3rd Quarter (September) 2024 Enewsletter

Furniture Repair Bank wins big, Duwamish Valley youth at Mt. Rainier, new project supporting refugee families, legislative sneak peek ....and more

Zero Waste Washington drives policy change for a healthy and waste-free world. We envision a just, equitable, and sustainable future where we all produce, consume, and reuse responsibly.

By Nayeli Campos, Community Outreach and Policy Coordinator

Zero Waste Washington and the Duwamish River Community Coalition are teaming up to reduce single-use plastic waste in Mount Rainier National Park through an exciting new project. With a focus on installing water refill stations and creating engaging, multilingual signage, this initiative aims to encourage park visitors to “bring their own bottle.” The project involves local high school students from the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps, who recently took a transformative camping trip to Mount Rainier National Park  to gather data and help shape the signage design for these refill stations

Engaging Youth in Environmental Stewardship

The camping trip was more than just an introduction to nature for these young people—it was an opportunity for them to take an active role in a real-world sustainability project. The youth developed and then deployed intercept surveys to gather feedback from park visitors and nearby gateway communities about the messaging and imagery that would encourage people to use refill stations rather than single-use plastic bottles. This hands-on work gave them invaluable experience in outreach, data collection, and public engagement, helping them understand the impact of their contributions to environmental stewardship.

Learning from National Park Rangers

In addition to their surveying work, the students had the opportunity to learn from National Park rangers through presentations on the park’s history, geology, and environmental significance. They were also able to see firsthand where one of the new refill stations would be installed and participated in discussions about the design and placement of the signage. This experience gave them a deeper understanding of the park’s ecosystem and the critical role of public messaging.

Carmen Martinez (DRCC Project Manager) and others at picnic lunch

Closing the Nature Gap

For most of the students, this trip represented their first experience camping or spending extended time in a national park. Coming from low-income or BIPOC communities, many have historically faced barriers to outdoor recreation, and this trip helped close that “nature gap.” In addition to their project work, they enjoyed a scenic group hike at Paradise, one of the park’s most iconic locations, and other stops around the park. The trip allowed them to develop a stronger sense of connection and responsibility toward protecting natural spaces and reducing plastic waste, both in the park and in the surrounding gateway communities.

Paulina Lopez (DRCC Executive Director), Nayeli Campos and Andrea Ramirez

Strengthening Team Bonds

While the trip was focused on environmental education and public engagement, it also provided the youth with time to bond as a team. Whether it was helping each other set up, sharing meals, or telling stories around the campfire, the interns built camaraderie through teamwork. These bonds will be crucial as they continue working on the project over the coming months.

A Look Toward the Future

Looking ahead, the youth will play a key role in finalizing the design for the refill station signage, which will be installed in both the park and surrounding gateway communities in the next few years. The Duwamish Valley Youth Corps will then return after the installation to evaluate the effectiveness of their work by conducting follow-up surveys with park visitors.

For these young environmental leaders, the camping trip was just the beginning of their journey in making Mount Rainier a greener and more sustainable destination. Their efforts will contribute to long-term plastic waste reduction and demonstrate the crucial role youth can play in driving conservation initiatives.

Past project

Here’s a glimpse at a past project addressing plastic pollution by the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps: https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/students-raise-their-voices-duwamish-valley-washington

Share your insights or ask questions by reaching out to Nayeli at nayeli@zerowastewashington.org.

Our UW interns out in the community: Andres Kappes, Olivia Hallas and Evelyn Osburn

By Harpreet Kaur, Policy Strategist

Thank you to our incredible interns – Evelyn, Andres, and Olivia – from UW for their hard work and dedication on our Organics project. They did extensive research, conducted numerous interviews and developed final reports on several challenging topics.

The interns focused on three key components of the Organics project:

Compost Collection: The goal was to gain a comprehensive understanding of organics diversion in our cities and urbanized counties, allowing us to advocate effectively for multifamily issues. To do this, they researched the current status of compost collection in the urbanized areas of Washington.  They also created and deployed a survey for multifamily residents to assess their composting habits and identify any barriers they face. These data will help shape our future work by providing insights into residents’ knowledge of composting and if and how their multifamily buildings offer composting options.

Date Labeling: The labels on food products, such as “Best by” or “Use by” are a leading cause of food waste in households due to consumer confusion. To understand the current status of these labels, the interns surveyed almost 2000 edible products from local grocery stores, covering over 1,250 brands. This work will be used to help inform the next organics bill. The goal is to reduce consumer confusion and subsequent food waste by requiring manufacturers to standardize phrases such as “BEST if used by/ BEST if used or freeze by” or “USE by/ USE or freeze by.”  A similar bill has been passed by the California legislature and is on Governor Newsom’s desk awaiting his signature.

