Coordinator Update Spring 2005

Coordinator Update

What's CalMAX All About?

I'm often asked about the amount of material that CalMAX helps divert from the waste streams. While CalMAX helps divert hundreds of thousands of tons each year, I generally prefer to speak more about the practical collaborations and relationships that develop between business organizations in our communities.

CalMAX is certainly about waste diversion. That is our fundamental mission. Market development or helping jurisdictions find long term markets for materials is also a big part of our work and the underlying current that drives our mission.

Over time, CalMAX has helped inspire some unusual materials exchanges. In the case of the San Jose-based nonprofit organization Books Aloud, these exchanges have resulted in immeasurable outcomes.

Books Aloud works with blind, visually impaired, and learning or physically disabled individuals who are unable to read conventional print, hold a book, or turn pages. The article on page 6 is about Books Aloud and the connection the organization established with Resources Area for Teachers (RAFT) in San Jose.

CalMAX is about acting as a resource in a network of environmentalist and business organizations working together for the benefit of all our communities. The CalMAX staff is grateful to have had the pleasure of associating with the folks from Books Aloud and RAFT

IN THIS ISSUE
In the sustainability article we feature the Footprint Recycling Company in Arcata. Footprint Recycling makes bio-diesel fuel from local waste vegetable oil. Its founder, Andy Cooper, made his first bio-diesel in a blender as an undergraduate at Humboldt State University.

Construction and Demolition (C&D) makes up about 25 percent of the listings and exchanges in CalMAX. A guest article from AIM Associates in Petaluma has some great information on creative ways to divert C&D.

Terri Persons has the latest updates on electronic waste recycling in California. For current information on recycling electronic equipment, visit www.eRecycle.org.

Former CalMAX Coordinator Deborah Orrill has written a guest article about Freecycling. Since 2003, the Freecycling concept of reuse and recycling has been sweeping the country.

Finally, we have added a new column in the Resources Section of this catalog. On page 55 you will find a list of waste tire haulers and retreaders. On page 56 we have included tire recyclers and manufacturers of products made from recycled tire material.
 

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Last updated: August 01, 2008