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Zero Waste Blueprint for Sustainability

Zero Waste =

• Zero Waste (efficiency in operations)

• Create jobs from discards

• End welfare for wasting (level the playing field, tax reform)

Efficiency in Operations

• Matter and energy are constants E=MC2– Stuff exists

• There is no “away”– Your away is my backyard

• No such thing as a free lunch– Your free lunch is your grandchildren's dinner

Revenue and Jobs from Discards

Clean DozenSM

Master CategoriesJobs Tons

per YearMarket Price

$/T (est.)

Total Value of Discards in Delaware ($)

1. Reuse 350 28,000 550 15,400,000

2. Paper 65 370,000 20 7,400,000

3. Plant Trimmings 30 100,000 7 700,000

4. Putrescibles 85 190,000 7 1,330,000

5. Wood 24 40,000 4 320,000

6. Ceramics 7 20,000 4 80,000

7. Soils 20 10,000 7 70,000

8. Metals 35 60,000 40 2,400,000

9. Glass 75 30,000 10 300,000

10. Polymers 1,020 110,000 100 11,000,000

11. Textiles 340 40,000 200 8,000,000

12. Chemicals 4 2,000 15 30,000

Total 2,055 1,000,000 47,030,000

End Welfare for Wasting (level the playing field, tax reform)

• Producer Responsibility (What you produce

and how you produce it)

• Consumer Responsibility (What you buy)

Responsibility

Products that don’t hurt the environment

or the workers and consumers

Producer Responsibility

Buy products that can be repaired, recycled or composted

Consumer Responsibility

ZZero ero WWaste aste MManagementanagement

Down StreamDown Stream• • CompostingComposting• • RecyclingRecycling

Up StreamUp Stream• • Clean ProductionClean Production

• • Product RedesignProduct Redesign

Who’s doing it? Communities in California that have adopted Zero Waste as a goal now include:

• City of El Cajon

• City and County of San Francisco

• Cities of Oakland, Palo Alto and Berkeley

• Counties of San Luis Obispo and Del Norte

• Marin County Solid Waste Management Authority

• Santa Cruz County (and separate adoption of Zero Waste as a goal by all 4 cities in the county)

The following companies are already diverting 90% or more of their waste:

• Anheuser-Busch, Fairfield, CA• American Honda Motor Company• Apple Computer, Elk Grove, CA • Bank of America• Epson, Inc., Hillsboro, OR • Fetzer Vineyards • Hewlett-Packard, Roseville, CA • Kaiser Permanente• Pillsbury, Eden Prairie facility, MN • Ricoh Electronics• San Diego Wild Animal Park• Seaman's Beverages• Toyota• Vons-Safeway, Southern California and Southern Nevada District• The Walt Disney Company• Xerox Corp., Rochester, NY

Why are these communities and Why are these communities and businesses implementing businesses implementing

Zero Waste programs?Zero Waste programs?

It’s a win, win, win, win thing for all of us…

• Creates jobs

• Saves wildlife and ecosystems

• Saves taxpayers and businesses money

• Reduces pressure on raw or virgin resources

• Reduces pollution (including greenhouse gas emissions)

Benefits of Zero Waste:

A simple formula: Sustainability equals Zero Wasting

• Population increases exponentially

• Pollution, food per capita follow

• Resources decrease

• Value of recycled resources increase

• “Limits to Growth” meadows

Rather than cradle to grave disposal, Zero Waste favors cradle to cradle, and a

closed loop economy

Black Hole

Zero Waste Employs the 6 “R’s” of Sustainable Resource Management

Reduce (source reduction)

Redesign (reduced packaging, longer lasting products, recycled materials or materials that are recyclable, etc.)

Repair

Reuse (durable vs. single use products, i.e. cameras, napkins)

Recycle (everything else)

Regulate

Type of Operation Jobs per 10,000 TPY

Product Reuse

Computer reuse 296

Textile reclamation 85

Misc. durable reuse 62

Wooden pallet repair 28

Recycling-Based Manufacturers 25

Paper mills 18

Glass product manufacturers 26

Plastic product manufacturers 93

Conventional Materials Recovery Facilities 10

Composting 4

Landfilling and Incineration 1

Zero Waste Programs Create New Jobs and New Industries

How do we get to Zero Waste (or darn close!)

