bills (SB 54/AB 1080) failed to cross the finish line. In 2021, the Clean Seas Lobbying Coalition brought two ideas to the California legislature, seeking to reduce single-use in food service and promote refillables in California's Beverage Container Recycling Program – both as part of a larger Circular Economy Package. In addition, the California Recycling and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act (#19-0028) recently qualified for the 2022 ballot, giving voters an opportunity to both enact fees and a source reduction mandate on producers of single-use plastics. This presentation will focus on California’s current plastic pollution policies and how (or if) they may or may not be poised to implement reduce, reuse, or refill strategies.

Executive Director

Threading the Needle on EPR - Responsibility for Packaging

As state legislatures are increasingly considering EPR as a means to address the tsunami of hard-to-recycle packaging and single-use products waste, questions abound as to what the primary goals of these policies should be and how much control to give producers, regulators, waste haulers, and local government. What are the policy guideposts that need to be in place to ensure that producers will achieve higher levels of recycling than current systems? How will future policies need to be tweaked to accomplish source reduction? And how do we ensure that recycled packaging doesn't mean recycling and increasing the toxic substances in packaging, especially food packaging? In this session, Heather will provide some recommendations as to the policy guideposts for the next wave of state EPR packaging legislation.

Senior Commercial Zero Waste Coordinator

President & CEO

Leading the way to real solutions to the recycling crisis

Mr. Valle will outline why he applied to be a member of the Commission and what he hoped to achieve, and his view of the progress being made by the Commission and the future of the Commission.

Director of Advocacy

Implementing the Commission's Recommendations and Next Steps

Nick will discuss the implementation of the Commission's Policy Reccomendations, including legislative and regulatory action, and other next steps for the commission.

Executive Director

Policies Needing Implementation to Address Rural Issues

Mr. Ward will discuss why he applied to be a Commissioner and what he hoped the effort would achieve.  He will discusss how the policy recommendations are structured to put priority back on waste prevention and ensuring rural county issues are understood which are much different than the problems in urban areas so policies must be flexible enough to support both.

Executive Director, NSAC/Chair Commission on Recycling Markets & Curbside Recycling

Senior Management Analyst

Preferred Practices for Procurement Policy

Michele Young has worked extensively on developing compost and mulch specifications, as well as marketing strategies with public and private agencies.  In this session, attendees will learn about the procurement strategies being employed by the 15 independent cities in Santa Clara County, as well as the procurement policy samples that were reviewed to inform local decisions.  This multi-layer case study will provide examples and strategies for developing procurement specifications, policies, and ordinances that meet 1383 procurement requirements.

Program Manager

Innovative strategies to meet your procurement target

How are we going to pay for it every year, and where are we going to put it every year? With finite green space and budgets, cities are struggling with how they will meet SB 1383's ambitious procurement targets. Large cities have the highest targets and the least green space, and while small to mid-sized cities might have an abundance of areas suitable for annual compost application, they may not have the budget or staff to apply it. This session will cover the nitty gritty about meeting procurement requirements, and discuss different strategies to leverage partnerships with direct service providers to make city budgets go further and provide more opportunities for compost application.  Tracking systems, agreement templates and other tools will also be presented.  Note: At the time of this writing, it is not known which strategies will be acceptable to CalRecycle--so this presentation is likely to be as much about what you can't do as what you can't.

Director of Partnerships

How cities can support carbon farming and meet procurement requirements

Anthony Myint of Zero Foodprint (ZFP) will present Restore California, a public-private collaboration with CARB, CDFA, and the CA RCD’s, which offers solutions for jurisdictions who are interested in meeting SB1383 procurement targets while implementing beneficial regenerative farming (carbon farming) practices.  In conjunction with the Restore CA program, ZFP can help governments operationalize their Climate Action Plans, as well as fulfilling their SB1383 requirements, by facilitating and crowdfunding the transportation and spreading of compost onto farms and ranches with the highest sequestration potential.  Anthony, will provide examples of how regional governments can work with ZFP to mobilize private sector funding for carbon farming projects, including the purchase of compost from regional governments.

Central/Northern California Business Development Manager

Field Supervisor

Composter Approved: Compost Manufacturing Alliance's Field Certification for Compostable Products

The Compost Manufacturing Alliance (CMA) is a certifying body with a  focus on bridging the gap between food service ware development and products’ end of life destination. CMA is a growing collaborative partnership of composters across North America who represent a variety of commercial composting technologies. CMA focuses on certifying compostable products based on ASTM 6400, ASTM 6868, and real world facility field disintegration tests. With increasing focus on effective landfill diversion and participation in the circular economy, composting is emerging as a growing solid waste strategy to keep traditional plastics out of the environment, and to minimize what is shipped to landfills. CMA provides certification so that compostable serviceware is not a limiting factor to commercial composters and does not compound the issue of non-degradable waste in the system. This presentation will cover the impact field certifying products can have on getting the composters within the solid waste systems working together to develop viable acceptance programs, and the benefit that can be gained from using CMA field certified product lists.

Client Services Coordinator

Composter Approved: Compost Manufacturing Alliance's Field Certification for Compostable Products

The Compost Manufacturing Alliance (CMA) is a certifying body with a  focus on bridging the gap between food service ware development and products’ end of life destination. CMA is a growing collaborative partnership of composters across North America who represent a variety of commercial composting technologies. CMA focuses on certifying compostable products based on ASTM 6400, ASTM 6868, and real world facility field disintegration tests. With increasing focus on effective landfill diversion and participation in the circular economy, composting is emerging as a growing solid waste strategy to keep traditional plastics out of the environment, and to minimize what is shipped to landfills. CMA provides certification so that compostable serviceware is not a limiting factor to commercial composters and does not compound the issue of non-degradable waste in the system. This presentation will cover the impact field certifying products can have on getting the composters within the solid waste systems working together to develop viable acceptance programs, and the benefit that can be gained from using CMA field certified product lists.

Principal Director of Operations

7 Years with ASP – One Composters Story

In 2013 we acquired a bankrupt ASP facility and reopened it in 2014. This is a brief tale of our facility, our thoughts on the ASP Technology and how we approach the challenge of being composters in today’s world.

Assistant Professor

Myths and Misconceptions Part 1

Some common myths and misconceptions have emerged since we began discussing edible food recovery as a tool to reduce food waste in California.  As a former municipal Public Works Administrative Manager and current professor of Leadership studies, Dr. Gregory Warren will examine myths including the notion that pounds ‘recovered’ directly translate to pounds diverted from landfill.  Dr. Warren will all debunk that participation from Tier 1 and Tier 2 edible food generators alone will lead to target success for municipal programs. Finally, we will dive deeper into the impact and association between source reduction and edible food recovery.  At this stage of SB 1383 implementation, addressing these three topics will have a dramatic impact on the audience’s ability to meet SB 1383 edible food recovery targets.

Technical Manager, Food Safety & Sanitation

Myths and Misconceptions Part 2

Unlike other areas associated with the reduction of organic materials that end up in landfill, Edible Food Recovery is heavily reliant on food safety and the use of non-profit organizations and their volunteers to ultimately meet targeted goals.  There are common misconceptions associated with the role Environmental Health Departments can or should play with regard to edible food recovery.  Additionally, there is confusion on the part of potential food donors with regard to the roles and capacity of the non-profit sector across a vast state. Mike Haller, (Technical Manager with UL Labs/Food Safety Auditing Program and food safety instructor at Cal State San Bernardino) works with both national food industry companies and non-profit feeding organizations developing and analyzing best practices needed to instill confidence in the process of edible food donation.  As a former Environmental Health Department Program Manager and early advocate of food recovery, Mike will share his insight as to the role Environmental Health Departments can play and the complexities associated with relying on a varying and fragmented non-profit sector. The audience will learn how to collaborate with their local Environmental Health Departments to implement edible food recovery programs in a cohesive manner.  

Senior Director of Food Loss and Waste

Emerging Opportunities Part 2

The Pacific Coast Collaborative (PCC) is a US-based public-private partnership – one of the largest in the world – whose goal is to address wasted food. Together with ReFED, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and WRAP, the PCC is committed to supporting businesses that are implementing measures to reduce and prevent wasted food in the region by 50% by the year 2030 as part of the West Coast Voluntary Agreement to Reduce Wasted Food  – a regional public-private partnership in line with U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions and Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 from the United Nations.

