Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutLSWFA Grant Final ReportLSWFA Final Report – 2021-2023 Task 1: MRW Reduction Summary of Accomplishments: - created and disseminated a new flyer for HHW safer alternatives to household hazardous wastes; all county residences received the flyer in their PUD bills; Ecology did not pay for the printing and dissemination of these flyers - created an educational booth to display what is taken at the HHW facility and alternatives to those wastes; hosted this booth at two public events (Farmers Markets) - information was disseminated at 3 HHW collection events in 2022 Actual outcome We met the following deliverables: -Flyers and handouts describing safer alternatives to hazardous home and garden supplies -Develop County web page to support safer alternatives; https://jeffersoncountysolidwaste.com/hazardous-waste/ -Educate and promote the program through presentations to the community and information booths at community events We were unable to completely measure the success of this program by comparing the amount of hazardous material that had been collected at our local HHW facility in the past, with what is collected after education measures were implemented. Our HHW facility was set to be eliminated by the Port of Port Townsend during this grant cycle, which put the program on hold. Our HHW manager left his position. The county had to pivot to hiring a company to hold collection events around the county to collect HHW no longer being accepted at the closed facility. This prevented us from surveying participants and gathering data as planned when the HHW manager was working for the county. Feedback gathered from random citizens show the new safer alternatives flyer was met with enthusiasm with many changes planned to eliminate hazardous household materials and replace them with non- toxic alternatives. Task 2: Food Waste Reduction Summary of Accomplishments: Business Food Waste Prevention We held 2 food recovery summits, October, 2022 and April, 2023, the first of this type in our county. The summits were attended by a wide variety of stakeholders who provided insight and input into solutions to getting edible food to those in need. Stakeholders included Public Health, Grocers, Farmers/gleaners, Fort Worden, Food banks, Schools, Caterers, YMCA, local hospital, Farmers markets, and WSU Extension (both Jefferson and Clallam counties). Summaries of each meeting were sent to all interested stakeholders. Additional contacts were made, information gathered, and plans implemented and shared to reach the largest audience. An article on Food Waste Reduction and Climate Change was created for the Port Townsend Food Co-op reaching about 300 businesses and 20,000 citizens. 2 school districts and a church were provided with refrigerators and freezers to store edible food from meals and donations for students, families, and the unhoused. The YMCA now has two sinks and a dishwasher to upgrade their kitchen to commercial status. That kitchen will serve YMCA students and families as well as the Food Bank. School Food Waste Reduction Port Townsend and Brinnon school districts now have 4 refrigerators to provide surplus food to students during the day and to bring home to their families at night. Conducted 3 school food waste audits and helped to create plans to reduce their food waste. New menus have been created based on the results and student input. Each school has reduced their food waste from 20-50%! Each district has been provided with the Food Matters web page for curriculum support: http://www.cec.org/flwy/ Residential Food Waste Reduction The residential compost classes continue to be highly desired with waiting lists for each set of classes. There are 150 people on the waiting list for our next set of classes. Actual outcomes: Business and School Food Waste Reduction The numbers are still coming in, but approximately 8,000 lbs. of edible food has been diverted from landfill to those in need. Another 23,000 lbs. is predicted to be redirected in the next 6 months with the addition of the commercial kitchen, refrigerators, and freezers. School Food Waste Reduction All three county school districts are currently composting some food waste totaling about 6 tons of waste diverted from landfill. The Port Townsend Schools are poised to compost all pre-and post- consumer food waste in one location, which adds up to approximately 35 tons of food waste over the school year. Residential Food Waste Reduction Fifteen compost workshops were held during the grant cycle with 338 households attending. Each household wastes approximately 10-15 lbs. of food waste each week, totaling 17.6 tons of food waste diverted from landfill during the grant cycle. I staffed a booth at the Home Show on composting; handed out information; took 37 interested citizen’s emails for upcoming classes; 140 people stopped to talk, ask questions, and/or took materials home I met with Food Bank Garden Manager who oversees 12 county gardens to plan effective ways to support their work; delivered 3 compost bins along with tips on best use for distribution Task 3: Food Waste Reduction CROP