Communities partner to make sustainable organics recycling possible
An article in the December issue of MSW Management titled Rethinking Sustainable Organics included a quote from Henry Wallace, secretary of agriculture to President Franklin Roosevelt. The quote is:
“[n]ature treats the earth unkindly. Man treats her harshly. He over plows the cropland, overgrazes the pastureland, and overcuts the timberland. He destroys millions of acres completely. He pours fertility year after year into the cities, which in turn pour what they do not use down the sewers into the rivers and the ocean… The public is waking up, and just in time. In another 30 years it might have been too late.”
United States Department of Agriculture’s Soils and Men: Yearbook of Agriculture, 1936
In 1936, we already knew that through unsustainable management of cut trees, shrubs, and spoiled or leftover food we were depleting fertile soil of carbon and other nutrients. These materials can be managed to provide a soil amendment that returns minerals and carbon to the ground so that a piece of land will remain fertile despite years of cultivation that would otherwise depleted it. Bob Shaffer, an agronomist, says that only 10% of the planet has land that is suitable to raise crops and fortunately, over time, compost made from recycled food scraps has been embraced by farmers.
Recology has been working for 15 years with the City of San Francisco to make food scraps recycling possible. Now, 60% of what we at Recology touch in San Francisco stays out of landfills. One way we do this is through advanced composting processes, technology and the knowledge we’ve gained over 15 years. Greg Pryor, manager of Jepson Prairie Organics has mastered the process through testing all kinds of technologies and techniques at the composting facility, which opened in 1996. Jepson Prairie Organics is located among agricultural lands in Northern California, and has created 1,100,000 tons of compost since it opened. The composting processes that Recology has developed have resulted in VOC emissions that are far below state minimum requirements, prevent the creation of methane gas, and create a specially-blended compost and compost teas that are useful to biodynamic farmers.
Closing the loop on sustainable farming is possible when communities that consider sustainability issues as they plan their garbage programs–or resource recovery programs in the case of San Francisco–are willing to partner with companies like Recology in this great experiment of human social and ecological survival. We are glad that more and more cities are catching on.
Junk: a symphony, a book, a treasure
New Music
In the spring of 2010, Nathaniel Stookey, a participant in the Recology San Francisco Artist in Residence program, performed a composition called Junkestra at the San Francisco Symphony. It was played with more than thirty instruments made entirely from objects that were discarded at the San Francisco Dump. Among them were bird cages, bicycle wheels, drawers, sewer pipes, railings, saws, and fixtures. And somehow, Stookey pulled it off. Cnet.com published a nice article about the project, which included a link to the composition’s third movement that you can download here (3MB). Just two years earlier, in 2008, the composition was part of the opening of the California Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park, and was made into a CD performed by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra.
The Book
There are other treasures that have emerged from the Artist in Residence program. For over twenty years, the program has inspired artists and the public to see garbage in a different way. Through the program, artists scavange the “junk” that people throw away–sometimes the volume of useful things can be overwhelming–and they transform what they find into works of art. Last year, Recology produced Art at the Dump: The Artist in Residence Program and Environmental Learning Center at Recology, a book that profiles the 78 artists who had participated in the program since its founding.
Cultural Treasure
The program has won numerous awards and recognition, including the Best Art from Trash – 2011 award from SFWeekly, The Acterra Business Environmental Award in 2009, inspired Recology’s GLEAN (formerly the Pacific Northwest Art Program) in Portland, RAIR (Recycled Artist in Residence) in Philadelphia, and was recently profiled for being the nexus of environmental activism. The program has become a beacon of culture, education and entertainment in San Francisco.
Join us for the first exhibit of 2012! 503 Tunnel Avenue in San Francisco.
- Upscale by Kaiya Rainbolt
Cupertino’s Environmental Recycling Day and Shredding Event
The City of Cupertino and Recology South Bay have teamed up to bring you an Environmental Recycling Day and Shredding Event on January 21st!
Location: Parking Lot A of De Anza College, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd in Cupertino
Cupertino residents can shred their documents, drop off their yard clippings for composting and recycle e-waste such as computers, monitors and certain appliances. We will also accept reusable furniture, clothing and shoes as well as toys and play structures for recycling.