The PCC presents an opportunity to learn how to follow the “Target – Measure – Act” principles in order to set realistic, measurable objectives.  Attendees will also learn how the PCC works with private businesses and local jurisdictions in Washington, Oregon, and California to prevent and reduce food waste.  The session will explain how, by following the adage “you can only manage what you can measure,” business signatories work pre-competitively to track food waste, identify industry challenges, and collaborate within working groups to develop scalable solutions to be shared with all PCC members. 

The audience will be enlightened about the environmental benefits of reducing food waste such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving water and land resources, and supporting those facing food insecurity. Information will also be provided about the potential business benefits, including how a similar program in the UK, saw business participants receive a 14:1 return on their investment.

Crime Prevention Sr. Program Specialist

Emerging Opportunities Part 1

The Alameda County Circular Food Economy (known as ALL IN Eats) will present emerging opportunities to help implement food recovery programs with an innovative holistic and collaborative approach. The mission of ALL IN Eats is to engage people, organizations, and County agencies in a virtuous cycle that feeds wellness, sustainability, food security, community resilience, and economic empowerment. Attendees will learn successful program approaches to addressing the root causes of poverty, not just the symptom of food insecurity, how to engage community leadership, prioritizing equity and building an understanding of the bigger picture of a circular food economy.

Community Leadership: Communities know what they need to thrive, and their voices, experiences, and leadership should be elevated as the starting place for change. ALL IN Eats will share the steps taken to institute a collaborative steering committee that includes residents, government agencies, nonprofit, and business organizations.

Prioritizing Equity: Structural barriers to opportunity that arise from racism and economic and social policies that drive inequality are a root cause of poverty in our society. ALL IN Eats will share lessons learned from the process of building public systems that enable movement out of poverty and the design of policies and programs that promote equity.

Circular Food Economy: ALL IN Eats will teach the audience how food recovery fits into the bigger picture of a circular food economy that includes production, aggregation, processing, distribution and recovery. The audience will use this understanding to expand the impact of food recovery programs in their community.

Chief Operations Officer

Program Manager

Addressing Food Recovery at the City-level and Beyond

SB 1383 requirements necessitate that cities become more involved with the food recovery scene within their city boundaries. But more often than not, food recovery crosses jurisdiction borders. Nonetheless, cities can play a unique role in supporting local efforts to prevent food waste and bolstering food recovery programs. 

San Diego Food System Alliance serves as a convener and network builder for the San Diego region food system. By bringing a complete food systems lens to the issue of food waste and food recovery, the Alliance seeks to educate and unify stakeholders. During this presentation, SDFSA will share strategies for cities to address food waste and food recovery within their cities and beyond.

Director, Research and Analysis

Food Rescue in a Pandemic World

COVID-19 has upended most every aspect of our lives, including the solid waste system. Join us for an informative investigation of changes in the composition and quantity of waste correlated with COVID-19. This engaging presentation is rich with facts and figures gleaned from our extensive library of historical waste characterization data and the results of the many waste studies we have completed since the beginning of widespread stay at home orders in March 2020. We will wrap the presentation up by reviewing some of the surprising impacts the changing waste stream may have on achieving SB1383 and other organics diversion and food rescue legislation.

Executive Director

Food Cycle on Farmlands

In 2017, Solana Center established Food Cycle, a proof-of-concept food scrap drop-off program. Staff and volunteers process food scrap into compost. Due to increasing interest, onsite processing capacity has grown from 0.5 to 15 cy. Currently, 150 regular participants drop off food scrap and collect finished compost for their own uses, resulting in potential 24 MTCO2e/year avoided.

Having successfully demonstrated the feasibility and accessibility of mid-scale composting to serve a local community, Solana Center plans to take our program to the next level. Food Cycle on Farmlands will accept food scrap from food-generating businesses to be composted at agricultural properties. In addition to avoided greenhouse gas emissions through diversion, this program will quantify carbon sequestration from land-applied compost.

Our broader vision is to replicate the successful elements of Food Cycle on Farmlands at San Diego County’s 5,700 small farms. Estimated carbon sequestration opportunity on all 242,000 acres of land in agricultural production in the County is over 11M MTCO2e.

The issues surrounding wasted food are significant, involving resource depletion, climate change, and food justice. Solana Center is developing replicable models that are garnering widespread national interest. Our organization is working inside regional systems to make wholesale change to behaviors as well as infrastructure by creating solutions that individuals, organizations, and communities can embrace. The presentation will describe the current Food Cycle program and the vision for regional implementation of a closed loop system from local farms to local grocers and back to farms.

Executive Team

Engaging Youth to Reduce Organic Waste and Promote Recycling

Keep California Beautiful annually hosts a K-12 Recycling Challenge. In 2021 due to the challenges of COVID, KCB in cooperation with CalRecycles, CalTrans, corporate sponsors, and school leaders launched a reimagined youth contest. The 2021 K-12 Challenge included a recycled content art contest, a video, and/or a litter assessment using the KCB Environmental App to determine litter conditions in neighborhoods or around schools. The presentation will highlight the winners from the Challenge including but not limited to the youth messages to reduce organic waste and promote SB1383 one of the two topics for the video contest. The session will also share best practices working with schools and the Food Packaging Insitute to address waste reduction and recycling using the K-12 Challenge. 

Sustainability Manager

Meeting requirements for SB1383 to Benefiting Our School Communities

Nancy Deming and Amanda Halte work directly together in the Bay Area, focusing on various waste reduction and diversion issues. The speakers will share their work in meeting SB1383 requirements as well as benefiting our school communities. Additionally, the speakers will discuss the challenges of foodservice packaging, including working with the market and haulers to make changes impacting what goes to landfill vs. recycling or composting. 

School Sustainability Specialist

Meeting SB1383 Requirements and Benefiting our School Communities

Nancy Deming and Amanda Halte work directly together in the Bay Area, focusing on various waste reduction and diversion issues. The speakers will share their work in meeting SB1383 requirements as well as benefiting our school communities. Additionally, the speakers will discuss the challenges of foodservice packaging, including working with the market and haulers to make changes impacting what goes to landfill vs. recycling or composting. 

Environmental Scientist

Providing Assistance to Successful Implementation of SB1383

CalRecycle staff will provide an overview of SB 1383’s timeline and requirements for local education agencies, including requirements to recover edible food. CalRecycle staff will be available during the session to answer SB 1383 related questions and share templates or resources CalRecycle has or is developing. 

Recycling Coordinator

Zero Waste Systems Manager

COVID Impacts on the Waste System

As Stanford University begins to bring people back to campus, we are assessing past automatic services like breakroom coffee supply and deskside collection of waste and whether cafes will allow reusables.  All of these decisions will have an impact on the waste stream and our ability to reach our zero waste by 2030 goal. Come hear the discussion and decisions that are likely happening in commercial buildings and campuses near you.

Campus Zero Waste Manager

Changing Building Usage Post COVID Impacts Waste Generation

Building planners are already reassessing the space needs of commercial and campus building post COVID and these changes will impact how waste is generated in commercial and campus buildings in your cities and towns. Office spaces, breakrooms, and parking lots will look different in the future and now is the time to plan for the new waste stream.  The speaker will discuss expected changes to usage of building on the UC Berkeley campus and new expectations of generators waste collection and purchasing. 

Using a lean methodology to run zero waste campaigns

Using a lean methodology to run zero waste campaigns

Lean processes are about creating quick feedback loops to run experiments that confirm a hypothesis or inform changes to yield better results. 

Older organizations like GE and Toyota have mastered manufacturing through lean processes. And newer ones like Facebook and Google have attained monumental growth by quickly iterating their products that implicitly sample their users for feedback.

How can we apply learnings from this evolutionary process to zero waste?

With this methodology, we allow for the setup of a stratified sampling system, not an exhaustive one, to quantify and categorize waste and contamination and normalize the effect of various confounding factors such as day of the week, seasonality and one-off events. 

