Speaker Lists – Page 2 – Northern California Recycling Association

Recycling Update March 2020 – Speaker Bios and Presentation Synopses

READ MORE ABOUT THE 2020 RECYCLING UPDATE AND ZERO WASTE WEEK ACTIVITIES AND TOURS!

Speaker List, in Alphabetical Order:

Before joining Ecoconsult in 2017, Genevieve worked on statewide and local plastic pollution policies and campaigns for Californians Against Waste. In the past, she has worked as a Landfill Reduction Technician at various events and sailed across the North Atlantic Ocean studying microplastic pollution with The 5 Gyres Institute. At Ecoconsult, she represents the Clean Seas Lobbying Coalition, a coalition of non-profit organizations dedicated to source reduction solutions to the plastic pollution crisis.

Synopsis: Description of the Clean Seas Lobbying Coalition that NCRA has joined, what we do and what we have accomplished. I will give an overview of our statewide legislative priorities are for the year and deep dive into a few of them including SB 54/AB 1080 and The California Recycling and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act of 2020 ballot initiative. I will touch briefly on local ordinances/efforts, and close with how NCRA members can support our efforts.

Clytie Binder, Brisbane City Council, Australia

Clytie Binder is a Waste Educator with Brisbane City Council, helping schools, community groups, businesses and individuals to reduce their waste. In this role she has designed and delivered the Community Composting Hub program which has seen the establishment of 25 community composting hubs across the city. In 2019 she presented at the Coffs Waste Conference on community composting and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel to the USA, Canada, and Cuba to explore education methods and partnership models to support community composting. Clytie is passionate about sustainability and the power of community to bring about change.

Synopsis: Brisbane City Council, Australia, has been developing a network of community composting hubs since 2016. While this program has diverted a large amount of organic waste from landfill community composting has also ignited a passion about composting in the hearts and minds of Brisbane residents. This is expressed through the development of income-generating opportunities, a surge in new urban food growing initiatives, a conduit for supporting and connecting passionate people and groups, a sense of excitement around the topic of composting, a gradual shift as composting moves into the mainstream and a sense of empowerment among the community in being part of the solution.

Michael Bisch, Yolo Food Bank

Michael has an accomplished background in business management and nonprofit leadership. Following his undergraduate education in Business Administration, he launched a career in international finance. An entrepreneur for the past 20 years, Michael has been the owner for 10 years of Davis Commercial Properties, a commercial real estate brokerage firm. As president of the nonprofit Davis Downtown for four years, Michael acquired a deep knowledge of nonprofit management best practices. At this time of transformation for YFB, Michael’s unique qualifications enable him to guide the organization with a balance of innovation and stability, blending business acumen with a passion to serve.

Synopsis: Poverty-stricken Yolo County is in crisis: 34% of households do not earn enough to cover their basic household expenses (impacting +50% of school children). YFB’s response is to transform itself from struggling nonprofit to high-performing change agent leading all of Yolo County on a mission to EndHungerYolo.

Our leadership has focused on the “Sustainable Management of Food” approach prioritizing wasted food recovery:

Source Reduction
Feed Hungry People
Feed Animals
Industrial Uses
Composting

Rescuing wasted food is a quadruple win: it’s good for the economy, for our community, for the environment and for our vulnerable neighbors.

José Bravo, Just Transition Alliance

José Bravo is a long-time leader on just transition, climate justice and chemical policy as they relate to communities fighting for Environmental Justice and Labor Justice (Organized and Unorganized). Born in México and brought to the U.S. as a child, José’s work in social justice issues is rooted in his upbringing in the Southern California avocado fields alongside both his parents. Since 1991, José has gained recognition as a national and international leader in both the Environmental Justice and Climate Justice movements. Over the past 30 years as a community organizer, José has worked on numerous campaigns in the U.S., Puerto Rico and in México.

Synopsis: This Just Transition Alliance presentation covers how environmental justice (EJ) communities are disproportionately impacted in every part of the plastics lifecycle – from the extraction of oil for plastics to plastic in the ocean. EJ communities bare the burden of toxic chemicals in plastic products and the disposal of these products at hazardous facilities such as incinerators. This Environmental Justice Lens on the Lifecycle of Plastics is important to understand that communities have been left out of the environmentalism discussion, and explains how to bring our communities to the forefront of the conversation.

Laurenteen Brazil, City of El Cerrito Environmental Services Division

Laurenteen Brazil has over 18 years of experience in the recycling industry. She serves as the Waste Prevention Specialist at the City of El Cerrito where she provides educational outreach to the community and works directly with businesses for legislative compliance. Over the course of her career, she has also served on both the NCRA and CRRA Boards. She is a proponent of Zero Waste goals and advocates for lifestyle behavior change. In her spare time, she volunteers to help green a K thru 8 school and her home church. She enjoys outdoor activities and aspires continually to be impactful.

Synopsis: The Chinese Sword has caused the City of El Cerrito to adjust operations based on marketability. The first adjustment happened in April of 2018 with major changes effective May 15th and July 1st in 2019.

The one-stop-shop recycling center is still resourceful to the community we serve but, we have been constricted by marketability and we’ve decided to make it an education opportunity as well.

Derek Crutchfield, City of Vallejo

Synopsis: In an effort to reduce recycling contamination, the City of Vallejo Recycling Coordinator, Derek Crutchfield implemented a year-long Recycling Rewards incentive program. This citywide incentive program required residents, multi-family dwellings and businesses to recycle (and recycle properly) in order to be eligible to be rewarded. The program gave participating residential garbage customers an opportunity to possibly be rewarded with one of twelve “packages” of a year of free garbage service. In addition, multi-family dwellings and businesses were eligible to receive $1,000 off their garbage bill.

Jill Donello, GreenEducation.US

As the education manager at GreenEducation.us for the previous 3 years, I’ve worked closely with students and instructors in providing online education in sustainable resource management. Our students include recycling coordinators, public works department managers, facilities managers, consultants, waste haulers and others. I was a founding member of the US Zero Waste Business Council and have several decades of public speaking experience. With a Masters in Educational Technology, I look forward to bringing new methods for knowledge sharing to the field of SRM.

Synopsis: As California aggressively seeks to reduce waste to landfill and build a more sustainable future, an understanding of the “zero waste fundamentals” is needed by a growing number of employees and leaders in both the private and public sector. Solutions require collaboration across the supply chain. Training and education programs aim to support a shared vision, vocabulary, and base to ensure the workforce is ready to lead the changes to come. Let’s talk about the role of training and education in building zero waste leaders across the state!

Jeff Donlevy, Mings Resources

Bio: 25 years’ experience in the recycling industry. With experience in the design, construction, start-up, and management of recycling facilities ranging in size from a few hundred tons per month up to 10,000 tons per month. He has managed recycling and logistics contracts for large customers including Anheuser Busch, DST, California State Department of Corrections Facilities, and Bay Area News Group. The Ming’s Hayward facility handles over 2 BILLION CRV containers per year.

Magdalena Donoso, GAIA Latin America and the Caribbean

Magdalena Donoso is the Coordinator for GAIA Latin America and the Caribbean. She has worked in communications and networking with several Chilean NGOs and in Television Trust for the Environment (UK), supporting educational and activism programs in forestry and biodiversity for 15 years. For the last ten years she has worked on waste issues with cities in Latin America, particularly defending the rights of recyclers and promoting zero waste. She is based in Concepción, Chile.