IMP Business Recycling/Waste Prevention Summary of Accomplishments: Working with the Wooden Boat Festival (WBF) in September, 2022, we implemented the first food composting program on a trial basis. Over 20,000 people attended the festival. Compost stations were set up for both food waste and compostable serviceware required by the WBF for all their food vendors. About 800 lbs. of compostable food and serviceware was taken to Olympic Organics. We expect to bring that number up to 4,000 lbs. next year. Food vendors were pleased with the trial and agreed to use compostable serviceware not only in this festival, but for other festivals they attend in Jefferson County. The price point was higher in some products, but the goodwill generated with customers far exceeded the vendors’ expectations! 25 businesses (grocery stores, restaurants, caterers, and food vendors) were contacted to participate in a pilot program for using fully compostable to replace plastic items. Initially, the program was delayed because we were using the Compost Manufacturing Alliance group to source materials as they are certified fully compostable. This proved problematic for the partners as it was difficult to order products from a large number of vendors and many had minimum orders to be cost effective. We finally found one web page (Green Paper Products) that only carried fully-compostable products with no BPA lining (another problem), so we switched to them. The businesses were thrilled and now can order from one location with good price breaks to make the program more feasible. Feedback has been very positive and is making a shift in the types of compostable serviceware our county may be using as the businesses talk with one another. Word of mouth is working well! We conducted a successful plate and silverware drive for the Port Townsend School District to replace lost and/or broken plates and silverware. Over 200 plates and 150 pieces of silverware were donated by the community. Over 2 tons of disposable serviceware was eliminated from landfill. Actual Outcomes Our pilot food and compostable serviceware trial with the Wooden Boat Festival was not as successful as we had expected. Too many people put compostable food waste and serviceware in the trash, despite our best signage efforts. We are making significant changes to this year’s festival with putting the food waste bin as one of the three bins in our recycling centers, not a separate can from the recycling centers. The garbage can will be separate. People can now put food waste and compostable containers in one of the three bins in the recycling center, with the other two containers for cans/bottles and glass. About 800 lbs. of compostable food and serviceware was taken to Olympic Organics. We expect to bring that number up to 4,000 lbs. this year. Additional changes in the Wooden Boat Festival include a ban on sales of beverages in plastic bottles, sales of reusable water bottles, and information encouraging participants to bring reusable plates, bowls, cups, and silverware. Several other groups are using this model to replicate including the Production Alliance who sponsors nine of the community events in our county. We estimate the amount of plastic diverted from landfill to exceed 200 cubic yards for these events. The serviceware replacement program with the local food vendors (grocery stores, restaurants, caterers, food vendors) got off to a late start with difficulties with our source for compostable serviceware. Now that we have found one web page where all the materials can be ordered, the businesses are off and running. We anticipate a reduction of plastic in our landfill from this program to be over 1,000 cubic yards, or 20 tons. We conducted a successful plate and silverware drive for the Port Townsend School District to replace lost and/or broken plates and silverware. Over 200 plates and 150 pieces of silverware were donated by the community. Approximately 2 tons of disposable serviceware has been eliminated from the landfill. Task 4: CROP Residential Recycling/Waste Prevention Summary of Accomplishments: After conducting a recycling audit in 2021 and found out TAP to be the most contaminate waste stream, we eliminated the #5 plastics from our accepted materials. Concurrently, we found that the MRF was sending these items overseas to unknown locations with little hope of them being recycled. We created new flyers that were simplified and easier to read. In keeping with the messaging in the CROP, we made new signs for the drop boxes around the county that focused on eliminating contamination. In addition, we have upgraded our web page to include a comprehensive FAQ page, added new resources, and responded to customer questions for additional information. https://jeffersoncountysolidwaste.com/recycling/ Outreach has included newspaper ads, newspaper articles, interviews with the local radio station, presentations to local clubs, organizations, homeowner groups, and government agencies including our SWAC. Information was provided to 10 organizations to post on their web pages. Four very successful in- person community presentations were given to