Green Star E-News: CORRECTION: Earth Day Green Beer, Hazardous Waste Assistance, Emerald Alaska

Green Star offers benefits to its members beyond just energy savings and waste reduction. Many local businesses offer product and service discounts to Green Star members.

Visit our Member Benefits page to learn more.

SHINING STARS

Welcome to our newest enrollees. Green Star looks forward to working with these organizations to help them become Green Star Award certified!

City of Seward Marine Industrial Center
Humpy's Great Alaskan Alehouse
Kaleidoscape Play Studio

Thank you to Nora Gecan, DESIGN+, for the graphics donation to Green Star. See her work at

http://noragecan.carbonmade.com.

EVENTS & REMINDERS

Find events on Green Star's web calendar.

Reminder to Green Star Members:

Green Star facilitates a network of member benefits offered by members to members. Consider offering fellow Green Star members discounts on your goods and services. Visit Member Discounts for more information about what's currently available. Contact Green Star if you'd like to be included on this list.

Note:

The Alaska Manufacturing Extension Partnership (AMEP) Scholarship Program described in our March newsletter is no longer active. AMEP apologizes for any inconvenience.

Interior Alaska Green Star Seeks Director

Interior Alaska Green Star is hiring for the position of Executive Director. The Executive Director is responsible for raising funds, managing projects, volunteer management and community relationships. IAGS is looking for someone who has strong fundraising experience, is able to work independently, and has a passion for making a difference in the community. This is a 20-30 hour per week position located in Fairbanks. Please send a resume and writing sample to info@iagreenstar.org. Position open until filled. See full job description.

Business of Clean Energy in Alaska -- May 2-3

Registration is now open for the 5th annual Business of Clean Energy in Alaska conference at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center. Join leaders and clean energy experts from across the globe for two interactive days of workshops, discussions, and exhibits on the growing economic opportunities related to renewable energy and energy efficiency in Alaska. Visit www.BCEAconference.com for more information.

Taproot Public House's 3rd Annual Spenard Beer & Mead Social -- April 13

Get tickets now for this over-the-top event full of beer, mead, spirits, prizes, entertainment, and stuff to bid on. It's like a trade show for beer, mead, and spirits! There's a silent auction to benefit Green Star, awards for best brew and best booth, free food, free admission to the evening's performance (Melissa Mitchell & Friends), and more.

Green Star benefits from the proceeds from the Silent Auction at the Social. These funds are critical in our pursuit of providing technical assistance to Alaskan businesses and fellow nonprofits in pollution prevention, energy efficiency, waste reduction, and improved air quality with an eye on the bottom line. We attend more than 100 outreach opportunities every year around Alaska and provide educational information and outreach.

Visit Taproot for details and tickets.

Go Green
Go Growler
for Earth Day -- April 22

Come out to Humpy's for a Monday night celebration with green beer!
Starting at 8pm on Earth Day, buy a green Kolsch beer crafted by Midnight Sun Brewing Company and 10% will go to support Green Star. For every beer you buy, you'll also be entered to win fun and valuable prizes including Midnight Sun growlers, pint glasses, hoodies, and more. Enjoy live music by Jared Woods and Seth Boyer! Green Star will be there with information and giveaways. And bike valet will be available so consider going even greener by biking to the event!

Visit Kaleidascape Play Studio for Earth Day art projects all month long.

Spenard Farmers Market -- May 18

The Spenard Farmers Market is every Saturday from May 18 through September 28 from 9am to 2pm at 26th and Spenard (in the Chilkoot's parking lot). Green Star helps make the market a Green Event with recycling bins and information.

Anchorage to Zero Waste Guide
6.1 A to Z cover

Produced twice a year by the Municipality of Anchorage's Solid Waste Services, the A to Z Guide is your definitive source for recycling and zero waste information in Anchorage.

The spring/summer issue is now available and includes information about glass recycling, animals and zero waste, new lighting technologies projects in Anchorage, the landfill gas recovery project, organics management, and updated recycling options.

Find the Spring/Summer A to Z Guide and other archived issues at Solid Waste Services' Recycling page.

ALASKA MATERIALS EXCHANGE -- GREEN SHOPPING AT ITS FINEST

The Alaska Materials Exchange (or AME) offers Alaska businesses a way to keep usable materials in the system so they don't end up in the trash.

Just post your used items on the exchange or look there for items you need before going shopping. At any given time, you can find office furniture and supplies, chemicals, pallets, construction materials, cleaning supplies, and more.

It's a great way for nonprofits and small businesses to stretch their budgets. It's also allowed companies in similar lines of business to share product inexpensively that one may need when another no longer does.

