ZWZ Garners National Support

Wow ~ what an amazing experience to witness the honor and respect for the ZWZ program at the ZWZ Two-Year Anniversary press conference on February 23 at the World of Coca-Cola!  A powerful crowd attended to support the program and stayed for an impromptu reception following the program.

Laura Turner Seydel

Each presenter began their talk with an emphasis on the success and importance of the ZWZ.  After a warm welcome by Holly Elmore, Ei founder & CEO, ZWZ Chair Laura Turner Seydel gave an overview of the of the past two years that laid the foundation for the exciting announcements by the National Restaurant Association (NRA) and Waste Management (WM).  Along with his ZWZ accolades, George McKerrow, Ted’s Montana Grill co-founder & CEO, announced the Turner Building is the first Atlanta multi-use building to implement an organics collection program in residential, office and retail space. 

Chris Moyer, Scott DeFife
& George McKerrow

Scott DeFife, NRA Executive Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs, announced the national collaboration with Ei|ZWZ and NRA Conserve with the following statement, “Atlanta’s Zero Waste Zone program has been incredibly successful, and we are now looking to expand that success to communities nationwide.  Sustainability is imperative to our industry, other business communities and the general public. Working with Elemental Impact, we are bringing industry stakeholders together to enable our members to establish - and succeed in reaching - waste diversion and resource recovery goals.”

The WM Team

With the nation's largest private sector industry's trade association mobilized to engage foodservice operators in zero waste practices, the collection and destination infrastructure must be created for success.  WM, the nation's largest waste and recycling hauling company, announced their support to the Metro Atlanta market with increased options for beneficially converting organics.  Randall Essick, WM Director, Business Development & Government Affairs for the South Atlantic Area, noted ZWZ provided the framework for WM to make the organics solution statement.

Laura, Patrick Cuccaro, Karen Bremer
and Niko Karatassos

Although the WM statement related directly to the metro Atlanta market, an overall environmental commitment comes from the top as stated by David Steiner, WM CEO, "At Waste Management, our charge is clear.  We must continue to find new and better ways to present our customers with valued environmental solutions.  We must push the envelope to extract more value from the materials we manage, and invest in technologies for processing and conversion.  And as we do each these things, we must remember our challenge to minimize our our footprint and that of our customers."

ZWZ Champions Patrick Cuccaro &
Steve Simon chat

These are thrilling times to realize a phenomenal foundation is built and national support is committed for taking the ZWZ into new dimensions of impact.  Stay tuned for tales from the journey as we catapult into the national scene, while giving stronger depth to the Atlanta template.


Visit the Press Release  page for the ZWZ and NRA press releases and the National Media page for the immediate press response to the releases.