This Sunday, September 15, during the low-tide hours of 9am-noon, 200 or so islanders will get out on Bainbridge beaches or nearby roadways to pick up litter, dig out tires, pull in chunks of Styrofoam docks, or report half-sunken boats. You can be one of them!

Please register at our SignUpGenius (scroll down on that page) to choose a beach road end or write in your own spot. Not familiar with this annual tradition? Check out our FAQ page.

Trash bags and a limited number of grabbers and buckets will be available to borrow from the gravel lot on Miller Road (by Kol Shalom, 9010 Miller Rd) on the morning of the cleanup.

For many years now, Bainbridge Islanders have been stuffing the unrecyclable kind of plastic film (as opposed to what you can recycle at the grocery store) into paper cartons to create "eco-bricks" for V Calvez, local composting guru. V has created many types of composters for different communities, such as schools, co-housing or farms. He uses the cartons and plastic corrugated signs as insulation for the structures, since microbes need warmth to stay active and decompose the organic material they feed on.

V currently has more eco-bricks than composters to build and cannot accept any more until he finds more community-based projects for them. The same goes for plastic corrugated signs (although metal posts can still be brought to the Marge Williams Center's Zero Waste bin). If you have any suggestions for projects, please email V.

Before 2019, Zero Waste used to have monthly meetings. It's time for us to get together again! Please join us on Sunday, October 6, 1-3pm, at cozy Yeomalt Cabin. Bring some food to share and a place setting (we'll have extras in case you forget).

What's in store?

• Good conversation
• Games
• S'mores
• Your ideas for future ZW initiatives

Please RSVP so we have an idea of how many to expect.

The ZW Tableware Lending Library is now limiting borrowing to events with a maximum of 150 attendees. If you are serving more than 150 persons but your event is Bainbridge Island School District-related or you require only a limited number of items, please check with us.

BI Annual Environmental Conference:

Electrification Expo

This Saturday! September 14

12-5pm

Woodward Middle School

$5 registration fee, students free

Details here.

Community partner event:

Kitsap Fix-it Fair

October 12

10am-1pm

Poulsbo Library

Free

Details here.

ReFashion Bainbridge:

First Fall Clothing Swap

November 17

1-3:30pm

Filipino American Hall

Donations to offset rental fee accepted.

Details here.

Sustainable Bainbridge, the Land Trust, and the Parks and Trails Foundation support a "No" vote on Washington state's Initiative 2117 (as do an unprecedented 450 other organizations in the state).

Due to the Climate Commitment Act placing a fee on pollution, $2 billion is now being invested across Washington in conservation, public transit, decarbonization, air quality, wildfire prevention, climate resilience, energy assistance programs to low-income households, salmon recovery, farmland, and more.

If Initiative 2117 passes, it would repeal the Climate Commitment Act and prevent any other carbon pricing law in Washington in the future. 

Textiles are the largest known source of marine microplastic pollution, with about 35 percent of global releases thought to be caused by washing clothes. Senator Jeff Merkley recently introduced the "Fighting Fibers Act of 2024," a bill that will require washing machines to include microfiber filtration to catch fibers before they are released into our sewer or septic systems.

How can you take action?

• The bill now sits in the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Write to its chair, our U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, to encourage her to send the bill on to the Senate floor.
• Wash clothes less often, especially those made from loosely woven fabric, like polar fleece, which is more likely to shed fibers.
• Get your own microfiber filter. (Some suggestions in top link.)

The scrap metal collection bin, available weekdays at the Senior/Community Center from 9am-4pm, continues to grow in popularity. Zero Waste champion Barbara Ochota takes the accumulation to Navy City Metals every few weeks and receives payment by the pound, which she donates to the Center.

If you missed her interesting talk about this endeavor (over 100 views!), catch it here.

Q: Should you put this compostable plastic bag in your yard waste bin?

A: Contrary to our previous messaging, the answer is now no! Empty the contents into the yard waste bin and put the bag in the trash.

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Q: Where does my single-use clear cup go after I use it?

A: In the trash

Q: Even if it has a recycling number on the bottom?

A: Yes, still put it in the trash.

Q. What if it says "compostable" on it?

A. Doesn't matter -- put it in the trash.

Why?

Our curbside and transfer station recycling goes to a materials recovery facility (or MRF, "murf") that does not want plastic cups. Here's the acceptable list (scroll down that page).

Our yard waste goes to a commercial compost facility that does not want compostable plastic. It produces organic compost, and certification standards do not allow compostable plastic as a feedstock. Here's the acceptable list.

Easy individual solution

Carry a collapsible, reusable cup.

The necessity for a more systemic solution

Want a succinct review of the single-use plastics crisis? Our friends at Eco-Cycle offer a quick summary on pages 3-6.

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.