Within a month of daily sampling waste at buildings, waste managers can quickly gain insights into the most frequently observed issues such as contaminants or opportunities for waste reduction. They then implement campaigns that immediately focus on the most common problem areas to reduce waste, increase recovery from landfill, reduce contamination and save on hauling costs and fines. With continued sampling, this creates a feedback loop for validating the hypothesis of the campaign which can be iterated upon for improved results.

With a zero waste grant from the City of San Francisco, UCSF, Zabble and Envriolutions applied this methodology to sample waste at 4 buildings in the UCSF Mission Bay campus to run quick campaigns and evaluated the lean hypothesis to zero waste.

This presentation will discuss the results of the study conducted over a 6 month period.

Environmental Specialist

Construction & Demolition Waste Tracking at San Diego International Airport

Construction and demolition (C&D) waste can contribute to a large amount of weight in a waste stream and can be overlooked as a means of diversion. The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, managing body of San Diego International Airport, created administrative and procedural requirements for construction waste management and diversion activities. The minimum waste diversion goal is 90% of the inert material (in alignment of LEED and TRUE) and 75% of the total project waste by weight. The contractor provides appropriate documentation and evidence of recycling and reusing materials. All construction projects at the airport have a waste management plan with processes on how the C&D waste will be diverted. This contributes to the Airport Authority’s zero waste goals and overall diversion rate.

Participates will learn about the process to implement a C&D waste management reporting and tracking system for construction projects. Participants will gain further insight in how to set up a process like this at their organization and tips to help implement a C&D waste management tracking and reporting program. They will also gain insight into the data collection process and information on C&D waste diverted at SAN and the collaboration with various stakeholders to develop a tracking and reporting management program.  

Waste and Sustainability Coordinator

Education Manager

Virtual Programming: Staying Relevant in a Rapidly Changing Environment

The COVID-19 pandemic created a shift in how we provide outreach and education in order to stay connected with the public. I Love A Clean San Diego (ILACSD) provides over 900 educational programs in a normal year, including presentations and interactive workshops for youth and adult audiences on a variety of sustainability topics. In order to continue these zero waste and environmental education programs in 2020 and 2021, ILACSD needed to adapt and rethink our approach to fit COVID-19’s restrictions on in-person gatherings. ILACSD did so successfully, averaging a 4.9 out of 5 rating on all virtual programs during the 2020-2021 school year. In this session, ILACSD will review our best practices and lessons learned in pivoting programming for both the immediate short-term as well as the future. ILACSD will share its approach for program analysis and redesign, from maintaining the core goals of the program to incorporating virtual elements while balancing contractual requirements with audience needs.

Recycling Specialist III

Green Facilities and Operations Analyst

Zero Waste Education Alliance Facilitation

Naomi is the lead conveyor of the Zero Waste Education Alliance as well as works directly within the formal education system through the San Mateo County Office of Education. Naomi will speak about the successes, challenges, and opportunities of leading this network group of haulers, waste educators, and county agencies. The second part of her presentation will be focused on the outcomes of the ZWEA group for school administrators looking to lead waste diversion programs in their district.

Waste Zero Specialist

Hauler Outcomes for the ZWEA Network

Reyna represents one of the waste hauling companies that provides hauling and outreach services for public schools throughout San Mateo County. Reyna has directly worked with facilities and operations personnel along with teachers and students throughout the school districts to promote waste education, rate structures and legislative mandate compliance. Reyna will speak about her ongoing partnership with school districts, resources that her fellow members of ZWEA have provided to assist in their shared efforts and success stories of ZWEA’s impact on many San Mateo County schools.

Better Methods for Tonnage and Revenue Forecasting for ZW Plans

Better Methods for Tonnage and Revenue Forecasting for ZW Plans

Tonnage fluctuations – a la Covid-19 – wreak havoc on budgets!  Predicting tonnage disposed and diverted is vital to program planning, staffing, and budgeting.  But for decades, most Zero Waste and program planning work has relied on very simple (engineering-type) methods: “scaling up” last year’s tonnage by population or trend analysis, adjusted in an ad hoc way for big program or policy changes.  This presentation reviews four forecasting approaches and illustrates the distinct advantages that economic / econometric forecasting approaches provide for:

o   really tracking peaks and valleys and cycles in tonnages, linking to causal economic drivers, and allowing huge improvements in revenue forecasts and service needs, and

o   supporting meaningful scenario analysis and “bounding” of projections for more reliable planning and risk analysis.

The presentation illustrates the power of the technique for improved tonnage forecasts for disposal, recycling, C&D and other streams, including graphs, comparisons, and real-world forecasts. It also provides links to material-specific forecasts (and the evolving ton), program planning, and prioritization steps.  Benefits to Attendees include:  learning about strengths and weaknesses of tonnage projection methods; understanding economic forecasting methods, key drivers, and the performance in solid waste; and understanding how using the methods can reduce risk in planning and budgeting.

Director of Business Development

Founder

The Procrastinator’s Guide to SB 1383 Recordkeeping and Reporting

2022 is less than five months away — is your jurisdiction ready for SB 1383 recordkeeping? If not, the good news is it’s not too late! For jurisdictions, initial reports are not due until April and October, but recordkeeping starts on January 1. So in this session, we’ll focus on the nuts on bolts of the recordkeeping requirements.

The 127 pages of SB 1383 regulatory text ultimately boil down to a handful (albeit a large handful) of different types of information that a jurisdiction must keep accurate and up-to-date records on. We will walk you through exactly what that information is, and suggest ways to streamline setting up your documentation. This will help to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks, and that you’re prepared for both a CalRecycle record request as well as for your annual reporting. 

Having spent the better part of 2020 and 2021 building software for this exact purpose, we have a firm grasp on the requirements. We will share what we’ve learned along the way, and answer questions, so that all jurisdictions -- not just Recyclist customers -- have a solid roadmap for success.

Finally, SB 1383 is a team effort -- if ever there was one! -- between cities, counties and haulers, as well as consultants and potentially other organizations. Maintaining records in one central location, as the regulations require, while simultaneously maintaining data privacy, can be a challenge. So we’ll also go over best practices for collaborative recordkeeping based on real-world successes from Recyclist customers.

Zero Waste Specialist

Refuse Separation Compliance Ordinance

The Refuse Separation Compliance Ordinance (RSO) is a San Francisco law designed to increase additional compliance to support San Francisco’s Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance. SF has approximately 300 Large Refuse Generators (LRG) which is defined as accounts with a roll-off compactor or accounts with at least 40 cubic yards or more of uncompacted compost, recycle and trash service per week.

LRG’s are audited once every three years and compliance with the RSO means Large Refuse Generators must not exceed set contamination thresholds of 5% for compost, 10% for recycle and 25% for trash. An LRG that fails an audit with contamination above set limits in any of the three streams are required to engage in services of a Zero Waste Facilitator to ensure adequate separation for refuse being collected.

Come see the results of how this new law pushes additional source separation ACTION to help move San Francisco toward Zero Waste!

Consultant/Researcher (PhD)

Identifying Generators and Outlining the Program: EFR in Contra Costa

Marie Mourad (PhD) will present the work she conducted with a team of consultants for the Joint Power Authority in charge of waste services in West Contra Costa County (RecycleMore) in the early stages of implementing an Edible Food Recovery Program. She will highlight data sources that counties and jurisdictions can use to identify local Tier 1 generators, with a focus on large supermarkets and grocery stores (including listings based on county Department of Health inspections, sales tax permits, NAICS codes, CalRecycle Convenience Zones, US EPA excess food opportunity map, etc.). She will provide an overview of the pros and cons of these resources as well as methods and "tips" to collate them and extract the most relevant information. She will share the survey of generators and food recovery organizations and food recovery services she conducted in the RecycleMore service area to assess current compliance, food recovery capacity, and reporting activities. These results revealed opportunities for improvement, including through synergies at the regional and state level. This presentation will help jurisdictions identify their commercial generators, understand their food recovery “ecosystem”, and start implementing an edible food recovery program in compliance with SB1383 by 2021.

