California Bestows Waste Reduction Awards

The California Integrated Waste Management Board recently awarded the 2005 WRAP (Waste Reduction Awards Program) Awards, recognizing California businesses that have made “outstanding efforts to reduce nonhazardous waste and send less garbage to our landfills.” The program singles out five companies to receive the Wrap of the Year Award--the prgram's top honor. This year’s winners are Agilent Technologies, Byers’ LeafGuard Gutter Systems, Safeway, Walser’s, and Trinchero Family Estates. The latter, a family-owned Napa Valley winery, has earned the accolade for the past six years. Trinchero’s sustainable farming practices include “reuse of 50,000,000 gallons of wastewater and composting 24,000 tons of pumice (glass particles), and 1,000 tons of diatomaceous earth.” Yeah, we didn’t know what that last one was either, but we looked it up, and apparently, it’s “a light friable siliceous material” that comes from algae. This year, the winery cut its use of packing materials with a bottling upgrade. In total, the company has implemented an annual reduction of 850 tons in corrugated material and 100 tons of plastic shrink-wrap—and saved $750,000. WRAP winners receive an award certificate from the State of California and a WRAP WINNER logo, which can be stamped on products, advertising, and educational materials—in order to inform consumers of waste reduction efforts. ::The California Integrated Waste Management Board