Zero Waste Plans for Communities

GRRN National Zero Waste Action Conference July 30, 2011, San Diego, CA

By Gary Liss & Associates916-652-7850 gary@garyliss.com; www.garyliss.com

Ask for ZW Goal and Plan

Ask to Adopt Zero Waste as a goal and to direct staff to return with a Plan within 6 months to 1 year

Include Zero Waste as a goal in Sustainability or Climate Change Plans

ZWIA Principles and Practical steps towards Zero Waste

1. Adopt ZWIA Zero Waste definition

2. Establish benchmarks and a timeline to meet goals for measuring success and monitoring accomplishments

Don’t leave Zero Waste to “waste experts.” Involve all organizations that provide

waste reduction, takeback, reuse, recycling and composting services

Challenge all to pursue Zero Waste at home, at school, at university, at work and at play, while communities develop longer term policies and programs

3. Engage the whole community

Existing incinerators must be closed down and no new ones built.

Reform landfill practices to prevent all pollution of air and water Pre-process all residues at landfills before burial to

stabilize organics and prevent methane generation

More energy can be saved, and global warming impacts decreased, by reducing waste, reusing products, recycling and composting than can be produced from burning discards or recovering landfill gases.

4. Manage Resources not Waste4. Manage Resources not Waste

EU LANDFILL DIRECTIVE

Requires all Member States to introduce measures to reduce the quantities of biodegradable material going to landfill, to 35% of 1995 levels by 2016.

Waste must be treated before being landfilled

Avoided Collection & Disposal Costs Use fees levied on tons of waste hauled

or landfilled to fund programs: To develop policies, programs and

facilities To provide startup funds for EPR programs To educate and train Resource Managers

to use a Zero Waste approach To create green jobs

New Rules Stimulate Private Investment

5. Program Funding5. Program Funding

Educate residents, businesses and visitors about new rules & programs

Zero Waste is a strategy not a technology that aims for better organization, better education and better industrial design to achieve the cultural change needed to get to Zero Waste

 6. Education and Outreach6. Education and Outreach

Alameda County Billboards

Alameda County Transit Ads

ID source, amount, type and value of discarded materials

Collect Data locally or get data from comparable communities

Use as baseline to ID recovery and employment opportunities, cost savings, and to measure success of reduction and recovery programs

Evaluate what additional source reduction, takeback, reuse, recycling and composting programs and facilities are needed to make those services more convenient to users than mixed material collection and disposal services.

 7. Zero Waste Assessments7. Zero Waste Assessments

Where would you take this discard? (Circle item if you don’t know;

mark “TB” if you take back to store) 1. Reusables 3. P lant Debris

Working large appliances Leaves & Grass

Working small appliances Prunings and trimmings

Durable plastic Large branches & stumps

Usable textiles and leather 4. Putrescibles

Usable furniture Vegetative food scraps

Usable mattresses Fish and meat waste

Used books and catalogs Compostable paper

Used building materials Sewage sludge and manures

Other bulky items 5. Wood

Other reusables / repairables Untreated wood

2. Paper Treated wood

Cardboard 6. Ceramics

White ledger Concrete

Newsprint Asphalt paving

Magazines / catalogs Mixed C&D

Other office paper

Paperboard

Composite paper and plastic

7. Soils Other plastics

Gypsum wallboard Carpet

Fines (including rocks and dirt) Carpet padding

8. Metals Tires

Aluminum cans Asphalt Roofing

Steel cans 11. Textiles

Ferrous metals Poly fibers

Non-ferrous metals Cotton and wool

Non-working appliances 12. Chemicals and Ewaste

Auto bodies, engines and motors Batteries

9. Glass Motor oil, filters & other auto fluids

Clear glass Paint

Colored glass Fluorescent lights

Mixed glass Pharmaceuticals

Window (flat) glass Other household hazardous wastes

10. Polymers Disposable diapers /hygiene items

# 1 PET (CRV) containers Treated medical waste & syringes

#1 PET containers Treated wood

#2 HDPE (CRV) containers Brown goods

#2 HDPE containers (e.g., milk jugs) Computers and peripherals

#4 LDPE Film, plastic bags TVs and Monitors

Know Your Discards ValueMaterial % in Wastes Value ($/ton)

Reusables 6% $400

Putrescibles 26% $35

Paper 21% $100

Ceramics (C&D) 10% $15

Metals 9% $80

Polymers 9% $150

Soils 6% $15

Glass 4% $25

Textiles 3% $20

Plant Debris 3% $35

Wood 2% $15

Chemicals 1% $200

Richard Anthony, Resource Management in the New Millennium, 2005, http://www.richardanthonyassociates.com/presentations/rm_2005.ppt

To link community responsibility and industrial responsibility

Residuals need to be made very visible to ID Bad industrial design Bad purchasing habits

Change through dedicated research and education

8. Residual Separation & 8. Residual Separation & Research FacilitiesResearch Facilities

Communities can significantly change what is “economic” in the local marketplace with new policies, new rules and new incentives.

