Our last Zero Waste meeting was back in January, when we learned about Safeway's sustainability efforts from Jay Hildebrand, supervisor of their Asset Recovery Center in Auburn. That meeting had a wonderful outcome: Jay offered to provide us with semis to backhaul our Styrofoam to the center for recycling, relieving Bay Hay's Howard Block of having to deliver multiple truckloads to Styro Recycle in Kent.

The guests at our first Zoom meeting will be Pat Kaufman and Becca Fong of Seattle Public Utilities. Pat is the commercial recycling and composting program manager and Becca does solid waste outreach. She also hosts a weekly Instagram show with Pat called Ask Evelyn Live (Ask Evelyn is Seattle's look-up tool for what to recycle), on which they talk about all things related to recycling, composting and waste prevention. You can check out the short promo reel here.

Pat and Becca will give an overview of Seattle's waste reduction programs, including highlighting ordinances that boost landfill diversion rates. Come with questions, such as, why can Seattle recycle coffee cups and Bainbridge cannot?

You can drop off any of the gear listed below at Bainbridge Island Physical Therapy, 563 Madison Av, or request a pick-up. Online shopping starts on November 20.

Check out their website for more info.

After enjoying your magazines, books and puzzles, why not share them with others? The Senior Center will accept these items twice a week during the hours of 10am-1pm on Tuesday and 10am-noon on Thursday. Magazines (no catalogues, please) should be less than a year old and puzzles preferably 500 pieces or fewer. Any donations are quarantined for 48 hours before being made available to the public. While there, feel free to browse the offerings and make a donation to the Senior Center if something strikes your fancy.

Also, Bainbridge Island Friends of the Library lets you donate or purchase books Monday-Saturday, 10am-1pm, at the children’s entrance on the north side of the library building. There’s no browsing, but if you would like to pick up some books, they are sold by the bag and genre for $5. See their website for details. 

But if you have 15 minutes and want to hear a good summary of the evolution of the U.S. recycling industry through today, then watch this video.

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