Synopsis: Informal recyclers (wastepickers) have long been the unsung heroes of zero waste and faced environmental injustice, but that is changing. As a result of their long struggle for recognition, cooperatives of wastepickers/recyclers are now running city-wide collection and sorting programs in multiple capital cities in Latin America. Because of their on-the-ground knowledge, waste pickers are uniquely positioned to inform sound zero waste policy and defend against incineration and other obstacles to success. Embedding wastepickers in key decision-making is not only critical to social justice and equity, it’s also the best chance cities have to achieve zero waste.

Miriam Gordon, UPSTREAM

Bio: As Policy Director with UPSTREAM, Miriam is a leading architect and incubator of local and state policies aimed at making the Throw Away culture a thing of the past.Previously, as the California Director of Clean Water Action, Miriam launched ReThink Disposable, a program that has demonstrated that reducing throw away products in food service saves food businesses money and improves customers’ dining experiences. Over the last 20 years, she has been a leading California advocate for policies aimed at reducing plastic pollution and has worked with local, state, and federal agencies implementing pollution prevention and water quality programs.

Synopsis: Plastic pollution is everywhere- in the air we breathe, water we drink, and food we eat. Communities and their governments are responding with bans on plastic items-like straws, containers, and bags. But allowing other disposables like paper, aluminum, bioplastic and fiber to take their place just transfers the harm to climate, habitat destruction, and resource depletion. We can’t recycle and compost our way out of this problem. There’s a better way than throw away! Resusables are better for the planet and save businesses money. UPSTREAM brings reuse into food service through policy and business innovation. New policies- like the Berkeley foodware ordinance- and innovative business models are transforming the Throw Away Culture. Learn how you can join the REUSE REVOLUTION!

Lawrence Grown, Metro Lighting

I founded Metro Lighting in 1993 to fulfill a need for architectural lighting–fixtures designed to complement unique architectural environments. I earned my architecture degree in 1990 from the acclaimed program at the University of Cincinnati. My passions are for product development, sustainable design, and organic architecture. I am a charter member of Buy Local Berkeley, the Founder/Executive Director of the West Berkeley Design Loop, and founder of Commotion West Berkeley. I previously served on boards for many years at my three daughters’ schools. And in 2018 I designed and produced a large scale environmental art project for Burning Man called the Chilopod, which is my biggest lighting “fixture” to date.

Synopsis: Metro Lighting manufactures lighting fixtures in Berkeley. Our showroom is 100% solar powered. And we’ve developed a line of lighting glass made from post-consumer liquor and wine bottles. We are making use of their embodied energy used to create them. They are beautiful, sustainable, and handcrafted. I also pick up repurposed metal components and build other fixtures with them, mostly floor lamps and bicycle rim chandeliers.

Mitra Gruwell, Saint Vincent de Paul of Lane County

Mitra Gruwell is a second-generation craftsperson, sewist, and upcycle fashion designer from Eugene, Oregon. She has been redesigning clothing for 20 years. She is the lead designer and manager of the ENVIA upcycled fashion brand- a project of thrift store non-profit St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County. Mitra is the founder of several fashion-focused companies in Eugene, including Bricolage LLC and Eugene Fashion Week. She also teaches art-focused business workshops for The Arts and Business Alliance of Eugene (ABAE) and does mentorships and apprenticeships with local youth.

Synopsis: Being the upcycling department for thrift store non-profit St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, we get a lot of opportunities to work with local and national businesses’ waste. In response to this, and to maximize reciprocal benefit, we have come up with protocols in working with these businesses that encourage not only an ongoing partnership but also that have the potential of shifting the industry perception of “waste”. Our Go Green Program does this by offering to take on business’ post-manufacturing and post-consumer discards, and using all methods available to us (including retail sales, wholesale sales, recycling and upcycling) to avert the expense of disposal for the business, while also reducing expense to our environment. In some cases, we have even been able to upcycle the business’ waste and sell it back to them in the form of upcycled products, shifting their perception of value of these discards from “expense” to “asset,” with the potential of earning income while adding to the rich story of the business’ investment in environmentally responsible practices.

Tony Hale, San Francisco Estuary Institute – Aquatic Science Center

As SFEI’s Program Director for Environmental Informatics, Dr. Tony Hale has advanced the Institute’s communications practices, overseen the development of new data visualization technologies, and partnered with state and federal agencies to address complex data management challenges such as those presented by trash-related pollution. He leads a solid team of innovators who share a common mission to advance our collective knowledge of California’s most pressing environmental concerns.

Synopsis: Each year, tons of trash sail down tributaries into the San Francisco Bay. Yet understanding the true scale of the problem eludes us. If we could achieve a bird’s-eye view, perhaps then we could capture a more expansive view of the landscape. Furthermore, if we could take that image and process it automatically, then perhaps we could better quantify this elusive challenge. Our presentation describes a project, funded through the California Ocean Protection Council, to develop a new trash-detection method that uses drone imagery and AI to affordably expand the spatial range and temporal density of current trash monitoring.

Nick Harvey, Bay Area Redwood

Nick graduated from the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara with a degree in chemistry and biochemistry, then headed to the Bay Area to work in sustainable lighting at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a staff scientist. Concurrently, Nick worked at LLNL and pursued a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at UC Davis before dropping out to work in Tech, Shortly thereafter, Nick struck out on his own to pursue entrepreneurial ventures: BayAreaRedwood.com was founded serendipitously when Nick saw trees being thrown away while riding his bike. Nick leverages his background in chemistry and materials science in this current venture.

Synopsis: BayAreaRedwood was founded on the premise that we should not waste trees removed from urban environments; the status quo sees urban trees mulched and then typically burned producing copious amounts of CO2. In contrast, our processing method creates carbon sinks. Here at BayAreaRedwood, we specialize in upcycling urban redwood trees into usable timber commodities including live-edge slabs, siding, beams, and other custom milled products. In addition, we fabricate and assemble this wood into solid-wood furniture products.

The presentation will discuss the current challenges in the industry, how we are solving them, and what we create by doing it.

Brock Hill, Premier Recycle Company

Brock Hill is Vice President and Director of Operations for Premier Recycle Company. He started with the company in 2008 and has since led an 80% increase in facility material throughput. As well as serving on the board of Silicon Valley Construction Financial Management Association, Brock serves as the Legislative Committee Chairman and Board of Directors member for the Construction and Demolition Recycling Association.

Synopsis: Monopolies created by exclusive franchising limit resource recovery and are bad for the local economy.

Steve Lautze, Resource Revolution

Bio:Long time member and former board member and President (1993-95) of NCRA whose recycling career detoured for 20 years into green economic development for the City of Oakland, including administering that city’s Recycling Market Development Zone (RMDZ); recently retired from city government to focus more intently on recycling market development issues as an independent consultant. President of Calif. Assn. of RMDZs (2003-2019); co-founder, Recycling BIN (Build Infrastructure Now) Coalition; board member, East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse; advisor to Upcyclers Network.

Synopsis: The QUALITY of what we collect is as important as the QUANTITY, and that focusing on CONVERSION of these materials deserves increased attention, as opposed to simply maximum DIVERSION from landfills. Focusing on facility development and closed-loop manufacturing requires more attention and resources than California’s traditional approaches to these issues; such efforts are by definition less government based, and more entrepreneurial. Messages to the public should be more oriented to capture materials that manufacturers and compost facilities can use to make products, rather than methods that reach towards the highest level of “diversion”, truly closing the loop will take new tools and new approaches to materials management.

