Meet Recology – Our Commitments
This summer, Siemens found that San Francisco outranked all other major cities in the U.S. and Canada in the area of environmental performance. It’s perfect score in the area of garbage, recycling and compost was due to a progressive public-private collaboration between the City of San Francisco and Recology, which was founded in San Francisco.
What makes Recology an outstanding performer of course is not just its roots. Recology is a company with commitments to the communities where our employees live and work because we are part of those communities. And we work hard—protecting our environment is serious work—but we also try to have fun.
For example, Recology Vacaville Solano was present at the Vacaville Fiesta Days Parade this past May, where the Recology Drill Team earned a First Place award in the Drill Team category and the Recology vintage garbage truck won Second Place in the Antique Car category. Recology’s Buddy Blue Toter was also a winner, taking home the First Place award in the novelty category.
Last month, as title sponsor at The Bite of Oregon, an annual festival in Portland’s waterfront organized by the Special Olympics Oregon, one Recology employee personally made sure that 400 pounds of cooked, delicious chicken leftovers from the event were donated to 3 different rescue missions.
On August 23rd, over 40 employees from Recology South Valley volunteered to clear the bike path near Gallop Drive, all the way up to Thomas Grade in Morgan Hill, California. For two and a half hours, starting at 8AM, the group raked, shoveled, and swept the bike line, clearing it of dirt, weeds, and garbage. The reason for the project was that a group of Recology South Valley employees approached their general manager about doing something for their community. These employees had read about a project in another community served by Recology and wanted to organize something for their customers, neighbors and friends.
Obviously, we care about what we do, but its also nice to be recognized once in a while too. A reporter for the Morgan Hill Times quoted the City Program Manager, Anthony Eulo, saying, “[W]e appreciate Recology’s volunteer energy and commitment to our community… We know that the residents passing East Dunne everyday will enjoy the cleaner street.”
We are proud of the work we do to make this planet a better place to live, for all of us.
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.
The Story of Zero Waste
The 850,000 residents of San Francisco are what make it the country’s environmental leader. Read The Story of Zero Waste and of the hard work that the City and Recology do every day to support it in this month’s issue of Resource Recycling.
Zero waste at Golden Gate Park
Bring your own cup… and compost
On Saturday, May 21, 2011, 172 Recology volunteers gave a helping hand to the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department at Golden Gate Park. Our project volunteers painted two Polo Field tunnels, enriched the soil of 65 rose beds, trimmed, cleared 
and laid cardboard and mulch along a half-mile-long hedge, and weeded a segment of the Redwood Grove–all before 12 noon!
We topped it off by enjoying each others’ company at the zero waste picnic after the hard work was done.
Recology volunteers had some time to talk about recycling and reuse, and Annika sported her purse, made from recovered plastic. Our blue and green carts were respectively filled to capacity with recyclable and compostable material and we left no trace of residual landfill material behind.
We also donated to Golden Gate Park:
· 40 gallons of recycled paint received at our Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility from San Francisco residents
· 2,800 pounds of old corrugated cardboard (OCC) sorted and baled at Recycle Central® @ Pier 96 and collected from San Francisco residents and businesses
· 40 yards of blended compost made at Jepson Prairie Organics from San Francisco food scraps and yard trimmings
Thanks again to our volunteers, who made the zero waste volunteering event at Golden Gate Park a huge success. Together, we continue to Recologize the communities we serve.
2011 San Francisco Carnaval Parade
Photos from the May 29th Carnaval Parade in San Francisco‘s Mission District. The Recology contingent included our award winning drill team and volunteers wearing costumes made by Recology San Francisco former artist-in-residence, Daphne Ruff. A beautiful day in San Francisco and a wonderful event!
 |
 |
 |
 |
Learn how to WASTE ZERO at the Free Small Business Week Workshop
Don’t Let Your Bottom Line Go To Waste – WASTE ZERO
Recology Sunset Scavenger and Recology Golden Gate, in partnership with the San Francisco Department of the Environment, invite you to attend a lively discussion centered around reducing waste at your business. By maximizing recycling, composting, and reuse options, you can help reduce your impact on climate change, save natural resources, and improve your company’s bottom line.
This interactive panel discussion will focus on the meaning of zero waste, how to take effective steps to reduce waste at your business, and will also provide you with information about the many free resources available help your business go green.
