Moving Missoula Toward Zero Waste Month: April 2015

The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) is joining Mayor John Engen in proclaiming April 2015 as "Moving Missoula Toward Zero Waste Month." Mayor Engen signed a formal Proclamation at the City Council Meeting on March 23. On April 1, the SBC will launch a major educational effort to increase awareness of opportunities to Reduce, Redesign, Reuse, and Recycle and otherwise tap waste as a resource in Missoula.

"Missoulians are hungry for information about recycling and ways to reduce waste in the Garden City," said Jenny Mish, Executive Director of the Sustainable Business Council. "Visitors and new residents are often surprised by the scarcity of recycling options, especially when they compare us with other progressive communities. However, we face some unique challenges here, and one of them is a confused population." For example, the BID owns and maintains 28 recycling bins downtown but over half of their contents end up going to the landfill because people put non-recyclable materials in them.

The SBC aims to clear up confusion with a 50+ page Guide to Moving Missoula Toward Zero Waste, which will be published online on April 1. The Guide will be packed with maps, case studies, graphics, information about various waste types, sorting signs, and how-to articles about everything from opting out of junk mail to conducting a waste audit for your business. An abbreviated 24-page Mini-Guide will be printed and distributed in select issues of the Missoula Independent on April 9.

Both versions of the Guide will include an April 2015 Calendar of Events highlighting waste reduction and Earth Day activities in Missoula. Over twenty organizations are participating, including the Missoula Downtown Association, the Good Food Store, MUD, Home ReSource, and Green Ribbon Books. Tours will be offered of the Missoula Wastewater Treatment Facility, the Hybrid Poplar Plantation, Bad Goat Forest Products, Republic Services Recycling, and KettleHouse Brewery. Missoula FCU will offer a free Shred Day, the Clark Fork Coalition will host the Clark Fork River Cleanup, and Opportunity Resources will celebrate the Grand Opening a major new regional e-waste facility, Opportunity E-Cycling.

"We’ve been talking with people and learning fascinating things about Missoula waste issues for months," said Mish. "It’s exciting to have so much to share. We can explain what happens to glass collected at Target and why it’s been such a challenge. We can celebrate our local leaders, like Bradley Layton who has lived waste-free since 2010. We can tell the stories of dozens of local businesses that save money, make money, and offer resources for waste reduction, reuse, and recycling. The economy of the future, in Missoula and everywhere, will be a circular economy in which every waste is a new resource. Making April into a whole month about waste and recycling will help Missoula move closer to "closing the loop" and tapping those economic opportunities."

Contact: Jenny Mish

Tel: (406) 493-1482

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.sustainablebusinesscouncil.org

To view the 50+ page online Guide to Moving Missoula Toward Zero Waste (after April 1), visit http://www.sustainablebusinesscouncil.org/TZWguide.

To view the online TZW Calendar of Events, visit http://www.MissoulaEvents.net/ZeroWasteMissoula.

For full text of Mayor Engen?s Proclamation, visit
http://missoula.siretechnologies.com/sirepub/cache/2/3yfuftlmbuezogzvwjxl2mt1/16978703262015114813901.PDF

For more information about the SBC, visit http://www.sustainablebusinesscouncil.org.

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Founded in 2002, the Sustainable Business Council (SBC) is a 501(c)(3) member-driven non-profit organization that advances a vibrant local economy built on sustainable practices. The SBC envisions a prosperous, collaborative community that fulfills the promise of the triple bottom line: a healthy society, economy, and environment.