• Pursue waste prevention, reuse, repair, recycling and composting, and ban materials and products that don’t allow for these activities

• Promote repair, resale and reuse of durable products made of fewer material types and designed for recyclability when they outlive their usefulness

• Recognize that most environmental impacts from products (e.g. pollutants created, energy consumed, habitat destroyed) come from resource extraction and industries “upstream” of consumers, rather than from their disposal in landfills

• Move from a linear, consumption-driven economy to a cyclical, service-oriented economy

• Provide economic incentives: Tax pollution and waste, not labor and income

• Eliminate corporate welfare for wasting

• Encourage use of recycled content products by manufacturers

• Work with manufacturers, product designers, advertisers and consumers to share responsibility for the products produced and used prior to disposal

All discards can be sorted into twelve categories…

Delaware Discards Sorted into the 12 Market Catogries

Note: Half of the Pie is Organic Material Suitable for Composting

Metals

6% Glass

3%

Paper

37%

Wood

4%

Soils

1%

Textiles

4%

Ceramics

2%

Chemicals

0%Reuse

3%

Polymers

11%

Putrescibles

19%

Plant Debris

10%

Master Category Clusters• Paper and Containers

– Paper, metals, glass, polymers

• Organics– Food, vegetative debris, food dirty paper, paper, plant

debris, putrescibles, wood

• Discarded items – Furniture, appliances, clothing, toys, tools, reusable goods,

textiles

• Special discards – Chemicals, construction and demolition materials, wood,

ceramics, soils

Reuse and Repair

Recycling

Composting

Special Discards

Provide Incentives before Ban or Mandate

Eliminate Waste by Designing Out of Products and Processes

Foster Sustainable and Green Businesses

Retailers Take Back Difficult to Recycle Materials

Resource Recovery Park

Producer Responsibility

Expand City Outreach & Technical Assistance and Lead by Example

Jobs from Design & Discards

© Copyright Eco-Cycle, 2004 with text modifications by permission. www.ecocycle.org/zerowaste/zwsystem

Empowered Consumer

Palo Alto Zero Waste System

Model Zero Waste Strategic Plan (Palo Alto, California)

MISSION

Divert 75% of discarded materials from landfills or incinerators by 2010 and achieve Zero Waste, or close to it, by 2020.

SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

1. Design and manage products and processes to reduce the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them. Ask product designers and marketers to consider Zero Waste to be a critical design criterion.

2. Increase incentives for waste generators and service providers to design out waste and separate materials for their highest and best uses.

3. Develop programs and policies to address specific needs of each major sector in Palo Alto: manufacturers; retailers; restaurants; medical services; offices; and single-family and multi-family residential dwellings.

4. Increase reuse, recycling and composting collection and processing options and develop new markets that add value to materials recovered and minimize residues requiring disposal. Zero Waste systems should be particularly encouraged that provide the greatest economic development benefit for the region (e.g., jobs, increased tax base).

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan Continued

SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

5. Engage community-wide support to achieve Zero Waste through more interactive community participation, outreach and education programs. Encourage people to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are resources for others to use. Coordinate outreach programs for sustainability and pollution prevention with Zero Waste, waste prevention and recycling programs, and use Zero Waste Business Principles as basis for their evaluation of business performance. (Obtain input and include recommendations from City staff and Zero Waste Task Force on other opportunities for local, countywide and regional education and outreach programs that would support Zero Waste messages.)

6. Minimize environmental impacts and City liabilities from wasting and ensure that the burdens and benefits of zero waste systems are equitably distributed. Eliminate all discharges to land, water or air that may be a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health.

7. City lead by example to achieve Zero Waste goals for all facilities owned or leased by the City.

KEY STRATEGIES, Years 2005-10

STRATEGY 1: Determine how and where materials are discarded, and establish a monitoring and tracking database system to evaluate performance of diversion and source reduction programs by material type and sector. Identify the value of materials that are currently being landfilled, and the potential for additional recovery through expanded reuse, recycling and composting.

