Trash For Peace executive director Laura Tokarski

https://www.trashforpeace.org/

What if waste could be used as building materials for housing? 
Multi family housing makes recycling a challenge, how is Trash For Peace helping? 
Did you know Trash For Peace accepts donations and is a non profit? 

I'm very impressed with Laura and her team. 

Check out our sponsor Orora Packaging Solutions 
https://ororapackagingsolutions.com/

Check out our sponsor this month: 
https://smartsolve.com/

https://specright.com/ 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1329820053/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=corygat

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/

I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap.

This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

Transcript

Cory Connors: 0:31

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. Today's guest is Laura Tokarski , the Executive Director for Trash for Peace. Hey, Laura, how are you?

Laura Tokarski: 0:40

Hi, I'm good. Thanks so much for inviting me to participate

Cory Connors: 0:43

today. It's great to see you again. We met at the Association for Oregon Recyclers and we did our first podcast there, which was great. But I'm excited to, to learn more about Trash for Peace. I think it's a great company., you've started here and really exciting to hear about your, your past and, and your story. So can you tell us a little bit about your back?

Laura Tokarski: 1:04

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, transfer Peace operates in Portland, Oregon, and that's where I am from born and raised in Portland and. I think being born in Portland, there is, as for many of us, kind of a, a natural affinity for taking care of the environment, for working in the environmental sector. We are so lucky to be surrounded by such incredible nature and natural beauty, natural areas. And that was a big part of my childhood was, was going camping and mm-hmm, traveling around the state and really just witnessing the incredible beauty that we have in our state and in our region. And I also really was interested in learning more about cultures around the world. I went to University of California, Santa Barbara and majored in Anthropology and Spanish, and was very fortunate to be able to study abroad. But really during college, I, I knew I always wanted to go into the Peace Corps and that was what I did upon graduation. And I was Assigned to Guatemala where I was a youth development volunteer, but as many Return Peace Corps volunteers will tell you what you end up doing in the country often changes very much because the whole, the whole idea of the Peace Corps is sustainable community development, which really means. building relationships and getting to know the community where you live, and understanding what the interests and needs are of that community, which may be somewhat different than what you were technically trained to be doing. and right., which is good, but also can be challenging. Right. And long, long story short the, I was, I, since I was youth development, I was working in the schools and one of the elementary schools that I was working in. Needed a couple of extra classrooms and they had the frame that was built but they were not able to finish it because they had run out of funding. Around that same time, I had heard of an organization through a fellow Peace Corps volunteer called Put Vida and they were building classrooms and structures out of plastic bottles stuffed full of trash. Oh, I love that. Yes. This is an incredible experience. I, I realized that the. Plastic bottle size that they mostly used was the exact width of the metal frame. So we were able to adapt that technique to a metal structure, and we completed these classrooms out of plastic bottles in trash. The entire community had to be involved. This was really, really, the principle is the one who spearheaded this. You know, any large efforts like this have to come from the community. So she got everyone on board. It was a small town called Granado where I did the majority of my service. And the town of about, at the time, 800 people. And everyone stuffed plastic bottles to build these structure to, to build these, these walls. And that for me was you know, not just that experience, but also just the experience of living in a different place where trash service was different. You know, I think we take for granted how our trash service works in, in a large metropolitan area where, you know, it kind of disappears, right? It's, it's picked up and it's taken. Somewhere. Right. And you know, in, in many parts of the United States and in other countries around the world, that doesn't exist. So I had to burn most of my trash, which allowed me to have a more intimate relationship with it, . And, and really think. More about it. And also really to, to see the effect that plastic was having in this community. Because for years it mostly was returnables, you know, deposit bottles. That would be refilled and, and then brought through over and over again. But because of the US influence and the shift to plastics, that was becoming a huge, huge problem. Mm-hmm. So really being aware of that and also seeing the public health implications of that. Mm. I lived there for about three and a half years, and my third year I lived in a different community and there was a big tropical storm that came through and it was right on the other side of a river. And just with the huge flooding and swelling of that river a bunch of plastic bottles got stuck underneath the bridge basically and created a huge flood. Oh wow. Flood that created massive flooding and. All those plastic bottles originate here. Right. So you were talking about sustainable packaging, like what happens when you have this material that will not decompose, it will not biodegrade. It causes significant issues when there is not necessarily the ability to dispose of it sustainably and. Not only was that, you know, , a huge cause for flooding, but there were a lot of public health implications after that. You know, people's homes were destroyed, but also there was dust that was all over the community for months. And that caused respiratory issues. So there was, I was really able to witness just the, the cascade effect of what happens with a lot of these products that we. Use and often don't think about use once and throw away and Right. I moved back to the United States and really wanted to continue you know, working in, in this sector, but really working on, from the United States side where you know, we, we often push materials onto other countries. Yeah. Wanting to create that change here through hands-on learning as well, because that was such an incredible part of, Classroom project was that it was all hands-on and we were all able to work together and the experience was so much more profound because of that. So kind of putting that all together and that was the that was kind of how the idea for Trash for Peace was created. Long story short, maybe that was , more of a medium story . That's