Taumra Lawrence, City of Oakland

Taumra Lawrence is the Executive Assistant to the Director of Oakland Public Works, and also acts as one of the lead team members working to implement the City of Oakland’s race and equity mission within the Public Works Department. The team supports the mission of the City of Oakland to transform practices in City government to promote inclusion and full participation by a broad representation of residents and to end racial inequity.

Synopsis: How Race & Equity Can Make a Vast Difference in the Zero Waste Movement – By supporting capacity building, the development of race and equity outcomes, and tools across the industry’s activities, the Recycling and Zero Waste industries can experience much greater participation from diverse communities. I will cover how your organization can begin to implement the tools necessary to reach a wider citizenry, therefore experiencing greater success in our efforts to reduce, if not end, waste.

Leslie Lukacs, Zero Waste Sonoma

Leslie Lukacs is the Executive Director of Zero Waste Sonoma formally known as the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency. Leslie has worked over 20 years in solid waste and resource management industry and, prior to this appointment, was the Director of Zero Waste at SCS Engineers, a solid waste, recycling and organics management consulting firm, for 13 years. Leslie also had her own consulting company for 7 years. Leslie has spent her career designing and implementing comprehensive sustainability and zero waste programs for large institutions, public agencies, venues, and events throughout California and the nation.

Synopsis: Last September, Zero Waste Sonoma’s Board of Directors requested staff research the viability of accepting compostable plastics and products as a feedstock for a new organics processing system. We produced a white paper that outlines the pros and cons of feedstocks and cost analysis of the options. The presentation will provide the white paper results, uncover the truth that the majority of compost facilities that accept compostable plastics are screening them out for landfilling,

John Moore, Law Office of John Douglas Moore

Although John is not a zero-waste professional, he is a star in his own profession. He taught in law school when he was 23; won his first case while still in law school at age 24 and in the 39 following years achieved and has been recognized as much as anyone can as a lawyer, including service as a superior court judge. Last year he became one of a select few attorneys admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, which he will presently discuss.

Synopsis: Many Supreme Court decisions have been found by history to be wrongly decided. While a CA Supreme Court case permits (but does not mandate) local governments to grant exclusive garbage collection franchises, local governments should choose not to use exclusive franchising which, in fact, increases landfilling and takes money and living wage jobs out of local communities. Premier Recycling chose to challenge this practice in the US Supreme Court and it will now explain why.

Monaliza Noor, HF&H Consultants, LLC

Monaliza Noor is an Associate Analyst at HF&H Consultants. She recently assisted with the development of CalRecycle’s SB 1383 implementation tools and case studies. To help jurisdictions plan for SB 1383, Ms. Noor has also helped develop a number of SB 1383-specific tools that identify requirements; delineate which entity (City, hauler, or a third-party) will do what; and, allow for cost-benefit analysis. In addition to her SB 1383 focused work, Ms. Noor also assists in hauler performance reviews, solid waste and recycling contract analysis, and procurement evaluations. Before joining HF&H Consultants in 2018, Ms. Noor worked for the City of Oakland’s environmental services division. In 2016, she earned a Master of Science degree in Environmental Management from the University of San Francisco.

Synopsis: Monaliza Noor will provide an overview of newly developed SB 1383 Implementation Tools produced for CalRecycle by HF&H Consultants, in conjunction with Diversion Strategies and Debra Kaufman Consulting. The SB 1383 tools include: a model franchise agreement; a model mandatory organics disposal reduction ordinance; a model organic waste product procurement policy; and, a model edible food recovery agreement. Each tool provides example provisions for use by jurisdictions and other entities to develop new agreements, ordinances, and/or policies, or to amend existing ones. The presentation will highlight key provisions of each tool and describe how users can navigate and customize each model tool.

Veronica Pardo, California Refuse Recycling Council, Northern District

Veronica Pardo has served the Northern District California Refuse Recycling Council’s governmental affairs program since 2013 where she monitors the numerous regulatory agencies that impact the waste and recycling industry, ensuring that industry needs are communicated during regulatory rulemakings and state policy development. Ms. Pardo works on a diversity of issues ranging from organics management to renewable energy production. She holds a master’s degree in Community Development from UC Davis and a bachelor’s degree in French and English from UCLA.

Synopsis: This presentation will highlight the differences and similarities of the waste management system of 3 distinct regions: Japan, Germany, and California.

Having lived in Japan, Germany, and California, I will provide a personal view of waste sorting and expectations at the household level. The presentation will also address recycling rates, specific programs, and incineration and landfill use within these regions.

Ultimately, the audience will learn that each region has a unique approach to waste management. This perspective will help inform the larger discussion of how to realize our significant global and regional waste diversion goals.

Wanda Redic, City of Oakland

Wanda Redic has 25 Years of experience in municipal solid waste and recycling; currently focused in community outreach and developing public engagement strategies, advancing social equity in ethnic communities, developing waste reduction strategies and managing elements of franchise agreements and current lead staff for SB 1383 implementation.

Synopsis: My presentation briefly will provide information about Oakland’s path to edible food recovery and distribution. I’ll share Oakland’s collaboration with other government agencies and with the community of food distribution stakeholders as we chart a path towards reducing food surplus and increasing food recovery which can have potential impacts beyond our borders.

Jessica Robinson, Resilience Birthright Inc

Jessica Jane Robinson is known as superhero Resilience, Recycle Woman, and Miss Alameda. Ms. Robinson is a Zero Waste practitioner with more than a decade of experience in implementing recycling and compost programs. She works with businesses, organizations, school districts (throughout the Bay Area), principals, faculty members, teachers, students, and community members in engagement projects, implementing cultural and social change programs to improve zero waste and climate protection goals. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Northern California Recycling Association since 2013, serving as treasurer from 2013-2016, and now as Vice President.

Synopsis: The Earth Warrior Carbon Calculator is a zero-waste tool that helps address climate change by guiding people toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For people not familiar with the zero-waste lifestyle, this website will help them slowly get accustomed to the behaviors and lifestyle without going “cold turkey.” The user will be able to track their daily actions based on sustainable lifestyle choices, such as walking, carpooling, composting, recycling, and reusing. The website calculates the activities as the equivalence of carbon metric tons avoided in the atmosphere, then simplifies those metrics with tangible analogies such as saving trees or removing cars off the road.

Karen Strolia, Downtown Streets

Bio: After graduating from UC Berkeley’s Psychology Dept, Karen joined Downtown Streets Team (DST) as a Case Manager in Marin County in 2016 where she worked to connect unhoused individuals to critical resources. After being promoted to Project Manager, she created positive visibility in the greater community for those who often feel marginalized. As a Director, Karen launched Marin County’s only shower program, Marin Mobile Care, with a focus in meeting people where they are to serve a basic need – a shower – to those living “off the grid”. She is currently working to expand DST into Sonoma County’s Petaluma.

Synopsis: In 15 Northern CA cities, Downtown Streets Team (DST) provides a path to recover from homelessness through community, motivation, and hope. Unhoused “Team Members” clean up business districts, neighborhoods, encampments and waterways as they work their way out of homelessness. The Organization’s model has been lauded as one of only five evidence-based best practices by the League of CA Cities and the CA Association of Counties’ Homelessness Task Force. Come learn about the model, service philosophy and 15 years’ experience engaging local unhoused residents in community cleanups.

Wes Sullens, U.S. Green Building Council

Wes Sullens, LEED Fellow, leads Materials & Resources activities at the U.S. Green Building Council. Wes is responsible for the materials credits in LEED and directs organizational activities related to construction waste, product manufacturing, material transparency, circular economy, and embodied carbon. He has worked in the public, private and nonprofit sectors for 20 years on broad topics including energy efficiency, supply chain sustainability, and chemicals transparency.

