Last night I attended the quarterly membership meeting of the ODA. The theme was Olympia Goes Green in celebration of Earth Day. It was yet another zero waste event (something we're getting pretty good at downtown) and had quite a decent turnout. Several businesses were highlighted, including 510 Interiors, Eco-Lux, Radiance, Creative Office Supply and Casual Tee. 510 has made quite a name for themselves already, being honored at the Economic Development Coucil's annual business awards luncheon. Eco-Lux is on Washington St. had sells not only amazing organic body care products but also fantastic chocolate. Creative Office is a long-time downtown business and Casual Tee provides a highly needed service in a town like ours that prints more shirts per capita than we really need--environmentally (and economically!) friendly screen printing.

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Joe Hyer stepped in for the Le May representative (who was unfortunately too ill to attend) to talk about alternatives in waste disposal. Councilman Hyer spoke about Zero Waste and the new programs from both the City and LeMay. Turns out that a while ago, the City started talking to LeMay about composting and better recycling options for customers. After pushing and not getting anywhere, our quite exceptional Public Works dept. got on the Zero Waste boat and started crafting their own program. And what happened? LeMay stepped it up, and now we have CHOICE for reducing our waste streams. (On occasion competition does actually work).

There are some similarities in the programs, and I'm still learning so I probably won't capture it all. With either program, someone will come out to your business and look at your waste stream. They'll tell you what can be recycled, what an be composted and what really, actually, is trash. With LeMay's program, the recycling receptacle they determine you need will be charged to your account as the difference between the dumpster you already use and the trash can you'll need once you start recycling. So really, the cost impact is neutralized. Alpine Experience has cut their trash by at least 50% and they're still going.

As a restaurant owner, the city's works a little better for me. We have tremendous amount of organics, some cardboard and glass and plastic but very little actual trash. Thanks to the leaps and bounds in technology, all those organics (including bones!!) can be captured and taken to Silver Springs in Tenino. 60 days later, those scraps are being sold as compost. 60 days! We're working with the City to get our staff trained and the receptacles set up. As of yet, the only other business doing so is Storman's (Ralphs & Bayview).

Finally, also in attendance was John Keeffe, also City of Olympia, who is coordinating the newly received GTEC (Growth and Transportation Efficiency Centers) grant from DOT. Basically, it is $300,000 to develop ways for people to stop driving downtown. The grant is for communities wanting to improve transportation efficiency in order to meet targets for growth and economic development. More simply, getting people out of cars and onto/into other transportation modes when they come downtown. Working with businesses I think is imperative as people who work downtown have more consistent schedules that are easier to work into alternatives. The project is just getting going and is mostly focused on spreading the word. I find this project in particular to be an amazing opportunity for Olympia's green businesses to lead.