Sunday/Monday August 10 / 11: Zero Waste conference in Orillia

From City of Orillia waste management and environmental advisory committee

No more battling landfills and incinerators in Ontario.

This important Conference will bring together bright, enthusiastic people to focus on waste solutions that will help Ontario move into a Zero Waste future.

Politicians.

Business people.

Representatives from schools, churches, hospitals, health care centres, and other organizations.

Waste reduction experts.

We can protect our resources and local jobs by developing sustainable solutions to waste.

Please pass this information on to others that may be interested in attending.

Also, don’t miss our Contest with cash prizes (ZeroWasteConference.ca)

Thanks!

Media coverage:

EPA’s Pacific Southwest rep to speak at Zero Waste event

Orillia, Lakehead University, Aug.10-11,2014

Solid Waste & Recycling Magazine 2014-07-15

Jared Blumenfeld, the Environmental Protection Agency’s [EPA] Pacific Southwest regional administrator, will be one of 10 speakers at the summer 2014 Excel-erate Zero Waste Conference in Orillia.

Blumenfeld, formerly a key environmental decision-maker for the City and County of San Francisco, will present via video conference call on the first day of the two-day event, which runs from Aug. 10-11 at Lakehead University’s Orillia campus.

The event, for which Solid Waste and Recycling magazine is a sponsor, will feature speakers, panel discussions and small group plenary sessions with various government, business and institutional leaders. Although the event features a Sunday night gala, the majority of the sessions will take place on the following day, Monday.

As the director of San Francisco’s environment department for eight years, Blumenfeld helped create a number of environmental laws that became part of the municipal code. He was specifically instrumental in establishing San Francisco’s plastic-bag ban, a 2020 zero-waste goal and LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] Gold building standards, among other initiatives.

San Francisco is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the world’s leading cities for taking recycling and waste reduction to another level.

Blumenfeld was appointed by US President Barack Obama to serve as EPA Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest in November 2009.  EPA Region 9 is home to more than 48 million people in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands, and 148 tribal nations.

Guy Crittenden, Editor of Solid Waste & Recycling magazine, endorses the Zero Waste event and plans to participate in panel discussions.

“With the recent spate of producer responsibility programs in Ontario, Manitoba, BC and so on, the time is right for policymakers to look closely at program design to move us toward a ‘zero waste’ future,” Crittenden says.

“Some programs have been fraught with anti-competitive issues; we need to get this right if we’re going to do it at all. Leaving it to fix later on is a bad idea,” Crittenden adds.

Conference speakers will share a wide range of viable, practical waste solutions about how to improve marketing and public image, while protecting the bottom line.

For example, Paul Connett, author of The Zero Waste Solution, will present a talk on 10 steps to zero waste.

“What we need to look for are model communities that are providing working examples of one or more of the 10 steps to zero waste, so that they can inspire other communities to copy them,” Connett said.

The Excel-erate Zero Waste Conference is organized by the City of Orillia’s Waste and Environmental Management Advisory Committee.

Registration is $250 per person. The fee includes an evening gala on Sunday, August 10, 2014 and the all-day conference Monday, August 11, 2014. Bring a guest to enjoy the gala evening for only $50 per person.

Conference payments must be made by cheque, payable to the City of Orillia, and noting ‘Zero Waste Conference’. Mail cheques to:

City of Orillia

c/o Robin Cadeau

Zero Waste Conference

50 Andrew St. S.

Orillia, Ontario

L3V7T5.

For more information, visit www.zerowasteconference.ca, Facebook

(www.facebook.com/zerowasteconference) or follow on Twitter (@ZeroWasteON).