Anything that goes in a landfill doesn't decay

I heard this long ago, but was uncertain whether it was true. The DC Office of Recycling reassured me that, yes, anything that goes in a landfill does not decay. So, don't think that your biodegradable bags or corn cups will decompose in the landfill. They do not want ANYTHING to decompose there (since it would produce awful run-off, etc), so they don't provide the conditions for this to happen. Therefore, biodegradable items have to be composted. And you can't compost them in your backyard because most items require special conditions to compost. Therefore, you need to have a great workplace that uses a commercial composter (e.g., the House Office buildings, the National Geographic Society, On the Fly) or you have to find a commercial composter yourself.

Sometimes you just have to do it yourself

At the end of the Green Festival, I happened to meet a few members of the inspiring Boonsboro Recycling Task Force. Ten residents of Boonsboro, MD decided that they would just have to organize recycling themselves. What they did can be done by anyone interested in expanding recycling. The Boonsboro crew saw immediately that the DC Recycler had the same goals.

1) Figure out ways to collect recycling that the city doesn't yet recycle. While those in Boonsboro had to organize a recycling dumpster, here in DC you could work with neighbors to find a business that could collect for you. Hill's Kitchen collects Brita water filters for us, which we pick up and send away for recycling.
2) Get the schools recycling. The Task Force started environmental clubs in their high school and middle school. According to DC government, the DC schools are way behind on recycling. If you have a daughter or son in the DC schools and interested in recycling, you can contact the Office of the Chancellor to join the program to start a recycling program in their school.
3) Ask the government to expand recycling. From my experience in government, we always wanted residents to complain and demand better service. If you don't demand, the government officials have no leverage in starting or expanding programs. Just call 311. You can let them know what kind of recycling DC should have, request a recycling bin, ask them recycling questions, report recycling violations (for example, at restaurants), etc.
4) Provide information about what can be recycled and where. The Boonsboro group created a recycling how-to information sheet that was mailed with the residents’ town utility bills. Let your neighbors and friends know about regular DC recycling and new recycling possibilities. Also let the DC Recycler know and we'll post it to the blog!

The Boonsboro group even organized their own Green Festival last year with a recycling collection zone, a kids zone, a clothing swap, and 80 vendors. The Boonsboro group also saw that DC has only 31 recycling cans in public spaces, when little Boonsboro already has more than that! Get some friends/neighbors together and change your world.

The DC Recycler is ready for the Green Festival

I will be investigating the recycling opportunities at the Green Festival today. Lots of excitement!

Reporting live from the DC Green Festival

Yes, the DC Recycler will be reporting LIVE from the DC Green Festival this weekend (Oct. 10 and 11). The Festival will take place at the Washington Convention Center, very close to the Mt. Vernon Square (yellow and green lines) and McPherson Square (blue and orange line) Metro Stations. Lots of great speakers -- Joel Salatin, Cornell West, Amy Goodman -- and interesting workshops on community gardening, alternative energy, composting, and the parallel hemp universe. The Festival strives to be a zero-waste event, so there will be lots of recycling and composting to report on.

Commercial Recycling

In DC, 70% of trash is generated by businesses and other non-residential sources. So, residences are not the serious problem. We should be looking to convert commercial trash to recycling. Recycling is required in all commerical establishments, BUT businesses only have to recycle glass, paper, and metal (aluminum, steel and tin). Recycling of plastic food containers and beverage bottles is optional. Why do we have to do more recycling than businesses? Businesses should have to recycle plastics and everything else! Why do DC take-out restaurants not have any recycling at all? That is the question of the day!

Thank you campaigns

Many social change groups have realized the importance of thank you campaigns, sending mass thank-you emails to city offices that have started a new program (like when DC greatly expanded its curbside recycling program this year) or a politician who voted for a new policy (e.g., Tommy Wells' support of the 5 cent tax on plastic bags). One morning, I read in the Post about the amazing mental health programs for youths in the DC prison system, so I decided to thank them by email for doing this. I received a real letter in the regular mail, thanking me for my support especially because the press and others are rarely sympathetic to the help they strive to provide troubled youth in DC. The fact that I received a real letter signaled to me that more thank yous are needed! Next time you hear about a great new program or policy send an email of support. Of course, always send an email to push, complain, and needle policy makers to expand recycling and other programs!

