Don't Waste Durham

Become a sustaining member of Don’t Wast Durham today! Help us fight waste in our community.

Four days to the City Council Work Session!

On September 21, the Durham City Council will be hearing comment on and discussing the Plastic Bag Ordinance. To show your support, submit public comment, attend the work session, and speak in favor of the ordinance. Bring your Bull City Boomerang Bags! 😉

Our Duke event with Bull City Boomerang Bag was the first of its kind. We wrote about it on our blog; check it out on the Don’t Waste Durham website.

We launched Bull City Boomerang Bags because Durham lacked the infrastructure for reusable, durable, eco-friendly shopping bags. Learn our why and join us to expand our reach and provide Boomerang Bags to all Durhamites.

You're looking at 100 T-shirt bags and 90 tote bags completed at yesterdays sewing session at Sew Crafty!

Toni and volunteers finished so many because of how much prep work was completed by the Duke students in ! Shout out to these incredible undergrads for helping us accelerate the reuse revolution 🎉

Come join us at our next sewing session by signing up through our Linktree! You, too, can join the fight for equitable sustainability 🌱

We had the pleasure of hosting a Bull City Boomerang Bag sewing session this past Tuesday! Duke first-years learned about circularity and created 60+ completed bags and 100+ partially-completed bags. With over 100 attendees, this was also an opportunity to teach young people about the circular economy. If your organization loves fashion, Earth, or fun, consider hosting your own sewing session! Check out our Linktree for more details.

Join us September 21 to comment and attend in support of the Plastic Bag Ordinance! This City Council work session will be hosted from 1-5 PM. Hope to see you there ♻️

We began Bull City Boomerang Bags because Durham lacked the infrastructure for reusable, durable, eco-friendly shopping bags. Learn our why and join us to expand our reach and provide Boomerang Bags to Durhamites.

This Washington Post article is a short, enlightening read! 👀 Recycling is simply not an effective means to address the U.S. . The health and equity issues we face from plastic pollution don't have time to hold out hope for recycling. Check out this short read at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/31/how-recycle-plastic-labels/

"The core of the problem is that there is no recycling system in the United States; there are upward of 20,000 of them. As a result, it’s nearly impossible to say which items are actually recyclable. Without stricter standards, consumers will continue to be confused, seriously hampering the effort to divert waste from ." 🗑

💪❤🐂 Don't Waste Durham is a nonprofit whose mission is to create that trash in the first place. 💪❤🐂

Image credit: Washington Post

The centerpiece of Don’t Waste Durham’s reuse mission is its washing/sanitizing operation. Two local businesses with core sustainability missions are leveraging that capability to grow their impact. Read our newest blog, in our Linktree or the tinyurl above, to learn about Don’t Waste Durham’s work with and 🧼

In partnership with Don’t Waste Durham, American Underground hosted a Bull City Boomerang Bag-centered member mixer 🥂 This event celebrated Plastic-Free July and the AU's sustainability commitments.

To join one of our Boomerang Bag-making sessions on Sundays and Tuesdays, visit our Linktree! There is no sewing experience required to join. We hope to see you there 🛍️

We are SO PROUD of our fearless leader Crystal Dreisbach moving onto an exciting new chapter leading Upstream as their new CEO. Upstream leads the national reuse movement – putting an end to disposable packaging with systemic change solutions that help our society shift from single-use to reuse. She has and will continue to do incredibly important work for the reuse movement. 💚

Crystal will shift to being Senior Advisor at Don’t Waste Durham, which “is an organization I love and admire dearly.” 🫂

And don't worry - Don't Waste Durham isn't going anywhere! Stay tuned for more news. 👀

Please join us in welcoming Tony Kershaw (he/him), Don't Waste Durham's new Program Officer! 🤩 Tony is a community builder who loves entrepreneurship, innovation, and connecting people with the natural world. Tony will be supporting our Bull City Boomerang Bag program 🛒, as well as coordinating grants, community outreach, and volunteer engagement. 💪🏾

We want **you** to join us in fighting for environmental justice in Durham. Bull City Boomerang Bag - a reusable shopping bag initiative - will be hosting a community strategy meeting on July 20 at Sew Crafty. Register to attend through our Linktree.

