Mr. Mayor City Council Members and Staff,

Thank you all for your continued support of our Green Idea House Project. We look forward to giving you all a progress update during the October 11th City Council meeting.

As you know, the Green Idea House has managed to divert 97.5% of the demo waste from the landfill. As we moved forward with the project we found that there was still excess scrap wood, sand and concrete for which we could not find a home. I was told that if I used a Consolidated bin, that material would end up in the landfill. Not wanting to to erode our diversion rate, I called Lisa Ryder Moore, diva of all things recycled and Hermosa Beach Green Task Force Member for advice.

Lisa let me know that Waste Management had bins available that guaranteed a diversion rate of 85%. She then very kindly coordinated a donation of two bins for our project – one for sand and concrete and another for the scrap wood. As a result of Lisa’s efforts and our ability to sort the materials effectively, a whopping 16.55 tons of wood, sand and concrete were recycled at the diversion rate of 100%! The scrap wood was ground down to ¼” then sold to Kellogg Garden Products to make compost and soil amendments. Concrete and sand was shipped to several locations where they grind and sell it as a road base.

That shows what a coordinated effort can do. We hope you will adopt the Green Task Force’s recommendations to open the bidding process to allow for waste reduction programs that are more competitive and help the City’s strapped budget. As you can see from the example above, these waste reduction programs also spur the economy by making useful products out of trash. The fact that this allows for a dramatic increase in our landfill diversion as a city is an added bonus.

Respectfully,

Robert and Monica Fortunato

www.GreenIdeaHouse.com