Resource Conservation and Waste Reduction Specialist

Bringing Everyone to the Table: EFR in San Mateo County

For the past several years, the County of San Mateo’s Office of Sustainability has worked with each of the different jurisdictions, sanitary districts, JPA’s, and food recovery organizations located within San Mateo County to create one countywide edible food recovery program that will fulfill each jurisdictions' edible food recovery obligations under CA SB 1383. Jack will describe the coordination that led to this unified approach, the partnerships the Office of Sustainability has developed with different food recovery organizations, and the status of the current edible food recovery program. The session attendees will leave with key lessons learned to coordinate multiple stakeholders in their edible food recovery efforts.

Food Rescue Programs Manager

SB1383 Case Studies of Edible Food Recovery (EFR) Programs

Consultant

Sustainable Food Programs Coordinator

Edible Food Recovery: Involving and Serving the Community

The Bobcat Eats Food Waste Awareness and Prevention Program is a food rescue program at the University of California, Merced. Food is rescued from cafes, grocery stores, flea markets and farmers' markets. A majority of this food is then used to stock our new community fridge, the People's Fridge, or is distributed at our Pop-Up People's Pantry. The community is involved by encouraging volunteerism, but also by encouraging them to donate their surplus food to the programs, specifically our community fridge. Participants of this session will learn about circular community driven food rescue programs which rescues food to sustain community programs.

Director of Operations

Communication-they key to clean feedstock

Justin Wilcock will discuss Marin Sanitary Service’s innovative Food to Energy Program and how they work to get quality feedstock at the curb and at their prepossessing facility.  He will also share plans for extending this success to their other organics programs.

Public Education Manager

It takes a village to get clean organics feedstock

Tim Dewey Mattia will discuss how Napa Recycling manages contamination to produce quality compost through the use of depackaging technology and hands-on sorting at the processing facility.   

Sustainable Programs Specialist and Operations Asst

The good, the bad and the ugly for clean organics

Teresa works closely with material recovery and anaerobic digestion experts at Blue Line Transfer. Her recycling program development and outreach efforts are tied to what can be accomplished by Blue Line’s equipment and staff. Teresa will speak about the successes and challenges for successful processing of organic materials—those collected as source separated organics AND those collected as garbage.

Independent Consultant

Director, LEED

LEEDing the Way Waste Prevention and Zero Waste

The newest version of the LEED Rating System, LEED v4.1, has embraced the full materials management hierarchy of waste prevention, then reuse, then recycling. Credits in the rating system reward strategies that support circular economies with zero waste. Waste prevention is now a core component of the construction and demolition credit in LEED, marking a significant shift away from waste diversion to strategies that reward the prevention of waste before a building breaks ground. New waste prevention targets in LEED are intended to encourage best practices in dematerialization, light-weighting, and reducing construction phase excess.  This dramatic shift in LEED requires new perspectives during the early design phase that goes beyond source separation or commingling C&D waste on the jobsite. By empowering new players in the building industry to prevent waste, LEED is seeking to transform the way we build to favor designing-out waste in the first place. 

Senior Green Building

An Ounce Of Prevention Is Worth A Pound (or Ton!) Of Cure

San Francisco has long championed a zero waste mindset for construction and demolition materials: in 2006, banning direct hauling from jobsites to landfills and mandating recovery; and in 2018, instituting third party verification requirements for recovery rates and practices at Registered Facilities. The city is fortunate to have robust recycling outlets and progressive practitioners, who are joining policy makers to champion the Advancing Toward Zero Waste Declaration – a commitment to not only slash deposits to landfill but also cut back on generation itself. As such, local policy must also expand to encompass more directly the top two of the 3R’s in the waste hierarchy: Reduce and Reuse. Eden Brukman will share some of the city’s new and emerging waste prevention efforts, including infrastructure for material redistribution and source reduction through outreach, as well as design and construction activities.

Sustainability Director

General Contractor Zero Waste Lessons Learned

Since 2018, Webcor has pioneered innovative construction and demolition waste management strategies. Now, we’re pursuing an even more aggressive approach for optimized landfill diversion and transparency.

During this session, we’ll present part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy, which includes bringing these innovative implementation strategies to all Webcor projects, and share lessons learned from integrating a progressive waste program.

Lessons will focus on:

1. Reducing total waste generated on jobsites annually by 2% (unit: total waste/sf)
2. Utilizing RCI facilities for mixed construction and demolition debris for 50% of total annual waste by 2025.
3. Piloting TRUE zero waste at one construction project by the end of 2022.

We’ll dive into how collaborating with our self-perform (Concrete, Drywall, and Carpentry), subcontractor, and waste facility teams has encouraged us to creatively strategize ways to effectively meet our commitments.  Ultimately, these best practices are the future of doing business to achieve zero waste.

Zero Waste & Green Building Coordinator

Founder & Independent Engineer

The Problems with California's Plastic Waste Exports

California is the leading state exporter of plastic waste in the U.S., shipping 9 million kg of plastic waste to Non-OECD countries in October 2020 alone. 

Plastic waste has been exported and counted as “recycled” by industrialized countries for decades. Without documented traceability of the final fate of the plastic waste, bales of waste plastic collected from municipal and commercial recycling systems were shipped to buyers in foreign countries, many of which had no worker age and wage protections, no health and safety standards, few environmental regulations and no guarantee that the plastic waste would actually be recycled.

Recoginizing the environmental and social harms caused by plastic waste exports, 187 countries ratified the Basel Plastic Waste Amendments.  Starting on January 1, 2021, the international treaty set restrictions on the import of plastic waste in many of the countries that California has exported plastic waste to. 

The audience will be briefed on the amounts, types and destinations of California's plastic waste exports to other countries. The latest data from the US Trade database will be employed. Evidence of social, environmental and economic harms caused in receiving countries will be presented. Commitments to end plastic waste exports made by some waste/recycling companies will discussed.

Executive Director

What the Basel Convention's Plastics Amendments Mean for California's Recycling

This year the Basel Convention's new amendments controlling the trade in mixed and dirty plastic wastes has come into force.  While the US is not a Party to the Basel Convention that does not mean that California has no responsiblity or liability to prevent illegal trafficking in plastic waste on the global stage.   California currently leads the nation in exports of plastic waste.  Much of that is now illegal and will likely be subject to search and seizures.  Jim will discuss recent recommendations made to the California legislature by the Recycling Commission and other ideas to bring California recyclers into better global compliance with the new rules of the road. 

GM

Recycling Markets for Non-Bottle Plastics

Promoting that recycling programs should be simple by including only material that can actually be recycled. Encouraging program operators and municiple staff to verify where the material is actually going and what happens to the material and the residual from the process. Making sure that California recycling programs are seen as Recycling and Not Diversion Programs. We do not want material collected and diverted from California to harm communities and ecosystems outside of California.

Executive Director

Removing Non-Bottle Plastics From California's Recycling Programs: A Case Study

As California cities confront their role in the damage caused by exported plastic scrap, and as processors face the new market realities restricting plastic exports, eliminating non-recyclable plastics from curbside recycling programs is necessary. Like many other cities, Berkeley began collecting non-bottle plastics in its curbside program under pressure from consumers and municipal leaders who were convinced they were indeed recyclable and sought to reach ever-increasing diversion and Zero Waste goals. 

Today these plastics have no markets, and when exported, cause significant harm. The Ecology Center in Berkeley has gone to extreme lengths to track plastic exports and ensure no harm is caused by collecting these plastics. Still, the cost, misrepresentation to customers, lack of environmental benefit, and operational challenges all lead to an obvious conclusion- they must be removed from recycling programs. The Ecology Center, along with many other curbside operators across the state and nation, is actively seeking to eliminate these problematic plastics from its program but faces numerous structural barriers. This presentation will promote removing non-recyclable plastics from California's recycling programs and share practical tools addressing policy, economic, public education, and operational barriers. Finally, this presentation will call for state action to support cities in keeping recycling real.

Executive Director

Technical Project Coordinator

Real Humans+Innovative Technology = Higher Participation+Lower Contamination

What happens when two people strike up an impromptu conversation about lid-flipping at a CRRA conference? Great things! Back in 2019 in Palm Springs, a dialog started between The Recycling Partnership and Recyclist about gathering residential lid-flipping data and the potential to use it to impact program participation and contamination levels. That conversation eventually moved online (of course, by then it was 2020!), and ultimately yielded an innovative collaboration between the two organizations.