Durham friends, it's very important to us that the Durham community is informed about the impracticability of recycling single-use plastic bags.

"As we've long suspected, a market doesn't really exist for recycling plastic film... So what should we do about it? We could push for improvements to recycling, but no matter how much companies want us to think recycling is the answer, for single-use plastic film (like shopping bags) it never has been and likely never will be. The better approach to plastic packaging is to just stop using it."

Would you please read the next few paragraphs of a June 2023 U.S. PIRG report to learn more?

"Amazon claims that much of its packaging is widely recyclable, either through curbside recycling programs or store drop-off. But is it actually as recyclable as the retail giant claims?

A group of U.S. PIRG volunteers decided to investigate -- and they found that the Amazon packaging they tried to recycle actually ended up in some surprising places. Here's what happened:

When you receive an Amazon package in the mail, it often arrives in a cardboard box filled with ***plastic air pillows or in a paper or plastic bubblewrap envelope.***

All of these (plastic packing material) items are marked with the "chasing arrows" recycling symbol and direct you to a website to learn more about how to recycle them. When you visit that website, you can plug in your zip code to find the closest store drop-off locations to recycle your Amazon packaging.

The PIRG volunteers in California were directed to Target, Sprouts and several other stores across the Los Angeles area, and upon visiting those stores, they did in fact find bins accepting plastic recycling.

Now, the question was: Where does the deposited plastic actually go?

To find out, the investigators put small electronic tracking devices in plastic Amazon bubblewrap envelopes and air pillows (which were labeled for store drop-off). They then dropped them in different plastic recycling drop bins across Los Angeles.

So where did the recycled packaging end up?

* Packaging dropped off at a Target in downtown L.A. ended up in a Sylmar landfill north of the city.
* Packaging dropped off at a Sprouts in Culver City, California, ended up in a plastics recycling center in Mexico, which has come under fire by Mexican environmental groups for supposed "greenwashing."
* Packaging dropped off at a Kohls in Northridge, California, ended up in the Antelope Valley landfill north of L.A.
* Packaging dropped off at a Winco in Norco, California, ended up in the Trex Valley Warehouse in Nevada, which is a self-described recycling center.
* Packaging dropped off at a Target in La Verne, California, ended up in a shipping container in the Port of Los Angeles.

And so on.

Of the 10 plastic items dropped off in recycling bins with an electronic tracker, four ended up in landfills, two ended up in a waste transfer center (meaning they're likely headed to a landfill), two went to out-of-state or out-of-country recycling centers, and two were last located at the Port of Los Angeles, headed to who knows where. ***None of them ended up in California recycling centers.***

This small-scale experiment suggests that the store drop-off system for recycling Amazon packaging is failing -- most likely because, as we've long suspected, a market doesn't really exist for recycling plastic film."

This Pride Month, we celebrate the efforts of q***r individuals in the climate movement. From Rachel Carson to Tori Tsui, the environmental movement has been and is constantly shaped by those who intertwine their LGBTQ+ and climate-forward identities.

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This Pride Month, we celebrate the efforts of q***r individuals in the climate movement. From Rachel Carson to Tori Tsui, the environmental movement has been and is constantly shaped by the tireless work of activists who intertwine their LGBTQ+ and climate-forward identities.

Defend our Health’s groundbreaking research shows what we already know: plastic is killing us. Read more at defendourhealth.org.

Calling all community members!! Join us for our Sip & Shop Soirée happening Wednesday, June 14 from 6 - 8 PM! 🍷 🛍 💚 Link on our LinkTree and story!

