We are well into the New Year and I am pleased to be part of the process in bringing green building news to your inbox.  This issue of the Green Building Journal focuses on waste management, which encompasses a wide variety of topics from e-waste, community programs to reduce landfill mass, and construction waste management.

Author David Korten says it best: “To achieve true sustainability, we must reduce our 'garbage index' - that which we permanently throw away into the environment that will not be naturally recycled for reuse - to near zero. Productive activities must be organized as closed systems. Minerals and other non-biodegradable resources, once taken from the ground, must become a part of society's permanent capital stock and be recycled in perpetuity.”

Our contributing writers this month come from an array of backgrounds, sharing their expertise and experience in waste management.

In the article by Adam Schlachter, “Recycling Your High Tech Trash: E-Scrap Management”, we gain insight on E-scrap, or electronic scrap.  This latest group of waste that allows us connectivity 24-7, is now gaining recognition as a potential commodity rather than something to be tossed into the landfill.

John Kremke offers us an opportunity to gain insight into construction waste and how to avoid the pitfalls of our best intentions in green building construction projects.

Garbage Dreams by Kevin O’Donnell, fundamentalist for the Thread Collaborative, opens up a window of opportunity for recycling as well as the possible gains in zero waste employment worldwide.

While this is a snapshot of what you can find in the journal, dive in and enjoy the articles, blogs, videos and news.  Explore the Green Building Pro social media community, engage with other members and contribute your expertise to collaborate and communicate with other green building professionals.

I am excited to announce the Green Building Conference and Expo online everywhere April 20-21. This year's event features 22 hours of presentations and discussions by green building thought leaders and innovators. This two-day conference will be kicked off with a Keynote discussion by Jack Canfield, Author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series.  Our Day-Two Keynote speaker is Author and Architect Eric Corey Freed.

I welcome you to join us in our community and attend our conference and expo, either  as an attendee, sponsor, speaker or all of the above.  I look forward to chatting with you online, in person and on the trade show floor.  [ Join me in the Green Building Pro community ]

Jenica Egan
Editor in Chief
Green Building Pro
Follow us on Twitter @buildgreenpro

As technology continues to progress, new items are added to the list of wastes that need to be managed by companies and individuals alike. One of the newest items to hit the list is the plethora of devices that help increase our productivity, keep us connected and distract us after a hard day’s work. E-scrap, or electronic scrap, is the latest group of waste to have its value recognized as a potential commodity rather than something to be landfilled. While e-scrap represents a large gamut of products, they are all easily managed and markets exist to help companies accomplish this.

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Green Building Pro is excited to announce The Green Building Conference and Expo taking place everywhere online April 20-21, 2010, featuring Keynote Speakers; author and motivational speaker Jack Canfield and author and architect Eric Corey Freed. This two day premiere online educational event is hosting green building decision makers and leading solution providers. Attendees and vendors alike will meet with like- minded professionals in a fully interactive event.

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In the fall of 2009, our local builders association in Porter County, Indiana, organized a Green Homes on Parade event. Our primary goals were to provide numerous avenues for professional and public education, certify each home to meet the requirements of at least the Gold level of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Green Guidelines and/or Standards, keep the homes affordable, valued at no more than $250,000 including landscaping, and to recycle nearly all of our construction waste. While the parade was successful in all respects, including education, as well as waste recycling and reduction, we unfortunately discovered that even with our best intentions to recycle construction waste, there was no guarantee that the material we intended for recycling would still not end up in a landfill. Locally, there are several waste handling firms who could place containers on site for both separated and comingled construction waste. The parade builders contracted with one firm who placed separate containers for wood and cardboard and another for comingled materials.

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The population of metropolitan Cairo is approximately eighteen million. It’s a city the size of New York City, without a citywide trash collection system. Let that sink in for a minute. It’s a city with a population similar to New York City but without vital infrastructure and no government trash management system. But that doesn’t mean no system exists. Quite the contrary. Much of the waste removal is done by a group known as the Zaballeen (Arabic for garbage people) who live in garbage villages on the outskirts of the city. One of the largest is Mokattam (also known as Garbage City) where an estimated seventy to eighty thousand people live.

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Since prehistoric times, man has used burial – or landfill - as a means of getting rid of waste. Landfill, the oldest form of waste disposal, is possibly also the dirtiest. It’s a land-hungry, polluting, anti-social and expensive pursuit. With ever-increasing demands on land for building and agriculture, and the problems from landfill, including methane gas and noxious cocktails of liquids leaching into the land and water table, governments across the globe are now acting to reduce landfill dramatically. The latest UK landfill tax burden – an increase of 30% - arrived in April 08, with the promise of “plenty more to follow.”

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Have a goal for zero waste at your job site? Diverting waste from the landfill and practicing recycling can pay off by lowering energy, material and disposal costs. Here are 5 steps to overcome some common challenges that you may face as you implement a recycling program:

Find and Setup Adequate Space
Recycling and reuse efforts require space and space is at a premium at most sites. Work to set aside an area of the jobsite to store salvaged building materials and store recycling containers or rolloffs for either commingled or source-separated loads. If you cannot get enough space at the job site – see if you can set up a remote site for the materials.
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Do you have green sense? Author and architect Eric Corey Freed teams up with financing expert Kevin Daum to share with you some of the pros and cons of green home improvement. Eric represents the ‘greenies,’ bringing fifteen years of professional experience in green building and representing his successful firm organicARCHITECT. He is also the author of the well-received Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies. Kevin comes at it from a practical, dollars and cents approach that he learned while becoming a leading authority on custom home building. His experience as a writer, marketer, and Inc. 500 entrepreneur serves as a perfect complement to Eric and aids in delivering a balanced presentation.

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In this month's featured podcast, we talk with author and architect Eric Corey Freed about green retrofits. Eric offers us solutions from the simple and affordable to the more costly options available for green retrofits of commercial and residential properties. Eric freely shares his expertise in architecture and green building with viewers and gives us the tools to save energy and money.

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In our featured video we explore Santa Barbara's strategic plan to increase the diversion of waste from the landfill. This composting program includes a new rate structure that while reducing trash pickups, saves schools and businesses thousands of dollars annually, while maintaining the franchised hauler salary rates. This is a win-win program that is economically and environmentally sound.

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Go Green Expo, sponsored by CBS & co-located with Architectural Digest Home Design Show, is the largest eco-event in New York. Located at Pier 92/94 March 19-21, GGE combines Business & Consumer events into one cost-effective show. Join 200+ companies & eco-celebrity speakers like Ed Begley Jr. & Mariel Hemingway.

[ Learn More at Go Green Expo ]

Rainwater Collection Solutions Inc, has donated a 1,000 gallon Original Rainwater Pillow to store potable water and a 100 gallon Original Rainwater Pillow to transport potable water for use by a medical team at the Hospice House Mathew 25  in Port- au- Prince Haiti. The medical team from www.ServeHaiti.org continues to treat residents and still hase a large number of people staying on the soccer field. The team has also joined other medical groups in the surrounding community. Many patients were brought back to Hospice House Matthew 25 for extensive treatment.

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