When I visited the Zwaggle room the biggest piece of Schwag returned was also the most environmentally friendly.  It was the return (postage paid) boxes for you old florescent bulbs.  According to the Zwaggle guy more than 250 had been returned.  That shows just how selective in their "green" the attendees want to be.  You want green that is easy and takes no effort on your part.  Sorry the world doesn't work that way.

My illusion of BlogHer08 going green was demolished when after the opening keynote, the custodial staff of the hotel came through to clean and swept EVERYTHING into the same dumpsters.  There was no separating of the recyclables at all.  Had I known that I would have gladly bagged the bottles left on the tables for my son and hauled them home in the GM Hybrid car.  There should have been a cans and bottles bin that BlogHer could have taken advantage of.

Hopefully for 09, this matter will be cleared with the hotel ahead of time.

Great post Siel.

Couple of things I can chime in on:

1. Yes, our pre-conference guide included the tip about going green at an individual level by bringing your own water bottle.

2. Adriennevh: I used to get up in arms about that too, but then somewhere or someone told me how in large venues they don't always sort as they go but rather use a service that will sort for them. Often the case for large office buildings too. You've now made me curious where I saw that, so I'm off to Google.

Elisa Camahort Page
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.com

My BlogHer profile truly shows you everything I do online...Check it out!!

In a magazine called, appropraitely enough "Recycling Today". It was an article about managing recycling at large facilities or venues.

Recyclables can either be source separated or commingled and transported to a material recovery facility (MRF), where the commingled materials are separated and sorted by hand or by machine.

I'd have to ask Kristy if she knows which Westin does, but it's an FYI for all big venues: You can't assume everything going into one bin right there on site means they're not recycling.

Elisa Camahort Page
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.com

My BlogHer profile truly shows you everything I do online...Check it out!!

From me on this post

The absence of separate recycling bins does not necessarily indicate the absence of recycling.

From the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection:

Recycling in Las Vegas hotels however, is done without most guests or employees ever even knowing. Because the majority of Las Vegas hotels have more than 1000 rooms, internal sorting of garbage and separation of recyclable materials is logistically impractical. Instead, all the recycling takes place at the-back-of-the-house, on the hotel receiving dock. Although a few Las Vegas hotels use their own staff to sort waste and recyclables, the majority pay an outside recycling company to perform this function (contract separation), because few want to invest the extra time, space, employee training and re-training to sort waste and recyclable materials. This allows hotels to focus on guests and hotel operations rather than on additional staff needed to manage waste.

And, I spoke to Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish in the Zwaggle room and she said that she had learned that the bio plastic from the lunches was taken to a commercial composter not thrown out into landfill so it was just as green (arguably even more green) an option as paper bags.

I think the lesson here is that BlogHer should ask about the venue's recycling practices and share that with conference attendees.

And, if you look at the comment thread on the older post I linked to above, I also made some comments about working with venues for the 2005 and 2006 conferences to influence their practices. I would hope though that people realize that no matter how amazing Kristy, Elisa and the other BlogHer organizers are they are not super-human robots with all the power and control in the world. The likelihood that hotels or especially, as may be the case in the future, convention centers will change their supply chain or sourcing or recycling operations for one 3-day conference are slim at best. However, asking as both organizers and as attendees and letting venues know what we would like from them in terms of greening their business and practices will eventually result in change.

And we can all do more, do better and be more creative in that endeavor so thank you, Siel, for this post, for gathering ideas and acting in the true spirit of BlogHer do-ocracy which makes this community so special to be a part of.

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Thanks Maria...you are totally right that that long-ago thread was also floating around in my mind. Leave it to you to have the tenacity to find it :)

We did actually know about the box lunch containers, but we should tell venues to make little infromational signs about stuff like that...would answer questions before they're asked.

I did that at my wedding...had a little sign at each table indicating that the centerpieces were comprised of local, organic fruits and veggies, and that we hoped people would use the favor (a canvas grocery bag) to take the centerpieces, or parts thereof, home.

Elisa Camahort Page
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.com

My BlogHer profile truly shows you everything I do online...Check it out!!

Elisa and Maria are v. right re: the commingled trash getting recycled; the practice is known as "dirty MRF-ing," and I've written about it here. It's still preferable to use services separate things out instead of commingling, mainly because the recovery rate tends to be higher. Still, dirty MRF-ing still prevents a lot of recyclables from going to the landfill.

About the bioplastics: Just ans an FYI, while these are better than plain old plastic, they are, in general, not such great products and certainly not better than paper bags, IMHO, since the latter are both v. easily recyclable AND biodegradable. Bioplastics, on the otherhand, are biodegradable ONLY in commercial composting facilities that reach v high temperatures.

Luckily for us, NoCal is one of the v. few places in the US that actually has commercial composting facilities -- so our lunch containers are prolly biodegrading properly. However, these containers usually go to the landfills anywhere else in the US -- including in LA! -- because the city has no way of dealing with them. 

Anyway  -- I totally agree with Maria about working with the hotel beforehand -- and I think also finding out the existing recycling programs in the city too -- in order to best green future conferences. It's more than a lil confusing b/c every city and every hotel has totally different programs, but if we put the research effort in right at the beginning, it'll make it easier to make all else just fall into place --

Lastly re: those CFL recycling kits: I'm not sure that the fact that most people got rid of those necessarily means that people aren't interested in going green. Considering the fact that a CFL bulb lasts 10+ years, AND the fact that Home Depot and other stores offer convenient drop-off recycling options, I can def. see why even enviros wouldn't want the kit.

