COURSE TITLE: Cooling the Planet with Zero Waste

GENERAL COURSE DESCRIPTION
Zero Waste Businesses are leading the way for Zero Waste and have diverted over 90% of their waste from landfill and incineration.  Zero Waste Communities have adopted Zero Waste goals and plans to implement those goals. Join us to understand how Zero Waste can be a key part of community and business sustainability plans and helps contribute to reducing greenhouse gases and global cooling.  By attending this session, participants will be better able to:

  1. Provide innovative incentives to eliminate waste and focus on reuse
  2. Adopt producer responsibility and procurement policies
  3. Support expanding infrastructure needed to achieve Zero Waste (e.g., more reuse, recycling and composting services and development of new Resource Recovery Parks).

COURSE OUTLINE

Intro to Zero Waste

  • Definition of Zero Waste
  • Connections between Zero Waste and Climate Change
  • Communities that have adopted Zero Waste as a goal
  • Zero Waste Businesses that divert over 90% of their waste from landfills or incinerators

Intro to Zero Waste Businesses

  • Zero Waste Business Principles
  • Model Zero Waste Businesses

Intro to Zero Waste Communities

  • Sample Zero Waste Resolution
  • Sample Zero Waste Community Plans
  • Sample Zero Waste Goals and Objectives

Developing Zero Waste Community Plans

  • Service Opportunities Analyses
  • Commodities Analysis, Economics & Jobs
  • Menu of Incentives and Policies
  • Environmental Benefits of Zero Waste for Communities (WARM Model)
  • Extended Producer Responsibility
  • Zero Waste Infrastructure (Reduce, Reuse, Recycling and Composting)
  • Resource Recovery Parks
  • Public Participation Processes

Class Project
Reports back to class
Close
Final Observations, Resources, and Review of post-class assignment

PREREQUISITES - None

CLASS PROJECTS
In class, students will break into groups. Each group will share their experience with Zero Waste at their business or community. The team will choose one example and analyze them using the principles learned in class.  Each team will present their analysis to the rest of the class.  Class will discuss the team presentations.  To obtain the CRRA Certificate, students will be required to implement an "Information to Action Project" within 1 year of the class.  That activity could be getting their business, community or environmental group to adopt Zero Waste as a goal, organizing an event as a Zero Waste event, or developing an incentive or policy to help their business or community get to Zero Waste.

TESTING
Students must receive at least 75 out of 100 points in order to pass the class, earned as follows:

  1. Review of URLs prior to class and sharing insights/comments during class       up to 20 pts.
  2. Participation in class project                                                                                             up to 40 pts.
  3. Completing test in class                                                                                                    up to 40 pts.

COURSE MATERIALS
We will email participants a list of URLs of Zero Waste websites and will ask participants to review and comment on those as part of the class.  We will show sample documents in class, including Zero Waste Business Principles, Zero Waste Community Strategies and Plans, Sample Resource Recovery Park designs and useful references on Extended Producer Responsibility.

INSTRUCTOR
Gary Liss will teach this course 1.  Mr. Liss has over 32 years of experience in solid waste and recycling.  Gary Liss is now President of Gary Liss & Associates 2 . He was a founder and past President of the National Recycling Coalition and Solid Waste Manager for the City of San Jose, CA.  In San Jose, Mr. Liss developed their recycling programs into national models.

Mr. Liss is a leading advocate of Zero Waste, and a Zero Waste advisor to the GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN) and Earth Resource Foundation (ERF).  For GRRN, Mr. Liss has documented Zero Waste Businesses 3 , developed Zero Waste Business Principles 4 and with ERF helped organize Zero In on Zero Waste business conferences. 5 He helped write Zero Waste Plans for: Del Norte County, CA; Nelson, British Columbia; Palo Alto, CA 6 ; and Oakland, CA 7 ; and is now working on drafting a Zero Waste Plan for the City of Los Angeles.  He also helped write a Zero Waste Communities Strategy for the Zero Waste Task Force of Santa Clara, San Mateo & San Benito Counties. 8   Mr. Liss is on the Planning Group for the Zero Waste International Alliance 9 and a member of the Sierra Club national Zero Waste Committee.  He is also one of the founders of the California Sustainable Business Council 10 and the Zero Waste for Global Cooling Coalition.  In 2005, the Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives 11 certified Mr. Liss as a ZERI Systems Designer.  Mr. Liss was selected as the CRRA 12 Recycler of the Year in 2005.

Mr. Liss worked as the first Executive Director for the CRRA, Resource Recovery Director for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Assistant Administrator for Alternative Technologies for the NJ Department of Energy and Environmental Programs Manager for the City of Newark, NJ.  He has a Masters in Public Administration from Rutgers University in Newark, NJ and a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering (Environmental Engineering major) from Tufts University in Boston, MA. 

  1. He may involve other Zero Waste experts to enhance the course, depending on timing and location of courses. 
  2. www.garyliss.com
  3. http://www.grrn.org/zerowaste/business/profiles.php
  4. http://www.grrn.org/zerowaste/business/index.php
  5. See http://www.earthresource.org/zerowaste.html and an article in Fortune magazine: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/03/19/8402369/index.htm
  6. http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/zerowaste/graphics/Strategic_Plan_FInal_100405.pdf
  7. http://clerkwebsvr1.oaklandnet.com/attachments/14983.pdf
  8. http://www.crra.com/grc/articles/zwc.html
  9. www.zwia.org
  10. www.calsbc.org
  11. www.zeri.org
  12. www.crra.com