Summer Hours begin Friday June 10th, 2022 Lopez Solid Waste will be open on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays 11:00am - 4:00pm New Take-It-or-Leave-It Schedule! Introducing Alternating Shop and Drop Days at TIOLI Shop Fridays and Sundays 11:00am - 4:00pm Donation Drop Off Saturdays and Mondays 11:00am - 4:00pm We are excited to announce a new schedule at Take-It-or-Leave-It (TIOLI)! Beginning June 10th, we will begin an alternating shop and drop schedule with shopping on Fridays and Sundays, and drop off donation days on Saturday and Monday. We are making this adjustment in an effort to better serve the Lopez Community by being able to provide new inventory for each shopping day, and potentially being able to receive more items for the community to reuse. Please share the news of this change with your friends and neighbors and bear with us while we all get accustomed to the new schedule and hours. Have questions, want to get involved? We would love that! Contact Larissa at larissam@lopezsolidwaste.org, or text or call 206-383-6611.

Lots of news recently in the solid waste and recycling world, not all of it good! Last week there was local news about Snohomish County Transfer Stations having to temporarily close because of logistical transportation issues led to their facilities being overwhelmed with garbage that they could not haul away. At the main facility, there was a 45 foot mountain of trash that required 24 hour fire watch as it smoldered away. Yikes! Fortunately they have started to get things under control but it certainly does make you think... https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/snohomish-county-transfer-stations-reopening-garbage-cleared/281-52e4fe20-bbf7-4285-b095-d0a294023651 Also in national news, new data out from the Environmental Protection Agency shows a decline in plastic recycling rates even as plastic production continues to increase. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/plastic-recycling-rate-5-failure-say-environmentalists/ These are not the most inspiring stories but they are a reminder that the work we do to divert waste and recycle in the most conscientious way is really important. As many of you know, one of the most common problems with recycling plastic is that it is too contaminated to process effectively. That is not the case with the plastic that we send out, it is carefully monitored by our responsible customers and awesome recycle plaza crew! Also, we are closing in on the summer season and will be extending our hours of operation beginning in June. Please stay tuned for more information regarding schedule changes and more, coming soon!

Why composting? Read on! Did you know that food scraps are the single largest component of landfill waste in the US? Compost is not garbage, it is a valuable resource! There are many benefits to home composting, including: Save Money Reduce your garbage bill by composting food scraps. Studies have found that about 35% of household waste is organic material. By composting, you could potentially reduce your garbage expenses by a third! Save Water When you compost, you build soil. Adding compost to your garden and flower beds contributes to soil health, and helps the soil retain moisture. Save Resources Lower your carbon footprint by reducing trips to the dump, and reducing the amount of material that has to be trucked off island and transported across the state to a landfill. Save the Planet When we compost, our food scraps break down into a healthy soil amendment. When we throw our food scraps into the garbage, all that organic material releases methane as it breaks down. According to the EPA, Methane is the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States. Methane gas is a source of significant greenhouse gas emissions and is 28 to 36 times more powerful than CO2 at trapping heat, and is a major contributor to climate change. Every time we divert organic matter from the landfill, we reduce potential greenhouse gas emissions. Inspired and want to start composting now? Here are some links to more information and resources about home composting. Would you like a little more guidance? Feel free to reach out to Larissa Mansfield for additional resources. EPA, Composting at Home https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home Recycle Now - Backyard Composting https://www.ecocycle.org/backyard-composting WSU Backyard Composting Guide (downloadable pdf) https://pubs.extension.wsu.edu/backyard-composting Are you already a seasoned composter and want to share your expertise? We would love your help!

Hot off the press, our Spring Newsletter is here! Take a look at what's been happening at LSWDD.

The Great Islands Clean-up is back in person! Come join your fellow islanders for the 2022 Spring Great Islands Clean-up on Saturday, April 23, 2022 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. This year’s theme, All Hands on Deck, celebrates our collaborative efforts as a community to keep our oceans and roads plastic and litter free. We look forward to seeing community members and visitors alike at this annual event. Check the Great Islands Clean-Up Facebook page for regular updates. Meet at 10 a.m. at Lopez Village Park to pick up trash collection equipment and receive beach and roadway assignments. Bring your collected trash back to Lopez Solid Waste by 2 p.m. Contact Larissa for more information.

Ever wonder what other communities are doing to reduce, reuse, and recycle? We came across this interesting story of a small town in Japan that has been working toward the goal of zero waste in their community. In 2021 they won the Dezeen Sustainable Building Award for their recycling and reuse center which was constructed almost entirely from recycled materials. For those of you who volunteer in the recycle plaza, imagine helping customers sort their recycling into 45 categories! If you’re interested, you can read more about it here. https://www.japan.go.jp/kizuna/2021/04/zero-waste_world.html Lopez locals, the Eppenbachs, visited Kamikatsu in 2015. You can read about their experience here.