Synopsis: Update on waste, recycling and circular economy recognition for construction and building projects in LEED. The presentation will focus on project waste management and diversion (reuse, C&D), as well as product procurement (recycled content, designed for circularity, environmental product declarations). Updates will focus on the newest version of LEED: version 4.1.

Peter Schultze-Allen, EOA Inc.

Peter Schultze-Allen is a Senior Scientist at EOA Inc. providing technical assistance to municipalities around the Bay Area, specializing in the development of policies and practices for: public and private green stormwater infrastructure, zero waste, zero litter, complete streets, sustainable landscaping, and urban forestry. His previous experience includes managing the environmental programs for the City of Emeryville and team member of Recology-San Francisco’s Fantastic Three program rollout. He is one of the four authors of the Ecology Center’s initial draft of Berkeley’s Single-Use Foodware and Litter Reduction Ordinance that was adopted in March of 2019.

Synopsis: How do the worlds of stormwater and zero waste intersect and why should you care? I will give some examples and ways that people and organizations are taking action on these topics: plastics, PFAS, cigarette butts, EPS (Styrofoam), shopping bags, extended producer responsibility, marine debris, litter, foodware, compost use and specifications, mulch, green stormwater infrastructure, roadway design, sustainable landscaping, carbon sequestration, regenerative agriculture, erosion and sediment control, street trees and building demolition!

# # #

Recycling Update 2019! – Program & Speaker Presentations

Our annual event was brilliant, thanks to our fantastic and generous sponsors, our innovative and bold speakers, and our passionate and motivated attendees!

The amount of content of the event can be overwhelming, so we have offered the speaker presentations here for you in pdf format to reference and keep handy for your own planning purposes. There are several that are still getting uploaded; if you need one sooner, please contact Juliana and I can assist.

Over the next couple of months, we will upload the speaker videos to our NCRA YouTube Channel, so please, stay tuned!

Maricelle Cardenas and Jeanne Nader

Kristin DiLallo Sherrill

Doug Kobold

Susan Robinson

Brennan Madden

Jerame Renteria – forthcoming

Ron Kasper and Roxanne Murray

Lisa Duba – forthcoming

Robin Martin

Recycling Update 2019 Speakers Announced!

Over 20 presenters will inform and inspire the 24th Annual Recycling Update conference. See our ZWW/Recycling Update page under our Events Tab to register.

Here is our partial 2019 Recycling Update Conference line-up, in alphabetical order:

Peter Schultze-Allen, CPSWQ, QSP/QSD, BFQP, LEED AP – Peter Schultze-Allen is a Senior Scientist at EOA Inc. with extensive experience in the environmental field. He specializes in green stormwater infrastructure, litter reduction, zero waste policy, complete and green streets, sustainable landscaping, and urban forestry practices. His past experience includes two years with Recology in SF, eleven years managing the environmental programs for the City of Emeryville and five years at EOA where he has been providing GI, LID and litter-related technical assistance and program support to municipalities around the Bay Area.

The design of buildings has a large impact on the levels of waste and litter generated during operation. Mr. Schultze-Allen will present a summary of findings from a recent Bay Area report on designing buildings to meet stormwater and zero waste goals.

Jennifer Arbuckle, Recycling and Public Education Manager, Northern Recycling and Waste Services – Jennifer is a Northern California Native, Master’s Degree from CSU Chico in Environmental Geography, been working in the environmental field for the last 17 years, the last 12 being with Northern Recycling and Waste Services as Recycling and Public Outreach Manager.

Jennifer will highlight the statistics and various situations resulting from the unprecedented disaster of the Camp fire.

Timothy Bouldry, Director, ISWA Scholarship Programme – Timothy photographs and documents open dumpsite activity in developing countries, as well as the communities informally recycling in these areas. He has pointed attention to the topic of environmental and humanitarian injustices for ten years. He currently resides in Nicaragua where he is directing The ISWA Scholarship Programme that provides education to youths that agreed to not return to the dumpsite in order to pursue an education. More info about can be found at TimothyBouldry.com and ISWAkids.com.

Timothy Bouldry will be presenting The ISWA Scholarship Programme that is providing education for 70 youths and parents who are transitioning from a life of informally recycling at a dumpsite in Nicaragua, towards education and planning their futures. Nicaragua has been experiencing a lot of civil unrest due to their administration and the authorities they control. Human rights injustices will also be discussed, along with how politics and corruption affect municipal waste.

Martin Bourque, Executive Director, Ecology Center – Since 2000, Martin has led the Ecology Center, a community-based organization incorporated on Earth Day in 1970. Under Martin’s leadership, the Ecology Center is leveraging local direct community service programs to have state and national impact. Martin has spearheaded innovative efforts such as creating a farmers’ market industry group, pioneering electronic food stamp access and incentives at farmers’ markets, and passing the nation’s first Soda Tax. By linking local grassroots grit with highly competent program implementation, and increasingly effective policy advocacy, Martin has led the Ecology Center to become a high impact engine for change.

Kourtnii Brown, Founder, Common Compost – Kourtnii is an environmental policy analyst and worm composting enthusiast, and the founder of Common Compost in Oakland, California. Her idea for a community compost cooperative won the Living the New Economy’s Hackathon in November 2014, from which she received entrepreneurship support to launch a 3-year compost pilot project with funding from local grants and partnerships throughout the Oakland farm-to-fork community. She currently serves as a compost policy consultant to the Sustainable Economies Law Center and is also the Steering Committee Chair of the California Alliance for Community Composting.

The Ins and Outs of Community Composting – Community composting is an important facet of a diverse composting infrastructure and provides education to help catalyze larger scale municipal efforts. Kourtnii Brown, policy consultant with the Sustainable Economies Law Center, will address what policymakers and stakeholders can do to support community-scale composting efforts in terms of identifying legislative definitions, best management practices, and regulatory exemptions that standardize and ensure well-operated community composting sites. The presentation will provide a short overview of the legal and policy trends impacting each stage of the composting process, including 1) organic material generation, 2) hauling, 3) composting, and 4) distribution of compost.

Maricelle Cardenas, Community Outreach and Education Specialist, StopWaste – Maricelle is a community educator who has supported various education and outreach projects at StopWaste since 2010 and Jeanne Nader Program Manager, StopWaste – Jeanne runs the Community Based Outreach Project, which includes SWEET. Previously, Jeanne led the Master Composter training and residential outreach on sustainable gardening. She has been a Program Manager at StopWaste since 2001. Her background is in environmental education and community organizing.

SWEET – StopWaste Environmental Educator Training – StopWaste staff, Jeanne Nader and Maricelle Cardenas, will present the story of SWEET – an innovative and nimble train the trainer model that certifies Alameda County residents as environmental educators and community connectors. Jeanne will provide an overview of the SWEET training goals and nuts and bolts. Maricelle will share how StopWaste and SWEET grads have leveraged the Food Waste Reduction program focus into community outreach, education and mobilization opportunities.

Joshua Perez-Cramer, Operator, Independent Recycling Services – Joshua is the Operator of a Construction & Demolition Facility in East Oakland, who has been working in the environmental industry for the past five years, starting out working for a Solar Company as well as selling Energy Efficient Home Improvements. He is also an Environmental Educator with Stopwaste and enjoys volunteering with NCRA and Zero Waste Youth Events.

Josh will be discussing experiences working with different departments and jurisdictions; the pro’s & con’s with C&D Regulations and working with several departments; hauling vs. processing- source separation; education and community outreach; and the importance of 3rd party verification.