Restructure contracts and policies to make the avoided costs of collection and disposal a key engine for moving towards Zero Waste.

9. New Rules and Incentives9. New Rules and Incentives

Hawai’i New Rules & Incentives Producer and Retailer Responsibility,

take-back of non-recyclable, reusable or compostable products and materials

Source Separation (of designated organics, reusables & recyclables)

Compostable Organics out of Landfill Construction & Demolition (C&D) reuse

and recycling plans & permits

Businesses take back products and packaging at no cost to the public

Advocate for state and national EPR policies

Incentive to redesign products to be less toxic and easier to reuse and recycle

Don’t export harm and properly reuse, recycle or compost

Support small, local businesses and nonprofits

10. Extended Producer 10. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)Responsibility (EPR)

Remove subsidies for wasting locally controlled, and call for removal of others Tax incentives for mining and timber

harvesting Subsidies for “Energy from Waste” Landfill regulations that inadequately address

leachate, methane generation and perpetual long-term care

Shift community adopted garbage rates to Pay As You Throw incentives

11. End subsidies for wasting11. End subsidies for wasting

Adopt Precautionary Principle for municipal purchases

Purchase Zero Waste products and services Avoid single use products and packaging Return to vendors wasteful packaging Reduce packaging and buy in larger units Use reusable shipping containers Purchase reused, recycled and compost products Buy remanufactured equipment Lease, rent and share equipment Buy durables (using life-cycle cost analyses) Encourage businesses and Institutions to follow

12. Zero Waste Procurement12. Zero Waste Procurement

13. Zero Waste Infrastructure Develop locations for reuse,

recycling and composting, including Resource Recovery Parks

Get Compostable Organics out of Landfills and back to the soil

Support Zero Waste practices at businesses and institutions

Adopt deconstruction, reuse and recycling policies citywide for Construction, Demolition, Landclearing and Remodeling (C&D)

Support locally owned and operated local enterprises.

Resource Recovery Park, U.K.

Thousands of Businesses already divert over 90% of their wastes from landfill & incineration

Zero Waste Businesses reduce costs, increase efficiency, decrease carbon footprint and decrease long-term liability

ID, recognize and promote Zero Waste Businesses locally and challenge others to follow.

14. Zero Waste Businesses14. Zero Waste Businesses

Reduce First!

Design out Waste Waste is not Inevitable Businesses save the most by

eliminating inefficient practices Refuse and Return Takebacks

Review Data, Policies and ProgramsParticipation Strategy Service Opportunities Analysis Policies, Programs and Facilities OptionsEconomics & Impacts (Jobs, GHG)Implementation Plan (including timeline & “low-hanging fruit” for quick success)

Zero Waste Plan Scope

Key Lessons for Pursuing ZW

Someone Has to ASK to Adopt ZW Envt. Group, Staff, Elected, State

Connect to Other Problems Jobs, Economy, Facility Siting,

Sustainability, Climate Change Educate and Build Support ID & Promote Local ZW Businesses

Resolution for Zero WasteWHEREAS:The placement of materials in waste disposal facilities, such as landfills and

incinerators, causes damage to human health, wastes natural resources and/or inappropriately transfers liabilities to future generations, and

Landfills are the single largest man-made source of methane in the United States, and contribute significantly to global warming, and

Reduced wasting, and increased reuse, recycling and composting could dramatically help reverse climate changes, and

Communities are currently forced to assume the high financial cost of collecting, recycling, and disposing of increasingly complex and toxic products and packaging, which is an unfunded mandate, and

A resource management based economy will create and sustain more productive and meaningful jobs, and

Subsidies for wasting and use of virgin materials send the wrong economic signals to both consumers and producers, and

Federal, state and local governments around the world are adopting policies to hold producers financially and/or physically responsible for collecting, recycling, and properly handling of products and packaging, and

Resolution for Zero WasteProducers should design products to ensure that they can be safely

reused or recycled back into the marketplace or nature, and Most toxic product and packaging waste can be eliminated through

the use of non-toxic alternatives in product design, and Voluntary recycling goals have not reduced wasting sufficiently, and Zero Waste policies and programs will establish practical ways in our

community to eliminate waste or safely reuse, recycle or compost discarded products and packaging;

 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT 

The [City/ County/ Organization] hereby adopts a Zero Waste goal and directs staff to return with a Zero Waste Plan to implement that goal within one year.

If you’re not for Zero Waste,

how much waste are you for?