May 14, 2021
Styro Collection Next Month-NEW TIMES!
There's just a month and a half till the next Styro collection at Bay Hay and Feed on June 26 & 27. If you can't wait that long, Kitsap County is having a one-day collection on June 12 in Port Orchard.

At Bay Hay, Zero Waste is holding the event after close of business to make it easier on the store and their customers at this busy time of year. The new collection times will be 5-8pm on both Saturday and Sunday.

In the next newsletter, we will have a Doodle sign-up for the many volunteers needed to help us with this popular event.

To have your Styrofoam ready for us to immediately snap and keep the cars moving, please remember to remove in advance ALL stickers and tape from your coolers and packaging. As a reminder of what we do and do not accept, please reference this page.
Plastics Reduction Legislation
State Level
Senate Bill 5022 was passed in this year's recently completed legislation session and will be signed into law tomorrow. Its aim is to cut back on harmful and unnecessary single-use plastics. Here are three major actions of the bill:

  • It bans expanded polystyrene foam (plastic foam) food service ware, packing peanuts and recreational coolers starting in 2023.

  • Beginning in 2022, food service businesses may provide single-use utensils, straws, condiment packets and cold-beverage lids only when the customer confirms they want them. This will significantly reduce unnecessary plastic waste. While five other states have addressed plastic straws (through bans or opt-in policies), Washington state is the first to take this action on the other single-use items.

  • Manufacturers of plastic beverage bottles, trash bags and household cleaning and personal-care containers will be required to use post-consumer recycled content, thus improving the markets for recycled plastic. 

For the final bill report, go here.
City Level
At the May 18th Bainbridge city council session, councilperson Christy Carr will propose legislation that expands upon the above laws in order to meet the city's Climate Action Plan goals of reducing our community greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2045 compared to 2014 levels. Stay tuned for details in the next Zero Waste newsletter.
Learn More about Plastic
Our local Yes! magazine is holding a virtual presentation entitled "Solving Plastic," a conversation with activists and contributors from its current Solving Plastic issue about the diverse ways communities are fighting back and creating healthier systems—and how you can be a part of it. Register here for this free event on Thursday, May 20, at 1pm.
Recycle Old Tennis Balls
Bainbridge Athletic Club, located at 11700 Meadowmeer Circle, is participating in RecycleBalls, a program that takes back old tennis balls. Please drop your balls off at the front desk in a bag or box, not in cans. 

Some balls are reused and sold as dog balls. The rest are recycled. Watch the deconstruction process and find out what the new end products are in this 90-second video.
Practice or Share Your Skills
Scrappy Art Lab is now inviting artists from the community to facilitate cool workshops for families, kids, teens, grown-ups or multigenerationals to safely gather and learn something new or reignite an old skill.

Please contact the Trashion Show's Naomi Spinak if you are interested in a "Knit Together" class. Its aim is to help you with rusty knitting skills and explore ways to use what you have instead of purchasing new materials. (Knitting tools have even been collected for those without them.)
Belated Viewing
If you missed the April 27th Climate & Energy Forum's "The Carbon Footprint of Food Waste," check out this post on the Sustainable Bainbridge website. It includes links to the presentation, all the speakers' slides, and recommended websites for how to waste less food.
Please Visit Us!
It was fun to finally be interacting with the public again at last month's Zero Waste farmers' market tabling. Stop by this Saturday, when our theme will be lowering your carbon "foodprint". You will be able to compare which foods have lower greenhouse gas emissions; learn how to store food better to last longer; and pick up a kitchen-sized compost bucket (very limited quantity), courtesy of Kitsap Solid Waste, if you promise to compost your food scraps. :)

But we also love just chatting about whatever waste issue is on your mind, so please come say hello!
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.
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