Page 22 - Sonoma County Gazette November 2018

By Jane Rogan
With so many places to put our environmental fix-it
Recology, our waste management contractor in Sonoma County, is a County-wide leader in bringing not only the conversation but the mechanism and organization to make significant progress in the race to divert waste and reduce our greenhouse emissions. It is no small task to improve and expand the composting programs we now have in Sonoma County. While Sonoma County may be one of the more environmentally educated and active populations, the fact is most residents and businesses have only just begun to compost their food scraps. Even still, many restaurants and commercial properties have not started
energy, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. While we are literally experiencing the discouraging facts about global warming, the encouraging news is important progress
is being made - particularly in greenhouse gas emission reduction. The goal of achieving zero waste in California will produce major benefits beside the obvious one of simply reducing waste. This work has brought together the natural inter-relationships among waste management, resource recovery and recycling. The sweet spot in that Venn diagram is the humble practice of composting.
Achieving Soil Health
Farmers have long been
fertilizing and amending
soil to enhance their
crops. With the increased
organization and outreach
of the environmental
movement, the benefits of
composting have elevated
its importance in the
interest of healing our
ailing environment. Soil
health in food production
and landscaping is
enhanced as a benefit of
compost. According to
local soil scientist and
long- time environmental
activist, Will Bakx, we are
past the point of exploring
and need to execute on our knowledge. Bakx, with his business partner, Alan Siegle, have founded Renewable Sonoma, an organization dedicated to processing organic materials in Sonoma County and targeted at achieving the County’s goal of 80% diversion, on a path to zero waste. Diversion in this sense means diverting organics resources from the landfill and incorporating it an environmentally sound composting operation.
Currently, Renewable Sonoma is negotiating a contract with The Sonoma County Waste Management Agency
( SCWMA ) to permit, build and operate the future municipal organics processing and composting facility in Sonoma County. The proposed state of the art renewable energy and composting facility would be co-located to the Laguna Treatment Plant on Llano Road, in Santa Rosa.
Cultural Shift
Soil health on an industrial scale goes far beyond our early, simple notions of saving food scraps to amend our soil; although, individual consumer composting at the green can level is still critical. This is nothing less than
a cultural shift. For us to achieve the County and State’s diversion goals we are competing against the clock and there is a lot to teach and learn. Fortunately for Sonoma County, Zero Waste is an active program of agencies and volunteers.
22 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 11/18
to divert their organic materials to compost collection yet. Never fear, the Recology
compost facilities instead of the landfill.”
Renewable Sonoma will bring industrial composting
to Sonoma County once again on a larger scale. “Our farmers need more materials to amend their soil, much of which has been depleted by the fires last year,” Will Bakx explained. “With the fire our top soils were lost; organic matter burned away and important topsoil was removed.”
Composting is the most sustainable way to recycle organic material. It returns nutrients to the soil using organic materials that historically have been thrown away and landfilled only to produce methane. Here in Sonoma County we are fortunate to have a collaboration of scientists, forward-thinking farmers and waste management specialists, supported by County and
State activists who are in the starting gates to bring a sophisticated composting facility to Sonoma County and use it wisely to create healthy soils and move carbon from the air into the soil.
For more information, please go to the links
• http://www.renewablesonoma.com/
• https://www.marincarbonproject.org/
• http://recyclenow.org/agency/reports.asp
• https://www.recology.com/recology-sonoma-marin/
provided below:
Waste Zero Team is on it – they have set up nearly 200 commercial accounts with compost service in Sonoma County in just nine months of operation. Recology Waste Zero Manager,
Celia Furber, knows her team’s job to educate the communities Recology serves is imperative to reaching diversion levels
in the 80% range, like San Francisco. Furber says, “One of the most rewarding parts of the job is seeing
the results of our efforts in the tonnages – the steady increase in tons going to the
sorting-guides-resources/
• https://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/ZeroWaste/