Cory Connors: 6:36

alright. Hey, this is your show. I love it. This is awesome. That's the longest introduction I've ever heard and I'm, so, I'm, I'm to, I'm impressed with every sentence of it. So well done. I, I have to ask you, when you're stuffing the plastic bottles, what are the people stuffing the bottles with? More plastic? Yes. Or.

Laura Tokarski: 6:55

Plastic. Plastic and aluminum like chip, chip wrappers and bags that has been cleaned and dried very carefully. Yeah. And then the lid is put back on. So there's, it's a pretty intensive process, but really it's called an echo brick. And either's been a lu. I was gonna ask

Cory Connors: 7:10

if that's

Laura Tokarski: 7:10

the same. Yeah. Mm-hmm.. Yep. It's the exact same idea. It's really taken off. There are lots of other organizations and, and countries that utilize this, this technique now. And, and of course we were not the first, we adapted , this model. But there's definitely a lot of potential and a lot of just, you know, new I think innovation and investment and desire to look at trash as a resource, right? And to use it for right things.

Cory Connors: 7:32

Why can't it be, it lasts forever. So why not use it as a building material? That makes perfect sense. I have a lot of people I've connected with in different sustainability channels via either TikTok or Instagram or other platforms where they're talking about these plastic bricks often. And I think it's a brilliant idea for these hard to recycle kinds of materials. Really brilliant idea. P e t bottles especially are made so well, right. That, that they're so strong. Yes. That they're a great source. Mm-hmm. and as well as glass. I remember hearing stories about glass bottles being actually manufactured as rectangles. Yes. I don't remember which, which kinda. Liquor that was, but it was , a beautiful idea and really cool to see that. But let's talk about trash for peace a little bit. Can you tell us what that is and, and what it is that you do?

Laura Tokarski: 8:28

Yeah, absolutely. So we, we have , a variety of different programs and really the, you know, the idea or, or the mission is to provide hands-on creative experiences to encourage resilient communities and. All of our programs really want to provide low barrier opportunities for community members to be directly involved in creating a more equitable and effective waste and recycling system and all aspects of that system. So we have a few different programs. Our sustainability education program. Has a focus on working with supportive housing, multi-family communities, apartments, and we have an afterschool program on different housing sites that is weekly and really focused on, as all of our programs are. Working with the community, having the programming be informed, if not led by peers, by community members, building relationships. You know, very similar to, to the Peace Corps, where every community is different and in order to, you know, create better systems, we have to work together and understand everyone's skillsets because everyone has so much range to the table and a lot of. You can really only understand that by getting to know each other and by building relationships and trust. And that's, that's actually where that peace part comes in, because trash is something that we all have in common, and when we get to know each other, we can work together to create a more peaceful planet. So that's kind of where that comes together. But back to our programming. So we have a weekly afterschool program, and then we have an environmental promoter program. And this program really grew out of our youth programming because we, we would, Work with resident coordinators and property managers and, and host community nights to get to know people. And we would hear a lot of, of concern expressed about the recycling and enclosure areas, the trash systems on those sites. And so hearing that over and over again, we got the opportunity to work with our local governments to be able to provide direct feedback. And we also heard just a lot of interest in wanting to learn more. And be involved in that. And so that for us was like, all right, let's make it happen. So we worked with local government to create this program that has, is a, a fellowship program essentially where interested multi-family housing residents can go through a training on recycling 1 0 1 waste prevention healthy homes which relates to green cleaning and you know, hazardous waste disposal. and every training is also, you know, region based and and adjusted for each community. And then after they go through those trainings, they are paid to create their own projects and their own communities and do outreach in their own communities. There's a lot of flexibility and we support. Community members in doing that. And we also provide outreach to other apartments, other multi-family housing sites about recycling and waste prevention through a community-based lens. Also in partnership with local government. And we also support a lot of the collection and hopefully soon redistribution of large household collection items. And that was another thing that that just came out of expressed concern over and over again that it's really difficult to get rid of a couch and a mattress and a television when you don't have a vehicle and you have no means to get rid of it. And it can be really expensive to dispose of. So,

