Category: Newsletter

President’s Report, March 2017

By Laura McKaughan
As my first President’s Report of 2017, I want to take the time to formally welcome to the board the newly elected directors: Hilary Near, Steven Sherman and Rebecca Jewell. At our board meeting in February, I was energized by the enthusiasm and fresh ideas the newcomers brought to their very first meeting. I imagine 2017 will be a very productive and busy year for NCRA with ever more tours, mixers, events, and classes for our members to attend, to learn from, get inspired by, and to network, network, network!

The best first example of this is in the expanded offerings of NCRA’s 5th Annual Zero Waste Week. Our flagship event, the 22nd annual Recycling Update will be on Tuesday March 21 in Berkeley’s Freight and Salvage. Recycling Update will feature more than 25 industry professionals in one, action-packed day in which each presenter will be given only 10 minutes to bring attendees up to speed on topics from recyclable commodities markets, new recycling legislation, edible food recovery, innovations in compost applications, and campaigns to promote source reduction. Featured speakers include John Wick, Co-Founder of the Marin Carbon Project, Mark Murray, Executive Director of Californians Against Waste, Adam Lowy, Co-Founder of Move for Hunger, and Heidi Sanborn, Executive Director of the California Product Stewardship Council among many others. For a glance at some of the day’s speakers, click HERE and if you haven’t yet, REGISTER HERE for Recycling Update.

As was the case last year, employers are encouraged to drop off job announcements to the NCRA booth and job seekers are encouraged to visit the booth to learn more about positions available in their industry. Please plan to pack out any leftover notices so minimize paper waste.

The evening before on Monday March 20th, NCRA joins Zero Waste Marin and Marin Sanitary Service’s (MSS) in a screening of A Plastic Ocean. The film follows two explorers traveling to remote parts of the world and documenting the plastic pollution they find. Panel discussion to follow. The event is free and light refreshments will be served. RSVP here. There is also another film screening on Friday March 24 of Dogtown Redemption, a film which follows the local impact of the closure of Alliance Recycling Center in West Oakland. A panel will follow featuring the filmmaker and the event is free. For this movie screening, please RSVP here.

Lastly the 5th annual Zero Waste Youth Convergence will be held on Sunday March 19th in San Francisco. This event brings together high school and college students as well as young professionals in a full day dedicated to learning, visioning, organizing for Zero Waste. Please check their WEBSITE for more details and to register.

These events combined with the two tours during Zero Waste Week (both are sold-out), two webinars and one workshop, there are loads of events happening all week for NCRA members to take advantage of. We look forward to seeing you during Zero Waste Week and please EMAIL US if you have questions!

Gretchen Brewer, 1945 – 2017

Please join us for a
Memorial for Gretchen Brewer
Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 5-7pm
The Impact Hub, 4th Floor at the David Brower Center
2150 Allston Way at Oxford
Berkeley, CA

 — Hosted By Mary Lou Van Deventer, Dan Knapp, Susan Kinsella, Arthur Boone

Goodbye Gretchen!

RECYCLING PIONEER – GRETCHEN  BREWER, 1946-2017
By Mary Lou Van Deventer
In San Diego on Tuesday, February 21, 2017, pioneering recycler Gretchen Brewer transitioned out of this life.  As many people know, she had been using oxygen for chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).  Then in late 2015, while helping a friend in hospice, she seriously wrenched her back.  By 2017 she was receiving physical therapy in a rehabilitation center and recently had been hoping to move back to her apartment.  But early Monday February 20, she was taken to an emergency room and later that day had a respiratory crisis.  She lost consciousness, and at about 8:30pm on Tuesday she slipped away.

Gretchen started her recycling career in Chicago, working at the Resource Center for Ken Dunn, whom she always called her mentor. Over the years she also worked for state governments in Massachusetts and New Mexico.  For a couple of years, she worked for the plastics industry, in hopes of remolding them from the inside. But when she wanted to carry away a muffin and was upset at being presented with a styrofoam clamshell instead of a paper bag, it was clear the job was no longer a good fit. Fiercely independent and creative, Gretchen returned to being a consultant for the next fifteen years. During this time, she did stellar buy-recycled procurement projects for the US Naval Stations in San Diego, which won a White House Closing-the-Circle award, and Hawaii. Most recently, she was writing a memoir of her innovative career for Urban Ore.

Gretchen is gone much too soon and will be deeply missed.

How Gretchen Mattered 
By Nancy VandenBerg
Gretchen Brewer identified what recycling needed, then pioneered solutions. Just two early examples remind us. In the early 1980s she described her Chicago collection program at a recycling congress in New Jersey. Programs everywhere grew from her experience. Despite the plastic industry´s bland assurance that its materials were too complex to recycle, in Boston she published the seminal explanation of one-resin packaging plastics. Before long, coding was introduced to aid householders and separation lines. Many, many others worked long and hard to construct the recycling industry over the decades, and so many of us depended on Gretchen´s insights to build our own programs. Her files fed our research. Her perspective shaped our direction. Her encouragement buoyed our commitment. Gretchen was a pivotal influence who never, ever stopped working to make this a cleaner world.

