CRRA2019

Director

Dieter heads Cascadia’s Recycling and Materials Management research and analytics. Dieter has spent much of his 14 years with Cascadia standing in landfills, leading primary data collection efforts to support weight-based diversion program evaluations for clients ranging from the U.S. Pentagon to the five boroughs of New York City to Kauai. Dieter manages dozens of waste characterization projects each year, including California's statewide waste characterizations every five years, and he is excited about innovative performance metrics embraced by many of his clients that push beyond recycling rate metrics.

SB1383! It’s not an asteroid hurtling towards Earth, but it can feel just as daunting, and Hollywood can’t save us. This bill has required a rethink of how to approach food waste – not just new processes for reduction and diversion, but also new measurement strategies. Come hear about how some communities have measured their food waste using CalRecycle’s draft food waste categories. This presentation will first cover the planning process of the first waste characterization studies around the state using the new food waste types CalRecycle has proposed. This will include a discussion of nuances in the new set of definitions. Next, this presentation will delve into implementation of the new measurement categories. The jurisdictions included range from urban to rural, from NorCal to SoCal, and from places with curbside food waste collection to those without. I will discuss the data available from these case studies and the unique and interesting findings it offers. Lastly, attendees will be provided with an opportunity to ask questions or provide feedback. Thorough understanding and thoughtful implementation of these new categories is critically important to guide California’s path towards greenhouse gas emissions reduction and climate leadership, and I aim to provide a clear and informative view of our peers’ experiences.