Cork Collection and Recycling

One can collect (natural) wine corks in an attractive glass jar and then bring them to Hayden's Liquor at Eastern Market (700 N Carolina Ave SE), which are then picked up by the DC Recycler and sent to Yemm and Hart to turn into cork tiles. At the same time, you can see (in the upper left hand corner of the photo) that I don't yet have an attractive way to collect Brita water filters, but Hill's Kitchen (at Eastern Market metro) does collect them for the DC Recycler to send for recycling too.

Clear info on Carbon Offsets

Here is some actually useful info on effective carbon offset companies. I know that offsets aren't recycling, and I had disregarded offsets as a scam. However, now there are standards that allow you to know that the green house gas reduction wouldn’t have happened without your purchase. So, now it is easy to buy offsets when you decide to fly, drive, or even just use electricity. Green America has some actual recommendations:

NativeEnergy’s WindBuilders program sells offsets to finance new wind projects. More than half of offset purchases worldwide support renewable energy projects and displace coal-fired electricity. Many projects lack the capital they need to get built.
3Degrees offers offsets from wind facilities in northeastern China and India.
TerraPass offsets support methane capture at landfills from Maine to South Dakota.
CarbonNeutral Company offers offsets from a project that provides seed funding to a pilot solar lighting scheme for midwives in rural India. Their partner is the amazing Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India.

Both the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) and Green-e Climate program require their member retailers to ensure that any reduction in greenhouse gases sold as a carbon offset is "real, verified, permanent, additional, and unique." Basically, you want to know that the reduction wouldn’t have happened without your purchase.

Return your old Patagonia clothes to Patagonia stores

Yes, Patagonia will recycle most old Patagonia clothes into new ones (see details at the website). The DC store in Georgetown will take these items or you can mail them to Patagonia.

Hill composting experiment put on hold

Due to a confluence of circumstances, we are putting the Hill composting experiment on hold for the time being. The general view is that bioplastics require a commercial composter. However, I'd like to hear if anyone has successfully composted their bioplastics.

There is a commercial composter in the District!

Remember that bioplastics (like corn cups, corn utensils, etc.) can't be put in your recycling bin or composted at home. EnviRelation is a commercial composter, which collects food waste AND bioplastics. They, however, just collect from businesses, so let your favorite restaurants know about EnviRelation. The bioplastics must come from 100% plant products, which is easy to check by looking for the US Composting Council or Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) logo. Some plastic bags are not made of 100% plant products, so composting them would lead to lots of plastic bits in your compost. BPI has a great website listing Certified Compostable Products (bags, utensils, etc.) by brand name. EnviRelation also composts: paper hot and cold beverage cups, single service disposable containers, straws, stir sticks, dessert bags, portions cups, and sugar and sugar substitute packages. Let your favorite restaurants and cafes know!

Common Good City Farm will be the first "Commons Compost" in DC

Here's the news from Common Good City Farm:

"We are pleased to say we will finally be happy to take your veggie scraps starting in the 2010 season...next spring, Common Good City Farm will begin the first 'Commons Compost' in Washington, DC. You will be able to bring your food waste to the Farm. We will decompose it for you and turn it into usable soil for us to use on the Farm. ...Excited about this? Consider supporting this new venture by donating today. Your donation will allow us to build larger compost bins when necessary and create educational signage to accompany them."

Update on Composting in DC

Exciting new development in the DC area.
1) Composting of leaves
College Park, Prince George's County, and even DC composts leaves, though it is uncertain how many leaves are actually composted in DC.
2) Composting of food waste and maybe bioplastics
* DC Central Kitchen sends some kitchen scraps to a farm in MD.
* National Geographic DC HQ cafeteria.
* House office buildings
* Georgetown University?
* George Mason University?