How Gretchen Facilitated Zero Waste 
By Mary Lou Van Deventer
When Gretchen was working as a consultant in San Diego, she introduced Dan Knapp to some Australians from Sydney, Melbourne, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in Canberra. They hired Dan to do some consulting, and on his first trip to the ACT in 1995 he brought back a governmentally endorsed plan called “No Waste by 2010.”  “No Waste” immediately became “Zero Waste” and spread across the country like a grassfire.  So Gretchen set up the contact that arguably began the Zero Waste movement in this country.

A Dear Friend  
By Susan Kinsella
I worked with Gretchen on her buy-recycled projects with the US Naval Stations in San Diego and Hawaii, and we were joyfully compatible as fellow night-owls. Often we were on the phone planning out the projects in the wee hours of the morning. So I was not surprised that she called me at 2:30 a.m. on February 20th from the ER. Over 30+ years, not only were we collaborators on ground-breaking recycling projects, but we also became close friends and trusted allies. She and her partner Wayne tried to teach me tai chi, but they were far more graceful than I in performing intricate ballet-like sequences together. Ever the researcher, Gretchen loved to watch all kinds of TV documentaries, especially on PBS. The nurses at the hospital had told us that the last sense to go is hearing, so I love knowing that Mary Lou Van Deventer was sitting by Gretchen’s bed reading stories to her about all the important and pioneering work that Gretchen had contributed to the world, up until just a few minutes before she passed.

Five Sessions On The Bottle Bill

By Arthur R. Boone, Center For Recycling Research and Total Recycling Associates

In late January and early February, the CalRecycles leaders and Graciela Castillo-Kriegs from the governor’s office held a series of meetings in the Governor’s office council room on topics related to the bottle bill.

 

The department sees it has a “structural deficit” which is paying out more than comes in and is searching for ways to change that. What is not on the table is reducing staff (grumpy looks when I suggested that), better police work on out-of-state imports (they think they’re catching lots of the crooks), improved auditing of the money in/money out chain to prevent graft and corruption in a one billion dollar cash flow operation (despite some very polite language from one person from the Can Manufacturers Institute saying that “the department has less than a 100% auditing function.” The idea of taking the $100 per day fines that the non-compliant grocery stores were paying to support CZ recyclers went unappreciated.

 

The elephants in the room, largely unnoticed (although my hearing is sufficiently poor in large rooms like this with no audio amplification that I missed a lot) were the large benefits given to curbside programs ($129 million per year) and other programs gifted by the legislature when reported redemption rates were much lower. These are now sacred cows not to be messed with.

 

There’s an old saw in Sacramento that if you’re not at the table, you will be part of the lunch. This was clear towards the end of the fifth session when everyone jumped on the idea of holding back some of the redemption fees to large collectors who sell more than 100 pounds (or some other number) of anything at a time; since they’re not the consumers of those volumes, it’s not their nickel that is being removed from the table. Interesting to me, coming from Oakland where the indigenous poor are major collectors, those folks were not at the table in any room filled with suits and white people.

 

My biggest disappointment (since I expected the suits to champion the status quo) came towards the end of the fifth session when the Pepsi spokesman asked what had become of a previous request from stakeholders (August 2016 by his reckoning) that the department assess what is going on in other states and countries with deposit legislation. Christine Hironaka, CALRECYCLES’ Assistant Director of Policy Development, who was also overseeing the speakers’ roster, said in an off-hand way that “a deposit system is a good way to get high collection rates,” and let it go at that. Six months and 700 staffers and they can’t do any better than that? Not “We have a twenty page report with ten things we’re never done here in California for consideration.” Unless staff pays attention to your input, why go to these meetings? Unless you’re paid, of course, to make sure nothing inimical to your employer’s interests is being considered. But that was, to me at least, a real kissoff to the people who care.

 

In my opinion, real reform of the bottle bill as currently practiced in California will not come from the department or the Governor’s office; it will come from the little people of the state and their advocates who like to drink covered beverages and want their nickels back. But I also thought that some of the fat cats in the room are tired of all the talk and a ready to support some major changes. As one old-timer remarked, “The bottle bill was passed in 1986; that’s a generation ago; maybe it’s time for some new ventures.” Not from the people in that room unless we start all over again.

 

Arthur R. Boone is a former NCRA president and was many years a boardmember; he was not re-elected in 2017 and did not identify himself as a NCRA spokesperson at these meetings.

President’s Report, Nov 2016

By Laura McKaughan
We made it through the election season, or as it’s otherwise known, the year of 2016! As I write this before the results are known, I think one thing we can all agree upon is a sense of relief that it’s finally over and we can go back to caring about all the multitude of programs and policies that make up our day-to-day professional lives.