Now, using a customized version of the Recyclist Program Tracker, field inspectors participating in The Recycling Partnership’s Feet on the Street program give direct feedback to residents about their contamination and track it via mobile app. Project managers in the office can see those reports in real time. The collected data is then used to conduct targeted outreach and analyze the program’s overall impact on participation and contamination results over time. 

Attendees in this session will learn about best practices for efficient residential outreach as well as see critical data from The Recycling Partnership’s Feet on the Street program. As jurisdictions across California look towards rolling out or expanding residential organics collection programs by 2022, it’s never been more important to understand the dynamics of monitoring contamination and delivering targeted education. The timing couldn’t be better: the new data that The Recycling Partnership is rapidly accumulating on recycling has great potential to help municipalities gain insights into how we can tangibly move the needle towards higher participation and lower contamination in both residential recycling and organics programs

Recycling Program Manager

How to double your public participation with effective outreach campaigns

How did a small town save 500,000 plastic bags from being landfilled, collect 250% more yard waste tonnage, and double its recycling participation in three years? In this presentation, we will discuss how we used a robust public engagement process to implement new residential yard waste and recycling programs in Truckee. This includes messaging strategies that will set up any new or needing-improvement programs to be successful.

In this presentation, learn how to:

• Develop a concise, clear campaign message
• Identify your call to action
• Understand how to distill your audiences
• Learn practical tips on social media & traditional media platforms

The key takeaways from this presentation can be applied to small towns with limited resources, vacation destination areas with challenging demographic splits, or any jurisdiction looking to implement new programs or improve on current practices. Change is difficult, but an effective outreach campaign can help overcome that challenge to drive behavior change. Hear from our successes and lessons learned throughout our Truckee roll-out to help improve your own outreach methods.

Special Project Manager

Marine Debris Policy: Research, Action Plans, and Coalitions

The California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC) leads 6 Action Items and 2 working groups under the Ocean Protection Council’s Ocean Litter Strategy, focusing on state and local policies. CPSC also provides guidance to government and nongovernment entities on marine debris prevention strategies that engage producers for funded-solutions, such as the SF Estuary Partnership’s 5 year Blue Print on topics of green purchasing, and policy advocacy. This presentation will provide an overview of recent research, proposed legislation, and opportunities for coalition building and advocacy for marine debris prevention and removal.

Director of Market Transformation

Legal Director

Advancing Resource Recovery from Construction & Demolition Discards: San Francisco’s Journey

San Francisco has long championed a Zero Waste mindset for construction and demolition (C&D) materials: in 2006, banning direct hauling from jobsites to landfills and mandating recovery; and in 2018, instituting third-party verification requirements for recovery rates and practices at Registered Facilities. Learn how the city of San Francisco (SF) tracks compliance with debris recovery requirements by utilizing third-party verified recovery rates for commingled debris processing facilities, and Green Halo Systems, a fully integrated web-based management system that provides the necessary tools for owners, contractors, project managers and others to transparently comply with debris recovery requirements. SF’s C&D debris recovery policies and programs are currently serving as a framework for policy recommendations under consideration by California’s Statewide Commission on Recycling Markets and Curbside Recycling, as ways to help drive source-separation of C&D discards, while also working to advance recovery outcomes from commingled/mixed debris. The city is fortunate to have robust recycling outlets and progressive practitioners, who are joining policy makers to champion the Advancing Toward Zero Waste Declaration – a commitment to not only slash deposits to landfill but also cut back on generation itself. As such, SF’s policies and programs are expanding to encompass more directly the top two of the 3R’s in the Zero Waste hierarchy: Reduce and Reuse. Learn more about SF’s ongoing efforts to drive greater material reuse and waste prevention outcomes from construction and demolition activities, including infrastructure for material redistribution.

COO

Source separation at construction sites with lack of space

Yellowsack offers the solution of source separation of construction debris at construction sites by utilizing dumpster bags. With our service each dumpster bag can be filled with a source separated debris and the price for the pick-up is dependent on the debris type.

With the dumpster bags, contractors today in the San Francisco Bay area source separate dirt, concrete, wood, brush and yard trimming and mixed debris in different dumpster bags. With our solution we can, in the future, also offer source separation of other debris types, such as gypsum and electronics.

When the dumpster bags are picked up, the truck driver/operator classifies the debris based on his inspection. The debris is then transported to Zanker Recycling Facility, where Zanker inspects and classifies each debris and each Yellowsack dumpster bag is unloaded at the correct site. After the recycling of the debris, contractors can download all documentation at our secured online platform where they have overview of the recycling rate on each debris type. Since the dumpster bags are small and flexible it is a perfect fit for construction sites where today’s solution is to mix all debris in a trailer or one single dumpster.

CEO

Tracking Waste and Recycling

According to the U.N. the world’s population will increase to 8.7 billion by 2025. 75% of the population will live in cities. The amount of trash generated will be triple what it is today. So, what are we going to do with all this waste?

Implementing recycling laws, ordinances, and regulations are part of the solution. Using technology and equipment to process materials, creating more reusable products, packaging, and communication are others, but how much waste are you dealing with? Where does it come from? And where does it go?

Green Halo Systems has been tracking waste and recycling since 2005. Its patented cloud-based system provides government agencies with answers to all these questions. Green Halo provides solutions for tracking waste and recycling for construction, commercial bildings, schools and campuses, businesses, manufacturing, and recycling facilities themselves. Our software provides government agencies with the tools for implementing waste policies that help educate the public on how and where to recycle, while monitoring compliance by tracking and verifying results. Allowing you to generate comprehensive reports and statistics for your agency.

Green Halo provids Predictive waste flow analytics, directed processing pipelines, commoditized materials, reactive facility capabilities; a true craddle to grave highly efficient waste management system. Trash will always be a part of our lives with smart technologies it does not have to be a total waste. Become a Smart City today with Green Halo.

Zero Waste & Green Building Coordinator

President

SB1383 Implementation concepts/realities for jurisdictions........using compost and mulch

California SB 1383 not only requires communities to increase the volume of organic wastes being recycled, but also requires them to utilize the resulting finished products (compost, mulch, green energy). Required usage volumes are based on a community’s population, and significant logistical and economic issues will need to be addressed to allow for successful usage. That stated, the reality is that several jurisdictions will not be able to ‘self-use’ the full volume of compost and mulch required, and therefore, other acceptable means will need to be developed to meet SB1383’s requirements.

Compost and recycled mulches are incredibly efficacious products, and extremely helpful in dealing with land management, especially while dealing with changing environmental conditions and poor soil quality. However, many jurisdictions have not seen how compost can be used in the:

• Establishment and maintenance of turf,
• Manufacturing and improvement of landscape grade soils,
• Reduction in water usage and plant loss,
• Management of erosion and storm water, and
• Establishment of native plants.    

Further, jurisdictions have not educated their department staffs about these recycled products or modified their internal specifications and BMP’s to allow (or require) their usage. Possible applications for compost and mulch will be discussed during the presentation, as will means to evaluate usage volumes by a jurisdiction and creative implementation options.

Environmental Specialist

Aiming for a greater use of compost and Mulch in Chula Vista

Dave will discuss the SB 1383 purchasing requirements of their Southern California City. He will describe their outreach efforts with city staff, related staff training already completed, upcoming efforts, and determining factors that prompted them to obtain outside assistance.

Program Manager

Using Compost and Mulch in Alameda County?

Kelly will give an update on how StopWaste and its member agencies are working together to develop strategies to address compost and mulch procurement requirements. Model tools, including specifications, calculators, language for direct service provider agreements, will be presented.

Co-Founder

Good Words and Meaningful Job Creation

Do you notice yourself or others in your workplace calling different occupations by their gender title? Are the drivers "the boys" and the customer service reps "the girls?" If so, you might ask yourself how that habit might be discouraging anyone in the company from applying or interviewing for a job that doesn't fit their gender identity. Let’s learn how simple language changes can help create a more equitable environment for everyone.