Lisa Duba, Principal, Gigantic Idea Studio – Lisa is a founder and principal at Gigantic Idea Studio, Inc in Oakland, California. She has worked to promote environmental programs and behaviors since 1995. Her work includes campaign planning, messaging and creative concepts in the areas of waste reduction, recycling, and pollution prevention. Current and past clients include City of Palo Alto, Livermore, Oakland, County of Santa Clara, and the Clean Water Program Alameda County.

Outreach Campaigns to Combat Curbside Contamination – Global markets require recycling feedstocks that are significantly cleaner than what’s typically collected curbside in the blue cart. Municipalities are responding with outreach to address wish-cycling and proper preparation of recyclables. Stefanie will share two campaigns created for two Bay Area cities.

Roland Geyer, Professor, UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management – Prior to joining the Bren School Roland held research positions in Germany, France, and the UK. Since 2000 he has worked with a wide range of governmental organizations, trade associations, and companies on environmental sustainability issues. In his research he uses the approaches and methods of industrial ecology, such as life cycle assessment and material flow analysis, to study pollution prevention strategies based on reuse, recycling, and material and technology substitution. Roland has a graduate degree in physics and a Ph.D. in engineering.

Making Recycling Work – Reuse and recycling have the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impacts of industrial production, but suffer from widespread misunderstandings and have so far fallen short of their promise. This presentation will discuss how common misconceptions about recycling have been preventing it from reaching its full environmental potential and explore strategies to change this.

James Green, Founder, FixmyKix – James Green is a 19-year-old African American born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland, Ca. His passion for sneakers and entrepreneurship led him to found FixmyKix. FixmyKix is a mobile marketplace app for the service of sneaker restoration and customization to be bought and sold, to promote artistic entrepreneurship among young people and to reduce shoe waste in our landfills. James believes Entrepreneurship transforms lives and founded FixmyKix so that sneaker restoration and customization services can be more accessible to all and sneaker artists can now better access their customers.

Patrick Hayes, Recycling Specialist, City of Oakland – Patrick is the Former Director of the California Straw Building Association, and has now worked with the City of Oakland for 18 years, leading development of the C&D Ordinance, and introduced online submittals, developed green building ordinances, and was the Technical lead on the Non-Exclusive Franchise system for C&D. Currently, Patrick is developing a biodynamic farm with blackwater recycling and goats, and his biggest effort is now teaching an 11-year-old how to disregard the box.

Patrick will outline the highlights of Oakland’s C&D non-exclusive franchise system.

Rob Hilton, President, HF&H Consultants – As President of HF&H Consultants, Rob has provided recycling and solid waste consulting services to more than 150 public agencies across the United States. He has been involved in over 350 projects covering a wide range of strategic, operational, programmatic, contractual, and financial issues. He has already negotiated four franchise agreements that had to anticipate the requirements of SB 1383 before it was complete and has been engaged by several other agencies around the state to develop SB 1383 plans.

It’s Not As Scary As You Thought: How to Start Implementing SB 1383 Programs – SB 1383 is being described as the biggest legislative milestone since the adoption of AB 939. Many jurisdictions across the state (particularly ones without organics collection programs) are anxiously anticipating the final adoptions of SB 1383, but implementing SB 1383 may not be as bad as they think. This presentation will: Provide a big-picture summary of SB 1383, highlighting requirements that will likely have the biggest impact on local jurisdictions; describe practical steps local jurisdictions can do now to ensure their agencies are SB 1383-compliant; spotlight local governments that have recently adopted or modified franchise agreements to meet SB 1383 requirements.

Jen Jackson, Toxics Reduction & Healthy Ecosystems Programs Manager, San Francisco Department of the Environment – Jen and her team lead a variety of programs and implement policies that reduce toxic pollution and improve environmental and public health, such as an ordinance banning the use of food service ware containing fluorinated chemicals, a first-in-the-nation requirement for grocers to report antibiotic use in meat and poultry production, an award-winning Integrated Pest Management Program, a municipal Green Purchasing Program, an urban biodiversity program, and an extensive residential household hazardous waste disposal program. Prior to joining San Francisco in 2015, Jen worked in wastewater and stormwater pollution prevention for almost eight years in the public sector, and began her environmental career in the non-profit sector at Sierra Club and Save The Bay. Jen earned her master’s degree in Resource Management & Environmental Planning with a focus on water resources.

Fluorinated chemicals are a class of more than 5000 chemicals that are persistent and some have been shown to harm human health. The City of San Francisco is tackling the myriad uses of these persistent organic pollutants, including in food service ware, carpet, furniture, and firefighting foam.

Doug Kobold, Executive Director, California Product Stewardship Council – Doug has worked in the Solid Waste and Recycling industry and “talking trash” for over 26 years. The past 18+ years, prior to taking the helm as the Executive Director at the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC) in August 2018, were spent at Sacramento County where he held the position of Waste Management Program Manager in charge of the Business Development & Special Waste division. He has served on the Northern California SWANA Chapter Board of Directors as Chapter President and currently serves as Vice Chair on the California Chapters Legislative Task Force (LTF).

With the passage of SB 212 (Jackson, 2018), California will have safe, free, and convenient unused/unwanted medicine disposal options in every county in just a few short years. SB 212 also creates a requirement for safe return containers to be distributed free of charge with every sharp/needle sold. This presentation will cover the important features of SB 212, an update on the ensuing regulations drafting process, a rough timeline for the roll-out of the statewide program, and other pertinent information.

Gina Lee, Founder, Circular CoLab – Gina is the author of The State of the Circular Economy in America, the first United States focused Circular Economy landscape study which analyzes over 200 Circular Economy initiatives. Gina has over 15 years of experience working in Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Impact in the United States, China, and Germany. Her past roles include overseeing partnerships with Fortune 500 corporations and top-tier business schools for the Aspen Institute, working with the Schwarz Group in materials management, and leading programming and corporate relations for Mercy Corps Beijing. She is skilled in engaging with organizations from across the policy, government and private sector and has managed workshops and pilot programs with organizations including TATA, the American Sustainable Business Council, TEDxLA, and the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator.

My presentation will provide an overview of the guiding principles of the Circular Economy and highlight innovative American businesses and organizations that have already built circular solutions. The presentation will also include trends and challenges facing the development of the Circular Economy here in the states and provide some ideas for moving forward.

Brennan Madden, Senior Consultant, RRS – Brennan’s technical skill set provides economic, modeling, and data analysis to a wide range of clients within our waste recovery, materials recovery facility (MRF), renewable energy, and organics sectors. Brennan’s background is steeped in renewable energy, industrial ecology, and project management, with specialization in life cycle analysis, life-cycle design, integrated assessment, as well as photovoltaic, biodiesel, and anaerobic digestion energy. Brennan has also been integral in refining the TruCycle recyclability/compostability assessment in multiple countries. His expertise includes economic and material feasibility, GIS analyses, as well as tool, database, and model development. Brennan holds an MS in Sustainable Systems and a graduate certificate in Industrial Ecology, both from the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability.

Robin Franz Martin, Executive Director, Joint Venture Silicon Valley – Robin came to Joint Venture’s Food Rescue Initiative in 2017 to head the A La Carte pilot program, bringing 20 years of experience in public health and community team building. Most recently she led volunteer building projects for LifeMoves, Bay Area, an organization committed to ending the cycle of homelessness in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

Robin started her career with the NAACP working on urban environmental health issues, later working in Boston at the Education Development Center on national and international public health issues, and as Executive Director of the Central Square Business Association. She also founded a summer camp program for at-risk middle school students, fostering personal and social change through exposure to sustainable agriculture and healthy food options.