Cory Connors: 11:59

I think we talked about a fish tank last time. Yes.. Laura Tokarski: Exactly. Right. Right. And it can be really challenging to get rid of these items, especially if you have any sort of accessibility needs. Right, right. So that program has been growing and we're really excited, especially as the interest in reuse and repair and the ability to do that. Grows in our region. There's a lot of opportunity there. And then we also support Ground Score Association, which is a peer led initiative that started a few years ago. We are essentially incubating this organization that loo eventually become its own entity and ground score association is based on kind waste picker associations that is more of a, of a common. Type of organization that you will see internationally. And for us it's really based on the idea that supporting through low barrier jobs, members of the community who collect cans and bottles as a main source of revenue. Oh, wow. And Association. We have a few different programs there. We have the People's Depot, which is a peer, now, a peer run can and redemption service that we partner with O B R C to operate. Okay. And and we also, also, who's, who's the O B R C? We gotta explain that to people.

Laura Tokarski: 13:09

Yes, yes. Sorry. Lots of acronyms. That's

Cory Connors: 13:11

okay. I, I, and it's very common in our industry, but I always have to stop people and say, explain that just in case a student or someone who's not familiar with listening.

Laura Tokarski: 13:21

Absolutely. The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, and that is the entity that manages Oregon's Bottle Bill.

Cory Connors: 13:26

Great program, amazing program with including bottle drop and things like that. It's just fantastic.

Laura Tokarski: 13:32

But thank you. Absolutely. Absolutely. And we, we are really excited to be able to include, The informal sector, waste pickers, canners within that system to really create a safe space for other members of the community to deposit their cans and bottles many of which are gleaned from the trash. So it's really an incredible service that is being provided. And we also will collect, or rather we will accept. A larger amount up to 500 cans and bottles through our program. Oh, wow. Wow. It's a, a big service to many members of the communities so they don't have to go to various locations.

Cory Connors: 14:08

So you're setting up actual con collection sites. Can you describe one of those to us so we can envision that?

Laura Tokarski: 14:16

Yeah, it's still very much grassroots and that this, you know, this, this really started because of the Covid 19 pandemic when retailers stopped collecting, or sorry, stopped accepting cans and bottles right? Because of Covid. And as a result, many members of the community lost. A vital source of revenue. So the city basically asked us if we could create something at Hawk to support nurses in the community. So we bought kitty pools and we bought card tables, and we set up patients to sort them, and then O B R C would pick the bags up from us and we get paid a set amount based on a full. Fe, which is how their system works. And now we have one location that operates five days a week for three hours a day. And soon we will be hopefully opening another location where again, we will accept up to 500 cans bottles per person. And it's been working really, really well.

Cory Connors: 15:12

Yeah. To equate that to someone who's recycling cans often, how many blue of those blue bags or green bags would, would that equal about. Gosh,

Laura Tokarski: 15:22

that's a good question. We did when we were first starting, we were estimating and not counting precisely. Yeah.. And we did, we did, you know, try to have like a volume determination. I think probably four, four or five is probably accurate

Cory Connors: 15:38

if I recall. Yeah. I think the average is about$4 and 50 cents per bag. So that's a pretty, that's a pretty big deal for somebody to bring in, you know, 20, $25 worth of mm-hmm. Recyclable materials. Right. Yeah,

Laura Tokarski: 15:54

it's, it's, it's been really, really successful. I'm hoping to continue growing that in partnership with O B R C over the next year. and we really see that that system can work really, really well, especially when it becomes inclusive of all members of the community. And we're hoping that that can continue through other extended producer responsibility models that we're seeing with the new Modernizing Recycling bill. And that somewhat relates to our, our other large program is a tent side trash service, and that's called glitter. And that is ground score leading inclusively together through environmental recovery.