Future of Work Program Lead

Meaningful job creation to expand regional circular economies

In January 2021, the San Francisco Chronicle published an editorial entitled “Why California’s recycling is a dumpster fire” that explained how far the state had strayed from its legislative goal of reducing, recycling, or composting 75% of its waste by 2020. Despite a herculean effort on the ground by solid waste professionals, statewide diversion averaged 37% in 2020.

What would it take to regroup and redirect efforts to reach our 75% goal? Focus on job creation as a driver for achieving regional circular economies.

Now is the time to facilitate creation of new circular economy jobs that cannot be outsourced or automated. We could strengthen domestic recycling markets for paper, cardboard, and plastic by supporting new product manufacturing using recycled content. We could work together to create jobs expanding building deconstruction, tool lending libraries, artistic upcycling and salvage, reverse catering, and ugly produce distribution. Each of these projects will not only expand regional circular economies, they will give these workers a sense of meaning and purpose.

How is California Funding the Future of Work in Recycling?

California has doubled down on the investment of State funds into recycling by carving out specific monies for recycling infrastructure in Administration backed programs like the Governor’s Climate Catalyst Fund. How can we be sure that these programs add green jobs that contribute to a local circular economy? Laura Ferrante, member of the Statewide Commission on Curbside Recycling will guide us through which policy recommendations and programs can lead us toward a new recycling economy.

Senior Associate

DEI – Moving beyond the talking points

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, often shortened to DEI, are terms recently restored to the modern business lexicon. But, how do you put these words into practice and what are the real world implications of investing in DEI initiatives and programs? Felisia will share insights and challenges from the ongoing work of the NCRA DEI Committee and provide a business case for building a more inclusive waste and recycling industry.

Senior Associate

President

Best Practices and Key Principles for Container Deposit Systems

CRI will share the results of our multi-year research and collaboration project on the Best Practices in Container Deposit laws (CDLs). There has been a sea change in attitudes from brand owners, trade associations and environmental nonprofit groups in the US and worldwide in the last few years, resulting in much more enthusiasm for CDLs. We have also seen a doubling of CDLs around the world in the last few years. Ms. Collins will cover the highlights of CRI’s Best Practices in Container Deposit Laws project and Beverage Market Data Analysis: Tipping Point report, the major trade associations’ new policies on CDLs, and legislative updates on CDL expansion bills and new recycled content laws.

Vice President, Government Relations

Aluminum Beverage Can Industry’s Approach to Deposit Systems

Mike will summarize CMI’s principles for designing an effective container deposit program. He will show how CMI’s outreach to beverage companies and their respective trade associations has led to consensus

as to how national and state deposit programs could be designed to optimize consumer convenience, program efficiency and increased recycling of metal cans. Mike will also discuss learnings from a U.K. based aluminum packaging trade group on the importance of variable rate deposits versus rate that are levied equally without regard to package size.

President

Redemption Systems’ Role in Meeting National Glass Recycling Goals

Container Deposit programs are critical sources of quality material to manufacturers who are eager to increase their recycled content rates to meet the sustainability objectives of the public, the regulatory requirements from public officials and circularity demands of CPGCs. The Glass Packaging Institute members spent the past year studying their supply chain and the availability of glass for recycling to meet industry goals of a national 50% recycling rate as well as higher average recycled content, and improved output from container deposit systems is necessary to meet those national goals. Scott will summarize the glass industry goals and speak to the importance of convenience and material quality as the industry supports revisions to the California program to make it more productive and sustainable going forward.

Exective Director

SB1383-Article 12 Procurement Programs: Composters Collaborating with their Jurisdictions

Expect to Learn:

• How best to collaborate with local composters and other stakeholders to comply with SB 1383 - Procurement regulations 
• How to form a combined SB 1383 Compliance and Bioresources Management Council to integrate your programs and contractors to achieve local and State goals
• How the ACP Supporting Member's "SB1383Article12 Procurement Support Program" can best support your Jurisdiction's SB 1383 Article 12 compliance.

Take-Aways:

• Why meeting regularly with local Jurisdiction's SB 1383 compliance stakeholders will support your program implementation, compliance, and integration with local soil amendment needs.
• Methods and systems for determining the ratio of compost product types and applications in local or adjacent county markets
• Options and methods for managing seasonality and parallel and adjacent local health soil markets in collaboration with other bioproduct procurement markets, e.g. natural gas, mulch, electricity, biofertilizer, biochar, materials, and chemicals.
• Systems for compost and other bioproduct quality as it relates to procurement price vs. product give-away programs

Principal

Net-Zero Waste California

The World Resources Institute, among many other studies, shows that global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will need to drop in half by 2030, and then reach Net-Zero around the mid-century to avoid the worst projected climate impacts. In pursuit of reducing GHG Emission, businesses and local government leaders must measure their impact on climate change. Specifically, the solid waste industry can use the GHG impacts to determine their progress toward Net Zero GHG emissions. Net-Zero GHG. for the solid waste industry has been defined by the California Air Resource Board in their 2014 Scoping Plan and will be utilized. To meet Net-Zero GHG, one’s avoided GHG emissions must be greater than, or equal to, one’s operational GHG emissions. By analyzing the operational versus avoided emissions, it will be possible to demonstrate that the solid waste industry within California has achieved this Net-Zero GHG goal for the year 2018, years ahead of the 2045 goal. Based upon available data coupled with best practices in GHG modeling, it is estimated the solid wase industry has avoided more than two times more GHGs than have been emitted.

Executive Director

Batteries - EPR or Product Stewardship? Which one is best?

Used batteries continue to be prevalent in the HHW materials received at facilities across the nation.  Chemistries from Alkaline to Ni-Cadmium to Li-Ion are showing up in the marketplace in a variety of forms, from single-use to rechargeable.  They take the form of loose household batteries to plug-in to embedded in products.  The typical consumer is faced with uncertainty as to which batteries are which and where they should take each type for proper recycling or disposal.  Unfortunately, many are ending up in the solid waste stream, either in the trash or recycling, causing significant fire risk to the collection vehicles and receiving facilities.  While there are some laws on the books in various states to deal with used batteries, there is no real consistency and success of collection and disposal/recycling programs can vary widely.  Is Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) or Product Stewardship the answer?  This session will take a deep dive into the variety of chemistries, forms, and existing collection programs for used batteries and then look at how EPR or Product Stewardship is, or can, play a role in the management of this waste stream. The presentation will also update the audience on the current status of the EPR/Product Stewardship bill moving through the California Legislature.

Attendees will gain a better understanding of the consumer confusion over battery chemistries, how to properly manage the batteries in a collection program, and how EPR and/or Product Stewardship play a role.

Community Program Manager

Preventing Battery Fires: Designing Effective Outreach for Hazardous Contaminants

Fires in recycling facilities caused by lithium and lithium-ion batteries have become all too prevalent in the waste management world, making batteries one of the most crucial contaminants to divert out of curbside recycling bins.

Through an innovative grant, The Recycling Partnership developed effective, battery-specific messaging for two separate California regions that had experienced a battery fire in the past year to educate residents on proper battery disposal.

A free toolkit for battery disposal education and outreach was created based on the learnings from the collective projects and is now available for use in communities across the US.

Building upon existing relationships formed during their 2019 West Coast Contamination Initiative, The Partnership partnered with Chula Vista, CA to do an education campaign on batteries and small personal electronics, and Los Angeles County to design digital messaging and signage based off of The Partnership’s research about battery disposal and behavior change.

In this session, Tanimoto will walk audience members through the process of designing effective outreach materials for a specific contaminant, including the unique messaging testing done with Southern California residents to pinpoint which phrases about keeping batteries out of recycling carts proved most effective. Participants will get an in-depth look at Chula Vista’s education campaign, which included a mailer to all 47,000 single-family households and amplified messaging, as well as LA County’s digital messaging and dissemination of the campaign. Finally, participants will be given access to the battery guide to implement this messaging in their own communities.

Vice President, Fire Protection Solutions

Scope, Consequences & Solutions of Fires Incidents at Waste & US/Canada Recycling Facilities

Ryan has been tracking and consolidating the reported fires at our waste and recycling facilities since 2016. During this session Ryan will be taking a deep dive into the fire incidents our industry faces, how it has changed historically and how we compare to other nations around the globe. Additionally, Ryan will discuss the consequences of these problems that include direct costs of incidents, injuries to employees and firefighters, operational downtime, and increased insurance rates with decreased options for our operators. Finally, Ryan will discuss the short and long terms solutions to these problems that include education, operational best practices and technology solutions.

