Musing about Maxing:  Summer 2003

by Diana Rivera

* max (măks) Slang verb
To complete an exchange of material; especially via CalMAX. "The two companies were able to max many tons of organic material."

Administration of the California Materials Exchange takes a great deal of energy and a collective focus. Success—in terms of diversion—depends on our collective efforts working with local communities to focus on diversion through many creative ways. We always try to consider the community perspective in terms of maxing. Communicating the diversion and materials exchange message in one part of California—let's say an urban area, may not be the same as for a rural area. Therefore, the partnership and collaborative efforts that we make with local organizations and communities are vital to outreach.

I had the opportunity to attend the 4th Annual Recycled Product Trade Show in April, and I met many of you who use CalMAX. It was great to see so many bright, interesting, energetic people who bring fresh ideas and enthusiasm to our work. One environmentalist colleague told me she was musing about maxing one day—thinking of ways to max in the local community. And here I thought I was the only one who mused about CalMAX.

As one might expect, musing about maxing results in fresh ideas for CalMAX. One such new venture has been the development of Web portal pages for use by local communities. The CalMAX team has been discussing this concept for some time, and now it’s available.

The portal pages would not be possible without the invaluable technical support and creative efforts of the dedicated CIWMB information management services staff. As always, our appreciation goes out to them for always providing us with excellent technical support.

Essentially, a Web portal means that CalMAX provides a custom page for a particular region or county, while CalMAX hosts or stores listings data. The portal page may be designed with the county or city seal, and offers more of a community appeal to local business.

The first county to take advantage of a portal page is Nevada County. To accommodate this new partnership, NevCoMAX is now available and ready to operate at www.CalMAX.org/NevCoMAX/.

The staff in Nevada County is working to market the max message to local organizations and businesses throughout the region. I gave a presentation to the local business folks in Nevada County, demonstrating the ease of using the CalMAX and NevCoMAX Web page. I saw a strong sense of community in the Nevada County area. The business owners are focused on keeping the area pristine, and this is an inspiration to practice environmentally friendly, responsible methods of reuse and recycling.

We are working with a few other counties to develop customized portals to assist with diversion. Feel free to telephone me if you have any questions or if you would like to discuss the possibilities for your county’s portal page.

In this Issue
In the CalMAX Connections article, we feature the work of Mike Daley, Triad Inc.—simply, a quintessential CalMAX story of success. Just go to page 4; what more can I say?

In the creative reuse feature, Sarah Weimer writes about the Monterey Ceramic Tile and Marble Company. Owner Jan Leong donates a great deal of material to local community schools for creative reused projects.

In the Electronics Update article, Terri Cronin discusses new electronic guidelines for procurement, use, and end-of life-management of electronic waste.

Bringing us updated news from the foothills, Nevada County staffer Lynne Cody describes current work with local businesses and the new partnership with CalMAX.

Finally, the insert section of the catalog highlights organics issues.

* Of course you realize I just made up that max definition. Let's say it's colloquial speech in certain materials exchange circles.

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Last updated: August 01, 2008