Robin will discuss A La Carte, a fleet of refrigerated food trucks that resemble their trendy food truck cousins, but without cooking and washing facilities. Every day the trucks collect surplus edible food from university and corporate campuses and drive directly into neighborhoods where a high concentration of people living with daily food insecurity can have a normal, dignified experience as they select meals free of charge. To alleviate any barriers, no personal information is gathered.

Teresa Montgomery, Sustainability Manager, South San Francisco Scavenger Co. – Teresa has over twenty years of experience in the solid waste and recycling field. She has a broad background in marketing and has developed and carried out a number of successful public information campaigns. She has extensive experience in the public and private sectors. From 2005-2015 she worked as the Director of Communications for the Pellegrini group of companies: Alameda County Industries, Garden City Sanitation, Livermore Sanitation, Mission Trail Waste Systems, and SAFE. In 2016, Teresa moved over to the South San Francisco Scavenger Company where she now works as the Sustainability Manager. She also maintains a part-time role at Garden City Sanitation.

Using Magic to Clean up Commercial Organics – During the summer of 2017, Blue Line Transfer added a Scott Turbo Separator to its arsenal of processing equipment. Loads of commercial waste containing a high volume of food scraps, food-soiled paper, and plastic & bioplastic bags are directed to the Scott and magically transformed. A significant amount of material previously sorted manually, sent out for processing, or hauled directly to landfill is recovered for on-site anaerobic digestion. The magic “salsa” created by the Scott allows Blue Line to landfill less, digest more, and increase gas production for their CNG fleet. Win. Win. Win.

Dr. Molly Morse, CEO, and co-founder of Mango Materials – Molly received her Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering–with an emphasis on anaerobic biodegradation of biocomposites for the building industry–from Stanford University, and her B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University. Dr. Morse has contributed to multiple patents, publications, and presentations. Along with other Mango Materials team members, she is currently working to up-scale the biomanufacturing technology of using methane gas to produce biodegradable materials.

Molly will be talking about next generation biopolymers and their potential for addressing closed-loop carbon cycles.

Julie Muir, Zero Waste Manager, Peninsula Sanitary Service/Stanford Recycling – Julie Muir works for Peninsula Sanitary Service/Stanford Recycling and has managed Stanford University’s Waste Reduction, Recycling, and Composting Program for the last 25 years. She leads Stanford University toward a zero waste campus through a rigorous and comprehensive program of waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting. She enjoys most working with students and the campus community on waste reduction and educating on the connection between materials management, the economy, and climate change. Julie Muir is Past-President and current Senior Advisor to the California Resource Recovery Association and Chair of the Zero Waste Campus Council.

Tailgating Zero Waste at the Stanford Stadium – As Stanford University moves towards its goal of Zero Waste by 2030, Stanford’s Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation (DAPER) has focused on the adoption of new Zero Waste initiatives to further its commitment to sustainability. This presentation will present the opportunities and challenges of supporting sustainable tailgating including using new dumpster trailers, green tailgate checklist, and fan engagement. Stanford won the Most Improvement award in 2017 from the PAC 12 Conference’s Zero Waste Bowl for its expanded tailgate recycling and composting initiatives.

Roxanne Murray, Recycling Programs Coordinator, City of San Mateo – Roxanne has 17 years of experience working in the solid waste field, five years in the private sector as a Recycling Coordinator for Allied Waste and the last 12 years as the City of San Mateo Solid Waste/Recycling Programs Coordinator. Roxanne oversees the City’s solid waste contract with Recology San Mateo County; is responsible for all the City’s waste reduction programs; and works with the City Council, County and South Bayside Waste Management Authority regarding the City’s waste reduction efforts.

Ron Kasper, Recycling Coordinator, City of San Mateo – In Ron’s 33 years with the City of San Mateo, he has served many roles in both the Parks and Public Works Departments. For the past nine years, Ron has been the City’s Recycling Coordinator. The focus of his time at work is tackling the City’s illegal dumping issues. For the past four years, due to Ron’s efforts, they have seen close to a 50% reduction where the City had to take the responsibility for removing illegally dumped debris.

Ron and Roxanne’s presentation will highlight the efforts to reduce illegal dumping over the past few years in our City. Due to these efforts, we have reduced the number of times the City has had to take responsibility for the removal of illegal dumping by close to 50%.

Jerame Renteria, Organics Marketing Specialist, Zanker Road Resource Management – Jerame is a seasoned member of the marketing team with over 6 years of experience focusing on recycled commodities markets and branding for outbound inert/organic products such as Class II Base Rock and Soil Amendment. Some of his key roles include the managing of installations for recycled landscape products for client projects while maintaining customer relations for more than 1,600 Demolition Contractors, Debris Box Companies, and General Construction Contractors. Jerame works closely with Operations at Zanker Recycling making sure material being recycled is non-hazardous and acceptable in accordance with Zanker’s Class III landfill designation.

Advanced C&D Processing System – Silicon Valley is known as the land of innovation when it comes to computers and information technology, but few people know that it is also the land of recycling innovation. Case in point: Zanker Recycling’s newest operation, the Advanced C&D Processing System which is using AI technology to sort C&D debris into marketable commodities. Robots are the driving force of this advancement which will lead the C&D world to its next level.

Susan Robinson, Senior Director of Policy and Sustainability, Waste Management – Susan Robinson is Senior Director of Policy and Sustainability at WM. Her 30+ years in the industry includes work in the public sector, non-profit environmental work, consultancy, and over 25 years in the private sector. Susan’s experience includes global commodity marketing, research, and analysis of industry trends, and twenty years managing municipal solid waste and recycling contracts. She currently leads WM’s Sustainability Team.

Over the past three years, using US EPA’s Facts and Figures tonnage data, WM’s national average cost information, and EPA’s WARM tool, WM created a GHG abatement curve for the solid waste and recycling industry. More recently, we used updated pricing and tonnage information to focus on the recyclables processed at single-stream MRFs to understand the environmental impacts and cost of the materials that we manage. Our goal for this exercise was to understand how we might prioritize our efforts for maximum environmental benefits, and at what cost.

Roberto Sabatini, President, Environmental Novociclo S.A. – Roberto has worked previously with mathematical modeling for flood forecasting at the Working Group on Hydrology and Environment. In 1998, Sabatini founded Ethermidia, one of Brazil’s first internet companies which became a leader in the Santa Catarina market. He also founded EnsinoWeb, a web-based education company, as well as Gincana Premiada, which focused on educational entertainment. Since 2008, Sabatini has been involved with Lixo Zero, a waste management and recycling program for companies, complexes, and communities. He is a member of Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA) and serves as the president of Instituto Lixo Zero Brasil. He has a degree in civil engineering from the Federal University of Santa Catarina.

Roberto will discuss the most recents updates in Zero Waste in Brazil.

Steven Sherman, Principal, Steven Sherman Consulting – Steven has worked on organics program planning and implementation–yard trimmings since 1988; food scraps since 1992–as a consultant to local governments, haulers, and processors across the country. He has helped to develop or further the success of several leading municipalities in our field, including San Francisco, StopWaste, Berkeley, Metro (Oregon), the East Bay Municipal Utility District, Portland, and the South Bayside Waste Management Authority. Steven’s skills cover program and project planning, budgeting, and implementation; economic and data analysis; policy evaluation; long-range program planning; survey development; meeting facilitation; staff management and mentoring; contractor selection and contract management; and organizational development. Steven earned an M.S. in Resource Economics from Cornell University and a B.A. in Environmental History from Yale College; he also holds graduate certificates in Financial Planning and in Advanced Indonesian Language.

