EcoSafe zero waste blog

EcoSafe Works with Seattle Mariners to Promote Zero Waste

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 18:55:00 GMT

Fans attending Saturday’s baseball game at Safeco Field will get a chance to hit a home run for the environment, thanks to a partnership between Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), BASF, EcoSafe and the Seattle Mariners.

To celebrate Earth Day, the first 10,000 attendees of the April 21^st game between the Seattle Mariners and the Chicago White Sox will receive a “kitchen catcher” – featuring a container and compostable bags to collect and carry their household food scraps to their curbside food and yard waste carts. The kitchen catchers will also feature tips on how to compost at home as well as coupons for compostable bags and bags of garden compost.

Safeco Field has received national recognition for its environmentally-focused facilities operations. Most of the stadium’s food service ware is recyclable or compostable, and Safeco Field recycles or composts more than 80% percent of its generated waste.

Kitchen Catcher Day is part of Sustainable Saturdays, a season-long effort to promote various environmental issues and programs such as recycling and composting, energy conservation and carbon offsets. In partnership with BASF, EcoSafe, Seattle Public Utilities, Puget Sound Starts Here and Cedar Grove Composting, the Seattle Mariners will promote 10 Sustainable Saturdays, beginning April 21, that highlight things fans can do to reduce their impact on the environment at the ballpark and at home.

Posted: April 17th, 2012 under atyourservice.seattle.gov

A Successful Zero Waste Event in Sechelt, British Columbia

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:45:00 GMT

Using their successful "Striving for Zero Waste" program, EcoSafe once again demonstrates that achieving exceptional rates of diversion on the road to Zero Waste is not rocket science!

On a beautiful sunny Saturday in September, the work of the EcoSafe Zero Waste team in collaboration withmanagement from Lehigh Materials in Sechelt, BC, demonstrated that with minimum supervision and just an occasional bit of “coaching” at the waste disposal station, the EcoSafe “Striving for Zero Waste” program works.

At the end of the day we finished with 10 large Schaffer Carts of source separated recyclables and less than a 5 gallon pail of garbage! The make up of the food and recyclables was 6 bins of “Food & Compostables” and 3½ bins of “Recycling”.

Lehigh Materials is a major resource company and employer on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. Each year they host an open house for the public to demonstrate what they do and how they are reaching out to the community to find environmentally sustainable solutions for the reclamation of the mined lands. Over the years the Lehigh operation in Sechelt has received many local and international awards for their environmental initiatives. This year in collaboration with Salish Soils, the Sechelt First Nation and the First National Educational Society, Lehigh provided access to a Research and Education Demonstration Garden project which is located on the mine site. The vision for this project is to support local food production and provide opportunities for new sustainable agriculture businesses on the reclaimed lands.

In addition to site tours, children’s activities and popcorn, Lehigh hosted a Zero Waste lunch with support from the EcoSafe Zero Waste team. The menu included beverages, burgers, hot dogs, salads and deserts for close to 1,000 visitors.

In organizing the event, EcoSafe worked with Lehigh management to arrange for the purchase of uniquely marked and identifiable certified compostable products to be use for the lunch and to plan the setup of a “Striving for Zero Waste” station. By working with Lehigh management and the Hauler on the front end EcoSafe was able to assure Salish Soils President Aaron Joe that the “Food & Compostables” we collected would be delivered to their composting site virtually free of contamination. And at the end of the day we declared “Mission Accomplished” with only 5 gallons of waste destined for the landfill from a total of approximately 250 gallons collected. The final diversion rate after we pull any potential cross contamination is expected to exceed a whopping 95%. Next year we plan to work back into the supply chain to achieve similar results in the food preparation area.

Joe explained that currently Salish Soils produce only premium composts made primarily with commercial fish and forest waste with some green waste from local landscapers and residents. “As we move forward we want to develop and test commercial and residential food scrap programs that will meet our standards and not compromise the quality of our products. Our vision is to use the compostable waste generated in our communities to produce premium organic soils that can then be used to build a sustainable food supply for the Region” stated Aaron with a noticeable sense of pride.

The Lehigh Open House is a good example of how events can be effectively managed to eliminate waste. Salish Soils has plans to move forward with trials with local Super Markets, Restaurant Chains and Institutions as well as a residential green waste and food scrap program with the local Sechelt Nation. To achieve these high levels of diversion with minimal contamination was once considered almost impossible but with the cooperation of the Packaging and Food Services industries, Composters are increasing moving to accept a larger portion of the waste stream that has for far too long been buried in landfills or incinerated.

The EcoSafe “Striving for Zero Waste” program is a collaboration of Packaging Manufactures, Distributors, Haulers and Composters that are pooling their collective resources to build ranges of certified compostable products to replace traditional plastics including the dreaded Styrofoam. By controlling what we use and allow to enter the waste stream we eliminate the necessity of dealing with all the “contaminants” that inhibit recycling and composting. And the really good news is that these new materials are mostly made with annually renewable natural resources such as starches and plant fibers that support the building of a truly “Sustainable” economy for future generations.

Hats off to Lehigh, this was a truly “beautiful day” from many perspectives!

BrownLine Products for easy identification and true compostability

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:30:00 GMT

Food service and packaging producers knew that in order to get customers to dispose of their products correctly, they needed to have easily identifiable items. Hence, the uniquely identifable BrownLine products were produced at the request of the food service industry. The brown markings on all food service wares and packaging let people know that these products are truly compostable.

The manufacturers approached Cedar Grove Composting in Everett, WA to field test their items. Cedar Grove was already testing compostable bags. They have now developed a system to test, approve and license any producers product. Any North American manufacturer can submit their BPI or BNQ certified compostable products for testing, approval and licensing by the Cedar Grove in-vessel testing facility. The products go through a complete testing process and only recieve the Cedar Grove certification when they have proved they can compost in modern short term commercial composting systems. At Cedar Grove that means breaking down in their facility in two months.

Once their products are certified, the company will be able to carry the brown line markings on their products. In a busy commercial facility the value of having products that can easily be identified can save a company time and money. It will also ensure that the final product is a clean and compostable one.

It is so much easier to have your customers and employees simply toss their used food trays or plates into the compostable bin. What was once a confused decision becomes a split-second, automatic toss into the correct bin.

Of course, the end result is also less materials entering the waste stream and landfills. A result that saves time, money and Mother Earth.