Welcome to the Shoreway Environmental Center
SanMateo.Patch.com published a story about the students from Baywood Elementary School in San Mateo, CA. They were the first group of students to participate in the free tour of the solar-powered ReThink Waste Shoreway Environmental Center.
The students learned about the 4Rs, resource conservation, the CartSMART recycling, composting and garbage collection program, and met Recyclist, the talking robot made from recycled materials. The grand opening also featured haute couture fashion modeled by some of Recology’s zero waste staff. This fun field trip is more than an introduction to recycling.
Learning about resource conservation and a resource recovery program like CartSMART is essential in preparing students for the world they will inherit. Recently, the National Climatic Data Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), published a graphic showing some of the significant climate anomolies and events that occurred across the world 2011. Among them were extremely hot weather in the United States and the United Kingdom, France, Spain Switzerland, and Finland, and torrential rain and floods across Central America, in Thailand, South Korea, Norway and Brazil, and unusually heavy snowfall in Chile and New Zealand. Extreme weather events are not only disasterous for those whose lives they affect, they are also expensive. The NCDC created a chart to illustrate the growing number of climate and weather disasters since 1980 whose costs exceeded $1 billion.
The connection between resource conservation, resource recovery and the climate is clear only to some. Fortunately, organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have developed educational resources to help bridge the gap. Rethink Waste and the folks at the Shoreway Environmental Center and doing their best to fill in the rest.
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!
Rent a living Xmas tree or recycle one
It’s not just in San Francisco. All along the Peninsula you can find companies and organizations offering to rent and sometimes deliver a Christmas tree for the holidays. The idea may seem quaint but the implications are an important signal of American’s changing attitudes.
According to the National Christmas Tree Association, 25-30 million pine and fir trees are sold each year during the holidays. These trees take between 7 and 15 years each to grow to six or seven feet–the height which makes them acceptable to most Americans. And while there are as many as 4,000 Christmas tree recycling programs across the country, the status quo is that most of the 25-30 million trees end up in a landfill. In the Bay Area, Recology would compost Christmas trees but due to their high acidity, they are being made into biofuel.
In addition, there’s the question of which is the more sustainable solution: a tree that’s been cut down or an artificial tree? To get at an answer, we would need more detailed information than is currently available to us. Where were the real trees grown and under what conditions? The top producing states are Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington. And how were they trees transfered to their final destination? How were they disposed of? As for artificial trees, we know that 80% of those sold world wide are made in China. Most are made from plastic and metal and are most likely not recycled at the end of their use as decoration.
Renting a live tree bipases these questions. The trees are never cut, and the transportation to and from the point of purchase would be about the same under any scenario. But there are other benefits. According to Mercury News, for about the same price as a high-end precut tree, families can enjoy the smell of a tree for the entire season, reduce the risk of fires, and we would add, have to do a little less vaccuming after the holidays.
If you celebrate Christmas, consider a real tree that you can use over and over again. If you did get a pre-cut tree, visit Recology San Francisco‘s, Recology San Mateo County‘s or Recology Auburn Placer’s websites, call Recology Butte Colusa Counties or Recology Vacaville Solano to see how you can recycle your tree.
Starting or building on successful recycling programs
Recology Humboldt County will now provide curbside recycling services to residents of the unincorporated Blue Lake and Fieldbrook areas of Humboldt County. Recyclables will be collected in blue bags from the curb, along with garbage service. Recology Humboldt County’s Mike Leggins is excited to get the new recycling program up and running because “[i]t’s a low-cost means to get recycling service started.”
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In Marysville, Recology Yuba-Sutter customers will get a free on-call curbside bulky-item pick-up once a year (1 per customer in areas that have the 3-cart service) in addition to their annual free dump coupon program.
They will also have access to up to 50-gallons of free compost through an annual compost give-away at the Marysville Transfer Station. Outreach and education is also part of the plan to help customers understand how they can decrease contamination of the recyclable materials they put into the yard debris and recycling carts.
We are happy that enthusiasm for our resource recovery programs is catching on!
Three ideas for giving to kids this holiday season
It’s the holiday season. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone. And if you have children you are thinking of during this season, here are a few thoughts from Recology.
Do you know the company Green Toys? They make toys out of recycled milk bottles. There’s just one example of the innovative work being done by vendors to use recovered materials in their products.
Kaboose.com has a list of craft ideas to make from recycled and reusable material. There’s nothing like making things with kids to enrich their early life experiences.
In San Mateo County, you can also participate in the annual Coats for Kids collection drive. Recology San Mateo County will start collecting coats as part of the residential recycling service and will also picking up coats at special drop-off locations.
| Belmont: | Library: 1110 Alameda de las Pulgas |
Monday – Wednesday 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM Thursday – Friday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
| Belmont: | City Hall: 1 Twin Pines Lane |
Monday – Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Belmont: | Fire Station: 911 Granada Street |
Monday – Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Burlingame: | City Hall: 501 Primrose Road |
Monday – Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Burlingame: | Fire Station: 911 Granada Street |
Monday – Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Foster City: | Recreation Center: 650 Shell Boulevard |
Monday – Friday 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM |
| Menlo Park: | Library: 800 Alma Street |
Monday & Wednesday 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM Tuesday 12:00 PM – 9:00 PM Thursday & Friday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM Saturday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Sunday: 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM |
| Menlo Park: | Arrillaga Family Recreation Center: 701 Laurel Street |
Monday – Sunday 5:30 AM – 10:00 PM |
| Menlo Park: | Onetta Harris Community Center: 100 Terminal Avenue |
Monday – Friday 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM |
| Redwood City: | City Hall: 1017 Middlefield Road |
Monday & Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
| San Carlos: | City Hall: 600 Elm Street |
Monday & Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Recology San Mateo County: |
225 Shoreway Road | Monday & Friday 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
Recology Vallejo has collected children’s coats each year for the past eight years. The donated coats may be of any size but should be in good enough shape that a child can play, sit and go to school with a sense of pride.
