June 22, 2023
28 More Volunteers Still Needed
Please Sign up to Help on July 4th!
Help us staff discard stations and keep compostables and recyclables going in the right bins. No experience needed.

7-9am (set-up) - Need 5 more
9-11am - 4 more
11am-1pm - 2 more
1-3pm (parade time) - 7 more
3-5pm - 6 more
5-6:30pm (take-down) - 4 more
This is our big community contribution to keep the Grand Old Fourth a low-waste tradition. You get a grabber (and gloves if you want), we send you guideline sheets, and the shift-taker before you can answer questions before handing over, plus I'm a text or walk-by away on the day of. Additionally, I've prescreened with the vendors so that as much as possible is compostable.
Also...July 3rd Street Dance Help
If you can't help on July 4th, this year our sports team declined rather late to provide station staffing at the Street Dance, and other groups were also unable to assist, so we have 20 one-hour slots to fill, from 5-9pm. Could you help us with that?
The Rotary Green Team Needs You, Too
(This time of year is all hands on the recycling deck!)
From June 30-July 8, 8am-8pm (minus half of July 3 and all of July 4 -- see above), 1500 volunteers are hard at work collecting, preparing and eventually selling donations to help Rotary raise hundreds of thousands of dollars that is then returned to our community in the form of grants to nonprofits for worthy projects and programming.
The Green Team keeps the majority of the packaging and unsellable donations out of the landfill with its five divisions:
  • Recycling
  • Green Desk
  • Lawn of Opportunity
  • Cardboard
  • Food

To participate a couple (or more) hours for one or more days, go here. You can try out different areas and keep signing up as the days go by, if you like. You'll be fed lunch and dinner, and after volunteering so many hours, you become eligible to buy from departments early, as they allow.
Kitsap County Solid Waste and City of Poulsbo are hosting a Household Chemical Collection Event for North Kitsap and Bainbridge Island residents.

When: Saturday, June 24, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Where: City of Poulsbo parking lot - 22097 Viking Ave
Traffic is one way only. Enter from the North side of the parking lot. Exit at the South end. Stay in your vehicle. Event staff will unload from rear cargo area only.

See the lists below for what and what not to bring. Label the contents of containers when the original label is worn or unreadable.

For complete details on the event, go here.
Accepted Items
  • Lawn and Garden Chemicals
  • Herbicides
  • Pesticides
  • Spa and Pool Chemicals
  • CFL bulbs and Fluorescent light tubes, 4- or 8-foot lengths
  • Oil or Antifreeze
  • Gasoline and other flammable liquids
  • Aerosols
  • Adhesives
  • Rodent poison
  • Paint – oil and latex, up to 10 gallons total
  • Small propane tanks, up to 16 oz. containers
  • Fire extinguishers

Limitations
  • No containers over 5 gallons
  • Maximum total loads of 25 gallons (calculated by container sizes)
  • No LED or incandescent light bulbs
  • No flares or explosives
  • No large propane tanks
  • No needles or medical waste
  • No batteries
  • No business waste
New organic waste collection bins in downtown Winslow
In support of the City’s 2023 waste regulations requiring home compostable food service ware for to-go orders, the City recently installed bins to collect organic waste at various locations in downtown Winslow. The new “Compost Only” containers can accept food waste, napkins, wooden utensils, pizza boxes and other natural fiber-based home compostable food containers. All dog poop and plastic items marked as “compostable” should go in the trash. The new containers include images and text in five languages – English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese – to help quickly communicate what goes where with island residents and visitors. Adjacent recycling and landfill containers have also been updated with new signage.
 
Here's a quick video about the installation and usage.
The compost bins have been added near the following locations in downtown Winslow:
  • Town & Country Market
  • Isla Bonita
  • Chase Bank
  • Ba Sa
  • Emmy’s
  • Madison/Parfitt
  • City Hall
 
As part of this pilot project, City staff will be monitoring contamination in the new containers and working with Zero Waste to perform 1-2 audits of materials deposited in the containers to assess the level of contamination and evaluate the messaging for collection of organic waste in a public setting.
Quiz Time
Below are six categories of food-grade plastics. Only four are recyclable on Bainbridge and within the rest of Kitsap County by our recycle hauler; two types get trashed.
Do you know which are which?
Find the answers below.
Clean dairy tub
Clean jar
Empty cup
Rinsed clamshell
Rinsed jug
Empty bottle
Now play the BI Recycle Quiz to find out overall how savvy a Bainbridge recycler you are.
The Plastic Age
How did we come to define this time period as the Plastic Age? Take this five-minute poetic journey as UK-based visual poet Tomfoolery uses his creative and unique spoken-word poetry and filmmaking talents to explore the history of the plastic pollution crisis—from humankind initially harvesting crude oil to the invention and overuse of plastics.
Answers to the Quiz
Recyclable: jug, jar, tub and bottle (clean and empty)
Ridwell takes clamshells.
Cups go in the trash.
Newsletter editor: Diane Landry, BI Zero Waste (Volunteer) Director
Back issues are available here.
BI Zero Waste is an all-volunteer program of Sustainable Bainbridge.
Send feedback here.