- Melanated Wine and Spirits will provide wine tastings, and bottles will also be available for purchase. 🍷
- Locally made Fillaree soap will be available for refills - so please bring empty bottles! 🚰
- ReCollective will be accepting wrapped plastic cutlery packs and eyeglasses to prevent them from ending up in landfills. 🍴
- Bull City Boomerang Bag will be accepting donations of used cotton t-shirts in sizes small-large. 👕
- Don't Waste Durham will have a raffle for a beautiful, donated art piece! 🖼

Furthermore, 10% of all store sales will be donated to Don't Waste Durham, courtesy of Casa Bella Market.

To ensure we are prepared for the event, please RSVP (and share with friends!) to let us know how many attendees to expect. Light refreshments will be provided, and we look forward to seeing you there and supporting local, sustainable companies!

There is more than enough food to go around. With the right distribution system, we could feed the world on the same amount of food we produce now – or even less.

The food we waste could end hunger How much food goes to waste and how we could use our abundance to feed everyone.

Join us at Casa Bella Market for a relaxing soirée in support of Don't Waste Durham🍷 Attendees can enjoy sipping and shopping while making a meaningful impact on the local community.

🍾 Melanated Wine will provide wine tastings and bottles for purchase.

🧼 Fillaree soap will be available for refills - bring empty bottles!

🍴👓 ReCollective will be accepting wrapped plastic cutlery packs and eyeglasses.

👚 Bull City Boomerang Bag will be taking donations of used cotton t-shirts

🖼 Don't Waste Durham will have a raffle for a beautiful, donated art piece!

Don’t Waste Durham founder and CEO recently shared answers to 18 questions from . They covered everything from eliminating single use plastic bags to community engagement and environmental health. Check out the article for more - tinyurl.com/18withcrystal

Don't Waste Durham welcomes our newest Board member, Ginell Rogers! Ginell brings a wealth of experience in initiatives that promote individuals obtaining self-sufficiency, fight poverty, and address environmental challenges. As a Certified Community Action Professional, she loves being of service to underserved and divested communities. We consider Ginell to be an outstanding community leader, and we know that she will only strengthen our organization!

🐂 ❤️ Don't Waste Durham's 🐂 ❤️ proposed single-use bag fee 🛒 is part of nationwide movement to slow the plastic pollution crisis and global climate change. Single-use bags are considered by the U.S. Plastic Pact one of the 11 "problematic and unnecessary materials" that must be eliminated. (1)

"While many state and local policies currently focus on managing plastic waste ***once it is generated***, it is clear that recycling alone will never be able to keep pace with the production of single-use plastics: The U.S. currently only recycles 5% of all plastic, and plastic production is expected to increase by over 30% in the next decade as the fossil fuel industry seeks to make up for lost sources of revenue." – Break Free From Plastic (BFFP)

To address the increasing and pervasive threat of plastic pollution, the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators created the "Zero Waste Policy Roadmap" (2) offers a thorough analysis of policy solutions so that decision-makers can account for the full life cycle of plastics and transform our waste system into a just, toxic-free, circular economy.

Thank you to our amazing allied organization Break Free From Plastic for this information.

(1) https://usplasticspact.org/problematic-materials/
(2)https://www.ncelenviro.org/app/uploads/2023/05/Zero-Waste-RoadmapFinal.pdf

New blog out now. TinyUrl.com/BagBlog2 🛄

🚨JOB ANNOUNCEMENT! 🚨Want to work for a Durham circular economy organization? Don’t Waste Durham is hiring a Program Officer to support our impactful programs! If you are interested in this position, click the “Get Involved” page of our website or shoot us an email. Can’t wait to see your applications!

Don't Waste Durham is a proud signatory of the Plastic Free Parks' letter to U.S. Department of the Interior's Secretary Deb Haaland.

👏🏽 We commend Secretary Haaland for issuing Order No. 3407, which will phase out the procurement, sale, and distribution of single-use plastic products and packaging across all DOI-managed lands by 2032.

The letter asks Secretary Haaland to taking following FURTHER ACTIONS in the 🌲 National Park Service (NPS) 🌲:

✔️ Immediately discontinue the purchase of polystyrene products.

