Can zero waste work for your jurisdiction?
To answer that question, we have featured the City of Burbank and the Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority (DNSWMA), a regional agency, in this edition of infoCycling. Without a doubt, these two jurisdictions are working hard to promote zero waste in their communities. Burbank’s goal is to instill the concept of zero waste in residents and businesses, and DNSWMA has implemented a zero waste plan.
Throughout this edition, we have graphically displayed tools from the Board's Local Government Central Web site (www.ciwmb.ca.gov/LGCentral/) to illustrate the progress these jurisdictions have made. If you are curious about how your jurisdiction measures up, please go to the Web site and find out.
Before we discuss why and how Burbank and DNSWMA are striving for zero waste, let’s define zero waste.
What is zero waste?
There are two schools of thought on the meaning of zero waste as a goal.
· Some jurisdictions believe that zero waste can be achieved. They believe everything can be recycled, reused, or composted and nothing needs to be, or should be, disposed.
· Some jurisdictions do not believe waste can be completely eliminated, but that all segments of society can and should continue to work together to implement effective recycling, reuse, and composting programs. The expectation in this school of thought is that by working toward zero waste, we can eliminate the maximum amount of waste, but we will still have some residual disposal.
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City of Burbank's race to zero waste
The City of Burbank, located in Los Angeles County, currently has a population of about 100,000, with about 5,000 businesses.
Burbank first presented the idea of zero waste to its businesses and residents in the summer 1997 edition of its citywide newsletter, Burbank Recycles.
This newsletter, now called Burbank Public Works, is mailed to all 48,000 Burbank residential and business addresses. Because of the positive responses received and the number of businesses interested in the city’s recycling programs, Burbank implemented the "Race to Zero Waste Program."
The Race to Zero Waste Program is an underlying driving force behind the Burbank Recycle Center.
Burbank looks at all avenues to try to eliminate waste and achieve zero waste. For example, Recycling Coordinator Al Zorn, Recycling Specialist Hope Mc Aloon, and other public works staff members continue to search for ideas and programs on how to avoid waste.
Their ideas include expanding the variety of recyclables collected and interesting more people in recycling and composting by educating them. One emphasis is on educating school children in hopes that the children will educate the adults in their life.
Burbank believes that the best way to reduce waste is not to create it in the first place and to continually educate the public to reduce, reuse, and recycle. By practicing these "3 R's," the city achieves the results it is looking for, which include saving money (by lengthening the life of the city’s landfill).
For instance, the Burbank Recycle Center holds free composting workshops and gives a backyard composter to Burbank residents that attend.
The idea is that if residents compost at home for three or more years, the cost of the workshops and composters will be paid for through savings the city realizes from not having to collect, transport, and process the green waste.
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City of Burbank’s Race to Zero Waste, continued from page 2
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Although Burbank already has successful diversion programs (see the Jurisdiction Waste Diversion Program and Diversion Rate Summary Web page for Burbank below), it continues to implement new programs and plan innovative ones for the future to strive for waste reduction and zero waste.
Burbank's success in diverting waste is also depicted on a chart found on the Board’s Web site (Reporting Year (RY) Non-Residential Disposal per $100 Taxable Sales of Jurisdictions with Similar Taxable Sales—see page 4.)
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Planning Annual Report Information System (PARIS)www.ciwmb.ca.gov/LGTools/PARIS/JurPgmSu.asp
Jurisdiction Waste Diversion Program and Diversion Rate Summary
Jurisdiction Program and Diversion
Summary in 1998 for Burbank
Diversion Rate (%): 62
Component Name / Program Name
Source Reduction / Xeriscaping/Grasscycling
Backyard and On-Site Composting/Mulching
Business Waste Reduction Program
Procurement
School Source Reduction Programs
Material Exchange, Thrift Shops
Other Source Reduction
Recycling / Residential Curbside
Residential Drop-Off
Residential Buy-Back
Commercial On-Site Pickup
School Recycling Programs
Special Collection Seasonal (regular)
Composting / Residential Curbside Greenwaste Collection
Government Composting Programs
Special Waste Materials / Tires
White Goods
Wood Waste
Concrete/Asphalt/Rubble
Public Education / Electronic (radio,TV, web, hotlines)
Print (brochures, flyers, guides, news articles)
Outreach (tech assistance, presentations, awards, fairs, field trips)
Schools (education and curriculum)
Policy Incentives / Economic Incentives
Ordinances
Facility Recovery / Material Recovery Facility
Landfill
Total number of programs: 27
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City of Burbank’s Race to Zero Waste, continued from page 3
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The chart below shows that Burbank's non-residential disposal per $100 of taxable sales is less than that of most jurisdictions with similar taxable sales. This higher level of “waste efficiency” may be because Burbank’s businesses are working toward zero waste.