Unacceptable materials include painted or treated wood, mattresses and products containing toxic chemicals, such as paints, pesticides and fertilizers.
This collaboration between the city of Cupertino and Recology (it happens twice a year) is to offer a free drive-through, drop-off service for Cupertino residents in an effort to encourage extended use of products and prevent valuable resources from being sent to landfills.
Each household is allowed one trip, and unloading of materials will be the responsibility of the resident. Residents must also provide a current waste collection bill and personal identification such as a driver’s license to verify Cupertino residency.
For more information, call Recology South Bay, which serves Cupertino at 408.725.4020 or visit http://www.recologysouthbay.com.
Thanks for recycling!
A successful Coats for Kids drive made for a warm holiday
- Snow people made of old light bulbs
It’s been a great holiday. Cabinet and Lighting Supply in Reno, Nevada came up with a creative way to reuse old light bulbs. Many people rented or recycled their Christmas trees. For the fifth year in a row, Recology Vacaville Solano and Recology Dixon employee owners worked with a local agency to help a family in need have a special Christmas. The Recology Yuba-Sutter donated new blankets and tarps to the Red Cross and Recology San Mateo County collected coats for kids, teenagers and adults in six Peninsula cities and various drop off locations.
The Coats for Kids collection program concluded on Dec. 20th and Recology San Mateo County would like to thank the cities and residents of Belmont, Burlingame, Foster City, Menlo Park, Redwood City and San Carlos for their participation in this worthwhile program.
Residents in the participating communities placed coats in a clear plastic bag marked “Coats for Kids” next to or on the top of their blue recycling cart on their regular collection day for pick up by the Recology collection drivers. Collection containers labeled “Coats for Kids” were also placed at various locations throughout several communities and Recology’s office where residents were also able to drop off coats.
In just days, Recology and all participating cities in San Mateo County collected over 750 coats! The coats were then sorted by Recology staff and donated to St. Anthony’s Church and Samaritan House for distribution to those families in need.
Recology San Mateo County General Manager, Mario Puccinelli was glad to do it. “Recology has been providing our Coats for Kids Program for many years in the communities we service. It has proven to be a great program helping those in dividuals and families in need,” he said.
The Coats for Kids program is going to be held annually by Recology San Mateo County with the hopes of having more communities participate next year.
 Recology San Mateo County (Gino Gasparini) unloading coats at St. Anthony’s. |
 Left to right, Sandra Tinoco and Yvette Madera (Recology), Father Medina (St. Anthony’s), Sarah Prescott (Recology) |
 Tammy Del Bene on Santa’s lap along with the rest of the Recology crew and the Menlo Park Firefighters Association which was donating and distributing “Toys” that same day at St. Anthony’s.Left to right, Sandra Tinoco and Yvette Madera (Recology), Father Medina (St. Anthony’s), Sarah Prescott (Recology) |
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About Recology San Mateo County:
Recology San Mateo County was chosen in 2008 by RethinkWaste to provide recycling, compost and garbage collection services for its twelve member agencies. Recology’s roots in recycling go back to the 1920s in San Francisco, when garbage men, known then as “scavengers,” actively sought out alternative uses for refuse.
1 Million Tons of Food-Scraps
Photo: Sarah Rice / Special to The Chronicle
Today, Recology San Francisco collected it’s 1 millionth ton of food scraps for composting.
Since the pilot program launched in the mid 1990s, the program has grown in popularity and acceptance. It was in 2009, however, that participation in the program became a requirement. Following San Francisco’s example, over 90 cities across the world have created similar laws, says the San Francisco Chronicle.
Photo: Sarah Rice / Special to The Chronicle
The food scraps—what is leftover from dinner at a restaurant or what went bad in the refrigerator—are composted and sent on to farms and vineyards in Northern California. Besides increasing San Francisco’s landfill diversion rate up to 78%, compost may be said to help prevent further desertification in the United States. The USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service provides a map of the regions that are vulnerable to desertification. The state of California is one of them.
This Thanksgiving, remember to compost your food scraps. We need them for next year’s crops.
Composting tips
1. Place a paper bag inside the kitchen pail provided for compost, or line it with newspaper to avoid a mess. Remember not to use plastic bags – they’re not compostable
2. Sprinkle baking soda on the compost if it starts to smell.
3. Deter flies with citrus, lavender, eucalyptus or lemongrass oils by placing a few drops on a cloth and leaving it inside or on top of the pail.
