Creating community around Washington’s zero waste movement

Anyone who has tried to lead a zero waste lifestyle finds out quickly that the systems in place don’t make it easy. There are so many items that come with excess packaging or have packaging that can’t be recycled. Information on recycling is not readily available and the rules for recycling vary from city to city. This is where the zero waste movement comes in as a community of people to show the need for better policy and to improve the information gap. We are helping to strengthen the movement by providing support to local networks and creating policy that advances zero waste in our state. Check out details about our programming and learn how to get involved below, as well as the Resources page and the Ways to go zero waste in Washington State.

Our Repair Economy Washington program highlights the importance of and increases access to repair across Washington State by supporting the entire ecosystem of repair: from repair businesses to free community repair events and tool libraries. A Repair Economy is one based on reusing, repurposing, sharing, and repairing of household products from electronics to tools, to clothing. We promote a repair economy through supporting community-based events, promoting local repair businesses, and increasing access to information and resources, partnerships, and collaboration. Check out our Resources page for more details on how you can get involved in The Repair Economy.

Moving toward zero waste is a community effort—and community groups and businesses dedicating themselves to the movement are crucial to a waste-free future. We work with community groups and businesses around the state, supporting their ideas to help advance their community towards zero waste. For example, we supported local zero waste businesses to fulfill their mission by helping change the Washington Food Safety Code to allow customers to bring their own containers. We also work with local community groups to support their initiatives and give them assistance through grant-writing and technical support to seek grants as well as to help connect them to other zero waste champions in their community and beyond.

Youth are some of the most vocal and effective advocates of zero waste. We work with a variety of youth-serving organizations to bring education on topics such as plastic pollution, provide support for job skills development, and technical assistance to seek zero waste-focused grants

Real trays, plates, cups, and cutlery are a solution to avoiding frequent waste of single-use disposable foodware. Schools, in particular, create high volumes of waste through reliance on single-use materials. To find school-based solutions, we host a statewide workgroup of school district staff, PTA leaders, and others to address converting K–12 school cafeterias from disposable food ware to durables (reusable materials), as well as increasing composting and other school zero waste programming.

Each year we hold events to showcase the amazing work being done in the zero waste movement around the state and to celebrate zero waste business innovations. These annual Waste Summits have themes that reflect what is “hot” or cutting-edge research and creativity, highlighting innovations in Washington. Our hope is that these events are catalysts for policy or other changes. A recent Waste Summit led to an ordinance to reduce plastic waste in Bellingham, which in turn helped tip the scales for a statewide policy addressing foodware. Learn more about our past and upcoming waste summits here.

In partnership with the Seattle Good Business Network, through the PreCycle Innovation Challenge, we work with startup businesses eager to develop zero waste solutions by providing technical assistance to help them launch and grow. This opportunity offers startups resources to build on their ideas and create a starting point for support so that they can create the groundwork necessary to scale up their idea. The support garnered from the PreCycle Innovation Challenge allows some teams to participate in NextCycle Washington, which can fund their idea to its next steps in zero waste innovation.