The smaller Burbank businesses are given the same 65-gallon blue recycling carts on wheels for weekly collection that residents receive. If a business has more material than will fit into two or three blue carts, the city provides white recycling bins of various sizes (two- to six-cubic yards) that are collected up to five times a week. The size of the bin and frequency of collection accommodates the space available for the bin and the quantity of material collected.
Burbank is fortunate to have large businesses that are environmentally conscious. Warner Bros. and the Walt Disney Company, for example,
have been honored nationwide for their waste reduction practices. These businesses compost and even teach composting at times.
Other waste reduction activities: Since 1995, the city has been collecting and recycling tons of undelivered non-first class mail each month from the local U.S. post office. The city collects recyclables from multi-family complexes with over 700 units. Burbank schools have recycling bins, and a few of the schools recycle half their waste.
Burbank continues to consider and plan for future food waste diversion programs. Portions of Web pages from the Board's Solid Waste Characterization Database (depicted on page 5) show that food waste is probably Burbank's number one material type disposed in waste streams of both the residential and commercial sectors.
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City of Burbank’s Race to Zero Waste, continued from page 4
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Solid Waste Characterization Database www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WasteChar/JurisSel.aspOverall Residential Waste Stream by Material Type
The table below shows the estimated composition of waste typically disposed by single family and multifamily residences within California. Total tonnage for each jurisdiction is computed using regional per capita disposal rates obtained in the 1999 Statewide Waste Characterization Study. This is average data and may not reflect actual composition for a specific jurisdiction.
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Commercial Waste Stream by Material
SS
BURBANK: 1999 Materials Disposed by Residential Sector, Estimated from Statewide Composition Data, Sorted by Total Disposal
Single Family Units: / 21,068 / Population: / 106,500
Multi/Mobile Units: / 21,874 / Region: / Southern
Regional estimate for overall residential waste in tons/resident/year: 0.41
Statewide estimate for multifamily waste in tons/unit/year: 0.46
Material Type / Single Family
Est. % / Single Family
Est. Tons / Multi Family
Est. % / Multi Family
Est. Tons / Overall Residential
Est. % / Overall Residential
Est. Tons
Food / 17.4% / 5,852 / 27.2% / 2,738 / 20.0% / 8,733
Leaves and Grass / 12.7% / 4,284 / 4.2% / 419 / 10.5% / 4,577
Remainder/Composite Organic / 9.5% / 3,191 / 9.4% / 949 / 9.5% / 4,139
Remainder/Composite Paper / 8.2% / 2,754 / 7.7% / 773 / 8.1% / 3,519
City of Burbank’s Race to Zero Waste, continued from page 4
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Solid Waste Characterization Database www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WasteChar/JurisSel.aspOverall Commercial Waste Stream by Material Type
The numbers and types of businesses in a jurisdiction determine its commercial/industrial waste stream. The table below shows an overview of the disposed waste stream for the entire commercial sector with all the businesses combined, in the selected jurisdiction(s). The overall composition is estimated based on the business makeup and typical business waste compositions.
Home | Site Map | New Jurisdiction(s) Sort by: Disposal
Commercial Waste Stream by Business Group
SS
BURBANK: 1999 Overall Commercial Waste Stream Sorted by Percent of Waste Stream for BURBANK
Material Type / Annual Disposal Tonnage / Percent of Commercial Stream
Food / 15,163 / 15.7%
Remainder/Composite Paper / 13,689 / 14.2%
Uncoated Corrugated Cardboard / 7,246 / 7.5%
Leaves and Grass / 5,355 / 5.5%
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City of Burbank’s Race to Zero Waste, continued from page 5
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Some of Burbank's current efforts in educating residents, schools, and businesses about food waste diversion include handing out information at compost workshops, mailing brochures, including inserts in utility bills, and including announcements and articles in Burbank Public Works.
Some examples are:
· Reminding residents that they can put fruit from their trees into the green waste container (to be composted off site) or in their backyard composter.
· Reminding residents that vegetables from their gardens can be put in their backyard composter.