4. Check to see if something is compostable before you throw it away. Take-out containers, pizza boxes, coffee cups and wine corks are all compostable.
5. If you generate almost no garbage, you may be able to utilize the 20-gallon cart service, which can save you $2 per month.
(src: Recology San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle, page C2)
Using ADC to get landfill diversion
Recology has been working to transform the landfill industry for over a decade. It’s not as simple as it sounds. Landfills are the place where we put all the things that cities and towns don’t recycle, the things that we don’t yet know how to recycle, and the things that were made without any thought given to their recoverability. Unfortunately, product designers are still slow to catch up on making recoverable products. Many municipal programs still don’t offer complete recycling and composting programs throughout the U.S. Many families, businesses and well-meaning people don’t understand composting. And then there are all the other quirky things, like ADC for example.
In California, 10% or nearly 3.5 million tons of the 34.9 million tons of material that were disposed of last year (including what was landfilled in California, imported and exported) was alternative daily cover, or ADC. According to CalRecycle, ADC is:
CalRecycle-approved materials other than soil used as a temporary overlay on an exposed landfill face. Generally, these materials must be processed so that they do not allow gaps in the face surface, which would provide breeding grounds for insects and vermin. Public Resources Code section 41781.3 stipulates this practice is recycling, not disposal, and authorizes Cal Recycle to adopt regulations, such as Title 27 California Code of Regulations, section 20690. Approved materials include processed green materials, sludge, ash and kiln residue, compost, construction and demolition debris, and special foams and fabrics.
In other words, ADC is material that actually goes to the landfill, and for all intents and purposes is landfilled, but ADC is counted as landfill diversion because it prevents clean soil from being imported and then contaminated at a landfill. That’s not so bad right? Instead of using clean soil to cover an exposed landfill on a day to day basis, why not use other materials that serve the same function? Well, a closer look at what was actually used as ADC may be enlightening.
Much of what was used for ADC in California in 2008 was auto shredder waste, sometimes called “auto shred” or “auto fluff.” According to the State of Washington’s Department of Ecology, “Auto fluff is waste left over from shredding old cars for scrap metal. It can contain heavy metals and poly-chlorinated biphenyls.” Although this material would probably have been landfilled anyway, it counts towards the diversion rate.
So, now that you know that ADC can be counted towards landfill diversion, how are the diversion leaders in California using ADC in 2008?
Oakland used 202 thousand tons of ADC that year. San Jose used 159 thousand. San Francisco used 63 thousand.
In 2008, city of Oakland reported a diversion rate of 66%, but nearly 25% of that was achieved through ADC. Without ADC, it’s diversion rate would have been 41%!
San Jose diverted 65% that year, and 10% of that diversion was through ADC. Without ADC, it’s diversion rate would have been 55%!
San Francisco achieved a 72% diversion rate, but only 3% was from ADC. Without ADC, it’s diversion rate would have been 69%.
The important point here is that many cities across California are getting diversion credit without doing the heavy lifting. There are many cities that do not really divert materials from landfills. They may not create programs to educate people about reducing their consumption, programs to make it possible to reuse materials, and certainly don’t work to create robust recycling and composting programs. It means that although cities are achieving relatively high diversion rates, they are still landfilling valuable materials but getting the credit for landfill diversion by abusing the leeway CalRecycle has given them to count ADC towards their diversion rate.
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Until there is a level playing field regarding what material can be used as alternative daily cover, and how landfill diversion is calculated, we will have to keep pounding the drum of resource recovery and insisting on the concept of WASTE ZERO. It is the only real and permanent way to make a positive impact on our natural world, our children’s future, and create the jobs that are so badly needed right now.
Upcycling beyond crafts
What does the future look like? We love this photo, which was part of the Super Crafty Costume Contest this past Halloween.
Crafty and creative people are always looking to repurpose the things around them, but for us here at Recology, upcycling holds a special place, and we are glad it is catching on. Sites like Etsy are helping. Through it, people can set up their own store fronts. Found*Ling, is one example of a store where new things are made from old things. Other examples of upcycled products range from table lamps made from recycled circuit boards to neckties made from cassette tapes. (See Mashable Tech for a full list).
