Welcome to the blog for the 36th Annual CRRA Conference and Tradeshow which returns to the Oakland Marriott City Center and adjacent Oakland Convention Center, located in downtown Oakland, just steps away from BART, a few blocks from Oakland’s Jack London Amtrak Station, and hassle-free, door-to-door public transit rides from both Oakland (OAK) and San Francisco (SFO) International Airports.
Oakland is the pivotal center of recycling and secondary material management logistics in the Northern California. You probably know that Oakland’s deep water port provides access to global markets for materials that flow into Oakland from hundreds of miles. But Oakland is also a transportation and logistics center for construction and demolition recycling, a variety of reuse enterprises, and organic material management activities. Alameda County’s unique approach to landfill capacity regulation and funding recycling (the voter-approved County Charter amendment known as Measure D) is in its 22nd year of funding innovation in every one of the County’s fourteen cities and two sanitary districts.
2012 promises to be a pivotal year for material management in California. With new leadership in place at CalRecycle, implementation of mandatory recycling is just the start of their to-do list. CalRecycle Director Carol Mortenson is already on the plenary speaker roster, and we expect CalRecycle to have a strong staff presence in Oakland. The brave new world or organics management and a confrontation with the state’s old diversion measurement system are just a few of the issues with which we’ll be reckoning in Oakland.
At CRRA Content is King! And this year we are bringin’ it! Our call for speakers was an unprecedented success, with enough content received to fill two conferences! The CRRA conference program has always been member-driven, drawing upon our deep reserves of expertise and innovation from every part of California. Expect to see outstanding content from every sector of the CRRA community including our Technical Councils (Recyclers Global Warming Council, CA Sustainable Business Council, CA Organics Recycling Council, Construction & Demolition Council and others), our sister organization CA Product Stewardship Council, and our allies Californians Against Waste, the CA Association of Recycling Market Development Zones, and the Northern CA Recycling Association. Not to mention all the dynamic sessions organized by individual CRRA members. Watch this space for updates on our Plenary Program (spoiler alert – we may have some big-name keynote speakers), and our breakout session program.
Greening – This year’s conference may be CRRA’s greenest conference ever. Watch this space for updates about the efforts of our award-winning Greening Committee working with the Marriott, and our plan to provide local, seasonal (and delicious) fare at every meal and break. exness.net.za