Executive Vice President

Recycling old batteries through the use of innovative technology

Proper end of life management of old batteries is important to protect our solid waste and recycling infrastructure and recycling these batteries will preserve our valuable natural resources. Through its partnership with Retriev Technologies, KBI recycles all types of small battery chemistries, as well as large format electric vehicle batteries, recovering the materials originally used to make the new batteries in the first place. Todd will review the process of how old household and embedded type batteries are recycled at it’s battery recycling facilities, as well as inform the audience about Retriev’s “Big Green Box” battery collection system.

Attendees will learn why it is important to choose to recycle batteries

President

Zero Waste Market Clusters

Mentor

Sweden's Zero Waste Eco-Park

Pål Martensson, who also calls himself “the garbage man,” has been dealing with waste and campaigning for zero waste for more than a decade already. He worked at the Department of Sustainable Waste and Water Department for City of Goteborg for more than ten years, Sweden where he oversaw five resources recovery centres, including the first ECO-Park in the world – Kretsloppspa rken Alelyckan – that he founded and is now used as a model to public and private sectors worldwide.

Board Member

Following the Organics Hierarchy

In developing Zero Waste approaches to organics management, it is important to follow the organics hierarchy. This presentation will focus first on reduction, then feeding people and animals, followed by neighborhood and farm-based solutions and industrial solutions. Over 50% of materials currently disposed in landfills consists of organics. Zero Waste San Diego is leading the way in developing models for managing organics using the Zero Waste lens.

President

Resource Recovery Parks - Examples from Across the Country

According to the 2018 Facility-Based Characterization of Solid Waste in California study, 29.5% of landfilled materials statewide is considered “self-haul.” However, in communities with robust source reduction, recycling and composting programs (including San Francisco and San Jose), self-haul materials accounts for over 50% of landfilled material and are outside of the regulation of the local jurisdiction. California cannot meet its 75% goal without addressing self-haul and C&D. 

Most communities do not have landfills or transfer stations within their jurisdiction (and therefore, the facilities are outside of their regulation). Many communities do not have C&D ordinances and rely on CALGreen for regulation.

Some communities, such as Los Angeles and the San Luis Obispo County Integrated Waste Management Authority, have considered policies for requiring or incentivizing Resource Recovery Parks or Resource Recovery Centers at landfills and transfer stations within their jurisdiction.

The City of Palo Alto requires deconstruction and source-separation of C&D materials.

The City of Berkeley pays Urban Ore a disposal fee to salvage reusable materials at its transfer station.

This presentation will provide examples of Resource Recovery Parks sited at landfills and transfer stations across the country designed to address the needs of the self-haul and C&D sectors.

President

Senior Marketing and Community Engagement Strategist

SF’s snail mail campaign, a strategy for engaging apartment residents

SF’s snail mail campaign, a “new” strategy for engaging apartment residents

Every community faces the challenge of connecting directly with apartment dwellers. We often have property manager or owner contact information; yet reaching residents directly in a meaningful way, is difficult. San Francisco accepted the challenge and designed a unique mailing campaign to reach nearly every San Francisco apartment dweller, resulting in huge increases in awareness and usage of existing programs. San Francisco’s Department of the Environment (SFE) will share lessons learned and strategies applicable to any community attempting to reach multi-family residents for participation in zero waste programs.

Program changes in mid-2017 meant the need to communicate with every resident of San Francisco about new accepted materials. During a two-year roll-out of updated curbside collection containers, Recology and SFE collaborated to pilot new outreach methods, targeting the large proportion of multi-family residents.

SFE tested three prototypes with the public to be sure that the mailers would be opened and successful in motivating behavior change. Once deciding on the most well-received design, the mailers went to every door accompanied by a separate message and outreach to property managers.

Pre and post market research revealed some significant successes, including:

• 21% increase in zero waste information awareness
• 10% increase in composting frequency
• 24% increase in bulky item pickup program awareness
• Increase of 300 bulky item pickup appointments per week

Attendees will leave the session inspired to apply the simple tactics to reach their own multi-family communities.

Analyst

CLEANING UP THE STREAM –WHAT WORKS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

Can low-cost social marketing interventions “clean up the recycling stream”?  …Or get people to recycle more?  Two recent projects in suburban Colorado used pre / post / control group methods to explore the effectiveness of a set of social marketing approaches on behaviors in recycling, contamination, and sustainability.

One grant project focused purely on increasing residential recycling, and reducing recycling contamination.  Targeted messaging was informed by a “pre”-waste sort and focus groups with area residents.  The targets were problem materials (including plastic bags), preparation, and wishful recycling.  After several rounds of education, and some prizes and contests in the test area, the post-waste sorts (control and test) allowed examination of changes in disposed and recycled materials.  The “post” survey tested for changes in knowledge and behaviors for target materials. 

The second project included both residential recycling and sustainability behaviors.  Pre-, during-, and post- data were collected on recycling behaviors and energy use.  Pre-surveys were conducted, and collateral for each topic (recycling, water, and energy) was provided in turn.  The collateral directed households to a web survey, and passing the associated quiz or commitment entitled households to prizes.  The pre-, during-, and post- data and a follow-up survey were analyzed for control/test area differences.

Results and costs are presented, along with the collateral and methods used.  We demonstrate the effects that can be obtained from very low-cost efforts – and that some prizes are better than others!   Budget was allocated for follow-ups on both projects to examine retention of behavior changes. 

Environmental Specialist

HHW & COVID: Issues and Solutions

Discuss HHW issues from a historical perspective with significant emphasis on the current issues related to the pandemic.  Discuss recent developments and innovative solutions related to HHW issues brought on by the pandemic, both in CA and the US.  HHW facility managers are under incredible financial strain, logistical planning stress, and struggling to meet the ever-increasing influx of HHW into their facilities, especially during the times of COVID.

Senior Recycling Specialist

HHW & COVID: Issues and Solutions

Discuss HHW issues from a historical perspective with significant emphasis on the current issues related to the pandemic.  Discuss recent developments and innovative solutions related to HHW issues brought on by the pandemic, both in CA and the US.  HHW facility managers are under incredible financial strain, logistical planning stress, and struggling to meet the ever-increasing influx of HHW into their facilities, especially during the times of COVID.

HHW Program Manager

HHW & COVID: Issues and Solutions

Discuss HHW issues from a historical perspective with significant emphasis on the current issues related to the pandemic.  Discuss recent developments and innovative solutions related to HHW issues brought on by the pandemic, both in CA and the US.  HHW facility managers are under incredible financial strain, logistical planning stress, and struggling to meet the ever-increasing influx of HHW into their facilities, especially during the times of COVID.

Special Projects Manager

Senior Policy Advisor

A comprehensive approach to addressing litter, trash and illegal dumping

City of San Jose’s BeautifySJ Program works in collaboration with residents, businesses and inter-agency partners to achieve the goal of a clean city.  By using a neighborhood engagement approach, the BeautifySJ Program manages and coordinates a variety of programs and services to reduce blight and beautify the City of San Jose. These programs include, the anti-graffiti program, anti-litter program, the coordination of volunteer efforts, neighborhood beautification days, removal of illegal dumping and provides trash service at over 200 encampments located throughout the City as part of the Encampment Trash Program.  Like many urban cities the City of San Jose has experienced an increase in litter/trash/dumping related blight which has had an overall impact to our City. To better deliver services to address blight, the City has strategically aligned programs under one manager to better leverage resources and coordinate the delivery of services. Finally, the program uses an equity lens to ensure that communities’ most impacted by blight are appropriately resourced. 

Senior Policy Consultant

State Policies to Reduce Litter and Move Toward a Circular Economy

Senior Scientist

Senior Associate

Selling Nothing: Outreach to Reduce Consumption

Bombarded by endless advertising, Americans are conditioned to identify themselves as consumers first, and to believe that personal success is linked to buying more stuff. How can environmental outreach position non-consumption to make it the exciting and desirable choice? This session will explore examples of waste prevention outreach from local and overseas campaigns and will include the results of a brief statewide survey of attitudes toward consumption. Session participants will gain ideas on which messages and benefits to highlight in upcoming zero waste campaigns.