This week, the Sierra Club Green Home reported on the Recologized Tote bag, a brainchild of a Recology San Francisco employee. The bag, made from the old or unused uniforms of Recology San Francisco employees, were created with the idea of utilizing landfill-bound items as “up-cycled” goods for sustainable living. The tote bag can be used as a shopping bag at your local farmers’ market, to run errands or for a day at the beach. The bag was made in collaboration with UPsicle, an SF-based designer who is a member of SFMade. UPsicle specializes in creating unique, water resistant, washable and reusable bags.
Recology has also been working with SFMade, which was founded in 2010, and has as its mission to build and support a vibrant manufacturing sector in San Francisco. It is the only organization of its kind focused on building San Francisco’s economic base through these means, and currently supports more than 200 local manufacturers who collectively sustain more than 2,500 jobs in San Francisco. This month, SFMade and the Banana Republic are launching the first SFMade Pop-Up shop at the Banana Republic’s flagship store on Grant St. Their collaboration supports independent, San Francisco-based apparel and accessories companies.
With our 90+ year roots in reusing and recycling what others have thought of as “garbage” we are excited to continue to recover everything we can from landfills. This is what we mean by WASTE ZERO.
California is moving the needle on recycling
By now you may know that California has a new state goal of diverting 75% of “garbage” from landfills by 2020. 2020 is a big year for the state. San Francisco and Oakland have their own goal of reaching zero waste by that year. The city of Mountain View has set the goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by that year. Why is 2020 so important?
Over twenty years ago, the California legislature mandated that 50% of landfill-bound materials had to be diverted to other uses. San Francisco, with its growing population opted for the higher goal of 75% several years later. The year 2020 is the target year for proving what can be accomplished in three generations. The idea of zero waste has gained momentum here in the United States because, whether aspiration or not, the technology, know-how, public will and information is now available for us to make it happen. Yet, according to CalRecycle, although some places in San Diego County are on their way to meeting the 75% recycling mandate, there are many places within that county and throughout California where cities, towns, municipalities and unincorporated areas struggle to divert even 50% of their landfill-bound materials.
Percent Diverted from Landfills, San Diego County
So what is zero waste?
Zero waste is the perspective that no materials are sent to landfills or incinerators. At Recology we believe in WASTE ZERO, which means making the best and highest use of all resources. There is a slight distinction. It is not enough to aspire to send nothing to landfills. Rather, the idea of WASTE ZERO is that the materials that are diverted from end-of-life destinations should be used in smart ways.
Raising the bar on mandated recycling isn’t just about the destination of landfill-diverted materials. Governor Jerry Brown signed the legislation not only to save our natural resources, but also to create jobs. Assembly member Chesbro, who authored the bill, said that the original 50% mandate helped to create 125,000 new jobs since 1989 and provide $4 billion in yearly salaries. Members of StopWaste.Org mentioned that for every job lost at a landfill, three more were created in recycling. Here’s to more jobs! Let’s keep recycling!
Ask Gino: Why are garbage rates going up?
Gino Gasparini is the community affairs manager for Recology San Mateo County. He lives in Redwood City. His OP-ED piece appeared in the Daily News, San Mateo County, on October 17, 2011.
I spend a significant part of my day visiting with our customers, attending community meetings with neighborhood associations, service clubs, chambers of commerce and a host of other groups. In these meetings I get the same question from everyone — “Why are our rates going up again?” The common assumption is that our company, Recology San Mateo County (RSMC), is somehow allowed to charge whatever we want for our collection services.
However, the truth is very different from the perception. RSMC is simply the collection service provider to the 12 member agencies that make up the South Bayside Waste Management Authority (SBWMA or RethinkWaste) service area. We are not the rate-setting entity, we simply charge a contractually agreed upon cost to provide collection service. Moreover, while the percentages that rates are going up seem alarming, the actual dollar amounts are quite reasonable for the new and improved services being provided, in an area that has some of the lowest established collection rates in the Bay Area. The reality is that Recology’s cost is just one component of the collection rates set by the 12 agencies. For instance, within the rates set by cities, there are costs for disposal at the landfill and processing charges for the recycling and organics handled by a different contractor, South Bay Recycling, as well as the cost to close out the previous contracts with Allied Waste [totaling $10+ million].