One big push for NCRA during this election cycle was to get out the word about the two bag-related statewide measures on ballot this year. NCRA hosted a variety of outreach activities throughout October including tabling at local grocery stores, phone-banking, spreading the word via social media, and last but not least producing an original video promoting a Yes Vote on Prop 67, (Prop 67, Prop-Prop 67 for those of you who are familiar with it!) Special thanks go out to NCRA Board member David Krueger and members Tom Wright and Randy Russell for their tremendous efforts in promoting a Yes vote on Prop 67 and encouraging a No vote on Prop 65!

In the midst of the election madness, NCRA still found the time to organize it’s annual fall mixer in San Jose on Thursday November 3rd. Around 20 members and non-members alike joined together for drinks, networking and mentorship at San Jose’s SP2 Communal Bar & Restaurant. See photo above and more on the website. We love hosting events that help members mix and mingle with each other and industry affiliates and thank all of those who were brave enough to face the tough San Jose traffic. (photos will be posted shortly)

With the holidays nearly upon us, please keep an eye out for details about our December holiday party, the Annual January Members meeting and then Zero Waste Week and Recycling Update in March. It will be here before you know it!

Lastly, it’s November which means NCRA board elections are right around the corner. We are currently making a CALL FOR NOMINATIONS for anyone who may be interested in joining the NCRA board. Members seeking to join the board of directors (or current board members seeking re-election) need to submit a 200-word ballot statement outlining why you are interested in joining the board and how you are qualified for the position. Afterward these statements will be posted to the web site and members will have the chance to vote for NCRA’s 2017 Board of Directors. Voting will commence in early December. Please see the newsletter for more details about deadlines and consider running for the 2016 NCRA board. Please EMAIL US with questions.

South San Francisco Scavenger Anaerobic Digester Tour

By Greg Dudish, Dudish Consulting

Images…

On August 18, Chris of South San Francisco Scavenger took 25 NCRA members and guests on a fantastic tour of their anaerobic digestion facility. Built in 2015, the facility can process 11,000+ tons per year – using methane produced as energy for the facility and as fuel for the 10+ collection trucks.

One of the first things noticed on the tour is the space constraints. Less than 100 yards away from the digester is a parking structure and the Genentech executive building. These constraints require the facility to have a small footprint with tight odor controls while balancing the need to process as much material as possible. The SMARTFERM technology solves this balancing act.

The key to successful anaerobic digestion is the carbon to nitrogen ratio (C:N) of input material. At SSF, various feedstocks are mixed for this optimized ratio prior to digestion. Generally, brown or woody material has a high ratio and green material or food waste has a low ratio.

While waiting for an available digester chamber, the material is stored in the aeration bay. The bay is under negative pressure (i.e., vacuum) for odor control. Once added to a digestion chamber, a 21 day, 3-phase process begins.

Start: Anaerobic digestion only occurs in a specific temperature range. To bring material into this range, a heat-generating, aerobic decomposition process is started by pumping air into the chamber allowing the material to heat itself up naturally! It’s a clever solution with lower energy requirements than heating up the material with steam or hot air.

Fermentation: Once at the correct temperature, percolate with bacteria from cows’ digestive tracts is sprayed onto the material, starting digestion and producing biogas. The key indicators during fermentation is quality and quantity of methane produced. Unfortunately, high quality doesn’t occur during times of high quantity. To increase quality, CO2 and other components are filtered out.

Termination: After ~20 days, methane production has been greatly reduced and doesn’t make sense to continue. To stop the process, percolate is no longer sprayed onto the material. Air is again added to the chamber but this time to purge the chamber of methane and create a safe/non-explosive environment to open the chamber and allow the removal of digestate.

Remaining digestate is treated in an IVC (In-Vessel Composting) tunnel to compost the material. The tunnel also removes ammonia gas produced and processes it with an acid scrubber where sulfuric acid is sprayed over the gas to precipitate out the ammonia as ammonium sulfate. Scrubbed gas then passes through a BioFilter similar to the flora on a forest floor – removing odors and harmful gases – and into the atmosphere. The compost produced is screened offsite and sold to farms!

Overall, the facility is a great example of anaerobic digestion with space and odor constraints while remaining financially viable.

Although not a substitute for the tour, there is a great YouTube video summarizing the process.

ZERO WASTE ENERGY AND BLUE LINE TRANSFER AWARDED 2015 INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR

Recycling Today, 9/15/15
Zero Waste Energy (ZWE), Lafayette, California, and Blue Line Transfer Inc., South San Francisco, California, were announced as the recipient of the National Waste & Recycling Association’s (NWRA’s) 2015 Recycling Equipment Innovator of the Year for its Blue Line Biogenic CNG Facility atWaste360 Recycling Summit. The award recognizes recycling equipment designers and manufacturers that successfully challenge and advance recycling sector operations through innovation in design and manufacturing that increases the effectiveness or efficiency of recycling equipment and operations. Read more… Recycling Today