The Seattle Metals Guild (SMG) has supported women's shelters and the Dress for Success program for years by collecting jewelry and beads, then sorting, cleaning and repairing them. The finished items are donated to the aforementioned programs or are sold, with all profits going back to these organizations. They've raised $54,500 since 2016!

You can drop off any beads or jewelry -- even broken, tangled, or mismatched -- at the following collection points:

Jane Martin, the 2020 SMG Lifetime Achievement Award honoree, and her group of volunteers will then work their repair magic to benefit these good causes.

A container is only as recyclable as it is clean.

Here's a zippy 30-second reminder:

Remember: PPE (masks, gloves, etc.) are NOT recyclable. When their use is up, put in the trash.

They put their philosophy into action by founding Facebook's Buy Nothing group, now take a deeper dive with Bainbridge Islanders Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller in their newly published book.

Simon & Schuster describes it well: Inspired by the ancient practice of gift economies, where neighbors share and pool resources,  The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan introduces an environmentally conscious 7-step guide that teaches us how to buy less, give more, and live generously. At once an actionable plan and a thought-provoking exploration of our addiction to stuff, this powerful program will help you declutter your home without filling landfills, shop more thoughtfully and discerningly, and let go of the need to buy new things. Filled with helpful lists and practical suggestions including 50 items you never need to buy (Ziploc bags and paper towels) and 50 things to make instead (gift cards and salad dressing),  The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan encourages you to rethink why you shop and embrace a space-saving, money-saving, and earth-saving mindset of buying less and sharing more.

The book is available at Eagle Harbor Book Co., as well as online.

A Use for Any Plant Pot

Even if you can't reuse your plant pots, others can. In addition to the farmers at the Bainbridge F armers Market who will take certain-sized disposable plant pots (see previous ZW newsletter), Farmer Andi, owner of Dillon O'Rourke S.P.C., will take plant pots of all kinds, plus plant trays and rubber bands. Just put them in the large bin in her driveway at 831 Eagle Cliff Road NE.

Given that 10% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the textile and clothing industry (United Nations estimate), plus water pollution from dye discharge and fertilizer use and deforestation for raw materials, it makes sense to take care of our clothes. Socks are more prone to wearing out, so here are eight tips from the New York Times Wirecutter blog for making them last longer. For further details on each suggestion, read the full article  here .

With global online prepared food orders projected to grow tenfold from 2018 to 2030, any steps we can take to reduce the discards produced from this trend will be significant.

Two major take-out delivery apps are helping customers do just that by having an opt-in feature for single-use plastic cutlery on their order form. Good on ya, UberEats and Postmates!

Encourage Grubhub and DoorDash to make plastic use less automatic and more intentional by adding this utensil request checkbox. Go to the #CutOutCutlery campaign to send them an email.

The regular July Styrofoam recycling collection has been postponed. Barring any Covid setbacks, the collection will now take place on September 12 & 13, at Bay Hay and Feed. In the meantime, please keep your packaging clean and dry and remove any tape or stickers.

Bainbridge Disposal Transfer Station, as well as all Kitsap County-owned waste facilities, will increase trash disposal fees to $11 for one can starting July 1. Each additional can will be charged $3.00. The fee increase is due to a four-year rate plan approved by the Kitsap Board of Commissioners to increase tipping fees incrementally by $5/ton between 2018 and 2021 ($75/ton -> $90/ton).



The charge for mixed recyclables drop-off at BDTS will remain at $10 if all you bring is recycling. I f you bring trash + recycling, you will get charged just the trash fee.

Throughout Washington, landfill tipping fees run the gamut. Prices can be low when you can drop off directly at a county landfill; for example, Yakima County charges $36/ton. However, Bainbridge's landfill closed in 1976 and the last Kitsap landfill was covered up for good in 2002, so all our waste travels a more costly 300 miles away on a train to the Columbia Ridge Landfill in Arlington, Oregon.

To get our trash on this eventually mile-long train, all Kitsap County haulers, including Bainbridge Disposal, unload their garbage at the Olympic View Transfer Station in Bremerton. The county made a smart move for taxpayers when they sited OVTS right on a railroad spur. That way there is no additional cost of trucking compacted garbage from OVTS to the rail cars, and our tipping fee is very reasonable compared to many others' in the state, such as King County's $151/ton. To see our trash go from tipping floor to train, watch this video for one minute starting at 2:08.

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 .