Cory Connors: 16:28

Wow. And, Laura Tokarski: that's creative. We had a lot of creating that. And and that program really is meant to be just that a trash service members of the community living outdoors and We operate that through. The East Multnomah County area as well as downtown Portland, and have seen a lot of success with that as well. We believe that, you know, everyone has a right to trash service and and hygiene services. And we also strongly believe that the work that we do should be well remunerated. And so we, we really strive to pay living wage and And all of our programs are peer informed and led whenever possible. And ideally run eventually. That's great. So you're hiring people who are living outdoors Yes. To, to do this service Absolutely. For their community. That's amazing. That's a great program. I've heard of other similar programs being very successful in cities like Houston, Texas, and things like that. So that's, that's cool to hear that that's going on in Portland.

Laura Tokarski: 18:08

Yeah, absolutely. It's been amazing. We have the most amazing team of people and it's just such an honor to be a part of this organization and to work with everyone. I really some of the hardest working people that I've ever met.

Cory Connors: 18:24

Great. Well, and. to give a sense of purpose and to give an income and to give an opportunity well done. Good for you and your team. That's an amazing part of the solution. Absolutely. Excellent. Well, what, what else what else do you wanna discuss? You wanna talk about reuse at all? I think we talked about maybe discussing how trash repeats can help people reuse.

Laura Tokarski: 18:50

Yeah, absolutely. That's, you know, fundamental to a sustainable planet in the future. Right. And I think that more and more consumers want that as well. I think that, you know, we are in the climate change era and I think we're seeing that our habits are not sustainable and. We are a big part of that trying to create more solutions and opportunities to reuse all of our youth programming. For example, 90% of all of the materials we use are. Used reused materials. We work really closely with Scrap P dx, which is an incredible nonprofit that will accept school supplies and other arts and craft supplies and materials from the community, and then they resell it. We have a really good partnership with them, and we also get donations of arts and crafts, things like construction paper. Colored pencils. There's just so much of that. It's an abundance, right? So we really don't have a need to purchase a lot of these supplies and. The craft and hands-on activities that are available using re reclaim to reuse materials are endless. I mean, just toilet paper tubes, the things that you can do with the toilet paper tubes. we could spend, it's an entire year on that alone, . So our youth program really focuses on. Using reclaimed materials. And we have we received a grant during Covid, it turned out through d eq, our Department of Environmental Quality to create school and art supply closets on Wow. Family housing sites, in part because. You know, families need school supplies all year long, not just at the beginning of the school year. And we wanted to provide an opportunity for families to come and get some activities, some school supplies, some arts and crafts, all in really good condition and some donated that have never been used. So we, we really do try to curate good quality materials, and that has been really successful.

Cory Connors: 20:46

How, how can people donate to, I don't wanna skip over that. How can people donate to that and, and help with.

Laura Tokarski: 20:52

Yeah, that's such a great question. We have a few different office locations, but probably I think the easiest would be just to coordinate with me. People can either send an email through our website, which we will, we we check every day. Or people can email me directly, which is just Laura, l a u r a, at trash for peace.org, and we'd be happy to coordinate if it's an option. We can also pick up

Cory Connors: 21:16

materials and the website is trash for peace dot. Correct. Okay. So that makes it easy and it's, and it's spelled out f o r, not the number.

