Zero Waste Vashon

Mission

Zero Waste Vashon (ZWV) is a community-run 501 (c) (3) non-profit engaged in education and research in support of waste stream conversion away from the practice of landfilling reusable materials and towards reuse and recycling.

Description

Zero Waste Vashon (ZWV) is a group of Vashon Island neighbors working in partnership with King County to make our island a model green community.  We look for practical ways to recycle our waste stream into useful products.  When “waste“ is used as a resource to make something new, fewer resources need to be extracted from the environment. This reduces habitat destruction, global warming, pollution, and soil degradation. 

We are focusing on:

Compost - ZWV is working closely with King County to establish a community-scale compost facility on Vashon.  This will allow us to turn our yard and food waste into compost to improve Island farms and gardens.

Plastics - Choose Plastics Free educates islanders on plastics alternatives and works on creative ideas to replace plastics with recyclable containers.

Reuse - We are actively investigating ways to keep reusable materials like building products and furniture out of landfill. ZWV is an active partner with the Vashon Fix-It Cafés on the island. ZWV now manages the NoBashTrashStash, newly named the Dish Library to provide dishware and cutlery for events instead of disposible plastics. 

Recycle - ZWV has partnered with Ridwell for the collection of plastic recyclables including styrofoam. They now have over 500 island customers. The Electronics Recycle Event keeps about 5 tons of used electronics from the landfill every year. 

Education - ZWV works with educators and the Green Teams on education projects and provides annual Jerry Henley scholarships to students pursuing environmental studies. 

We welcome donations and volunteers!

Please visit our website at:  www.zerowastevashon.org