To complicate things even more, a significant contributor to collection rates increasing for many cities this year is the impact of residents subscribing to smaller garbage carts — otherwise known as cart migration. Many residents have increased recycling and composting, which has helped them reduce their garbage service levels considerably, and since rates are lower for the smaller garbage cart sizes, they are able to reduce their monthly charges.
This cart downsizing is a very positive thing, and coupled with the amount of material we pick up, tells us definitively that the recycling collection programs are working well, since we have increased recycling and compost volumes across the board by more than 30 percent. This is a good thing and it is what RethinkWaste and the CartSMART program sought out to do when choosing a new collection system and Recology as its new collection services provider.
Though a bit counterintuitive, the effort or time spent and the cost to service a 20-gallon cart is essentially the same as the cost to service a 32-, 64- or 96-gallon carts. In all instances, the same number and type of trucks are used, the labor costs are the same and the same infrastructure requirements are necessary. Yet, the rates charged to residents are based on the size of their garbage carts, and they are significantly discounted when using a smaller garbage cart.
This rate structure was put in place for a good reason: it provides an incentive for recycling over disposal — a highly commendable and sustainable purpose, and it has yielded cost savings to people who recycle.
However, because of the success of the new CartSMART program, and based on the rates established, the balance of large carts to smaller ones has shifted and many of the RethinkWaste member agencies have found themselves collecting insufficient revenue through their rates to cover the costs of providing the service and are therefore in a position where adjustments are necessary to account for past revenue shortfalls and to help prevent future shortfalls.
This explanation of rate setting is not to suggest that Recology’s costs are not increasing. They are. Our collection service costs to the RethinkWaste member agencies have an average rate impact of 2.2 percent from 2011 to 2012. The reason for this increase is due to contractual adjustments based on consumer price index, fuel costs and labor costs. The truth is that Recology would prefer not to raise collection rates. But the fact is, based on our contracts, our costs rise and/or fall based on established indexes to cover adjustable items like fuel and labor. What is also fact is that while our cost increases are part of the rate increases, they are a small portion of them and they are not done on a whim, but instead are based on solid, nationally indexed, contracted and approved formulas.
We understand that rate increases are never easy. We also understand that the percentages being discussed are large. We ask you to keep in mind that the actual dollar amount is minimal and are only due in small part to Recology’s allowable cost increases. We also ask you to keep in mind that the new CartSMART program is providing great results and has been warmly received. It also is a critical step in meeting new state recycling goals established by Assembly Bill 341 that sets a 75 percent recycling goal for California by 2020 — the most ambitious in the nation.
Recology San Mateo County is proud to be a part of this successful program and is committed to helping our community and cities that we serve achieve the highest level of recycling through the new CartSMART weekly collection program.
A direct portal to a landfill
There was an article posted last week on tinygreenbubble.com about the semantics in the world of resource recovery. Jocelyn Saurini wrote “don’t think that I’m one of those girls on a bandwagon about how San Francisco does everything right. Believe me, I am not that girl. However, the city has nailed one thing fabulously: They’ve found a way to make residents think about landfill size every single time they throw things away.”
During her trip to SF, she discovered that landfill-bound material is collected in a container labeled “landfill” and not “trash” or “garbage”.
Semantics do matter in what we do because the materials that go into the green and blue containers ARE NOT garbage. According to one dictionary, garbage means: “any matter that is no longer wanted or needed; trash.”
But in the areas where we work, what diligent people do every day is make a decision to save our natural resources by recycling and composting. They are not “throwing away” anything except what there is no next best use for. The materials we recycle become the same or next use items. We convert the organics that we collect into compost. Let’s stop calling it garbage.
As for landfill size–yes, landfill space matters. In some communities people do not think about what they throw away and quickly use up the area available to dispose of true garbage. That means they end up having to find more land to use for landfilling “garbage”. But we see a more fundamental problem. Many useful resources are buried in the first place because no recycling alternatives exist.
As for everything that goes in the landfill container, yes its true that has no chance to be recovered. It doesn’t get sorted for usable material. So we depend on people to make the wise choice and minimize the amount of true garbage they put in that container. We know, like Jocelyn does, that “waste doesn’t just disappear.” That’s why we say WASTE ZERO.
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