CRRA2020

Commercial Zero Waste Senior Coordinator

Jack has 30+ years of experience developing and managing innovative zero waste programs and policies at the U.S. local & state level. He helped lead the development and implementation of the first large scale U.S. urban food composting program and zero waste policies for San Francisco, including zero waste goal and targets, mandatory composting and recycling separation, banning polystyrene foam foodware and later all EPS packaging, requiring compostable and recyclable products, banning single use plastic bags, requiring bag charges, reducing single-use plastics and toxics, and most recently working to require on-site reusables and charges for nonreusable cups and containers. 

Lesson learned San Francisco's New Generation of Foodware Ordinances

Hear the latest on San Francisco's lessons from passing and implementing their Single-Use Plastics, Toxics and Litter Reduction Ordinance that banned flourinated chemicals in foodware through BPI certification, restricted single use plastics and allowed foodware accessories only on request to their recent stakeholder and legislative efforts to mandate onsite reusables and charges for nonreusable cups and containers and help business join the growing reuse revolution.  

Program Specialist

Kerry has worked in the City of Alameda's Public Works Department for 17 years, and has been minding Alameda's various trash-related details for the last 13.  She received her BA in Sociology from UC Santa Cruz, where she was actually assigned a daily project of hugging a tree for one whole term.

Kerry was charged with designing, implementing, educating, and enforcing Alameda's restrictive foodware ordinance. Kerry has some helpful insights for those who wish to know more details about being on the other side of a ground-breaking foodware policy.  Hint: Foam Foodware bans are a breeze, in comparison.

Alameda's Foodware Ordinance: Compliance and Next Steps

Alameda's Disposable Food Service Ware Reduction Law has been in enforceable for two years, now.  What does foodware compliance look like for the Island City? Alameda has learned a few things about the difficulties in conveying understandable foodware rules to both the food vendors and and public, and has a few stories of foodware enforcement to tell.

ReThink Disposable Interim Director

Grace Lee joined Clean Water Fund's ReThink Disposable program team in 2018 and is now the Interim Director. Ms. Lee has worked throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles region to implement circular reuse systems anywhere there's food packaging including restaurants, froyo shops, schools, catering businesses, and even yacht clubs. Before working with Clean Water Fund, Ms. Lee was the Outreach Programs Director at The Bay Foundation, a National Estuary Program charged with restoring Santa Monica Bay. Ms. Lee has over 14 years of experience in resource conservation, public engagement, partnership building, and orchestrating projects centered around water quality improvement and behavioral change. Grace holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Ecology from the University of California, Irvine and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Southern California. In her free time, Grace is planning her permaculture paradise somewhere off grid and obsessively eliminating all plastic from her home.

So you passed an ordinance. Now what?

The circular reuse and packaging-free narrative is a journey with multiple milestones and hurdles. Passing a foodware reduction ordinance is the mid-point. Widespread knowledge of the ordinance, understanding how business owners process the news, and changing food operations come next. Using case studies from Alameda, Berkeley, San Anselmo, and learnings from San Francisco, hear what happens after an ordinance is passed and how to move zero-packaging from ordinance to reality. 

Project Analyst