Join us for Circular Arizona’s 2024 Annual Meeting! Formerly the Arizona Recycling Coalition, members meet once a year to review the year’s accomplishments and progress, announce grants, scholarships, and award winners, and elect incoming board members.

The annual meeting includes lunch and a keynote presentaiton.

Keynote speakers

Join us for an exciting keynote presentation with Tyler Eglen from Arizona State University’s (ASU) Rob and Melani Walton Solutions Service (RMWSSS) and Beth Forsberg from Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona (GCNA) as they discuss the world’s first circular plastics microfactory for repurposing waste plastics!

RMWSSS has been prototyping circular solutions for local plastic on ASU’s campus and has since partnered with GCNA to scale this project for the greater Arizona community. This circular plastics microfactory promises to revolutionize the plastics industry and contribute significantly to equitable economic development in the Valley through circular manufacturing practices. The project is funded by the City of Phoenix, led by ASU, and in partnership with GCNA and Hustle PHX.

Registration is free for members and $25 for nonmember guests. Select your membership and register below.

FROM THE RECYCLING PARTNERSHIP

Attendees will get a dive into our research on the power of the right messaging, targeted to the right audience, in driving positive recycling behaviors, and how you can incorporate the learnings into your program’s education and outreach.  You’ll learn: 

• Real-life recycling experiences of single-family households in the U.S., including barriers, what drives participation, and how segments differ 

• Channels where households expect to receive recycling information, and what they want from those communications 

• Impact of messaging on real-world recycling outcomes (and you might be amazed at how the same recycling information presented with different motivational messaging had such significant variation in outcomes!) 

Hosted by Louise Bruce, Managing Director of The Recycling Partnership's Center for Sustainable Behavior & Impact, with panelists:  

• Elizabeth Schussler, Senior Director of Social Change, Behavior, and Impact, The Recycling Partnership 

• Michelle Metzler, Director of Community Programs, The Recycling Partnership 

• Joseph Sherlock, Principal Behavioral Scientist, Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University

• Lisa Ruggero, Assistant Director of Programs, Syracuse University Center for Sustainability Community Solutions

• Lindsay Eberhart, Outreach Program Coordinator, Syracuse University Center for Sustainability Community Solutions

Let's ignite the power of motivational messaging in driving positive recycling behaviors!

Register today and join us next Wednesday, Sept. 20th at 10 a.m. for Upstream’s next installment of Indisposable Live.

What is the importance of reuse in Deposit Return Systems (DRS, e.g. Bottle Bills), and how can DRS policies incorporate the latest thinking on reuse solutions, funding, and incentives?

We’ll learn more and examine the distinct ways that California, Maine, and Oregon have begun to incorporate reuse/refill into their bottle bills. Special guest panelists include Susan Collins, President of the Container Recycling Institute; Sarah Nichols, Sustainable Maine Director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine; and Peter Spendelow, Natural Resource Specialist at Oregon Dept of Environmental Quality.

Join us for this one hour webinar to learn about the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants, a new resource - Achieving Zero Food Waste: A State Policy Toolkit, and how you can include food waste reduction in climate action plans.

The EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants funded by the Inflation Reduction Act provide support for states and metro-areas to reduce climate pollution, of which methane from wasted food is a major contributor.

The State Policy Toolkit (https://zerofoodwastecoalition.org/state-toolkit/) contains a range of tried and tested policy opportunities that states can use to prevent food waste and keep food waste out of landfills and incinerators.

By including food waste in your climate action plan utilizing some of the suggestions in the toolkit you can potentially leverage grant funding.

The webinar is hosted by EPA, West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum, and Zero Food Waste Coalition.

Click here to register.

The Valley of the Sun Deconstruction/Reuse Work Group (VOSWG) is pleased to invite you to our upcoming meeting: Historic Preservation and the Deconstruction Movement! Register at https://tinyurl.com/VOSWG-RETHOS.

Hear from Rethos, a Minnesota-based historic preservation non-profit working nationally. Learn about the intersection of deconstruction, adaptive reuse, and built environment preservation through real estate, policy, and education programming.

• Executive Director Dr. Heidi Swank will examine the evolution of Rethos as a 40-year-old preservation non-profit that has adapted to champion sustainability in the field.

• Education Manager Emily Noyes will discuss the future of Rethos' strategic programming in deconstruction certification and material reuse.

Presenters:

• Heidi Swank - Heidi moved to Minnesota in 2021 to take the reins at Rethos. She came from Las Vegas, where she had started Nevada's first statewide historic preservation nonprofit and served in the Nevada Assembly for four terms. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Northwestern University.

• Emily Noyes - Emily joined Rethos in 2023 after working in college access programming and administration. She holds a M.S. in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in History from Macalester College.

VOSWG welcomes participants regardless of geographic location and meets regularly to learn about Deconstruction/Reuse progress, plans & goals as models for local consideration & implementation. Participants may include municipalities, non-profits, or for-profit businesses.

URL: https://tinyurl.com/VOSWG-LinkedIn-Group

Group meetings are hosted by Stardust, providing deconstruction services and quality reclaimed materials for reuse for over 25 years.

URL: https://stardustbuilding.org/

The Valley of the Sun Deconstruction/Reuse Work Group (VOSWG) is pleased to invite you to join our upcoming meeting:

ADVANCING BUILDING MATERIAL REUSE – THE POWER OF DATA

Monday, April 10, 2023, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. MST

Register for free: https://tinyurl.com/VOSWG-SAN-ANTONIO-DATA

In 2020, the San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation commissioned a study to analyze the potential impact of a proposed deconstruction ordinance by measuring the economic and environmental cost of demolition. Using 10 years of demolition data, the study calculated the volume and value of materials that could have been diverted from landfills and the retail impact of increased material supply.

This session will review policies, tools, and recommendations from the study that contributed to San Antonio’s 2022 adoption of a deconstruction ordinance and will discuss the types of localized data that can help further your community’s reuse goals.

Panelists:

• Stephanie Phillips, Deconstruction & Circular Economy Program Manager at City of San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation

• Katlyn Cotton, Director of Marketing and Design at PlaceEconomics

• Alyssa Frystak, Director of Research and Data Analytics, at PlaceEconomics

Stephanie Phillips, AICP, is an urban planner and policymaker working at the intersection of heritage conservation and the circular economy. PlaceEconomics is a private sector firm with over thirty years of experience in the thorough and robust analysis of the economic impacts of historic preservation.