Panel
Bob Besso, Recology
John Hanscom, LEED AP, ESA, Renewable Resources Group
Alex Dmitriew, San Francisco Department of the Environment
Moderator
Chris Levaggi, Recology
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Session 4, 3:20-5:00pm
Small Business Conference
SF State Downtown Campus
SF Compost Giveaway Pictures
Here are more photographs from the Compost Giveaway in San Francisco, courtesy of Bob Besso. Enjoy!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Closing the Compost Loop in San Francisco
The International Compost Awarness Week starts on May 1st, and we welomed it early this past Saturday with the Great Compost Giveaway throughout San Francisco.
 |
 |
On a clear and sunny day, and roughly 4,000 San Franciscans in station wagons, minivans, sedans, hybrids, motorcycles, bikes, pulling shopping carts, and little red wagons made their way into parking lots through out San Francisco to collect some of the food scraps and yard debris that we’ve recycled into compost.
Our food scraps and yard debris recycling program was the first citywide curbside collection program in the country. Recology has collected over 907,000 tons of food scraps and plants for composting since the program began in 1996.
 |
 |
Recology’s President and CEO, Mike Sangiacomo shared his pride over the work done in San Francisco. “San Franciscans are truly great recyclers and composters. Together we have achieved the highest landfill diversion rate in the nation,” he said.
Compost was available to San Fransico residents at Alemany Farm, the Hayes Valley Farm, McLaren Park, and the Ocean Beach parking lot at Golden Gate Park.
Learn more about how we compost.
EPA report suggests waste generation is finally on the downside in the US
Photo by D’Arcy Norman via Flickr
The United States generated 243 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2009, according to a report recently released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 2009 marked the second straight year that total MSW generation declined in the country. In 2008, we produced 251 million tons, down 4 million tons vs. 2007. While we still discard a whopping 4.34 pounds per person per day, the amount of waste we generate each year is finally trending down after more than 50 years of continued growth.
What’s behind the decline? The sluggish economy has obviously put a damper on our consuming ways but it appears something bigger is happening. Communities and companies are moving towards zero waste goals and consumers are growing increasingly aware of the need to preserve natural resources and reduce waste.
Today, over 70% of the U.S. population has access to curbside recycling programs and a growing number of communities are offering composting programs. In 2009, recycling programs recovered 61 million tons of MSW while composting programs, primarily of yard trimmings, recovered an additional 21 million tons. That’s a lot but much remains to be done. We still send nearly 30 million tons of food scraps to landfills every year and close to 12 million tons of yard debris. Clearly, achieving zero waste will require an increased focus on food scraps recovery. In San Francisco, food scraps composting is mandatory and contributed to the city achieving a diversion rate of 77%, the highest in the nation. Other communities and states, notably Massachusets, are considering doing the same.
A copy of “Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2009 Facts and Figures” can be downloaded from the EPA’s website. http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/msw99.htm
A Simple Resolution
In the dust covered years of my teens, I recall struggling each January to create goals and resolutions for the new year. My father would sit me down with pen and paper and challenge me to create a goal and envision my success in each challenge laid out on the page. With the absence of so many of life’s responsibilities and experiences, my mind often strained to manifest meaningful and tangible goals. At the time, I was certain that I would forever loath the process. It’s with many thanks that I can now look back and I say, as with so many opinions and certainties in youth, that I was wrong.
Making resolutions and goals these years have been much easier and enjoyable. The process has been shaped with age, with experience, the honing and development of self and the introduction and influence of loved ones brought into and lost from my life. Simple questions like “How can I be a better partner, father or friend this year?” drive resolutions and goals. “What can I do to be a better role model for my family?” Recology and the communities we serve have helped to shape my first goal for 2011.
This year my family and I have resolved to not purchase water bottled in plastic. Billions of bottles are purchased and tossed each year. Some places and people, due to geography, natural disasters or other influences, depend on bottled water to live. That’s fair and good, but that is not our reality here in San Francisco, so we are respectfully bowing out of the market.
The safety measures applied to our tap water have been well documented and persuasive enough to earn our participation. If you live in San Francisco or the Bay Area, you probably get the same mailer on the Hetch Hetchy water source and the state of California’s water supply. It’s a good read with a lot of useful information about one of our most precious resources. There is an abundance of materials out there on the industry and the commodity drinking water has become. If you too have an interest, check out your local library, search what’s posted online or poke around. You might join in setting a similar simple resolution to reduce the plastics in your life.
Happy 2011 folks!
tulip
rachrecycles
cOLeCo7e
darbyandjoan
make art
slidetozero
wastezerosf
art at the dump
wedmorningpickup
recologysanmateocounty
iheartcompost
Sol
pnwblogger
1 comment