Whatcom County businesses successfully stride Toward Zero Waste

Media contact:
Mariah Ross, Sustainable Business Development Manager
mariah@sconnect.org, (360) 647.7093 x105

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                     
July 26, 2011

Whatcom County businesses successfully stride Toward Zero Waste

BELLINGHAM, WA – A number of Whatcom County businesses are working innovatively to work ‘toward zero waste’– and seeing great results. From manufacturers to restaurateurs, to large events – each one has a unique setting and story for making recycling work within their business or operation.

The program behind much of these successes: Sustainable Connections’ Toward Zero Waste (TZW) campaign. From its start in 2008, 74 businesses initially joined campaign, all pledging to initially reduce their waste by at least 50 percent. Today, 305 businesses are participating.

The Pioneers

One of the cases for starting the TZW campaign was born from a dose of local inspiration. Ryzex, a Bellingham based Mobile Technology solutions company took the initiative to make major changes in their business and how they dispose of electronics and office waste.

“After the inspiring changes that Ryzex made, we wanted to create a forum to share best practices and make it easy for businesses to begin reducing their waste, with a specific goal – reducing their waste by at least 50%,” Mariah Ross, Sustainable Business Development manager at Sustainable Connections said. “We knew that this campaign would make sense for businesses to implement both from an economic and social standpoint.”

Five years ago, when Ryzex stepped up as a pioneer around waste reduction in a manufacturing and office space, they removed all garbage containers from their office and manufacturing space but one, because it was required by law. “Recycling isn’t just the right thing to do environmentally, but it makes good business sense too,” Rud Browne, Ryzex Chairman and Founder said.

Since implementing their extensive recycling program, Ryzex has given tours to hundreds of businesses and schools, hoping to inspire others by sharing how easy it can be to have a positive impact.

Both here and in many other cities and towns across the country, businesses are looking to Bellingham ideas to jump start Toward Zero Waste initiatives in their communities, Ross said.

One very positive side effect of Ryzex’s integrated approach to recycling within it’s business is that the philosophy has translated to the recycling behavior at the homes of many of the company’s 150 employees as well.

In addition to Ryzex’s strides to reducing their electronic waste and more, many downtown Bellingham businesses have taken the lead on recycling in a more public arena.

Community awareness

Walking down the streets of Bellingham, one may see a dozen or more Toward Zero Waste decals peeking out of storefront windows. Potential customers may choose to frequent those businesses they see are making strides toward waste reduction.

When Ken Bothman, co-owner of La Fiamma Pizza opened his second restaurant, Fiamma Burger in downtown Bellingham, he worked to integrate a visually attractive and functional recycle station that provides an educational component for customers who sort their own waste after their meal.

Ken said one important piece is to make sure that almost everything the restaurant uses to serve food on can be recycled or composted. The recycling station set up not only serves as an educational component for restaurant guests, but for other businesses as well.

When Peace Health St. Joseph Hospital wanted to improve recycling and add FoodPlus! recycling to their cafeteria for their 3000+ employees, they looked to what Fiamma Burger had put into place “because they make recycling so easy for the consumer,” said Rachel Akins, a Clinical Dietitian at St. Joseph’s who helped organize the effort with co-worker Patty Johnson.


Event recycling

Recycling at a business is one aspect of making the puzzle work, but throw a few thousand random people in the mix at a large event and the efforts get more complicated.

The Ski to Sea race sees 50,000 attendees each year and since adding recycling and recycling monitors to the event in 2007, have reduced waste by about 70%.

“We knew it was going to be a challenge, but there was just no way we couldn’t try for it,” Ross, also the Green Chair for Ski to Sea, said.

The past two years, local girl scout troops have volunteered as recycle monitors to help festival goers sort their waste.

“Now there are tens of thousands of people that are getting touched by our recycle monitors and lots of great signage – that shows how we recycle in Bellingham and Whatcom County,” Ross says.

The Northwest Washington Fair is another large event that is working to implement more recycling year after year. With over 200,000 attendees annually, the Fair currently recycles over a ton of cardboard a day and looks to improve in other ways. 

This year, there will be a significant increase in the number of bottle and can recycling containers located throughout the fair.

“The Fair has offered recycling in past years, but this year we are stepping it up and grouping garbage bins with bottle and recycle containers to create recycle stations,” says Jim Baron, NW Washington Fair Manager says. “We are also proud to donate all our cardboard to Lynden Christian Schools recycle center, who receives payment from recycling the cardboard which goes back into the school.”

Ross, who is assisting with Fair recycling efforts this year says it is a huge undertaking as the Fair grounds are such a large area to cover. 

“They are also going to do work with their vendors to help remove Styrofoam use and make sure vendors are also recycling. It is extremely complicated for these large events to implement successful recycling, but it is great that they are making a strong commitment to reduce their waste,” Ross says.

With interest growing among local businesses and Whatcom County consumers, Sustainable Connections continues to offer businesses resources and assistance through the Toward Zero Waste campaign.  Creating impressive case studies compiled from local businesses that continue to take it to the next level with their waste reduction, Sustainable Connections has also produced a Toward Zero Waste tool kit to make it easy for business owners to find practical ways to make recycling work in their business.

From the over 7,500 households that are now signed up for SSC’s FoodPlus! curbside composting, to Ski to Sea recycling over 70% of their waste, to the Northwest Washington Fair building on their recycling program, the awareness and ease is growing.

For more information and for businesses interested in participating in the Toward Zero Waste campaign, contact Mariah Ross at Mariah@sconnect.org or (360) 647-7093 x105. 


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