Laura Tokarski: 21:27

Yes., yes. No. Great, great clarifying questions., that

Cory Connors: 21:30

makes it's important because I think people are gonna hear this and they're gonna say, I've got some old pens, or I've got some, some construction paper in my kids are outta the house, or whatever the case may be. Maybe even manufacturers. What if Crayola hears this podcast and they've got , some cases like, oh my gosh, pens to send your way. you know,

Laura Tokarski: 21:49

crayons are some of the most requested materials. We work with over 450 youth every week and., I think also being a mom, I have two boys that are three and a half and five and a half. And when I give them crayons, I'm less anxious to go around the corner and make them a group workers for obvious reasons. So and particular are a nice tool to be able to provide to families so they can potentially have a break and while they're, while their kids can color and maybe not destroy.. The walls are other things., not that I think that, but might have a tendency.. Cory Connors: Yes. Well, they're creative, right? Like, like their mom Exactly. I can definitely commiserate as a, as a parent myself. So that makes a lot of sense. So would, let me ask you a question, would it be more appreciated by you and your organization to have a financial donation? Or would you rather have actual crayons and actual materials? That's a great question. You know, Really both are just so appreciated. Sure. You know, I, I think if, if a donation does require us to pick something up or travel far, then logistically it might make more sense to have a financial donation. Sure. So it kind of depends, but we. We work with so many youth and we provide these materials so regularly and we partner with a lot of other organizations that also will utilize these materials. And through our ground score program as well. A lot of the adults we work with love to craft, so we have. The, the desire to create a craft closet at our warehouse location because it's such a, it's such a great way to de-stress and to have an outlet too. And we work with so many incredibly creative people. But obviously a financial donation is, Just incredible. So I would say

Cory Connors: 23:43

is, is Trash for a Peace, a nonprofit? I didn't even ask you that. Yes,

Laura Tokarski: 23:46

yes. We're 5 0 1 . Mm-hmm.. Cory Connors: Okay. So you are a 5 0 1 which is here in Oregon. That's nonprofit charity. Excellent. That's wonderful. Yes, exactly. Well, thank you for the work that you're doing. I think it's incredible. I think you're having a huge impact on the the local community here in a very positive way. So keep it up. I was thinking a lot of the people that listen to this program are printers and maybe they'll have a few reams of extra paper sitting around that they could donate to Trash for Peace. Oh. That would also be. Wonderful. We love paper . There's also immense, immense crafts and things you can do with that. And you know, I'll just add to that another part of our programming that's growing a lot in the reuse area is the reuse of furniture and large household items. And there's also just a lot of low barrier job opportunity in that, in the. Deconstruction, but primarily the reuse of, and repair of a lot of furniture. And I think that's something that that is going to be growing because. again, I think consumers really want really good quality things that aren't gonna break and, and there's more of an, an awareness that, you know, just buying something new maybe isn't the best thing for the environment. And learning how to mend, learning how to repair there's a lot of of interest in that and that's something that we are hoping to build out more in the next in the next year. And also to provide some redistribution of those items, two members of the community that need them. And again, That service of potentially being able to drop it off is so helpful because if you don't have a large vehicle mm-hmm. a vehicle, it could be really difficult to acquire some of these items. So we're really excited about that as well.

Cory Connors: 25:23

Is there a place for people like me who have a, a pickup truck that we could sign up for some hours to volunteer for your organiz?, Laura Tokarski: that is Not at the moment, but I love that idea. Yeah. We are about to pilot an actual redistribution of items and that's something that we had not thought of, so I really appreciate that question and that will, that's something we'll discuss. I spent six years working with Candle lighters for Children with Cancer, who's a local charity as well. And the, one of the biggest challenges we had was we had people that wanted to help and we had stuff that needed to be get done. But communicating those things to each other is one of the biggest challenges of, of a charitable organization or a business, frankly. So , if we. Sign up for things, you know, Hey, we have three hours this next Saturday where we need to move some things. Do you have a truck or a van or, strong muscles or, you know, whatever the case may be come by and, and we'll, we're having a work party or, . Yeah. The things like that are, are very helpful to people like us that want to give

Laura Tokarski: 26:33

back. Yeah, absolutely. That's a great, great suggestion and I will definitely take that back to our.

Cory Connors: 26:39

Great. Well, thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for your time. We appreciate you and what you're doing for the community and for the environment. Thank you. Please you know, like to encourage the listeners to reach out to you on your website trash for peace.org and thank you again, Laura. We appreciate it.

Laura Tokarski: 26:58

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.