✔️ Strongly support alternatives to single-use plastics and emphasize reusable systems rather than single-use disposable items.

✔️ Switch from single-use utensils to low-cost, durable reusable utensils.

✔️ Launch a zero-waste strategy for NPS offices and events using the Zero Waste Roadmap by the National Park Conservation Association.

✔️ Include provisions in all new concession contracts prohibiting the use of single-use foodware-related products in park operations, including employee housing and dining.

✔️ Prohibit greenwashing. Since less than 6% of disposed U.S. plastics is recycled and most new plastics can only be recycled one or two times — the concept of a “plastics circular economy” should not be considered a strategy.

✔️ Invest substantially in park drinking water refill stations. Park websites and signage should include information on water availability and status of water safety (not just when it is unsafe). Ensure that all existing refill stations and water fountains have continued access to potable water. NPS should use infrastructure funding and recycling grant funding to install and repair water refill stations.

✔️ Incorporate employee and visitor education in support of single-use plastics reduction in parks, availability of water refill stations such as inclusion on park maps and the NPS website, and awareness of product alternatives.

✔️ Develop a robust timeline for implementation that incentivizes concessioners to “beat” the 10 year phase-out.

✔️ Partner with sustainability leaders in the 23 parks that phased out plastic water bottles (implementing the 2011 NPS Director’s Policy Memo (PM) 11-03).

Don't Waste Durham hanging out with First Presbyterian Church of Durham today to celebrate Creation Care and talk about preventing plastic pollution in Durham. Here are Pastor Douglas and Cris Rivera from First Pres!

Come with us on the journey of a plastic bag - now on our Linktree.

Don’t Waste Durham is proud to be a partner of American Underground. The Startup Hub of the South is investing in climate solutions, starting by piloting wasteless snacks in their coworking space! And let us tell you, sustainability is delicious 😋 Check out another collaboration with AU at our sip and swap clothing exchange tomorrow! We’ll drink to that 🥂

Don't Waste Durham leads the Durham community in prevention of single-use disposable packaging. We are also global and national thought leaders:

✅ Founder & CEO Crystal Dreisbach was the first speaker at the big press event on Friday in Washington DC, together with the White House, for their announcement that they're prioritizing reuse as an immediately-implementable solution to the global climate crisis. Her remarks start at 45:05: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se6SOtt_lxE Many thanks to , .org, and for organizing!

✅ Don't Waste Durham is a new member organization of Together we demand reductions in single-use plastics and to advocate for lasting solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. 💪

✅ Don't Waste Durham has submitted edits to The Federal Trade Commission's Green Guides for the Use of Environmental Claims. The Commission’s Green Guides help marketers avoid making environmental marketing claims that are unfair or deceptive under Section 5 of the FTC Act. 🌎 ⚖️

Our awesome friend Sara's new south Durham shop casabellamarket provides >> FREE reusable cutlery lending

Free community silverware library at Casa Bella is launching in May!

​Casa Bella is helping Durham meet the need for re-usable items for group events by launching a free silverware library.

Borrow real forks, knives and spoons for your next event. Thanks to our amazing neighbor who is generously allowing us to use their commercial dishwasher to wash and sanitize the silverware.

This will be a free service launching the first week in May.

Stay tuned for more details or send a DM for more info.

If you have any silverware you want to donate to the library please let us know.

Lets keep disposable silverware out of the landfill.

Don't Waste Durham creates solutions that prevent trash. Check out some of what we do every day! Changing hearts and minds takes patience and time. We never give up! Until then, our programs need your support. PLEASE DONATE at www.dontwastedurham.org! ❤️

Did you know? Durham contracts for disposal of all of our to a 96 miles away in Sampson County, NC. Sampson County is a low-wealth and Tier 1 (distressed) community. The landfill is located in the town of Snow Hill, a historically Black community, where many of its residents oppose the landfill.