Cities that already have food composting:
Cambridge and Somerville, MA
Denver
Duluth, MN
Modesto, CA
Halifax, NS
Oakland, CA
San Francisco
Seattle
Toronto

Maybe we should follow the lead of Cindy Olson of Eco-Coach, who has been urging citizens to call the DC Council and Mayor’s office demanding a better municipal composting program.

More magazines are using recycled or FSC-certified paper

American Prospect, Yoga Journal, the Buddhist magazine Tricycle, Mother Jones, Natural Home, Veg News, Mothering, and other magazines are now using recycled and/or FSC-certified papers thanks to help from Green America's Better Paper Program. They are expanding the market for municipal recycled paper. The Better Paper Program is saying to vote with your dollars (and has a very useful link to Amazon's recycled paper magazines), but I'm not so certain that I would choose my magazines based on their paper content. However, maybe it would be better to contact the magazines that we buy, tell them that we really value the use of recycled paper, and let them know about the Better Paper magazine program.

Where does my recycling go?

Our visiting friend Ben B. admitted to two fears about recycling: 1) does the stuff he recycles actually get recycled, especially with city budget cuts, and 2) how does the completely unsorted recycling get sorted and actually recycled? The DC government has a great video on the sorting process that is well worth viewing (especially after the first minute and 40 seconds). So we have dealt with fear #2, but we will have to investigate further to deal with fear #1.

Guerrilla Recycling

Maybe it is time to rethink recycling, a whole alternative paradigm. Of course, as the DC Office of Recycling says: Rethink. Reduce. Reuse... And then Recycle. But what about alternative forms of recycling? What would guerrilla recycling be? Well, guerrillas are irregular forces fighting some conservative state force. Would this be recycling items where you are not the intended recycler? Such as at the House office buildings? At the same time, we don't want to provide a disincentive to pioneering recycling programs. What about exposing businesses that use bioplastics but don't have any plans to recycle these materials? Does the "sustainable" Sweet Green restaurant compost its bioplastics? What about pressuring the DC or other governments to expand recycling? Let me know what you think.

Update on Composting Bioplastics in DC

People have been buying bioplastics (such as corn-starch utensils, compostable cups, and corn-plastic packaging) as an alternative to petroleum-based plastic. However, bioplastics don't degrade in the regular trash and shouldn't be put in recycling bins. So, commercial, industrial, or municipal composters are needed to process bioplastics, as well as the usual compostable materials. But where are they?
1) San Francisco, Denver, and Halifax, NS provide curbside pick up of compostable materials. (Thanks, Susan D., for this info.) DC should do this too!
2) The DC area does not have municipal or commercial composters available to recycle residents' bioplastics. DC does compost some percentage of the autumn tree leaf pickup and may mulch tree limbs from trimming.
3) However, the House office buildings DO compost bioplastics!

Update: Recycling Batteries and CDs

Thanks to the Office of Recycling at the D.C. Department of Public Works I now have some answers. I have received a great new list of the items that you can bring to Household Hazardous Waste and Electronic Recycling. There you can recycle: CDs, DVDs, Video tapes, Audio Tapes, and batteries of all kinds. According to the website Rechargeable Battery Recycling Coalition , you can take rechargeable batteries and cell phones to Frager's (Capitol Hill) and the Radio Shack at L'Enfant.

However, as far as I know, there is no drop-off location on the Hill for regular batteries. VGDA is working with a Hill business to do this. Do you know of battery drop-off locations in other parts of DC?

Recycled books go to DC area prisons, shelters, schools

From the very helpful Arlington Co. recycling website, I learned that Books for America accepts (and does home pickups of) donated books, movies, CDs, laptop computers, etc. They use the books to build reading libraries in schools, shelters, prisons, etc. in the Washington, DC metro area (and are branching into rural Virginia) as well. They also provide children with their first take-home books. However, check the website before donating because they have some specific needs. Bring your items to the Books for America's "Bookstore with a Purpose" at Dupont Circle.

Recycle your Brita water filters at Hill's Kitchen!

Yes, Hill's Kitchen is now collecting Brita water filters. Just make certain they are dry when you drop them off. Hill's Kitchen is located right next to the Eastern Market Metro (713 D St SE, 202-543-1997). Thanks, Hill's Kitchen!