Taking the kit would mean storing the recycling kit for YEARS  until a bulb goes out, then SHIPPING IT -- creating additional waste (in terms of the packaging) and CO2 emissions -- when they could just drop off a dead bulb the next time they go shopping at Home Depot....

green LA girl

I need to chime in on the unwanted CFL recycling kits.  I didn't take one either, and I actually live in the Bay Area and could easily have gotten it home.  Why?  Because it's just excess packaging and now that Home Depot is collecting them, I don't need it.  Maybe it was a freak timing issue.  Perhaps if Home Depot hadn't made the announcement about collecting CFLs, people would have taken the kits.  But also, I agree with Siel.  CFLs are supposed to last a long time.  By the time one burns out, would I even remember where I had put the recycling kit?

On dirty hotel recycling... please see my post about the CRRA conference I attended this week with photos of the recycling stations that were set up throughout the hotel:

http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/2008/08/crra-they-know-how-to-do-conference.html

 I could tell that these portable bins were not provided by the hotel but by the conference organizers.  Perhaps having bins like these would make it easier for the hotel to recycle/compost properly.

And finally, as I mentioned in my comment onthe Green LA Girl blog, the CRRA conference had 800 registrants, which is not that much smaller than the number of Blogher registrants.  Yet the lunch was served on durable tableware with zero packaging waste.  Even if Blogher is not able to manage a sitdown meal, I'm wondering why a buffet-style lunch could not be provided with non-disposable plates and utensils.  Siel is right about corn-based plastic.  Yep, it's compostable under the right conditions, but even better would be to generate no waste to begin with.  A lot of energy and materials go into creating those containers that will be used once and then composted.

All in all, I did appreciate the efforts that Blogher made to green the conference.  I just think we have further to go.  Saying no to disposable packaging of all kinds would be a great step.  And encouraging vendors to provide swag in the form of services, downloads, valuable coupons, etc. would be preferable to tangible objects that attendees have to cart home.

Thanks for listening!

 Beth Terry
http://www.fakeplasticfish.com

I think Blogher was on the right track, it just has a way to go.  In a number of rooms, there were giant plastic water bottles next to glass cups.  Personally, I don't think I saw any of the metal pitchers of water you reference. 

 And for lunch?  Why all the plastic.  Why not a white paper box or brown bag. 

 I was happy that Blogher was thinking the way it did and am confident that next year, we'll see even less plastic, less waste.

 Michelle 

www.greenbeandreams.blogspot.com

I just want to offer this opinion- whatever both BlogHer and the hotel or venue does, someone is not going to like it. For example, the containers used for the lunches (which is a whole 'nother subject since it was the SAME lunch for 3 days) might not have been the most eco-friendly, but think about the other side of that equation. Serving lunch buffet-style means serving pans, plates, and silverware to wash, which requires using energy to heat the water and then having all that extra water and dish soap going into the drains. So which is better, the hotel sending the lunch containers out for recycling or washing plates and silverware?

I was also surprised by the plastic water bottles. Leapfrog was handing out wonderful aluminum bottles and I would have loved to have just kept that filled, but I really didn't see any water pitchers although I don't doubt that some rooms had them, and I'm sure I could have taken it down to the lobby and had it filled at the breakfast/bar counter. It all comes down to what the previous commenter said about BlogHer providing the most services possible while keeping the cost affordable and working within the guidelines of the hotel/venue.

As for the swag, and Elisa, I wanted you especially to read this- My roommate Dana and I shipped home about 75 % of our swag. We called down to the Westin front desk, they sent up cardboard boxes (from the recycling room! Mine actually had a label on it from Maggie Mason's husband's office!) and packing tape, we packed those boxes full, took them down to the desk, and they were shipped home for us. I don't think it was made clear that items could be shipped, as several people told me later that they hadn't even thought of doing that.  So that's another idea for next year-arranging shipping with the hotel.  

Elizabeth blogs at:

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Hi Elizabeth.  Unless an area is experiencing an EXTREME water shortage, washing some plates and utensils in an efficiently filled dish washer is much more environmentally-friendly than using disposables.  We're not just considering the waste from the boxes themselves but all the water, materials, and energy that does into creating those boxes in the first place.  Every time we waste an item, there are huge costs involved with replacing it.  I encourage you, and anyone else reading this comment, to check out the report "Stop Trashing The Climate" (http://www.stoptrashingtheclimate.org) to understand the connection between waste and global warming.

Beth Terry
http://www.fakeplasticfish.com

Save all these comments and add them to the "bid" for site selection. Hotels are rapidly trying to go green and they have no real set guidelines to do so that are comprehensive and go across the industry. So... to go in with a checklist and have them match BlogHer's expectations A) makes it easier for site selection and B) sends a message that people do want these things. It also provides the final summary that you all can give back to us prior and during the session. We asked for X, Y and Z. This venue provided X and Y and partially Z. Then reinforce the message at each venue.

That said, I know how hard it is to find a venue that can hold this large of a group and that has it's limits. There may only be 3 places in the US that can hold the crowd and AND be eco-sane. I vote that we go with the greenest venue and let that send a message to the rest of the hotel chains.

In the same way sponsors, should be asked to give their green story in a easy to understand way free of greenwashing. There are enough of them now that each has something to say even if they aren't certified as sustainable. I would love to be on that committee.

This post and comment thread goes directly into the BlogHer Venue Selection arsenal.

It's true that we have to take many things into consideration when agreeing on a venue, but "greening" efforts is part of our '09 RFP.

That said, venues are still learning (and so are we). We know there's still a long way to go, though...so while we're trying to get there, feedback like this is critical!

Thank you, thank you.

---
Kristy Sammis

BlogHer's Conference & Event Planner

kristy@blogher.com