Celebrating Earth Day with Zero Waste Vashon
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 19, 2023
As we celebrate this 53rd Earth Week with the theme: “Invest in our Planet,” we are reminded of the interconnectedness of nature and the need for respect for the Earth.
In its ninth year, Zero Waste Vashon (ZWV) continues to accomplish its mission to help make Vashon-Maury Island a model green community.
Join our volunteers at Vashon High School at 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22, for our sixth Electronics Recycling Event in partnership with SBK Recycling. Since 2018, we have diverted over 45 tons of electronics from landfill and put the materials to much better use.
Speaking of partnerships and collaboration, since ZWV joined forces over 18 months ago with Nadine Edelstein’s First (and now third) Sunday Styrofoam and Plastics recycling at Sheffield Building, the program has continued to grow in participation and reach.
The program now serves over 600 households per month! More than 4,000 cubic yds. of styrofoam and 85 tons of hard-to-recycle plastics have been collected, diverted from the landfill, and recycled or put to better use since the program was launched in 2019.
ZWV thanks Tom Bangasser for making the Sheffield space available for the last four years, the many dozens of volunteers who contribute parts of their Sundays unloading and sorting, and the community donations and business sponsors for supporting the program.
ZWV is proud to partner with Celia Congdon’s Choose Plastic Free (CPF) Campaign this year to reduce single-use plastic waste on Vashon.
The campaign aims to engage all islanders, including youth, in making smart choices about their consumption. Can I avoid plastic packaging? Are there alternatives? Can I reuse or repurpose what I already have? Do I really need it? Choose Plastic Free wants to make islanders think before they purchase.
Why? The issues are that plastic, made of oil, and plastic waste is choking the planet. It’s in the water, the air, and soil.
Small changes matter in our efforts to reach zero carbon emissions. We are optimists who think we can all contribute to addressing “the plastic proliferation which threatens our planet and the climate on a global scale,” according to the Center for International Environmental Law.
CPF has four focus areas for the year:
- Beverage containers — reducing single-use coffee cups and plastic bottles: “Bring Your Own Cup/Bottle/Mug.”
- Single-use plastic bags – reducing produce, other plastic bags: “Bring Your Own Produce and Shopping Bags, Reuse Your Bags.”
- Packaging: “Choose non-plastic, buy bulk items, bring your own container to the grocery.”
- Clothing – Avoid synthetic materials which are petroleum based and contribute to micro-plastics, via washing: “Shop natural materials, second-hand stores to avoid ‘fast fashion’ waste”.
Work proceeds on advancing the island compost facility, now that the two King County-funded feasibility studies, a community survey, and a town hall meeting have been completed.
We aim to keep our valuable organic feedstock resource on the island for composting instead of shipping it over 50 miles to the Cedar Grove Compost facility in Maple Valley, greatly reducing the carbon footprint.
Thanks to all the island stars who contributed to our backyard compost video seminar series, available for viewing on our website at zerowastevashon.org.
Although not highlighted in our seminar series, Vashon Cohousing has constructed an amazing aerobic composting system with custom aeration and trommel screen systems.
Vashon Cohousing members have hands-on experience with managing food waste on a neighborhood scale.
The 18-home community has 52 residents and they generate an estimated 150 pounds of food scraps per week, which adds up to nearly four tons of food waste per year.
In the spring of 2020, the Cohousing community set out to recycle all of their food waste into nutrient-rich compost for their food gardens and landscape areas. Under the guidance of Peter Moon at O2Compost (O2Compost.com), they constructed three bins designed with perforated pipes to blow air under the compost piles.
Each week, rotating teams mix the community’s food scraps with woodchips, horse manure and water, then load the material into the aerated bins where aerobic bacteria do the initial digestion. After a month the material is transferred to curing bins where fungi and worms take over the decomposition process.
After another month in the curing bins, the mature compost is ready for screening and application in the gardens.
Thanks for reflecting on how you can “Invest in our Planet” during Earth Week, and hopefully every day of the year. We welcome your ideas on how we can make Vashon a model green community by turning our waste into resources.
Steve Bergman is an island geologist, Zero Waste Vashon and Vashon Makerspace board member and Whole Vashon Project advisor.