rave reviews. A new recycling booth was created and presented at several Farmers Markets, Community Picnics, and the Home Show. Classroom presentations were giving in all 4 school districts by volunteers. Our recycling centers continue to be quite popular with 12 events using the centers each year. New signs were created to reflect the elimination of #5 plastics. New recycling flyers went out in the PUD bills to every residence in the county in April of 2022 and 2023. We conducted a final audit of our recycling drop boxes from around the county. The results were mixed. Port Townsend had the most significant improvement with TAP contamination going from 30% in 2021 to 9% in 2023. Port Ludlow improved by about 5% over its initial audit. Quilcene has seen the worst results with their TAP going from 15% in 2021 to 35% in 2023. Actual Outcomes Despite the increase in some of the recycling contamination, there has been an overall decrease. The numbers are as follows with the audits in December of 2021, June 2022, June 2023: Port Townsend: TAP: 30% -> 16% -> 9% OCC: 13% -> 8% -> 9% Glass: 10% -> 3% -> 4% Mixed Paper: 7% -> 4% -> 1% Port Ludlow: TAP: 30% -> 35% -> 25% OCC: 17% -> 22% -> 15% Glass: 15% -> 4% -> 5% Mixed Paper: 5% -> 6% -> 8% Quilcene: TAP: 15% -> 28% -> 35% OCC: 2% -> 20% -> 16% Glass: 4% -> 7% -> 8% Mixed Paper: 5% -> 9% -> 9% We think the increase in Quilcene’s contamination is due to the elimination of the Brinnon drop boxes by the State Parks causing those residents to haul their recycling AND garbage to the recycling drop boxes for a free dump. We noted that the new drop box signs have not been replaced by the hauler on all the drop boxes, resulting in customer confusion. Much of the contamination comes from those who continue to “wish cycle” and those who plain don’t care. Given the overall amounts of decrease in contamination, we have reduced the amount of contamination going to landfill by 124 tons. We find that to be a significant decrease and an effective use of our CROP funding! The recycling centers were used by 12 different events, many of which occur annually. They recorded the amount of recycling diverted from landfill and the total for all events over the grant cycle was 6.5 tons, with the Wooden Boat Festival being the largest producer of recycling. Overall Summary Lessons Learned: Task 1: Unforeseen changes with our HHW facility being removed from the Port has caused difficulties with assessing the effectiveness of the new safer alternatives information. We are looking at new ways to assess effectiveness with the limitations of outside contractors holding the collection events. Task 2: We learned that there is a HUGE need to bring those with surplus edible food together with those who serve food insecure populations. Since that has not been an area we have served before, there was a big learning curve on our part. We have leveraged our county resources to support our work and plan to provide web support for an online food hub beginning in August or September, just in time for the gleaners to connect with those in need. We had hoped to offer 4 summits during the grant cycle, but stakeholders were not willing to have in-person meetings while COVID was still active. Online summits were not desired by those we polled. Task 3: Unfortunately, the Compost Manufacturing Alliance group proved to be very confusing for our partners due to the huge number of companies represented with incomplete products. We finally found a company who only carried fully-compostable products. Our partners are now very happy and quickly swapping out their plastic serviceware for fully compostable items that are also cost-effective. Task 4: We are pleased with our new flyers and signage but we still face an uphill battle with wish- cyclers who put all kinds of plastic and metal in the recycling. Our outreach has shown that a large number of well-meaning recyclers are unwilling to give up the hope that chasing arrows guarantees recyclability. Also, we have un-manned drop boxes around the county that are often used as free garbage receptacles. There is a deep discussion about the feasibility of keeping these bins due to the contamination rate. The other option is to have all county citizens have curbside pick up rather than self-hauling their recycling. General comment: While COVID and the elimination of our HHW facility has caused some setbacks, we have found other ways to work around these issues to succeed in our deliverables. In some cases, we have far exceeded our expectations. In others, we won’t see results until this next year. As we plan to apply for WRRED funds for 2024-25, we think that additional education and outreach should net us significant results. We have also laid the foundation for big changes in food security, recycling education, elimination of plastics (serviceware from food vendors), and general understanding of waste reduction. In the next grant cycle through WRRED, we hope to focus a considerable amount of effort on getting edible food to those in need. The addition of equipment in the schools, churches, youth groups, and the food bank will net far reaching results.