Add your name to the growing list of islanders participating in the 5th annual Bainbridge Island Beach Cleanup on Sunday, September 20, anytime between the low-tide hours of noon-3pm. All details are here. Please sign up so that we have an idea of how many are participating and to see which shorelines are being covered. (Roadsides are fair game, too, as 80% of litter winding up in waterways starts from land.)

Ocean Conservancy tallies the items picked up worldwide. Please consider using the free CleanSwell app to record what you find on the beach.

Send us a creative presentation of your beach litter and/or a unique find from that day's pick-up, and you may win a prize: adoption of a Southern Resident orca. To send in a photo of your wackiest piece or an artistic expression of your finds, go here and scroll down to the "Prizes" FAQ.

As a bonus, receive a free 12-month subscription to the Chinook Book by taking this short quiz from Puget Sound Starts Here. You may learn about other ways of keeping the Sound cleaner besides picking up litter.

Watch this heartrending two-minute 3-D animated film festival entry on the pervasiveness of plastics in the marine environment.

Got some old computers, tvs or cellphones that can't be passed on for reuse? Save yourself a trip to the transfer station by requesting a pick-up from Boy Scout Troop 1496 before this Saturday, September 19, when they will show up at your residence between 8am-noon to collect your e-waste that you'll leave on your porch. Go here to sign up. This annual one-day fundraiser supports service projects around the island (examples here), leadership training and outdoor wilderness experiences.

The electronics will be recycled by PC Recycle, a registered collector with E-Cycle Washington's program. By recycling your electronics, you are keeping toxic metals out of the landfill and the environment, putting valuable metals back into circulation, and creating fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

Target is again hosting a car seat take-back collection September 13-26. (They traditionally do so in May, too.) Just drop off in the designated area near guest services. A 20% off coupon for another car seat or select baby gear is available upon trade-in.

For complete details, go here.

Kitsap Solid Waste is hosting a free residential tire collection on Sunday, October 4, 10am-4pm, at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds Thunderbird Arena. For complete details, please visit the KSW event page.

The tires may be recycled into aggregate surface materials, turned into fuel, or disposed of in landfills.

It's good not to let tires sit out on your property because they collect rainwater and may become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Year-round tire disposal is available for a fee at Bainbridge Disposal Transfer Station or at some tire shops (list here).

Thank you for another successful Styrofoam recycling collection. When the previous newsletter came out asking for more volunteers, there was an outpouring of sign-ups. Thank you so much for your show of support. Understandably, there were some cancelations due to poor air quality, but others stepped in to fill in the gaps. What great teamwork from our volunteers and, of course, from Howard Block, our perennial Bay Hay and Feed host.

As in the January collection, 450 cars drove through. I do believe we got about the same amount of material. It's hard to compare numbers of bags, because the used ones that Bay Hay owner brings back from Styro Recycle can be smaller than the new ones.

But we did have a different way to measure the amount this year: the number of Safeway semis filled.

At our January Zero Waste meeting, Jay Hildebrand, supervisor of Safeway's Auburn recovery asset center, was our guest speaker, and at the end of his presentation offered us a truck for our Styro collection. (They backhaul it to their Auburn recycling facility, where a densifier melts the Styro into 40-pound blocks for sale to plastic processors.) After an SOS call, he arranged for another empty truck on Sunday, which also filled up early on. He is kindly sending out a third one this coming weekend.

The most astoundingly different figure was the amount of donations, which increased four-fold to $3200! We attribute the dramatic rise to a direct ask. For this collection, we stopped cars at the entrance so we could give instructions and control traffic flow to the three stations, then asked if they would like to contribute.

If you have ideas for how to spend the money, please read on.

Some previous ways in which Zero Waste has spent funds:

Email us with your ideas.

September 19 - Boy Scout E-waste Collection @ your residence, Saturday, 8am-noon. Advance sign-up required.

September 20 - BI Beach Cleanup @ a road-end or road of your choosing, Sunday, anytime 12-3pm. Please sign up where you plan to pick up.

Through September 26 - Car Seat Recycling @ Target

October 4 - Kitsap Solid Waste Tire Round-up @ Kitsap Fairgrounds' Thunderbird Arena, Sunday, 10am-4pm.

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