STRATEGY 2: Ask local businesses to adopt Zero Waste goals, to develop Zero Waste plans, to adhere to Zero Waste Business principles, (1) to meet waste diversion targets, and to source separate designated materials that can be reused, recycled or composted.

STRATEGY 3: Adopt policies and economic incentives to restructure the marketplace to encourage waste prevention, reuse, recycling & composting. Change Ordinances, contracts, franchises, permits, zoning, General Plans and garbage rate structures so that it is cheapest to stop discarding materials, and reusing, recycling or composting discarded materials is cheaper than landfilling or incineration.

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan Continued

KEY STRATEGIES, Years 2005-10

STRATEGY 4: Develop programs and policies to address specific needsa) Residential discarded food (2) collection and composting

b) Expanded institutional and commercial recycling; particularly for paper recycling and other services needed for top 4 waste generating sectors (Medical/Health Services; Restaurants; Other Retail Trade; and Business Services)

c) Institutional and commercial discarded food collection and composting

d) Expanded emphasis on deconstruction and support for adaptive reuse

e) Expanded recovery, reuse and recycling of used building materials

f) Expanded support for collection and drop-off of other reusable products

g) Successful implementation of City’s new ordinance to encourage construction, remodeling, land clearing and demolition debris recycling.

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan Continued

KEY STRATEGIES, Years 2005-10

STRATEGY 5: Support existing reuse, recycling and composting businesses and nonprofit organizations and help them expand to the degree the operators of them want to do so, to minimize public investments required. Develop locally owned and independent infrastructure, on an open, competitive basis.(3) Develop local or regional resource recovery park(s) to provide locations for expansion of reuse, recycling and composting businesses.

STRATEGY 6: Extend use of landfills (Palo Alto and Kirby Canyon) as long as possible, so don’t have to arrange for more capacity elsewhere. Minimize long-term landfill liabilities by ensuring that full capital and operating, closure and post-closure costs are factored into current rates and financial assurances.

STRATEGY 7: Adopt Precautionary Principle and expand focus on purchasing environmentally preferable products. Help City’s Sustainable Purchasing Committee to expand the purchase of environmentally preferable products. Encourage or require all new private construction and major renovation projects in Palo Alto to follow the lead of the City’s Green Building policy and build only LEED-certified Green Buildings.

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan Continued

KEY STRATEGIES, Years 2005-10

STRATEGY 8: Support state and federal policies to eliminate subsidies, internalize externalities for virgin material production and wasting, and involve producers in taking physical and/or financial responsibility for their products and packaging to reuse, repair or recycle them back into nature or the marketplace. Work with other local governments and businesses to build useful alliances and share successes.

STRATEGY 9: Adopt Zero Waste as an economic development priority to make Palo Alto businesses more sustainable and globally competitive.

STRATEGY 10: Fund community Zero Waste initiatives with fees levied on the transport, transfer and disposal of wastes and by leveraging the investments of the private sector. Structure fees and taxes in ways that provide additional incentives for designing out waste, reuse, recycling and composting.

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan Continued

KEY STRATEGIES, Years 2005-10

STRATEGY 11: Develop Zero Waste Implementation Plan (ZWIP) after the City updates its detailed 1997 waste characterization study (scheduled for FY2005-2006), to detail proposed policies and programs, budget and cost implications, and timing of implementation. Identify City priorities for additional publicly financed facilities to support to be developed, including appropriate reuse, recycling and/or composting activities for Palo Alto Landfill site consistent with existing zoning once the landfill is closed.

Recommendations must be environmentally sustainable, practically implementable, economically viable, and socially responsible. Do not implement local bans, mandates and required product stewardship policies until the adoption of the ZWIP and evaluation of progress over the course of the year after adoption of the City’s Zero Waste Policy. However, immediately support state and federal producer responsibility and advanced recycling charges for difficult to recycle or toxic materials. Evaluate implementation of new policies and programs and recommend how to continuously improve them after adoption of the ZWIP.

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan Continued

KEY STRATEGIES with TACTICS

Include appropriate tactics from “Menu of Policy Options” and program recommendations after agreeing on Mission, Objectives and Strategies (similar to those suggested in Draft 1 of the “Outline of Palo Alto ZW Action Plan”).

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan Continued

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