Solid Waste Alternatives Program (SWAP) was one of 10 Lopez nonprofits to be selected as a beneficiary of the GiveLopez fundraiser! Congrats, SWAP, and thanks for all you do! Check out their website to see what they are up to and how they are supporting the Lopez Dump! https://lopezswap.squarespace.com/

Volunteers fill many important roles at LSWDD and the award-winning Recycle Dogs are no exception. These dedicated volunteers separate out different types of metals from items like BBQs and appliances that are brought to the Lopez Dump for disposal. In 2020, they won the Washington State Recycling Association Community Recycler Award and in 2021, they beat their previous record and diverted 8,420 lbs. of high grade metals consisting of copper, brass, stainless steel and aluminum, generating nearly $5k in revenue for LSWDD. Wow, impressive! Interested in volunteering at the Lopez Dump? It’s easy, fill out the online form right here on our website!

Did you know that food scraps are the single largest component of landfill waste in the US? What about on Lopez Island? We don’t have the answer and would like you to help us! We will be conducting a household survey to gather information about home composting on Lopez Island. Please help us by participating in the home composting survey the next time you visit the Lopez Dump! Why composting? Read on! There are many benefits to home composting, including: Save Money Reduce your garbage bill by composting food waste. Studies have found that about 35% of household waste is organic material. By composting, you could potentially reduce your garbage expenses by a third! Save Water When you compost, you build soil. Adding compost to your garden and flower beds contributes to soil health, and helps the soil retain moisture. Save Resources Lower your carbon footprint by reducing trips to the dump, and reducing the amount of material that has to be trucked off island and transported across the state to a landfill. Save the Planet When we compost, our food scraps break down into a healthy soil amendment. When we throw our food scraps into the garbage, all that organic material releases methane as it breaks down. According to the EPA, Methane is the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States. Methane gas is a source of significant greenhouse gas emissions and is 28 to 36 times more powerful than CO2 at trapping heat, and is a major contributor to climate change. Every time we divert organic matter from the landfill, we reduce potential greenhouse gas emissions. Inspired and want to start composting now? Here are some links to more information and resources about home composting. Would you like a little more guidance? Feel free to reach out to Larissa Mansfield at LSWDD with your questions. EPA, Composting at Home https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home Recycle Now - Backyard Composting https://www.ecocycle.org/backyard-composting WSU Backyard Composting Guide (downloadable pdf) https://pubs.extension.wsu.edu/backyard-composting Are you an experienced composter who would like to share your expertise with others and/or help LSWDD promote home composting? Great, contact us!

“Wardrobes of Reclaimed Beauty” Maker in Residence Art Show Friday, November 12, 5-7 pm at the ReMakery Drowning in clothes? Us too! Fast fashion has been inundating the world and Lopez Island with a sea unwanted of textiles for many decades. Pre-pandemic, Lopez Solid Waste Disposal District shipped off nearly 50,000 lbs of textiles per year sending them to the Goodwill Industries. But since the pandemic, breaks in the supply chains of global transport have made textile recycling nearly impossible for islanders. Therefore there are around 5,000 lbs of textiles currently being stored in a shipping container on site at LSWDD, without many easily achieved options for getting them into reuse or recycle. Enter October’s ReMakery Makers in Residence: Matia Indigo Jones and Jessica McCullough. These two artists are both focused on textile reuse, visible mending, and restoring garments to both usability and beauty during their month long residency. In their upcoming art show “Wardrobes of Reclaimed Beauty” on Friday, November 12 from 5-7 pm, McCullough and Jones are exploring ancient technologies like mending, darning, and small alterations to resurrect otherwise discarded garments and thus interrupt the waste stream of disposable fashion culture. McCullough is exploring the recently popularized practice of Visible Mending. This technique combines embroidery and stylized, purposeful image making to mend holes and tears or other imperfections in otherwise usable garments. She taught a class on visible mending in October. There are many newly published books on this style, some of which are for sale at the Lopez Bookshop, and which McCullough is using as inspiration for her work. These books are on display in the window of the ReMakery over her Maker in Residence workspace and will be on display at the exhibition. Jones is exploring small repairs, alterations, and fabric dying to resurrect high quality garments that could still have many good years left in them. She is offering a free class called “Minimal Effort Upcycling” on Wednesday, November 10th from 5-7 pm where participants are invited to bring in articles of clothing that only need simple changes, repairs or alterations to become beautiful and wearable once more. Please RSVP to Nikyta Palmisani at nikytap@lopezsolidwaste.org to reserve your class space. There will be gorgeous pieces of reclaimed clothing available for sale at the opening. Purchasing these beautified items helps build the local circular economy and support island artists and entrepreneurs while simultaneously reducing the consumption of new items that use virgin resources. This is also a wonderful antidote to online holiday gift buying anxiety.