Last month in Sampson County, residents asked Gov. Cooper for protection from pollution. Larry Sutton, president of the Sampson County NAACP...asked for a moment of silence for people who have died from health effects believed to be caused by the county’s . Read more: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article273597335.html

Trash is a social justice issue, and Don't Waste Durham works hard to create solutions that prevent trash. We hope that City and County leaders recognize that it is within their authority to regulate unnecessary trash – which is created in our community and then whose burdens are transferred to less fortunate communities.

Don't Waste Durham 💚s waste audits! We have been providing waste audit services for corporations, schools, and other institutions.

Why? First, it helps us all recognize that every single entity in our community – from homes to workplaces to places of learning – generates trash. It's reality! And secondly, waste audits generate powerful, actionable data for change! We categorize items in trash and recycling receptacles and analyze for opportunities. We then make recommendations on what companies and schools can do to cut their trash and improve their recycling, and we give them the resources to get it done.

Check out some photos from some recent audits! 💚

Need some good news for your Monday morning? Here are some HUGE ANNOUNCEMENTS MADE BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!

The White House, EPA, and National Park Service will now be incorporating circular economy and reuse in their national strategies.

A few highlights to share, reported by Upstream:

✒️ President Biden Signs Executive Order to Revitalize Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All -- "The White House is announcing a new Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) on Plastic Pollution and a Circular Economy. The IPC will coordinate federal efforts on plastic pollution, prioritizing public health, economic development, and equity to ensure that the benefits of acting on plastic pollution – including jobs, minimized exposure to harmful chemicals, and clean communities – are available to all."

🌎 EPA Releases Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution -- includes a commitment to "develop or expand capacity to maximize the reuse of materials," among many other plugs for reuse. *EPA is accepting feedback on the plan and will host a webinar overview May 11.

🌲 National Parks Service Releases 2023 Green Parks Plan -- includes a commitment to "phase out single-use plastic products by the end of 2032."

We'd especially like to highlight this part of it:

"Taking new steps to combat plastic pollution in communities. The Biden-Harris Administration recognizes that the plastic pollution crisis is an environmental justice issue, with disadvantaged communities in the U.S. and globally bearing social, economic, and public health burdens across the entire lifecycle of plastics...The White House is also announcing a new Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) on Plastic Pollution and a Circular Economy. The IPC will coordinate federal efforts on plastic pollution, prioritizing public health, economic development, and equity to ensure that the benefits of acting on plastic pollution – including jobs, minimized exposure to harmful chemicals, and clean communities – are available to all."

🐂❤ Don't Waste Durham's mission is to create solutions that prevent trash. ❤🐂

Biden signs executive order on 'environmental justice' U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order directing every single federal agency to work toward "environmental justice for all" and improve the lives of communities hit hardest by toxic pollution and climate change.

Reuse is the future, and it’s what the world needs.

Here's how we need to be thinking about this:

💪💪🏾 Reuse is an economic movement. Reuse creates living-wage green jobs. It builds workforce, grows wealth, and creates resilience in communities. Reuse eliminates our dependence on global supply chain, because it circulates resources locally.

⚖ 📢 Reuse is a social justice movement. Disposable systems exploit and pollute, causing harm to disadvantaged communities, BIPOC populations, and women. Reuse systems reduce negative health outcomes, because they do not contain toxins inherent in single-use packaging which enter landfills, waterways, streets, the food we eat, our drinking water, oceans, and air we breath.

🌎 Reuse systems mean human and ecosystem survival. They reduce carbon emissions by 98% compared to using disposables, and they significantly conserve fossil fuels, water, and electricity.

🥰 Reuse systems add more love to communities.

Visit our new page, "Taking Reuse to Scale" for more on all of this!
https://www.dontwastedurham.org/reuse-systems-at-scale

❤️🐂 Don't Waste Durham is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create solutions that prevent trash. ❤️🐂

Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes. Yet, they live in our ecosystems and landfills for 1,000 years. Durham is closer than ever to passing a single-use plastic bag fee; learn what you can do to make it happen 🌎