Picking Plastics in Paradise: Using Citizen Scientists to Characterize Marine-Borne Plastics in Indonesia — Steven Sherman participated in a citizen science-based initiative, led by the non-profit organization 5 Gyres, to document and characterize plastics in the marine and coastal environment in Indonesia. This presentation addresses the waste characterization methods employed and results found.

Kristin DiLallo Sherrill, Chief Marketing Consultant for California Electronic Asset Recovery, Inc. (CEAR) – Kristin has worked with CEAR for over 11 years. She oversees customer relations and marketing strategies. Kristin has played a vital role in the relationship with many of CEAR’s largest customer acquisitions. She holds her BA in Communications with an emphasis in Environmental Public Relations. Her industry knowledge and customer relations have helped CEAR become a leader in IT Asset Disposition, Data Security and electronics recycling.

Kristin will discuss lithium battery hazards from a recyclers perspective.

Nate Stein, CEO, PS Creations LLC – Nate grew up in the restaurant industry, and his dad moved to California in the 70’s from New York where he attended the Culinary Institute of America. He started off with a bagel company that he sold to Otis Spunkmeyer and then moved into Delis and restaurants and then finally having a catering company. And that’s where it all started for Nate. 3.5 years ago Nate was working a 300 person wedding event and had over 600 plates he needed to wash…from those plates the Platescrape innovation was born.

Nate will discuss Platescrape’s journey and how it can influence California.

2018 Recycling Update – Speaker Video Presentations

We are pleased to offer you the video presentations for the 2018 Recycling Update conference; more will be added weekly, so please check back and spread widely!

Allie Lalor , Greg Dudish , Alina Bekkerman , Dennis Uyat, “Lessons Learned from Zero Waste Youth Brazil”

Terry McDonald , Executive Director, St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County, Inc.

Nicole Tai , CEO, GreenLynx

David Allaway, Senior Policy Analyst, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

Jeff Denby , Co-Founder of The Renewal Workshop,“Enabling a Circular Economy for Apparel”

Jerame Rentaria , Zanker Materials Processing, “DM Reduction System at Zanker Facility”

Hilary Gans , Manager, SBWMA

Michael Lok, Asian Health Services

Kevin Kumataka, SF Green Business Program

Sharon Daraphonhdeth, UC Berkeley

Jennifer Acton & Erin Cooke, San Francisco International Airport

Kelly McBee, Californians Against Waste

Mikhail Davis, Interface

Will Bakx, Sonoma Compost Company

Patrick Mathews, Salinas Valley Recycles

Ken DaRosa, Chief Deputy Director, CalRecycle

Ruth Abbe, President, Zero Waste USA

David Allaway, Senior Policy Analyst, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

Kerry Parker, Recycling Specialist, City of Alameda and Samantha Sommer, Waste Prevention Program Manager, Clean Water
Action

Sara Fuentes, Sustainability Program Manager, Commercial Industrial Waste Applications, Inc. (CIWA, Inc.)

Zoe Heller, Assistant Director of Policy Development, CalRecycle

Kate O’Neill, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley

Monica Wilson, Policy & Research Coordinator, GAIA

Jack Macy, Commercial Zero Waste Senior Coordinator, San Francisco Dept. of Environment

John Moore, Legal Counsel, NCRA

Tim Dewey-Mattia, Public Education Manager, Napa Recycling & Waste Services

Recycling Update 2018 Speakers!

Over 20 presenters will inform and inspire the 23rd Annual Recycling Update conference. See our ZWW/Recycling Update page under our Activities Tab to register for RU and to see the activities being planned for the annual Zero Waste Week.

David Allaway, Senior Policy Analyst, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. David will address Oregon’s efforts to move up the hierarchy with a focus on reducing wasted food, reuse/repair, and the built environment; Oregon’s transition to sustainable materials management; and the development of new statewide systems to measure progress towards broad sustainability goals that include – but go beyond – traditional weight-based waste recovery metrics.

Ric Anthony, Principal, Richard Anthony Associates, “Why Bottle Caps?” – Bottle caps are one of the most frequent plastic items found in coastal cleanups. There is need to bring the producers these products and packages to the World table to draft Zero Waste responsibility plans for proper management of discarded plastic via redesign for recyclability, buyback purchasing opportunities (closed circle), and recovery campaigns for vagrant plastics on land and sea. In ten minutes I will discuss the science and the campaign which includes legislative action to force the redesign to leash the lid, a lawsuit to fund the cleanup and a public education campaign that includes returning the caps found in coastal cleanups back to the producer.

Will Bakx, Soil Scientist/Owner, Sonoma Compost Company, “It Ain’t Over until the “Overs” have a Home” – When making finished compost or mulch, ‘overs’ are screened off to create a clean, uniform marketable product. The ‘overs’ are the coarser woody fraction that used to go to biofuel plants for green energy. As biofuel plants are shutting down or raising the bar on what products they accept, Woodageddon has arrived. Or, Chunky Mulch is here. Clean up your ‘overs’ and return all organics to the soil. Mulch: the obstacles and the solutions.

Erin Cooke, Sustainability Director, San Francisco International Airport and Jennifer Acton, Environmental Operations Manager, San Francisco International Airport, “Achieving Zero: SFO’s Journey” – San Francisco International Airport’s (SFO or the Airport) has established the bold, Strategic Plan goal, of becoming the world’s first zero-waste Airport by 2021. In setting this target, our Airport asks the question of “how low can we go?” within its 14 million square foot campus materials system. To accomplish this bold goal, SFO drafted its first Airport Zero Waste Plan, which sets a pathway to respond to this question and achieve this goal. The Airport’s key implementation leads will walk attendees through SFO’s approach and gain feedback, from you, on what approaches will help our campus reach zero.

Sharon Daraphonhdeth, Interim Director of the Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC) at the University of California Berkeley, “UC Berkeley Students Make Zero Waste Possible” – UC Berkeley is committed to reaching zero waste by 2020. Sharon will be presenting on the major accomplishments, created and implemented by students on campus. She will touch on the importance and power of student leaders, and how they are shaping the conversation and paving the way towards zero waste.

Ken DaRosa, Chief Deputy Director, CalRecycle – Mr. DaRosa will share updates regarding SB1383 compost regulations.

Mikhail Davis, Director of Restorative Enterprise, Interface, “Making Closed Loop Carpet a Reality” – For nearly 25 years, Interface has been grappling with the challenge of making their new carpet tiles from old carpet, with many setbacks and breakthroughs along the way. Mikhail will discuss the Interface journey to make carpet to carpet recycling a technical and economic reality and how and why they decided to break with the carpet industry in 2017 and support the passage of AB 1158, the nation’s first EPR law for carpet.

Jeff Denby, Co-Founder, The Renewal Workshop, “Enabling a Circular Economy for Apparel” – The reason we have waste in the apparel industry is the design of the industry itself. The Renewal Workshop leverages technology, systems thinking and marketplace drivers to start to evolve the industry towards a more regenerative model where resources are wisely used.

Tim Dewey-Mattia

Sara Fuentes, Sustainability Program Manager, Commercial Industrial Waste Applications, Inc. (CIWA, Inc.), “Putting the Zero Waste in Concierge Services” – Learn how CIWA uses emerging technology to help track trash and recycling services and save time and money. CIWA will share some best management practices and lessons learned through a few case studies from their large-scale tech clients in Palo Alto.

