Clean Agency

Recently, Dr. Bob Vos and I visited the Athens Services waste management facility in City of Industry, to get a first hand look at how our South Pasadena waste is processed. In South Pas, all waste from residential and commercial locations is collected in the same bins, and sent by truck for sorting at Athens. From there, any recyclable materials extracted go to a variety of local and global recycling plants, and food and yard waste go to domestic organizations for composting. Materials for which there are no viable recycling or recovery options are sent to local landfills as a last resort. 

Landfilling as a disposal route, however, even as a last resort, will soon become more problematic in California with the upcoming 2013 closure of the Puente Hills landfill. Dennis Chiappetta, Athens’ Executive Vice President and our guide for our facility tour, informed us that the closure of Puente Hills, currently the largest landfill in the United States, will mean that local waste management agencies will have to find other, likely more distant and more costly, places to send their municipal solid waste.

Athens is currently developing landfill avoidance facilities and technologies with the goal of ensuring that less and less waste will go the way of the landfill. At Clean, it’s always been our philosophy that waste = lost profits, so fostering additional opportunities to recycle and recover waste materials is a strategy we’re definitely on board with.

The American Southwest was the chosen region for this year's GreenBuild International Conference & Expo. Clean was pleased to have gathered in the desert metropolis of Phoenix along with those leading the charge within the discipline of green building. Some sightings that are sure to stick with us: the ecoscorecard tool -  easing the process of LEED scoring, Interface's 'Elephant in the Room' communications platform,as well as the event's overall recycling effort - providing 54 recycling stations staffed by over 300 volunteers.

GreenBuild 2009 takes place through the end of this week, Nov. 13th.

SEE MORE OF CHRIS JORDAN'S IMAGES>>

From the artist's statement, on Midway, Message from the Gyre :

These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

Jordan has also posted a YouTube slideshow of the images.

An inspirational day arranged by Maria Shriver & Governor Schwarzenegger with the message, "Be Who You Are.. An Architect of Change." Clean team members, Seri McClendon & Heidi Luko attended yesterday along with 25,000 women from a range of disciplines to discuss the struggles & transformations that females have endured & their impact in today's world.

As a member of the Businesses for Social Responsibility global network, Clean was counted among attendees at last week's conference held in San Francisco. Major Clean takeaway: taking inspiration from the corporations in attendance and their various investments in sustainable processes. Click here for video highlights.

With carrots in hand, the Clean team paid a visit to the United Pegasus Foundation (UPF), a nonprofit horse rescue group located in Tehachapi, California. Clean supports the UPF through the thoroughbred sponsorship program, as well as the donation of professional marketing and outeach services.

Clean's sponsored horse, Chicken Lips, pictured above is a retired thoroughbred racehorse.

Read more

During a trip to the the bay area this past week, we stopped by the Monterey Bay Aquarium (which we love).

Here are some images of our ocean-dwelling friends up close... and a reminder: don't dump!

Ocean Conservancy's A Rising Tide of Ocean Debris and What We Can Do About It is a great snapshot of what's currently being picked up from our coasts and waterways. According to Ocean Conservancy, the report " ...presents data recorded by nearly 400,000 volunteers in 104 countries and locations and 42 US states at the 23rd annual Cleanup."

Check out additional charts and tables or download the complete report .

Also check out the breakdown transparency of the garbage patch in the North Pacific Gyre, created by Good magazine. Of special note: 90% of the floating trash in the world's oceans is plastic .

View the full transparency .

JOIN CLEAN in the Coastal Cleanup Day this September 19th!

Register through Heal the Bay and participate in the largest volunteer day on the planet with over 70 sites in Los Angeles county alone. Not in Southern California? Find a site near you via Ocean Conservancy.