[GreenYes] Spring offensive

[RicAnthony@no.address]

Driving home from the 2006 California Resource Recovery Association  (CRRA) 
Conference in San Jose last summer, my  daughter Laura and my son Brian and I 
worked out a plan for initiating some  zero waste activities in San  Diego. 
Most of the stakeholders in San Diego who manage or  regulate discards concur 
with the San Diego County AB939 Integrated Waste  Management Citizens Advisory 
Committee?s (CAC) recommendations  to: 
1. Get  compostable organics out of the landfill  2. Require  multi-family 
and commercial recycling in the city of San Diego commercial  discard stream  
3. Initiate  the City of San  Diego?s C & D ordinance  
4. Develop  a regional social marketing strategy to maximize blue bin program 
participation  rates 
5. Convert  the Miramar  landfill into a resource recovery park 
But City of  San Diego  recycling staff is reluctant to push the CAC agenda 
due to a lack of council  direction. This dynamic exists despite the fact San 
Diego recycling plans  already call for both upstream and downstream  actions.  
We asked the local chapter of CRRA for support and created an ad hoc  
committee called Zero Waste San Diego (_www.zerowasteSanDiego.org_ 
(http://www.zerowastesandiego.org/) ). Our group decided it was time to take the message to the  
people, and have citizens convince elected officials they need to lead on 
these  issues. A public zero waste presentation and free showing of Al Gore?s "An 
 Inconvenient Truth" were used to educate and get people involved.    
A zero waste resolution - modeled from Santa Cruz?s initiative and  reworked 
to our own liking - was taken to the CAC and then to its member  agencies.   
Once enlightened  about the potential for zero waste programs to improve the 
environment and  stimulate our economy, we received endorsements from the CAC, 
San Diego chapters of the CRRA, League of Women Voters and  Sierra Club, 
Earthworks, Solana  Center for Environmental Innovation,  and most recently the City 
of El  Cajon. Mayor of El Cajon Mark Lewis is asking for  other San Diego  
County city councils to  step up and recognize the multitude of regional 
benefits zero waste has to  offer.  
Meanwhile, our first public meeting had a standing room only crowd,  and many 
of the attendees stayed after to talk about what can be done  locally.   One 
of the  suggestions was to combat global warming by bringing ?cooling down the 
planet?  initiatives to local town councils and planning boards. Another idea 
was to  have more meetings and a workshop. 
To date, we have shown ?An Inconvenient Truth? twice and ?The  Synthetic Sea?
 once to large, concerned crowds of citizens. We?ve presented to  the Ocean 
Beach Town Council and Ocean Beach Planning Board, and both have  adopted zero 
waste resolutions and agreed to encourage other local councils and  boards to 
do the same. We have also spoken to the Ocean Beach People?s  Organic Foods 
Co-op and have received their support. A zero waste workshop  for the 
neighborhood is being planned, with OB People?s as a primary  sponsor. 
One of the interesting reactions to our work has been that we are  considered 
by some media folk as the ?go to? group for global warming and  zero waste 
issues. This has resulted in Zero Waste San Diego being featured  in articles 
in the local press, and on pubic radio and TV as well.  Our  work has also 
received the attention of San Diego?s mayor and city attorney, and we've  sat down 
with both Jerry Sanders and Michael Aguirre in separate meetings to  
attentive, interested inquiries about what zero waste programs could do for the  city. 
 
We don't know what this all means yet, but we haven't met with any  San Diego 
 City mayor in the past 20  years, so something must be up. And our spring 
offensive has just  begun.  Like the bumper sticker, we are thinking globally 
and acting  locally, and our momentum has been tremendous. 
Challenges associated with living on a planet with diminishing  resources and 
increasing population require addressing the need to cool down the  planet 
and rebuild our soils for food production. Zero waste principles  consider these 
issues and offer viable solutions. 
I ask you to join us in confronting producers of products and  packages about 
sustainable redesign, demand that local authorities  ban compostable organics 
from the landfill, and initiate plans  to return these materials to our 
soils. We all stand to gain from  these changes. Thanks in advance for your  
involvement! 
Richard Anthony 
Zero Waste San  Diego 
Spring  2007



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