· Educating residents and schools about worm composting (vermicomposting). Burbank Recycle Center also gives tours of its Learning Center to educate school children and adults about vermicomposting (about 1,500 children participate in these tours per year).
· Giving composters to a few small, local restaurants to compost food scraps (and yard trimmings) on site.
· Teaching a composting session at Burbank High School this year.
Burbank's future efforts in educating residents and businesses about food waste diversion may include:
· Offering vermicomposting programs for schools and residents.
· Featuring articles in Burbank Public Works on ways to divert food scraps.
Burbank received the “California League of Cities Helen Putnam Award for Excellence” in the category of land use and environmental quality for its zero waste program.
When the Burbank Recycle Center's Public Works director, Bruce Feng, presented the award to the Burbank City Council in August 2000, he said, "This award is for Burbank's old, new, and future reducing, reusing, and recycling efforts."
Burbank says it will continue to develop new diversion programs. "Just as advertisers constantly change their ads and create new themes to sell products, recycling must attract with new concepts, programs and promotion," states Hope Mc Aloon, recycling specialist at the Burbank Recycle Center.
For additional information on Burbank's Race to Zero Waste Program, contact Hope Mc Aloon or Al Zorn with the Burbank Recycle Center at (818) 238-3900, or e-mail Hope at or Al at . You may also contact Steve Uselton of the Board's State and Local Assistance Branch at (213) 576-5704 or at .
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Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority—
Regional agency adopts zero waste plan
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Del Norte County, Crescent City, and the unincorporated towns of Smith River, Gasquet, Hiouchi, and Klamath worked together as a joint powers authority (JPA) from 1992 to 1997 to meet Integrated Waste Management Act goals.
The Board approved the Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority’s (DNSWMA) request to be treated as a regional agency in August 1997.
The population of the jurisdictions within the DNSWMA is about 28,000, which includes approximately 3,300 prisoners at the Pelican State Prison. There are a combined total of about 1,000 businesses within the DNSWMA.
The DNSWMA adopted the Del Norte Zero Waste Plan on February 15, 2000. The fact that the only landfill in Del Norte County will be closing within three years played an important role in the decision to adopt a zero waste plan. DNSWMA expects disposal fees to nearly double as waste is exported to other disposal facilities.
To keep disposal costs low and to comply with the elements of the Del Norte Countywide Integrated Waste Management Plan, the DNSWMA intends to increase the reuse, recycling, and composting programs outlined in its zero waste plan.
Programs will be implemented based on:
· Need to have a particular diversion program in place immediately. (For example, there is an immediate need for a diversion program targeting sewage sludge because this material is difficult to manage and will continue to be generated after Del Norte County’s only landfill closes.)
· Ease and cost of implementing a diversion program.
· Potential percentage of the disposed waste stream that could be recovered by implementing a diversion program.
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DNSWMA’s Zero Waste Plan, continued from page 7
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DNSWMA’s diversion efforts should be noted. The Jurisdiction Waste Diversion Program and Diversion Rate Summary Web page (see below) from the Board's Local Government Central Web site lists DNSWMA’s current waste diversion programs. This page gives a picture of DNSWMA’s efforts in implementing successful diversion programs.
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Planning Annual Report Information System (P A R I S) www.ciwmb.ca.gov/LGTools/PARIS/JurPgmSu.aspJurisdiction Waste Diversion Program and Diversion Rate Summary
Jurisdiction Program and Diversion
Summary in 1998 for Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority
Diversion Rate (%): 40
Component Name / Program Name
Source Reduction / Backyard and On-Site Composting/Mulching
Procurement
Material Exchange, Thrift Shops
Recycling / Residential Curbside
Residential Drop-Off
Residential Buy-Back
Commercial On-Site Pickup
Commercial Self-Haul
Special Collection Seasonal (regular)
Special Collection Events
Other Recycling
Composting / Food Waste Composting
Special Waste Materials / White Goods
Scrap Metal
Wood Waste
Concrete/Asphalt/Rubble
Rendering
Public Education / Electronic (radio ,TV, web, hotlines)
Print (brochures, flyers, guides, news articles)
Outreach (tech assistance, presentations, awards, fairs, field trips)
Schools (education and curriculum)
Policy Incentives / Product and Landfill Bans
Economic Incentives
Facility Recovery / Landfill
Transfer Station
Alternative Daily Cover
Transformation / Biomass
Total number of programs: 27
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