If you have Waste Management pickup service, you can put it out with your yard waste this week, as long as you follow these rules:

Waste Management collects Christmas trees from its residential customers. Be sure the tree is cut into three-foot sections and remove any tree stands, nails, tinsel and decorations.

If you are within Seattle city limits, you can take your tree to the South Transfer Station in South Park, as long as it’s not taller than eight feet (rules here).

Wherever you live, you are welcome to help out local nonprofits with these two tree-cycling events coming up next weekend:

SATURDAY & SUNDAY: Boy Scout Troop 375 Christmas Tree Recycle
January 7 – 8, 2012 (9 to 4)
Five Corners (160th and 1st Avenue in Burien)
$5 per tree
“Good Karma” Christmas Tree Mulch available for $25 donation per yard

SATURDAY, TWO LOCATIONS: The West Seattle Rainbow Girls will hold their fifth annual Christmas tree recycle fundraiser January 7 at the Alki Masonic Hall 4736 40th Ave. SW. and also at the Southgate Masonic Hall located at 1004 SW 152nd in Burien from 10:00 – 2:00. Suggested donation $5.00. No flocked trees please. For more information please contact Jan Hunter at 206-849-7906. Check out the Rainbow Girls by going to www.gorainbow.org.

Story and photos by Deanie Schwarz
Reporting for White Center Now/West Seattle Blog

After three years of successfully operating its production brewery at 9832 14th Ave SW in White Center, Big Al Brewing says it is about to become the first brewery in the state to use solar thermal energy to heat the water for brewing its entire lineup.

(From left, Carl Holzboog, Alejandro Brown, Sean Beattie)

Owners Alejandro (“Al”) and Noelle Brown tell WCN/WSB that Big Al’s will flip the switch today for its new solar thermal heating system to brew the first solar batch (batch #300 overall was brewed Tuesday), which will hit taps in three weeks.

Today also happens to be the rollout of Löwman Bräu, a special summer Kolsch produced in collaboration with West Seattle’s Feedback Lounge, with part of the proceeds benefiting area nonprofits. If all goes well, Big Al’s will continue the seasonal philanthropic offering with a different West Seattle-exclusive brew in the fall. The Löwman Bräu release (with partying venues tonight including Big Al and Company, in WC) is more evidence of what many beer aficionados know about life in West Seattle/White Center and the area at large: Lots of folks enjoy and enthusiastically support well-crafted beers from local microbreweries.

When the Browns made the calculated leap to purchase the former Pacific Rim Brewery Company site in 2008, they did so with great confidence that they could provide local restaurants and pubs with exceptional local beer. But the brewery was built more than a dozen years ago with little consideration of sustainable design or efficiencies in production.

Of the approximate 80-plus breweries in our state and the 30-and-counting in the Seattle area, most rely exclusively on traditional heating sources — either natural gas or electricity — to heat their brewing process. Big Al’s has made the visionary move to reduce the brewery’s depletion of nonrenewable natural gas. The brewery holds sustainability as a part of its mission and responsibility as an artisanal brewer. Big Al’s conversion to solar echoes the innovation in their lineups. They take advantage of unique creative collaborations and do so often and very successfully, whether flavor-matching restaurant menus or participating in community charity tasting events with specials.

The integration of solar thermal heating into the production process with system installer Net Zero Impact is the boldest and most recent innovative collaboration, this time of artful technologies that over time will realize cost savings, reduce the carbon footprint and conserve nonrenewable energy. The system is constantly monitored online and data will be logged to determine the rate of the return on their investment over time.

They are using a 32-year-old solar thermal technology that advocates claim is more efficient than solar photovoltaic cells in capturing energy. The solar energy is captured and the water heats up, whether the ambient temperature is 30 degrees or 70 degrees; it involves a series of tubes and the heating of water, rather than the generating of electricity. (See the explanation on NZI’s website.)

Sean Beattie, chief operating officer and founder of Net Zero Impact, says that the savings from reduced natural gas expenses will allow the brewery to begin double-brewing. “Right now we are producing about 150 barrels a month, with each barrel being 31 gallons, “ Al explains. “Our previous direct-fire natural gas burner had to be left on all night just to get the water temperature up. That part of our process is gone (and the costs with it). We will be able to come in in the morning and the water will still be retaining the heat from the sun from the previous day, up to about 150 degrees. We will use the new boiler to bring up the water the rest of the way in a very short amount of time with very little gas used,” Al says, clearly excited about the new system.

