A couple of weeks ago, Sara Thompson, Pashek’s
Sustainability Coordinator, attended a workshop on Waste Reduction Strategies. Waste reduction is important because
Americans produce 250 million tons of trash in a year, but only recycle or
compost 34 % or 85 million tons. This
means that 164.8million tons are discarded in landfills or incinerated. Considering that these numbers do not even
include industrial, hazardous, or construction waste, imagine how much waste we
could actually be diverting from landfills and incinerators. Click here for more waste and recycling stats
for 2010 form the EPA.
Carla Castagnero, President of Agrecycle, explained how her company recycles and reuses natural
materials to enhance soils and foster plant growth using composting
techniques. Did you know that about 60%
of what we throw away is organic and can be composted? Agrecycle picks up organic materials, such as
paper products, cardboard, and food scraps from offices, restaurants,
cafeterias, and grocery stores and turns it into compost using 100% natural
methods. Their compost products are used
as soil amendments for everything from growing edible and ornamental plants to
preventing drought and soil erosion and even remediating brownfield sites.
Kurt Duska of EngineeredPlastics Inc. described how his company recycles one million pounds of
mostly pre-consumer plastic products a month into new plastic products. Kurt mentioned that every one ton of plastic
recycled diverts 16.3 barrels of oil.
That means that Engineered Plastics is diverting 8,150 barrels of oil
every month.
According to Ned Eldridge of eLoop, electronic waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the
world. The pace of new technologies is
outpacing the sustainable and ethical disposal of old technologies. eLoop recycles anything with a cord on it in
addition to wireless electrics from calculators to cell phones.
Global Links is a
medical relief and development organization dedicated to promoting
environmental stewardship while improving health in resource-poor communities
in Latin America and Caribbean. Orly
Stampfer explained that Global Links takes in medical surplus and other
still-useful materials such as used office furniture and ships the supplies to
hospitals and clinics which need them.
The PennsylvaniaResources Council (PRC) works as a state and national leader in waste reduction
and recycling as well as litter and visual blight prevention, watershed
awareness, and composting. Kyle Winkler,
an Environmental Program Coordinator for the PRC, talked about the Zero Waste
Pittsburgh program or ZIP. ZIP was
created as a one stop shop for recycling and waste minimization resources and
assistance for businesses, institutions, and special events. Your company, organization, or even special
event can become ZIP Certified. To learn
more, check out www.zerowastepgh.org.
We want to also give a shout out to Breen
Masciotra, the director of PittsburghCenter for Creative Reuse, who attended the workshop as a participant. The PCCR promotes resource conservation,
creativity, and community engagement through material reuse. PCCR provides creative reuse programs and
their store is a great low-cost resource for teachers, artists, and others
seeking unique materials for their creative projects.
Pashek Associates will look to see if Agrecycle can help us
recycle our organic wastes, will look into ethically recycling our spent
electronic equipment with companies like eLoop, will consider Global Links as
another potential resource for donating our used office furniture, and is
currently looking into ZIP Certification with the PRC. In addition, we will now think twice about
throwing away product samples since the PCCR accepts donations of architectural
and design samples. We will keep you posted on our progress towards becoming a more sustainable business.
Click here for more information on upcoming workshops or the
Green Workplace Challenge.
