By Constance Beutel

AT OUR NOVEMBER 2012 BENICIA CLEANTECH EXPO, we had 18 excellent workshop presentations related to clean technologies and sustainability. I’d like to share the content of a few of those workshops with you. If you’re interested in viewing the presentations to get the real flavor of the presenters, I’ll provide the video link for your reference.

To start us out, Marie Knutson of Allied Waste Services presented two workshops over the Friday-Saturday Expo. As an important aside, we are so fortunate in Benicia to have such a great partner as Allied Waste Services, and to have such a hard-working, community-minded representative as Marie serving us. If you ever want a detailed accounting of the amount of trash, recycled material, etc. produced in Benicia, Allied has the data.

The workshop on greening your home presented by Marie is the one I want to focus on. She began by talking about what Allied has done to green their own business, starting with converting trucks to compressed natural ga). While not CO2-neutral, CNG produces less CO2 than standard gasoline vehicles.

Away . . .

Where does something go when you throw it “away”? If it’s garbage and not recyclable material, it goes to a transfer station in Martinez, where it’s dumped on the ground, pushed down a chute and put in a huge semi-trailer, each of which holds 22 tons.

With seven Allied trucks going to the Keller Lake Landfill (below) six times a day, I’m doing my math now, that’s 924 tons of trash from Allied Waste Services — or 1,848,000 pounds of garbage per day!

What

Currently 50 percent of Benicia’s trash is being recycled. By 2020, we expect 75 percent of the trash produced in Benicia to be recycled.

To visualize the work to be done by many, consider a 10-gallon bucket of trash — 7.5 gallons needs to be recycled and not thrown away.

How do we do this?

Marie repeated the common sense mantra: Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Reducing what we buy and use is the most important! It can be as manageable as buying things with less packaging. Paper is one of the biggest items in the landfill. If there is a way to use less paper — perhaps printing documents double sided, or using paper that’s been printed on one side as an option to print draft copies — that is a great start.

Reusing is important. Are you looking for chairs or office furniture, maybe a bicycle? There are sites like Freecycle and Craigslist that can help you in your search. If you are a business with a product overrun, call Marie and she can help find a home for it. She gave the recent example of Cork USA that had 700,000 misprinted corks. Marie found the corks a home at Resource Area for Teachers.

Recycling: Any type of paper, even phone books, can be recycled. Mailing envelopes with bubble wrap on the inside are one of the few things that aren’t acceptable. Likewise paper with a wax coating, like milk cartons or paper coffee cups.

But we can put old pots and pans, hard plastic toys and plastic buckets into recycling. You can recycle plastic bags by putting them in another bag and tying the container plastic bag. Or take plastic bags to your super market, where they are prepared to handle them. We can recycle glass, just not window glass or glass with a shatterproof coating. If you have a big piece of glass such as from a table, call Marie and she can find a home for it, often with an artist.

Electronic peripherals can be recycled. Anything off your computer, like a mouse or old keyboard, that doesn’t have an on and off switch can be put into the brown recycling bin.

Marie reminded us that an aluminum can in the brown recycled container has the potential of being recycled infinitely. The life cycle of an aluminum can is six weeks from manufacture, use, disposal, reconstitution and back on the shelf.

Styrofoam is not recyclable. There are some companies trying to convert Styrofoam into glue, but it’s not a viable process yet. Marie said if she buys something with a lot of Styrofoam at a store, she unpacks it at the store and has the store deal with it.

Hazardous waste

In Solano County, so far, only Benicia has door-to-door hazardous pickup service through Allied Waste. Hazardous waste covers a range of products from cleaning products to hair dye and anything you don’t want to pour down your drain. All we have to do is to call customer service (747-0608) to set up a household hazardous waste appointment. Allied will mail a special bag to put things in, and then it’s picked up from the top of your driveway.

Charity pickups

Twice a month, Allied picks up items that you want to donate to Goodwill or another charity. This is a free pickup; all that is needed is a phone call to schedule the pickup.

Saving money

Marie stressed that if we pay attention to what our purchased items are packaged in, there’s less to throw away, and if we are recycling or giving things away, there’s less in our trash can — and every time we bring down the size of our trash can we save money, since the smaller containers cost less!

For a business, this can add up to real money. A Benicia business, she pointed out, went down two sizes of trash cans and saved $600 monthly.

Other tips for sustaining the planet

• Buy locally.

• If you get a “to go” box from a restaurant, let them know to use a recyclable container and that doing so influences your choice whether to eat there again.

• Use recyclable shopping bags when shopping.

• Mix and match. If you are having a festive event, don’t use paper plates. Instead you could go to Goodwill and buy a plate for each person; if there are leftovers, your guests can take the plate home.

Marie ended by telling of an event she hosted in Martinez for about 85 people. By using real plates, cups, napkins and silverware and by designating where to compost food scraps, a single bag of trash weighing about 3 pounds was the end result.

“So, think before you throw things ‘away,’” Marie said, “because things never really go ‘away.’”

To learn more or to contact Allied Waste Services for a home or business waste audit, contact Marie Knutson at mknutson@republicservice.com or 925-671-5814. Allied’s customer service line is 747-0608.

To watch Marie’s presentation, visit http://youtu.be/xMtDqs_DaWo.

Constance Beutel is chair of Benicia’s Community Sustainability Commission. She is a university professor and videographer and holds a doctorate from the University of San Francisco.