Sacramento Sustainability Forum’s one-year anniversary meeting was held at SMUD Auditorium on August 19. In advance of being seated in the auditorium, those in attendance shared cake, libations, networking and song to celebrate the occasion. This marked the fourth time an SSF event was held at SMUD Auditorium.

Sacramento Sustainability Forum is a monthly venue for connecting businesses, nonprofits, government and interested citizens in the Sacramento region in order to promote sustainability, share insights and resources, and support movement toward a more sustainable future.

The topic for the evening was “Waste and Recycling in Our Region.”

Approximately 70 people were in attendance to celebrate this anniversary. An idea over a beer became something that prospered and continues to prosper.

SSF Co-Founder Jacob Griscom’s opening comments included telling the audience that all topics of the Greenwise Initiative of Mayor Kevin Johnson are very important. He said public attendance and participation moves the agenda forward.

The first speaker was Dean “Green Dean” Tormey (Green Dean), a major account representative for Allied Waste Services in Sacramento. He specializes in waste audits for companies getting their buildings LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certified.

In the past 10 months, he has completed LEED audits for The EPA Building, 300 Capitol Mall, Wells Fargo Center and Renaissance Tower. He is known as “Green Dean” because of his commitment to helping people and companies go green.

Tormey’s topic was Three Reasons to Recycle.

Reason No. 1: It’s the Law. Local ordinances exist to help people start recycling in Sacramento City and County and other nearby municipalities. However, Tormey said, all the different ordinances in each area, though well-intentioned, make it too complicated to recycle. He said rules are needed, but they need to be simplified.

Reason No. 2: It's the money. Tormey said people think they can make money from recycling material, but recycling centers don’t want the material even though it’s worth a lot of money. You need to know who’s going to buy this stuff. We NEED people who will buy these recycled materials.

Reason No. 3: It’s the right thing to do. However, we currently wind up having the government pay people to buy recyclable products. We need to make products recyclable without being subsidized.

Tormey said we need to reduce and simplify the process so we can understand the rules. We need to reuse these items, and we need to start renewing things, not just recycling and reusing.

The next speaker was Marty Strauss, who works for the city of Sacramento’s Department of Utilities, Solid Waste Division. He is the integrated waste planning superintendent. His responsibilities include tracking new legislation and implementing new regulations related to waste disposal and recycling.

Strauss is responsible for oversight of the city’s household hazardous waste program and post-closure monitoring requirements of the City’s 28th Street Landfill. Strauss’s topic: the City of Sacramento’s Sharp Objects Take-Back Ordinance.

As of Sept. 1, 2008, Senate Bill 1305 prohibits a person from placing home-generated sharp objects in their trash or recycling containers. You can’t throw used needles in the trash, but most people do anyway. Now you will be able to take them to household hazardous waste (HHW) facilities, medical waste generator facilities and home-generated consolidation points to collect and dispose of them.

We generated 10,000,000 home sharps in 2007 in Sacramento County, but only 232,000 were collected (about 2.3 percent).

The disposal options are to take them back to where you got them, mail them back or take them to HHW facilities. The City accepts them for $5.05 per pound.

Effective late this month, all retailers, medical offices, hospitals, vet clinics and other providers that dispense sharps to the general public shall be responsible for establishing convenient locations within the store or facility with proper signage with safe and secure receptacles for home-generated sharps.

Consumers can take them back at no cost, but the locations cannot take in something that is not generated by their customers. When selling the item, the seller can charge a surcharge for what it will cost to dispose of the sharp (about 9 cents).

By passing separate ordinances in each city, the producers and distributors will get tired of all the different rules, Strauss said.

Sacramento will start with education and outreach followed by enforcement concerning sharps at distributors. There will be a warning the first time. If there is no way present to dispose of sharps on the second visit, there will be fines.

Attendees with any questions were advised to contact Marty Strauss, Integrated Waste Planning Superintendent, at City of Sacramento Solid Waste Services, 2812 Meadowview Rd., Sacramento, CA 95832.

The final speaker of the evening was Lauren Altodoerffer, the Greenwise Sacramento coordinator. Altodoerffer is a member of the State Bar of California and the State Bar of New York. The Greenwise initiative is intended to put Sacramento on the map as the Greenest region in the country and attract green companies and jobs to the region.

Altodoerffer’s topic was Greenwise Sacramento – Lessons Learned from National Waste and Recycling efforts.

Greenwise Sacramento, the mayor’s green initiative, is a regional initiative aimed at bringing in people from throughout the region to help our region to be the greenest region in the country and the hub of green technology. Sacramento’s economy has relied on government jobs and the housing industry, but Altodoerffer said those will not sustain the region, as evidenced by the last two years.  This initiative aims to provide new means for economic stability and growth in the Sacramento region.

The Greenwise initiative has four guiding principles: regional economy, green jobs, innovative policy, and the so-called “Green IQ.” The goal is to make area residents “greenwise” at work and at home.

Altodoerffer said Greenwise has a clear action plan with some goals set to be attained in two or three years, with others being more long-term, more toward the 10-year mark.

To make the goals reality, Altodoerffer said the Greenwise team has studied other cities. One example was from Gainesville, FL. In 1994, the city had maxed out its landfill and decided to stop charging a flat rate for trash removal services and instituted a “pay as you throw” program, which was successful in reducing the amount of trash going to the landfill.

Residents paid for the volume-based collection program through taxes or utility use fees. In the first two years, the city and county had a decrease of 14 percent in tons of waste disposal, and an increase of 25 percent in tons of recyclables. This is an example of making recycling relevant.

In San Francisco, there is a goal to reach 75 percent landfill diversion. San Francisco was first in nation to require composting, and gave residents free kitchen utensils. This is an example of making recycling easy.

In Austin, TX the intention is to eliminate 50 percent of waste from landfills by 2040. There is a City Council resolution to implement recycling at city-sponsored events. The city has engaged the community to be involved and given special access to the Austin Marathon and Art City Austin. Altodoerffer said this is an example of making recycling fun.

Make recycling relevant, easy and fun is the best practice in seeing the dream of the “Emerald Valley” become a reality.

Greenwise’s next steps include an Green Oak Park event Sept. 10 at Oak Park United Methodist Church. It is the second annual event dedicated to bringing members of the community together to learn about green lifestyles through the promotion of energy efficiency, sustainable and organic food, green jobs and community gardens and farm stands. It is free to the public.

The next Greenwise Sacramento meeting will be held at 9:30 a.m. Sept. 30 at the Crest Theatre, 1013 K St., and will feature Thomas L Friedman, New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

The public is encouraged to attend Greenwise meetings, and Altodoerffer said hearing from the private sector at the meetings lets government officials know what is needed for them to thrive in the region.

Next month’s Sacramento Sustainability Forum topic will be Greenwise Initiative Water and Nature. The event will be held Sept. 16 at the SMUD Auditorium, 601 S St.