CITY OF RENTON WASHINGTON

Claudia and Edwin Gillispie really know how to prevent waste. From saving leftover communion crackers for backyard birds to building tables from salvaged wood, this Renton Highlands couple makes waste prevention a daily, creative experience. As children of the Depression, they learned not to waste when they were young. In their retirement, they have continued to support community waste prevention by volunteering at Renton’s recycling collection events. For over ten years, they helped staff the plastics station, where they once encountered a resident with two plastic chairs that could not be accepted at the event. Instead of telling the owner to take them for disposal elsewhere, Claudia and Edwin asked to take the chairs home. 

The two white chairs are now a fixture of their backyard, where they face a homemade fountain made out of repurposed and salvaged materials.

Here are more ways Claudia and Edwin prevent waste:

• Use their wood chipper to turn downed branches into mulch
• Leave grass clippings on the lawn
• Compost their produce scraps in a backyard composter

We are honored to name Claudia and Edwin Renton’s first Waste Prevention Leaders, in recognition of their wholehearted efforts at preventing waste in our community.

Students have been lining up to visit Lindbergh High’s newest feature: a water bottle refill station. It was installed November 2018 after months of work by the school’s Environmental Club. Despite fundraising difficulties and installation delays, the refill station is now delivering water and changing behavior. Students are buying fewer bottled drinks from school vending machines and even talking about the refill station in conversation. Club treasurer Ithalia Muñoz described how “people talk about it…like ‘Let’s go get water here,’… which is cool ‘cause I’ve seen a line up to get water.”

Not all club members were always concerned with the environment. Ithalia’s interest in conservation blossomed during a two-week trip in the Cascades with the YMCA Earth Service Corps last summer: “That’s when it really hit me, like I gotta start doing stuff because if I don’t who is, so that really inspired me.” Thalia used to take long showers and let the water run when doing the dishes, but now she teaches her little brother, who is on Tiffany Park Elementary’s Green Team, what to do.

Club vice-president Sam Hipol didn’t know much about waste prevention or energy conservation until club president Sharon Chen prompted him to join the club. After completing a community service project weeding invasive plants, his interest grew: “We were weeding and I thought ‘This is pretty fun,’ and the next day I see that the courtyard looks nicer, and I thought, ‘This is a club that I want to be a part of.’ Now I’m learning more about the projects that we can accomplish and integrate, like…energy conservation, and [we] could implement timed electronics and sensors to save energy.”

For her part, club president Sharon Chen enjoys being a source of conservation knowledge for friends and family: “I think it’s interesting that some people, people at school and people at home, they start asking me whether something goes in the recycling bin or the garbage bin, and when they ask me and I actually know [I think] ‘Wow, I actually know stuff.’” 

Up next for LHS’ Environmental Club is a move to the next level of King County’s Green Schools Program. To do so, club members will work on energy conservation projects and start food waste recycling at the school. Members also want to raise money to purchase two more bottle refill stations so that there is one on each school floor. In recognition of their work to prevent waste in our community, we are delighted to name Environmental Club members Sharon Chen, David Xu, Sam Hipol, and Ithalia Muñoz as Waste Prevention Leaders.

Barbara Segal wants to make waste prevention normal. To do so, she has started a Facebook campaign where community members can showcase what they are doing to prevent waste and offer tips to others. So far, the page has 102 members, and anyone can join at facebook.com/groups/everydayconservationists.

This social media campaign is just part of Barbara’s work with community engagement around waste prevention. She also volunteered at the Renton Farmer’s Market, where she sewed T-shirts into reusable shopping bags for market goers, and reached out to local businesses to distribute surveys and posters about shopping bags. Barbara also did other online work to prevent waste, such as using her own Facebook page to generate conversations about waste prevention and creating an animated video about plastic bag use.

But Barbara also struggles with reducing waste, especially the packaging from her favorite snack—granola bars. The wrapping around them generates garbage, as do the bags that hold some of the salty snacks she likes. While Barbara is interested in making her own kale chips to alleviate some of this waste, she recognizes the difficulty of preventing food packaging waste.

We would like to thank Barbara, our newest Waste Prevention Leader, for her work at preventing waste in Renton—hip hip hurray!

Chris and Jan Devey are Stop & Swap heroes. At last year’s event—their first ever—Chris and Jan helped a family that had recently moved to Renton to furnish their empty apartments. Noticing that Chris had a truck, someone asked him if he could help transport the furniture his family had collected at the event. Chris and Jan agreed, and they ended up moving three to four full truckloads. “I was overwhelmed,” said Chris. “The family didn’t have anything. The apartment was empty. They had zero.” Chris even considered going home to get his Dodge Ram to help carry even more. By the end of the day, Chris and Jan had essentially furnished the family’s two apartments, all with items donated at Stop & Swap.

We are humbled by Chris and Jan’s selflessness in supporting new members of our community, and we are honored to name Chris and Jan Renton’s newest Waste Prevention Leaders. 

On November 20, seven students representing Ms. Gross’s Math Class at McKnight Middle School shared with city council their projects on making a positive environmental impact.  Through research, data collection, and mathematical calculation, students explored topics such as composting, plastic waste, plant-based eating, reducing garbage, and conserving water using soil moisture meters. Projects culminated in a presentation to an expert panel.

When students asked how the City might support reducing environmental impact, councilmembers applauded students’ interest and invited them to speak at a future council meeting to jumpstart policy conversations. Councilmembers also expressed the importance of young people taking an active role in the policy-making process and the impact it could have not only in Renton but also in the State Legislature. 

We thank Ms. Gross and her math students for their efforts in preventing waste and look forward to seeing them at a council meeting.

When Scott Kreidermacher noticed a surplus of unharvested produce around his neighborhood, he began collecting it, a process known as gleaning. After connecting with other Sustainable Renton volunteers and local gleaning organizations, he realized how much edible food was going to waste. Soon he was holding pop-ups throughout Renton, distributing freshly gleaned produce to those in need.

Today, Scott and a team of volunteers manage Sustainable Renton’s free grocery store in downtown Renton. In addition to food, the store offers donated clothing, books, toiletries, and household goods. The team’s efforts don’t stop there; Scott personally delivers what remains after store hours to homeless camps. Nothing goes to waste. 

Looking ahead, Sustainable Renton aspires for a more permanent location of their own with greater refrigeration capacity, space to offer preservation classes, and maybe one day, a gleaning cafe. For now, the free grocery store is at 915 S 3^rd St on Mondays from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. To learn more or to volunteer, email [email protected].

We are honored to recognize Scott Kreidermacher and Sustainable Renton's dedicated volunteers as Waste Prevention Leaders for their commitment to connecting those in need with food that otherwise would have been wasted.