Director of Business Innovation

What’s even better than reducing...reusing!

Reusable services - and the growing number of businesses providing these experiences - are where consumers should be investing their dollars. In the circular economy of today and the one we are building for tomorrow, consumers can get what they want and need without all the single-use waste. Everything from your food and beverages, consumer and retail goods, and even shipping and packaging can be reusable. This session will explore successful business reuse case stories, like Just Salad’s Bring Back Bowl program and Dishcraft’s Serve It Safe pilot, including how we leverage communications and marketing to recruit and sustain happy end users in a B to B (to C) strategy.   

Regulatory Affairs Director

On-the-Ground Impacts of COVID-19

This presentation will explore the direct impacts of COVID-19 on the waste and recycling industry and lessons learned. Attendees will hear how the industry adjusted to the pandemic in order to continue to provide essential services and sustain local diversion efforts, where possible. Attendees will learn how Stay-at-Home orders impacted local waste generation, and the financial impacts of the shift in disposal from commercial to residential generators. The presentation will also address reliable access to personal protective equipment (PPE), new COVID-19 safety protocols, and vaccination progress for the industry.  

Owner

COVID-19 Path to Recovery in a Circular Economy

This presentation will explore the impacts of COVID-19 on California's ambitious and critical waste diversion goals. As we look to build a circular economy and recover from the pandemic, attendees will learn what policies can help support California's organic waste recycling development (SB 1383) and address the continuing impacts of China's National Sword policy on reliable markets for recyclable material. In addition to providing an industry perspective, this presentation will draw on the recommendations of California's Statewide Commission on Recycling Markets and Curbside Recycling.    

Mayor

COVID-19 at the Community Level

This presentation will address the impacts of COVID-19 at the community level, where you will hear directly from Mayor John Dunbar of the Town of Yountville and their waste service provider, Christy Pestoni of Upper Valley Disposal & Recycling. As a tourist destination, the Town of Yountville and the Napa Valley have been uniquely impacted by the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, both economically and for their waste and recycling efforts. Additionally, continued fire threats in the Napa Valley underscore the need to address the harmful impacts of climate change on local communities, pandemic or otherwise. In this presentation you will learn how community leaders see the path to recovery at the local level. 

Chief Operating Officer

COVID-19 at the Community Level

This presentation will address the impacts of COVID-19 at the community level, where you will hear directly from Mayor John Dunbar of the Town of Yountville and their waste service provider, Christy Pestoni of Upper Valley Disposal & Recycling. As a tourist destination, the Town of Yountville and the Napa Valley have been uniquely impacted by the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, both economically and for their waste and recycling efforts. Additionally, continued fire threats in the Napa Valley underscore the need to address the harmful impacts of climate change on local communities, pandemic or otherwise. In this presentation you will learn how community leaders see the path to recovery at the local level. 

Project Scientist

Turn off the Tap!

Worldwide, rivers account for 0.8-2.7 million metric tons of plastic waste emissions into the ocean. This provides a strategic opportunity to turn off the tap of plastic entering the ocean that endangers marine life, threatens human livelihoods, and spoils pristine landscapes. At UC Santa Barbara, applied marine research group Benioff Ocean Initiative is supporting a global network of innovators, the Clean Currents Coalition, in addressing this key source of marine plastics in river systems around the world. At each of the Coalition project sites (across North and South America, Africa, and Asia), we are deploying river plastic capture technologies, conducting research and collecting data, and educating and empowering communities to change their relationship with plastic. Our ultimate goal is to develop scalable solutions that can be replicated around the world and drive the elimination of plastic waste in our waterways.

Communications and Policy Director

WILDCOAST works on US/MX cross-border conservation challenges. The Benioff Ocean Initiative's project with WILDCOAST is focused on capturing plastic waste in the Tijuana River on the Mexico side of the border to prevent its reaching the Pacific on the US side of the border, where the river empties into a US national estuarine research reserve.  Learn more

Managing Director

MRC update (will customize if abstract is accepted)

The Mattress Recycling Council (MRC) just celebrated our 5th year anniversary in California and is happy to report expanded service to more communities, increased landfill diversion and an improving recycling rate despite the pandemic. Statewide, the program exceeded our 2020 expectations by collecting over 1.5 million mattresses and box-springs for recycling. However, it was not without challenges.  Covid-19 closed 25% of MRC’s fixed collection network in the Spring, cancelled 91 community collection events and recyclers closures required complicated and costly transportation diversions. While consumer demand for mattresses and furniture products surged, transportation resources and staffing shortages taxed the program. MRC has since established new procedures, policies and research projects to protect the organization for future disruptions. With over 80% of mattress discards now being diverted from California landfills, we are preparing the organization for a sustainable future.

West Coast Program Manager

PaintCare (details to follow)

With the support of its program partners, PaintCare celebrated a successful 10^th year of operation as an organization and built on many successes in the year eight of the California program. As was true for many organizations, the impact of COVID-19 was abrupt and deeply felt. The volume of paint collection plummeted in March and April 2020. At the lowest point, 58% of the program’s roughly 800 year-round sites temporarily suspended participation. In a time filled with uncertainties, PaintCare consulted with stakeholders and its retail partners to chart a path forward. The summer months of 2020 were a critical time for restoring services with adaptations and accommodating pent up demand. Though COVID-19 continues to impact our lives in 2021, PaintCare aims to make its program a safe and consistent resource as people try to cope and thrive in a changed world.

Executive Director

Carpet & Covid: Navigating the Pandemic

Despite the challenges of Covid 19, CARE’s carpet stewardship program has taken aggressive actions to ensure the viability of the State’s carpet recycling infrastructure. This included two special Covid payments, enhanced subsidies and introduction of an early submission payout protocol to aid cashflow pressures. As a result, the recycling rate did not plummet as initially expected. Reuse efforts for tile moved forward despite delays and grant investments in infrastructure and collections continued. In addition, unanticipated increases in transportation costs and market shutdowns were managed to the degree possible.  This presentation will focus on the actions taken and their impact on our recycling rate and activities along with estimates of future recovery implications will be described.  

President

Zero Waste Coordinator

Policy Implementation at a Large Institution

UCLA has adopted its own campus Single Use Plastics Policy with a more advanced timeline than the UC Single Use Plastics Policy. As one of the campuses spearheading language in the UC Single Use Plastics Policy, UCLA created a resource kit including an implementation guide and presentation to assist all stakeholders with compliance.

In this presentation, UCLA will share the contents of the implementation guide and discuss parts of the policy that may not be so cut and dry, especially when it comes to contracts and exemption forms. Concerns from large vendors will be shared as well as the resolutions proposed. The presentation will also provide an overview of what policy implementation looks like when the majority of campus is virtual, and the preparations for when the campus population returns.

Zero Waste Manager

Plastic Free by 2030 - Roadmap to Eliminating Non-Essential Plastics

In April 2020, The University of California, Berkeley committed to eliminating all non-essential single-use plastic with viable alternatives by 2030. This target, adopted by Chancellor Carol Christ, makes history by being the most comprehensive ban of plastic by an institution and the country’s strongest ban on single-use plastic. Unlike other plastic bans, UC Berkeley’s initiative goes beyond previously existing plastic reduction targets focused on foodware and plastic bags, and addresses the spectrum of products and packaging used in campus academics, lab research, retail, dining, housing, facilities, and events.

In this presentation, UC Berkeley will share the steps, input, and involvement of all campus stakeholders in drafting the Single Use Elimination Policy Roadmap.

Associate Director of Sustainability

A Roadmap to Systemwide Policymaking

The University of California system, spanning across 10 unique campuses, added the Single Use Plastics Policy into the UC Policy on Sustainable Practices in August 2020. In this presentation, attendees will learn about the process behind drafting system-wide Single Use Plastics policy that incorporates the many stakeholders on a campus, such as third party vendors, caterers, food facilities, pouring contracts, and of course, the diverse campus community of students, faculty, and staff.

Zero Waste Manager