Offal, Asphalt Shingles, and Wood Debris: Finally, the interns researched challenging items that are part of the organics load to landfills:

Offal includes byproducts of meat processing, such as organs, entrails, limbs, and decomposing animal carcasses. Ideal alternative methods include composting and rendering for reuse in other products. Main barriers to self-composting practices identified were cost (33.3%), knowledge gaps (26.6%), and regulatory concerns (20%).

Asphalt Shingles contain contaminants that complicate the recycling process, due to their carcinogenic properties and threat to human health. And there are limited recycling options available due to the grinding process associated with repurposing asphalt shingles. Further investigation into expansion of recycling infrastructure for asphalt shingles could prove beneficial, dedicating mixtures to hot mix or cold patch asphalt for reuse on roads, landscaping, arenas, trails, and more

Wood Debris includes the byproducts of sawmills that are frequently considered waste. This differs from treated wood waste, which contains added chemicals intended to increase durability and appearance. Wood treated with chemicals from construction or demolition sites poses a threat to human health and safety and, thus, has limited uses. Untreated wood byproducts, however, have further potential for reuse if not wasted.

Thank you Evelyn, Andres and Olivia.  We really appreciate your hard work and extremely useful final products.

By Andrea Ramirez, Sustainability Analyst

On our way to helping address exposure to toxic chemicals in overburdened communities, we have partnered with New Americans Alliance for Policy and Research (NAAPR) for a new project empowering refugee households to engage in environmental justice action.

First Policy Council meeting in early September

Refugee families face environmental justice burdens

 Refugee families often live in poor quality housing that can contribute to significant health and safety issues and suffer other challenges, at levels higher than most non-refugee residents in Washington. Refugee communities become particularly vulnerable because they face a significant lack of resources in languages, which can limit their ability to protect their health from toxic chemicals and other unknowns.

With this project we will engage refugees from Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan around HEAL Act government agency activities such as the cleanup of polluted sites, addressing air pollution, and housing issues. We will also support the development of advocacy skills, and raise awareness about environmental toxic chemicals potentially impacting refugee families and their communities.

Our key activities include policy council meetings, and in-language interactive trainings, focused on educating families and communities, and discussing toxic exposures in their homes, including household products.

Policy Council established

We kicked off our first policy council meeting in early September. We’ve started a conversation around potential environmental justice issues families might be experiencing in their communities. We also discussed goals and basics about the Heal Act (WA’s cutting edge environmental justice law), as well as the role of the policy council members within the development of the project.

Community leaders showed commitment and deep participation, sharing not only examples of environmental justice they are concerned about, but also solutions and key actions that they believe refugee families need.

We look forward to keeping the discussion about exposures to toxic chemicals that refugee families in our region are facing, aiming to engage and amplify the voices from our focus communities in policy decisions that directly impact their lives.

Thank you to the Washington State Department of Health and the HEAL Act Environmental Justice Council for supporting this project, as a way to implement the HEAL Act.

If you have questions or suggestions, please contact Andrea at Andrea@zerowastewashington.org

OKAPI Founder Emily Chueh (right) and Gwen Bartholomay, Seattle Network Lead

By Michelle Alten-Kaehler, Membership Coordinator

In the midst of the pandemic, Emily Chueh and Deb Gray had an idea. They had been researching sustainable businesses and discovered that reusable cup programs were catching on in countries like Australia. Why couldn’t it work in the United State too? They decided to launch OKAPI reusables, a program to reduce the tremendous waste generated from single-use cups. With OKAPI, named for an endangered relative of the giraffe, customers pay a one-time joining fee. Then, using an app, they can borrow reusable to-go cups as many times as they like, up to two cups at a time. They can return the cup to the shop where they got it, or at bins in any other coffee shop that has joined the network—even in another city!

Coffee shops pay a small monthly membership fee, and OKAPI provides  reusable cups. The cups can be used for coffee, tea, juice, smoothies, and boba tea. The coffee shops are responsible for washing and sanitizing the returned cups.

The program is surprisingly simple and affordable. It costs $15-$20 monthly for coffee shops and other businesses. For customers, there’s a $10 one-time joining fee. And for businesses in Seattle, Reuse Seattle is currently subsidizing the cost, so coffee shops and bubble tea businesses can get their first six months free!

