Presentations from the Sustainable Materials Management Workshop
Hosted by EPA Region 6, City of Austin Resource Recovery, and STAR
February 25-26, 2013
Leading by Example: A Federal Green Challenge Experience
Colonel Tracy Norris - Texas Army National Guard
Introduction to Zero Waste
Willie Kelley - EPA Region 6 Section Chief
Implementing Zero Waste Goals: Arkadelphia, AR
Jimmy Bolt
Implementing Zero Waste Goals: Austin, TX
Bob Gedert - City of Austin
Waste Minimization: NM Recycling Coalition
English Bird
Waste Minimization: Fort Worth
Debbie Branch
Food Recovery: Introduction
Willie Kelley - EPA Region 6
Food Recovery: Quest Resource Management Group
Ali Zandi
Food Recovery: ARAMARK
Amber Arguijo and Rita Alison
Municipal Organics Collection Pilot: Austin, TX
Bob Gedert - City of Austin
Federal Green Challenge Introduction
Diana Greiner - EPA Region 6
Federal Green Challenge: TX Military Forces
Dr. Valerie Stein
Federal Green Challenge: Fort Hood
Jennifer Rawlings
Federal Green Challenge: NASA Johnson Space Center
Laurie Peterson
Federal Electronics Requirements
Diana Greiner - EPA Region 6
USPS Federal Electronics Recycling Program
Charles Vega - USPS
North Texas Stewardship Forum: City of Denton
Katherine Barnett - Sustainability & Special Projects Administrator
SMM Collaborations that Work: EPA
James Yarbrough - EPA Region 6 Planning and Permitting Division
Measurements
Ron Vance - Materials Conservation & Recycling Branch
Region 4 Measurement Pilot
Dee Rogers-Smtih - EPA Region 4
TX Recycling Data Initiative Project
Maia Corbitt - State of Texas Alliance for Recycling
It's All About Data Management
Ron Vance - Materials Conservation & Recycling Branch
Reports and Research About Recycling in Texas and Across the US
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2010 WRAP Report: Environmental Benefits of Recycling
Bio Intelligence Service and Copenhagen Resource Institute - An update to the 2006 WRAP report Environmental Benefits of Recycling, reviewing high quality Life Cycle Assessments from around the world to assess the impact of alternative waste management options for a range of materials, and discuss the findings for each material in the context of the UK.
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Austin Resource Recovery 2011 Annual Report
Austin Resource Recovery - The Master Plan guides the implementation of Zero Waste through services, policies and programs. Achieving Zero Waste hinges on the the hard work of our employees, working in the middle of the night, early morning and throughout the day to make sure resources are collected at the curb, streets are clean and customers are satisfied. This report tells their story: the story of their accomplishments and progress, of the number of miles they traveled, and the amount of materials they collected.
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More Jobs, Less Pollution: Growing the Recycling Economy in the US
Tellus Institue - This study provides strong evidence that an enhanced national recycling and composting strategy in the United States can significantly and sustainably address critical national priorities including climate change, lasting job creation, and improved health.
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NIH Study: The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and its Environmental Impact
Food waste contributes to excess consumption of freshwater and fossil fuels which, along with methane and CO2 emissions from decomposing food, impacts global climate change. Here, we calculate the energy content of nationwide food waste from the difference between the US food supply and the food consumed by the population. The latter was estimated using a validated mathematical model of metabolism relating body weight to the amount of food eaten. We found that US per capita food waste has progressively increased by ~50% since 1974 reaching more than 1400 kcal per person per day or 150 trillion kcal per year. Food waste now accounts for more than one quarter of the total freshwater consumption and ~300 million barrels of oil per year.
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Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead
Environmental Protection Agency - We live in a material world. How our society uses materials is fundamental to many aspects of our economic and environmental future. If we want the U.S. to be competitive in the world economy, the sustainable use of materials must be our goal.
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Interpreting Pre-consumer Recycled Content Claims
UL EnvironmentSM - There is a great deal of debate within the environmental and manufacturing communities about which materials can be claimed as pre-consumer recycled content.1 UL EnvironmentSM encourages an end to this debate. Manufacturers, retailers and ultimately consumers stand to benefit from clarifying the kinds of materials and processes that contribute to how much content within any given product can legitimately be considered pre-consumer recycled. UL Environment has developed this document to provide clarity on interpreting existing guidelines to validate claims of pre-consumer recycled content and to serve as a reference for manufacturers. It is our position that it is time to move beyond defining the terms and to focusing on the vision and goals that drive us to consider recycled content in products a valuable practice.
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Sustainable Materials Management: Packaging
Environmental Protection Agency - This report provides the importance of packaging and the impact of the packaging lifecyle, along with what EPA is doing in regards to the matter.
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Beyond Waste - A SMM Strategy for New York State
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation - New York State’s Beyond Waste Plan (Plan) sets forth a new approach for New York State -- a shift from focusing on “end of the pipe” waste management techniques to looking “upstream” and more comprehensively at how materials that would otherwise become waste can be more sustainably managed through the state’s economy. This shift is central to the state’s ability to adapt to an age of growing pressure to reduce demand for energy, reduce dependence on disposal, minimize emission of greenhouse gases and create green jobs.
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The Circular Economy - 2013 Report
Ellen MacArthur Foundation - The last 150 years of industrial evolution have been dominated by a one-way or linear model of production and consumption in which goods are manufactured from raw materials, sold, used, and then discarded as waste. This model has been exceptionally successful in providing affordable products to consumers and material prosperity to billions. In developed economies, it has largely displaced a traditional economy that featured more reuse and regeneration but required more labour and produced lower returns on investment.