Posts Tagged recycling

Garbage Companies Talk Trash Over City Landfill Contract

“In Potrero Hill, Recology’s garbage trucks regularly pick-up three kinds of waste – non-recyclables, recyclables and compostable food scraps – in familiar black, blue and green bins.  Throughout Southeast San Francisco, the company collects trash from residential customers Monday through Friday, usually between the hours of 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., with occasional late night and early morning pick-ups for commercial clients on 15 main routes.”

“Recology – formerly NorCal Waste Systems – is a privately-held firm that has a monopoly on collecting the City’s trash, at least in part based on a 1932 voter-mandate.  The company transports recyclables to Pier 96, off Cargo Way, to be sorted and processed.  At the recycling facility “hiring preference is given to residents in the 94124 and 94107 zip codes, good paying union jobs that start at $18 to $20 an hour and where drivers can earn $100,000 a year.  That’s what going to zero waste is all about,” said Kevin Drew, San Francisco Department of the Environment’s (SF Environment) residential zero waste coordinator, “creating green jobs, and reducing the need for landfill in the future.”

Garbage Companies Talk Trash Over City Landfill Contract via Lori Higa – The Portrero View

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Salvare La Vita creates local, eco-friendly packaging; seeks to provide worldwide access to drinking water

San Ramon, CA — February 11, 2011 The founders of Salvare La Vita water, meaning “to save lives” in Italian, began with a simple idea: What if an eco-friendly bottled water company in the U.S. could provide clean drinking water for those in need (nearly a billion people) around the world?

They enacted a progressive business plan that would provide 20 years of access to clean drinking water for one person in need per every 31 bottles of water sold. Founder Shakira Niazi wants her organization to be different then other bottled water companies that base their marketing claims in charitable giving.  Visitors to the Salvare La Vita website can Join Our Movement, with the goal to build 10 water wells –supporting 1,500 families in small villages in countries in which over 50% of the population lacks access to clean water (according to UNICEF’S 2010 Report on Water Issues). Salvare La Vita will provide documentation on each sponsored water project using location GPS, pictures, video and information from NGO contacts. The mission for this small, but rapidly growing company is to build water wells in every continent. The first project will take place in Sharberghan, Afghanistan.

Niazi states “while we’re out trying to save the world, it can’t be at the cost of Mother Nature.”  Salvare La Vita strives to minimize its own environmental impact by creating a bottle that is 100% biodegradable as well as recyclable.  The bottles dissolve easily, break down safely and relatively quickly, by biological means, into natural raw materials. SLV bottles take a few years instead of thousands of years to decompose.  SLV Water’s bottles can also be mixed into the recycling stream with any other plastic.  Most other plant-based products can only be recycled within their own grade of plastic.

The most important aspect of SLV Water is the water itself. SLV’s great tasting, premium spring water is harvested locally rather than imorted from overseas, a costly and environmentally damaging process. From the product to the packaging, this company is 100% made in the USA.

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9th Annual San Francisco Green Festival hosts over 34,000 participants, gives back to green economy and engages community year-round

San Francisco – Green Festival hosted more than 34,000 socially and environmentally conscious participants on November 6-7, to celebrate what’s working in regional communities and engage in solutions to create a cleaner, greener and more socially-responsible world. Green Festival, the nation’s premier sustainability event, stimulated the green economy by giving back $24,000 to more than 300 local, regional and national sustainable businesses through the new “GF Bucks” admissions policy. Also, new this fall, Green Festival gave 10,000 free tickets, a $150,000 value, to local non profit organizations and asked community members to give back to their local communities in exchange for free admission.

Green Festival’s new admissions policy, “Pay it Forward, Get it Back at Green Festival,” engaged community members with 10 local non profit organizations to create year-round community involvement. These non profit allies engaged with new volunteers and donors by providing free Green Festival admission as incentive.

Highlights of the weekend included inspiring presentations from 350.0rg founder Bill Mckibben, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now and empowering activist Dolores Huerta.  Additional highlights included eco-fashion shows, a screening of the movie “Ghetto Physics” and fun interactive art projects, creepy crawly insects and reptiles in Annie’s Green Kid’s Zone

Green Festival partnered with T-Mobile to recycle old, unused cell phones in exchange for free admission. T-Mobile representatives were thrilled to report that 560 cell phones were collected at Green Festival for recycling, as well as a large amount of phone accessories, such as wall and car chargers. Recycling cell phones is incredibly important, as it aids the recycling of energy and preserves a significant amount of precious resource metals, including gold, silver, copper and palladium.

The San Francisco Food Bank and KPIX CBS 5 partnered with Green Festival to host a food drive in which nonperishable cans were donated for free admission. Over 3,000 lbs of food was collected and distributed to families in need in preparation for the Thanksgiving holiday. According to the SF Foodbank, in San Francisco, 197,000 people struggle each day to feed themselves and their families.

“The generous donation of food collected at Green Festival will aid the SF Food Bank in delivering nutritious and delicious Thanksgiving meals for over 35,000 families throughout San Francisco and Marin,” says Events and Food Drives Manager, Jessica Brittsan. “Every donation helps in the fight to end hunger in our community.”

A project of Green America and Global Exchange, two leading non profit organiza­tions dedicated to environmental and social justice for more than twenty-six years, Green Festival serves as a foundation to explore and build sustainable solutions to benefit communities and the environment, discover new environmentally-friendly products and practices and connect with like minded individuals from all over the nation.

In a continuing commitment to green event management, Green Festival diverted over 31,000 lb. of waste over the weekend, for a 93.5% per cent diversion rat

Green Festival will return to San Francisco April 9th and 10th, 2011. For information and regular news updates, visit http://www.greenfestivals.org. Also, keep up with continuing news from exhibitors, partners and more on the new Green Festival press portal at http://www.greenfestivals.org/press or through Twitter @GreenFestival and Facebook.

Special thanks to: Made, Earthbound Farm, Park Merced, Nissan LEAF and KPFA.

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About Green America

Green America is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1982, providing the economic strategies, organizing power and practicing tools for businesses and individuals to address today’s social and environmental problems. Its Green Business Network is the largest national network of businesses screened for their social and environmental responsibility.  www.greenamericatoday.org

About Global Exchange

Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. Since its founding in 1988, Global Exchange has successfully increased public awareness of root causes of injustice while building international partnerships and mobilizing for change. www.globalexchange.org

About Seven-Star, Inc.

Seven-Star, Inc. is the nation’s premier green full-service event company focusing exclusively on green events. Since 1999, Seven-Star has provided turn-key green event services for environmentally Responsible and socially Respectful (eR/sR) festivals, trade and consumer expositions, conferences and concerts. From the greening of the 2007 International Live Earth events, to the 2008 Democratic National Convention events, to producing the nation’s largest consumer Green Festivals, Seven-Star has defined itself as the company for eR/sR event production. Seven-Star is the first event company to have won the EPA’s Gold Waste Wise Award for Excellence in recognition for their proprietary system of event waste diversion, which has consistently achieved greater than 85%. www.sevenstarevents.com

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9th Green Festival San Francisco, Nov. 6 — 7 at SF Concourse Exhibition Center

9th Green Festival San Francisco, Nov. 6 – 7 at SF Concourse Exhibition Center via SF Recycling Examiner Cindi Rose

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The Fortune 500 at GreenFest: Talk About Mainstream Green!

The Fortune 500 at GreenFest: Talk About Mainstream Green! by Lynn Anne Miller via 4GreenP’s

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