“The beauty of this system for Big Al’s,” Beattie suggested, “is that they will be able to turn two full cycles of brewing in the time it previously took to do one.”

“Double brewing makes sense because it saves on labor. We will be able to brew twice the amount because there are now 500 gallons of water available daily rather than 200, yet [we incur] the same labor costs,” Al adds, “Previously, it took about nine hours to brew one batch and we did that every two days, which is 18 hours total. We can do a double batch in 12 to 14 hours. We like those savings.”

Most microbreweries, just like Big Al’s, regularly evaluate sustainability efforts. But there’s one speed bump along the path to reducing carbon footprints and conserving natural gas – the initial investment. In the last two years, incentives from federal tax credits and grants has provided an opportunity to recoup 65 percent of the initial costs, according to Beattie. However, the state of Washington does not yet provide incentives or grants for solar thermal commercial applications, though Oregon does. A handful of counties in Washington provide some kind of incentives, but King County is not one of them.

Beattie says his company has been working with Puget Sound Energy on the installation of new high-efficiency boilers by accruing data collected from projects like Big Al’s and three schools where he has recently installed solar thermal systems where the numbers are exceeding the expected rate of savings by 300%.

For Big Al, reports indicate the savings will take effect within a few years. Money-wise, that is – nonrenewable-energy savings will be immediate. So hoist a glass and realize it’s truly liquid sunshine.

Then, there’s the HP3 environmental run – details on this, here. Related to that, from Westcrest Park forest steward Mike Shellenberger:

In conjunction with the HP3 runners’ event that starts at Big Al’s Brewing this Saturday April 16th, the Green Seattle Alliance (GSA) Volunteers will be planting hundreds of native evergreen trees in Westcrest Park. The intent is to begin to replace the older deciduous trees, like maples and alders, that are reaching their life span with native longer lived evergreens like fir, cedars, pines etc…We can use as many volunteers as we can get. The more folks that volunteer, the more we can plant. Just show up at the Westcrest Park main parking lot on the west side of the Park near the Kids Play area at 9:15 AM Saturday and we’ll put you to work on this important project..While volunteering people can also walk the Park’s trails and view Spring’s new arrivals. For instance, the beautiful native trilliums are in full bloom..See you Saturday.

We get questions every so often about the big project between Highway 509, Highway 99/West Marginal Way, and South Kenyon, downhill from the northeastern edge of White Center and environs. Not everybody realizes it’s … the new transfer station, 140,000 square feet, under construction and scheduled to open next year. WCN contributor Deanie Schwarz photographed the model at Second Use. (More project info here.)

They may have been partly within Seattle city limits at some point, but they also did some North Highline pickup today as part of the “Keep Seattle Beautiful” cleanup. We caught up with these volunteers on the hill between Highway 509 and White Center/West Seattle – County Councilmember Joe McDermott was there too (see photo on partner site West Seattle Blog). Keep up with founder Michael Merta‘s volunteer beautification campaign via this Facebook page.

King County Councilmember Joe McDermott was listening when North Highline resident Mike Merta expressed concern about increasing amounts of graffiti and litter in West Seattle and South Seattle.

What Merta and others are seeing, McDermott said, is the result of declining county revenues and budget cuts. King County cut back its litter control program in an effort to balance the County budget.

And that’s the impetus behind a community clean up event scheduled from 10 am to 1 pm on Saturday, March19. McDermott is spearheading the event with support from Merta and Waste Management.

“We have all been impacted by the cuts made to balance state and county coffers. Communities must work together to fill the void that has been left,” Councilmember McDermott, who represents North Highline, said. “Residents of North Highline love their community, and I’m thrilled to help them keep it clean.”

Volunteers are invited to a free kick-off breakfast at 10am. Breakfast will be hosted by Waste Management at the company’s site at 8111 First Avenue South.

“Waste Management is all about helping make communities cleaner and greener,” said Katie Salinas, public sector manager for Waste Management. “We are inspired by the community spirit that’s driving this event and pleased to provide breakfast to fuel this important volunteer effort.”

Volunteers are urged to bring gloves and to wear sturdy, closed-toe shoes.

For more information, “like” Keep Seattle Beautiful on Facebook.