If you've never participated in the annual BI Beach Cleanup before, watch this one-minute video from Hammer Visuals to see what you can expect. How many shorelines do you recognize? If you went out last year, maybe that's you in the video!

Then go here for all the details, including the road-end list sign-up, supplies you can borrow and the app to use to catalogue your trash.

Choose to pick up by yourself, with a partner, or a group. Congratulations, Girl Scout Troop 41928, for being the first to sign-up this year!

When: September 30, 5-6:30

Where: Marge Williams Center

Zoom option

• Ask questions: Can I recycle this? (Show us what you've got)
• Bring examples of items that help you reuse, prevent waste, etc.
• Find out what ZW is doing and how you can take part
• Short presentation by founders of BI Flashdrive (read article about them farther below)

We determine which items we collect in the Zero Waste bin at the Marge Williams Center based on these criteria:

1) How common are they

2) Are they free to recycle

3) Is there another public recycling outlet for them

Generally when we remove an item from the list, it is because it is no longer free to recycle.

For that reason, CD/DVD cases are no longer being accepted. But we will continue to accept CD/DVD discs.

Recently, razors and their packaging were also discontinued.

Are you a fixer? Appliances, bikes, jewelry, textiles...If you have mending or repair skills that you'd like to share, we need you!

BARN and Sustainable Bainbridge are planning the next 3-hour fix-it event for this fall. Fixers can bring their own tools or choose from an assortment on hand. They feed you, too!

Please email Heather Dowey if interested or for more information.

If you want to try your own hand first at fixing your broken item, here are some "tricks of the trade" from Repair Cafe.

Do you live in a community that shares trash, recycling, and possibly even compost bins?

Do you need signage that lets users know what goes where?

Would you like Zero Waste educators to do a presentation and/or Q&A with your residents?

If you answered yes to any of the questions, please email Diane Landry to see how Zero Waste can help.

Zero Waste has helped different entities (Kitsap County, City of Bainbridge Island, Bainbridge Disposal) perform audits of recycling, yard waste and compost bins to gather data and solve contamination issues. If you might be interested in taking part in a future audit, please let Diane Landry know.

In early July, Bainbridge experiences two huge community events: The Grand Old Fourth celebration and the Rotary Rummage Sale & Auction.

Zero Waste plays a crucial role in each.

On July 4th, 44 volunteers gave 106 hours in helping to make sure that recyclables and compostables found their way into the correct bins by setting up, staffing, and taking down eight discard stations throughout the downtown area. Thank you to everyone who showed up to make this happen!

During Rotary Auction & Rummage Sale set-up, collection week, sale, and post-sale, those on the Rotary Green Team (many Zero Waste-affiliated) try to keep as much from going in the trash dumpsters as possible. A GT volunteer spends anywhere from 2-12 hours a day doing the following:

• Getting the boxes, bags, and packing material that accompany donations reused or recycled (recycling and cardboard volunteers)
• Tending to the (literally) tons of donations that for whatever reason don't qualify for sale (Lawn of Opportunity volunteers)
• Making sure that the 2000 vols who are provided lunch and dinner during the week put their metal utensils in the wash bucket and their food leftovers and plates in the compost (food volunteers)
• Serving as an information hub and collection point, performing all sorts of tasks from the Green Team desk (GT desk volunteers)
• Transferring paper towels from the bathroom blue bins to the compost bin (bathroom volunteers)
• Filling up and getting all the recycle and compost toters to the curb (post-sale volunteers)

If you are someone who likes to see as little as possible end up in the trash, please join the Rotary Green Team next year and help us continue to make this happen!

Through their BI Flashdrive initiative, Kathy McGowan and sons Roan and Bo have been collecting different categories of items for reuse or recycling for over a year now. On a monthly basis, they pick up gratis from the giver's home and then either transport or send the items to selected nonprofits.

The September focus is on camping equipment. Email biflashdrive@gmail.com  to make sure you get email notifications for the specific drives and pick-up day.

To find out more, have a look at their Instagram page to see the results of past collections. And take a listen to the recent Something to Talk About podcast, hosted by the fabulous Reed Price, to meet the people behind this great service.

The City of Bainbridge Island and Green Sheen teamed up on a Saturday in late June to collect latex and oil-based paint (and more) from residents for reuse and recycling.

524 cars showed up and kept this much out of our landfill:

• 71,827 lbs. of latex/water/acrylic-based paints and coatings
• 7,698 lbs. of oil-based paints and coatings

Green Sheen paint creates 18 designer colors from the donated paint. It is noted for its lower price and can be found at the Bremerton Habitat for Humanity store.

You don't have to wait for a special event to have your leftover paint reprocessed and put back into circulation by Green Sheen. Year-round drop-off is available at Mallory Paint Store, 937 Hildebrand Rd. on Bainbridge.

Washington State passed the Recycle Reform Act in May. Its intent is to improve residential recycling by creating an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system for packaging and paper products -- the everyday items we put in our recycling bins.

Among the many anticipated outcomes:

• Lower recycling bills
• Recycling uniformity (less confusion across communities)
• Transparency in recycling end markets
• Less non-recyclable packaging (financial incentives to producers to sell us products in packaging we can readily recycle)

Learn and ask questions at the Department of Ecology's webinar on Tuesday, September 9, at 9am.

If you want to delve into the existential plastics crisis, take Judith Enck's "Beyond Plastic Pollution" seven-week course. She provides current and highly informative information to translate into plastic-reducing action. The class starts September 3. Course details are here.

Zero Waste offers a scholarship to any high school student who commits to attending the class. Write to Diane Landry to inquire.

August 23 - Scrap metal sorting, 11am-noon @BI Senior Community Center

September 6 - ZW booth @ the BI Farmers Market, 10am-2pm

September 20 - BI Beach Cleanup, Saturday, 9-noon

September 20 - Scrap metal sorting, 11am-noon, BI Senior Community Center

September 30 - ZW public meeting, 5-6:30pm @Marge Williams Center

Whenever you are looking for a destination for something not accepted in your curbside bin, be sure to visit the

 "Guide to Reusing and/or Recycing Locally" on our website. If you have an addition for it or see a correction needed, please contact me.