In the past, AME has helped facilitate several million dollars worth of exchanges, keeping materials out of landfills across the state. Help us continue this valuable service. We challenge each and every Green Star member to post an item on the exchange that you are trying to get rid of. Then check back to see what's there that you could use!

Visit AME for more information.

GREEN STAR PARTNERS WITH
EPA TO ASSIST REPAIR SHOPS

epa logo

Green Star has been working with EPA Region 10 to disseminate information to Alaska auto and aircraft repair shops about the management of used oil and hazardous waste.

Used oil and hazardous waste are regulated in Alaska by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who administers the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). RCRA gives EPA the authority to control hazardous waste from "cradle-to-grave." This includes generation, transportation, treatment, storage, recycling, and disposal of hazardous waste.

Green Star has been assisting EPA in determining the best avenues to reach auto and aircraft repair shops with important information about managing hazardous waste, not only for regulatory purposes but to protect the safety of employees, the general public, and the environment. Green Star researched and recruited critical stakeholders, such as Emerald Alaska and the Alaska Air Carriers Association, to assist in updating and disseminating the RCRA Used Oil and Hazardous Waste Management for Auto and Aircraft Repair Shops in Alaska manual.

In the past two months Green Star also hosted two technical assistance webinars, attended by more than 40 people. Attendees represented a diverse cross section of Alaskan businesses and organizations: municipal, state, and federal government agencies; air carriers; school maintenance shops; universities; tribal entities; auto repair shops; marine/harbor facilities; environmental firms; and utilities.

HHW manual cover This month, the guide will be mailed to 400 auto and aircraft repair shops statewide.

To download the Used Oil and Hazardous Waste Management Guide for Auto and Aircraft Repair Shops in Alaska, as well as the webinars presented in February and March, visit

www.epa.gov/region10/engine_repair_waste.html.

EMERALD ALASKA - A DECADE OF GREEN

Emerald Services, Inc. is a family-owned 400-employee company with roots in the waste management business dating back to 1938. Emerald assists businesses and communities with waste reduction, recycling, and disposal efforts. Emerald offers green solutions including one-stop recycling and environmental services throughout the Northwest.

Emerald specializes in recycling, management, clean-up, processing, and disposal of non-hazardous and hazardous organic liquids and petroleum wastes for industrial, marine, automotive, and government clients. In addition, Emerald recycles more than 15 million gallons of waste oil, coolants, and solvents annually.

Emerald employee, Cameron Flood,
samples used oil from a liquid tote.

Emerald Alaska operates and manages facilities and services in Alaskan communities including Anchorage, Eagle River, Fairbanks, Palmer, Kenai, and Deadhorse. In Anchorage and Eagle River, Emerald currently holds the Municipal contract for managing and safely disposing of household hazardous wastes collected from residents and small businesses at the Anchorage Regional Landfill and Central Transfer Station.

Emerald Alaska earned its Green Star Award certification in May 2003 and has been an active member for the past ten years. The company is currently partnering with Green Star to promote and provide technical assistance for auto and aircraft repair shops statewide regarding compliance with Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) used oil and hazardous waste regulations. Emerald staff has been instrumental in delivering RCRA training manuals to dozens of businesses in Anchorage, Dutch Harbor, Kenai, Fairbanks, Ketchikan, and Juneau.

To learn more about Emerald Services, Inc., visit www.emeraldnw.com.

CORRECTED:
Clean, empty drums are loaded to go to a recycler.

WASTE REDUCTION FOR HOSPITALS

Cut the wrap: How to reduce hospital waste and emissions

By Laura Babcock, A.J. Van den Berghe, Keir Stiegler & Jason Hill

Published March 28, 2013, at GreenBiz.com as part of P2 Pathways: Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange

On average, Saint Marys Hospital at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., produces six compactor loads of waste per day, all of which have to be hauled to an incineration facility for disposal. "This is a huge volume of material being generated across the facility, much of it as a single-use waste stream from our sterilization processes," says Kevin Hovde, operations manager of hospital surgical services.

It's not alone: Sterilization wrap makes up as much as 20 percent of the surgical services waste stream and 5 percent of the total waste stream in some medium to large hospitals, according to a University of Minnesota Medical Center fact sheet. Health care facilities often use sterilization wrap -- also called disposable surgical wrap or blue wrap -- to wrap surgical instruments during sterilization, a critical procedure to help minimize patient infections during surgery. The disposable sheets made of nonwoven polypropylene, an inert polymer derived from petrochemicals, allow the sterilant -- usually steam -- to penetrate and st erilize the instruments. That steam, in turn, causes structural changes to the wrap that prevent the entry of microbes and contamination after sterilization, while the instruments are being stored.