All coats will be cleaned and then given to local children who are in need.
We look forward to your participation during the holiday season.
Meet us at the coast
You may have heard about the “Law of Mother Earth’s Rights,” which was added to Bolivia’s constitution this year. It gives nature, all types of ecosystems included, the same rights as people. Not only is it controversial for the economic and cultural consequences of how it may be interpreted, but also because it hastens us to ask profound questions about how we react to the very concept. Bolivia’s Foreign Minister, David Choquehuanca, told attendants at this year’s International Day of Mother Earth that, “In Bolivia we seek a return to balance, a harmonious life not only between individuals but between man and nature, so today must be a day of reflection of awareness of all to care for our Mother Earth and take timely means for our mother back to its natural balance.“
The final application of the law has yet to be determined. Will it mean that human beings will have to become vegan, or that mining will be outlawed? No one knows yet, although a company like ours certainly hopes it incentivizes the country to adopt recycling laws, or at the very least, non-dumping laws.
If these demands are perceived as too drastic, then it may be at least possible to take small steps.
For example, on Saturday, September 17th of this year, Recology Sunset Scavenger and Recology Golden Gate gathered together 50 volunteers to collect what totaled 6,840 pounds of debris during the annual Coastal Cleanup Day. Recology partnered with the Knights of Columbus, and Year Up to remove debris from a stretch of San Francisco’s city’s shoreline in the Bayview district. The debris ranged from microwave ovens to shopping carts, to truck tires and pretty much everything in between.
The collected debris was taken to our sort line for sorting and recycling when it was possible, and invasive plants were composted. We are proud to say that the clean up was a 100% zero waste event.
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.
Plastics Part 6: Poly is Popular
Guest blogger, Jessica Connolly of Recology San Mateo County explores plastics and her relationship to them in this series.
Photo by Polycart via flickr
Polypropylene (PP) is one of the most versatile plastics available. It has a variety of uses and is made into many types of manufactured products. This plastic is used because it is very durable, has a high melting temperature, can be hydrophilic (be absorbent), and is relatively resistant to solvents and some chemicals.
PP is used in packaging, textiles, reusable food containers, electronic exteriors, automotive interiors, car batteries, and even the filling in baby diapers, and other sanitary products! Some textiles that PP is made into are carpets, ropes, synthetic thermals, and long underwear. Companies like Rubbermaid, Ziplock, and Tupperware use PP in their reusable containers, as they can withstand high temperatures in microwaves and dishwashers. The caps on PET soda and water bottles are made of PP as well.
PP is used as the exterior of car batteries because it is more resistant to corrosion from toxic materials and because the plastic can withstand high temperatures.
PP is also used as the main plastic in baby diapers because it can be manufactured to have high liquid-absorption properties, where the liquid binds to the plastic and becomes semi-solidified. It is also used for synthetic dish towels where the towel acts like a sponge, drying objects better than cotton or wool towels would.
PP is usually recycled into other hard plastics. However, it is not generally recycled into disposable or reusable food containers because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deems recycled materials in food containers as unsafe. Many times electronic exteriors for computers, TVs or DVD players are made from recovered PP.
Because of its more durable and resistant properties, it is often reused much more than other types of plastic. It also has fewer chemicals and additives than other food ware plastic, making it safer for food to come in contact with. Compared to other plastic, PP is better for the environment, our health, and reduces our usage of disposable plastic, taking some ease off our consumption of petroleum.
Round it up and recycle that plastic!
What a dedicated group of people can do
John Darling wrote a nice article for the Daily Tidings on October 15, 2011 about the beginning of something good. In Ashland, Oregon, at the annual Jackson County Plastic Round-up at least three good things happen, he wrote. “You get to dump a big load of stuff from your garage, you feel good about helping the planet, and you run into friends — or meet new ones — and get to chat with them.”
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Jackson County is home of the Rouge Valley Earth Day, the Bear Creek Festival, Rouge Valley Bird Day, and the famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival. This last weekend, though, citizens of Jackson County dropped off their plastic (excluding PVC pipe, vinyl, rubber, polystyrene or plastic with metal in it) and with the help of six Jackson County Master Recyclers, who are trained by Recycling Partners, Recology Ashland Sanitary Service and others, had their plastic sorted, shipped and shredded for reuse.
“It feels really good to get rid of this stuff.”
The event only happens once a year. Therefore, gardners, hobbyists, and others have a chance to recycle plastic and be good stewards of the planet, although many already find reuses for the material. Many of them said it felt good. Last year, Jackson County residents rounded up about 25 tons of plastics.
Where does the plastic go? In this case, it goes to Portland. Our own Risa Buck, a Zero Waste Specialist at Recology Ashland Sanitary Service said that some of the plastic will be made into very durable railroad ties.
Risa emphasized that recyclers don’t make any money from the Round-up, but we do it “because it’s the right thing to do.”
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!
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