Hilary Gans, Manager, SBWMA – In 2016, the SBWMA had a large fire at the MRF. Hilary will tell the tale and share what he has learned from the experience.

Adam Gendell, Associate Director, Sustainable Packaging Coalition, “The State of Sustainable Packaging” – This presentation gives an overview of the most current understanding of packaging sustainability, including industry trends, regulatory happenings, and hot topics in sustainable packaging. Learn about the latest news and hear about the industry-facing work of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.

Iain Gulland, Chief Executive Officer, Zero Waste Scotland – Ian Gulland will update us on the latest trends and policies in Zero Waste Scotland.

Zoe Heller, Assistant Director of Policy Development, CalRecycle – The export of recyclable material is a key component of California’s recycling infrastructure. China’s import restriction is resulting in less recyclable materials leaving California, creating opportunities and challenges for how we manage our materials domestically.

Kevin Kumataka, Green Business Coordinator, San Francisco Green Business Program, “Creating Access to Environmental Recognition” – 2 years ago the San Francisco Green Business Program distinguished itself as the most stringent of Green Business Programs. This created credibility but became a barrier to many businesses and business sectors in San Francisco. To address this issue of access to working with the program and to maintain credibility, the SF Green Business Program has piloted a tiered certification model approach. Come to this talk to learn about developments of not just the SF Green Business Program, but the development of the CA Green Business Program and expansion of the Green Business model to other states.

Alexandra Lalor, Greg Dudish, Alina Bekkerman, Dennis Uyat, “Lessons Learned from Zero Waste Youth Brazil” – From Brazil to the United States, people are coming together and collaborating to create a zero waste world. Representatives from Zero Waste Youth USA will share their experiences from attending the Brazil Zero Waste Youth conference, including challenges we face, similarities we share, and connections we’ve made as we continue to build an international zero waste movement.

Michael Lok, Planning Associate, Asian Health Services – Michael staffs the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative which was funded by AHS and has grown into a statewide coalition focused on making the nail salon industry safer, healthier and more just for the 129,000 nail salon workers statewide most of whom are immigrant women of color. Michael will give an overview of the Collaborative’s environmental justice work which stands on a foundation of community outreach, research and policy advocacy.

Jack Macy, Commercial Zero Waste Senior Coordinator, San Francisco Dept. of Environment, “San Francisco Upgrades MRF And Expands Materials Recycled” – San Francisco made major upgrades at Recology’s Recycle Central @ Pier 96 to increase the types of materials recovered, improve quality and reduce residual. These upgrades, along with efforts to reduce plastic in compostables and pursue the highest and best use of resources, resulted in San Francisco moving paper cups and cartons from composting into recycling, as well as moving aseptic cartons and plastic film from trash to recycling. Hear how these changes were made, and the latest status and results of the in-progress 2-year citywide rollout of outreach along with smaller trash and larger recycling bins, while addressing recent challenging market conditions.

Patrick Mathews, Salinas Valley Recycles, “Organics Management Planning in the Salinas Valley, the Perfect Storm” – The presentation will overview the expansion of SVR’s Organics Management Program and how we will utilize the $1.34 million grant awarded by CalRecycle under their Greenhouse Gas Reduction, Organics Grant Program for 2016-17. The topics will include selected technology review, Ag waste recovery, collections, and food recovery and distribution in the Salinas Valley. The discussion will also outline the unique organics “perfect storm” SVR is planning for in the near future: increased organics recovery, cannabis wastes, and growing challenges for the cattle feedstock (culls) markets.

Kelly McBee, Policy Analyst, Californians Against Waste, “Preserving California’s Bottle Bill” – California’s unique beverage container recycling law was enacted in 1987 and is one of the largest and most successful Bottle Bill programs in North America. However, over the last few years, unsustainable losses of revenue for recyclers has led to the closing of hundreds of bottle buyback centers, denying California the full scope of the program’s greenhouse gas emission reduction benefits and others. Kelly will discuss opportunities for comprehensive program reform, legislative efforts to date, and next steps.

Terry McDonald, DR3 Mattress Recycling, and Saint Vincent de Paul Lane County, “Building Blocks from Broken Stuff” -Most retail thrift stores send worn and damaged materials to the landfill. At St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, we use the broken stuff as building blocks for new products. Scratched vinyl records, ripped leather sofas, shirts with blown-out elbows, table tops with no legs? No problem. Our upcycling team creates unique products that attract buyers looking for something that didn’t come off an assembly line. The revenue supports a unique range of services to those struggling financially.

John Moore, Legal Counsel, NCRA, “Winning Isn’t Everything” – Presentation will discuss three local litigation cases from the past year.

Kate O’Neill, Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley, “The Global (and Local) Impacts of China’s Scrap Ban” – This presentation addresses the unfolding impacts of China’s crackdown on scrap imports, with an emphasis on scrap plastics. I trace out implications for California, the US and the rest of the world, and discuss the many different options currently on the table.

Kerry Parker, Recycling Specialist, City of Alameda, and Samantha Sommer, Waste Prevention Program Manager, Rethink Disposable, “Straws-on-Request, and ReThink Disposable: Unpackaging Alameda Initiative” – The City of Alameda, now implementing a new law that bans plastic straws and other single-use plastics, has found itself suddenly in the midst of ongoing arguments regarding the branding of that whipped coffee drink everyone loves; responding to tough questions like whether or not something deemed “compostable” or “recyclable” actually is, and finding the way through tricky policy-making where most disposable single-use plastic food ware is now banned in the small island city. Find out about how Alameda’s partnership with Clean Water Action’s ReThink Disposable program to create a demonstration project to “unpackage” a Bay Area community has brought expertise, resources, and technical assistance to hundreds of island businesses, and supports the city’s ambitious source reduction policy to keep our coastlines and bays free from plastics and other debris.

Jerame Rentaria, Organics Marketing Specialist/Company Landscape Designer at Zanker Road Resource Management, Ltd., “DM Reduction System at Zanker Facility” – The DM Reduction system processes materials categorized as miscellaneous debris, as well as residuals from Zanker’s other operations, including bulky items such as furniture, which are collected from local garbage collection companies. The fines are conveyed to a General Kinematics Air Classifier. Here, materials are fluidized with a high-velocity air stream which removes heavy items such as glass, metals, wood, and stones to be removed from lighter items such as paper, plastic and insulation. The heavy items are marketed as ADC, and the lighter items are shipped to a landfill for disposal.

Nicole Tai, CEO, GreenLynx – Nicole will discuss the growth of GreenLynx, which started in 2013 as a deconstruction coordination group and has grown into a full service reclaimed materials company with a Woodworks, Retail Store, Deconstruction service, and Green Building division. GreenLynx opened its store in Santa Rosa in August 2017 and is currently expanding to include reclaimed furniture and finish products, a reclaimed lumber retail and receiving yard, and on-site pickups of reclaimed lumber. Nicole Tai will also briefly discuss the recent Deconstruction Workshop GreenLynx hosted along with the EPA, and the amazing group formed out of this gathering.

Monica Wilson, US and Canada Program Director, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), “Recycling is Not Enough: Findings from our Global Plastic Recycling Research Project” – Working with organizations in China, Southeast Asia, EU, and US, GAIA’s research project on plastic recycling found that as exports increase to Southeast Asia processing may increase by the informal recycling sector, which would have environmental and health impacts on workers and surrounding communities. We also found that international plastic recycling trade transparency is nearly nonexistent and that stronger coordinated action needs to be taken by governments and other actors to curb the overproduction and consumption of plastic.