Why stainless is a better option

So far, OKAPI’s cups are in eight Seattle coffee shops. By saying no to paper and plastic single-use cups and yes to OKAPI’s sleek stainless steel option, Gwen Bartholomay, Seattle Network Lead, feels customers can get a better coffee experience, reduce the microplastics from plastic-lined cups entering the waste stream, and contribute to waste reduction.

Chueh highlights the environmental impact of OKAPI. “Since we started, we are getting close to 40,000 cups saved. Cafes have been ranging between 500-2,000 borrows a year. We often also see an uptick in BYO (as well as OKAPI) at the cafes we work with since cafes are talking about reusables more (and sometimes offering a discount).  Our cups also travel. We have many customers tell us that they use our cups as BYO cups at non-participating cafes.”

Makeda & Mingus – a Seattle coffee shop – success story

But the OKAPI reusable cup and silicone lid is also solving issues that have kept Seattle coffee drinkers reaching for single -use cups. Coffee shop customers frequently ask for their hot beverages in disposable cups because they want to sit for a while then take their drink with them. They also say that paper cups with lids keep their drinks hotter longer.

Prashanthi Reddy, owner of Makeda & Mingus, a neighborhood coffee shop in Greenwood, has been using the OKAPI system since July. “I like the versatility,” she explains “They can stay, then take their coffee to go. If offers a lot of flexibility.”

Look for more Seattle shops switching to stainless

The idea is gaining traction. Thirty-five shops dot a map showing OKAPI’s Portland network. Bartholomay, OKAPI’s Seattle lead, hopes to bring that success to Seattle. With outreach starting last July, the company now has eight cafes that have joined in Queen Anne, the U District, Ravenna, Ballard, Greenwood, and Wallingford.

Bartholomay says, “Reuse systems can be contagious.” She hopes this sort of circular system may lead to other products as well. With the United States using over 100 billion single-use disposable cups each year, this is a good place to start.

If you have suggestions of other zero waste initiative and reuse stores for us to highlight, please contact Michelle at michelle@zerowastewashington.org

Zero Waste Washington’s board voted to endorse the No on 2117 campaign, and we hope you will join us by spreading the word to vote “no” in November.

I-2117 proposes to repeal the Climate Commitment Act. An endorsement of NO means you support the effort to maintain the strongest policy in the country to reduce pollution and protect our air and water quality.

A wealthy hedge fund executive, Brian Heywood, put in $6 million of his own money to get I-2117 and other back-sliding initiatives on the ballot this November.

The Climate Commitment Act is important to our work to help our state transition away from climate-changing emissions, including reducing landfill methane gas by shifting from disposal of food and yard waste to composting and feeding hungry people.

We need to fight climate change with all we have, to halt and then reverse all of the impacts we are already seeing – wildfires, water shortages, heat waves, severe hurricanes, and more – that will impact our future generations.  Find out more here: https://no2117.com

Thank you.

Thirty-five enthusiastic zero wasters joined us on August 1st for a rare, behind-the-scenes tour of Woodinville’s WM Cascade Recycling Center!  And we are pleased to let you know that WM is offering a public tour on Friday, November 8.

The Cascade Recycling August 1^st tour was impressive

We had the opportunity to observe WM’s cutting-edge equipment and system in action. Logan, our guide, and recycling savant, explained how the facility, designed with expert advice from the Netherlands, can process up to 650 tons of recycling per day. We watched intelligent sorting technology, optical sorters, volumetric scanners, and air jets, move materials through the complex high-tech system.

Dedicated staff grabbed plastic bags (They don’t belong in our recycling!) and sorted other complicated materials. Anna provided a detailed presentation of WM’s high-tech system and the status of recycling in Washington State.

Thank you to WM Cascade Recycling Center for a fun and informative tour and to all of you who participated!

November 8 tour

If you would like to attend the public tour on November 8, please email Michelle at michelle@zerowastewashington.org to get on the list. Space is limited.

Just a quick note to let you know about the zero waste bills are being prepped for the state legislative session that begins January 13. It will be a “long session” and, unfortunately, we are facing a tight budget year.

Here is a sneak peek at some of the bills being tee’d up:

• ReWRAP Act (modernizing our recycling system and reducing packaging)
• Organics (food and yard waste)
• Right to repair
• Refrigerant gases
• EV Battery recycling
• Mattress recycling

More details to come in our December newsletter.

Thank you for your help in supporting zero waste bills!  Contact Heather at heather@zerowastewashington.org if you have questions.