Planning a Zero Waste

Community

Richard Anthony

Richard Anthony AssociatesSan Diego, CaliforniaWWW.RichardAnthonyAssociates.com

Sustainability means Zero Wasting

• Population increases geometrically

• Pollution, food per capita industrial follow

• Resources Decrease• Value of Recycled

Resources increase• “Limits to Growth”

Meadows.• Mend our ways or

nature will force us

Instead of cradle to grave disposal, its cradle to cradle, a closed loop economy

Black Hole

Three Principles of Zero Waste Planning

• Matter and energy are constants E=MC2

• There is no “away”• No such thing as a free lunch

Three Goals of Zero Waste Planning

• Zero Waste goals (efficiency)

• Create Jobs from Discards (Jobs)

• End Welfare for Wasting (level the playing field)

New Millennium Rules

•6 “R’s”•Reduce (source reduction)

•Redesign

•Repair (fix)

•Reuse (durable vs. single use i.e., cameras, napkins)

•Recycle (everything else)

•Regulate

Type of Operation Jobs per 10,000 TPY

Product Reuse

Computer reuse 296

Textile Reclamation 85

Misc. Durable Reuse 62

Wooden Pallet Repair 28

Recycling-Based Manufacturers 25

Paper Mills 18

Glass Product Manufacturers 26

Plastic Product Manufacturers 93

Conventional Materials Recovery Facilities 10

Composting 4

Landfill and Incineration 1

Source: Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Washington DC, 1997; “Wasting and Recycling in the United States 2000”; GrassRoots Recycling Network, Prepared by Brenda Platt and Neil Seldman

Zero Waste planning includes places for new jobs and industries

Plant Debris25%

Reusable Goods

5%

Chemicals2%

Plastics7%

Glass5%

Metals5%

Paper25%

Wood10%

Ceramics5%

Textiles3%

Soils3%

Putrescibles5%

This version of the chart ©1998 Daniel Knapp and Mary Lou Van Deventer. Excerpted from Total Recycling: Realistic Ways to Approach Ideal, in progress; to be published by the University of California Press.

All Discards

can be sorted into Twelve Categories

All 12 categories are feedstocks for Recycling and Composting Industries

Jobs and Revenue from Materials Sorted into the Twelve Categories

Clean DozenSM

Master Categories

Jobs Tonnesper Year

Market Price

£/T (est.)

Total Value of Discards in

Waveney (£)

1. Reuse 40 6,000 £ 222 £ 1,340,986

2. Paper 5 20,000 £ 28 £ 560,000

3. Plant Trimmings

2 12,000 £ 6 £ 72,000

4. Putrescibles 4 20,000 £ 11 £220,000

5. Wood 8 5,000 £ 6 £ 30,000

6. Ceramics 2 6,000 £ 8 £ 48,000

7. Soils 2 1,000 £ 8 £ 8,000

8. Metals 4 9,000 £ 28 £252,000

9. Glass 4 4,000 £ 11 £ 44,000

10. Polymers 21 10,000 £ 42 £420,000

11. Textiles 10 3,000 £ 11 £ 33,000

12. Chemicals 20 4,000 £ 11 £ 44,000

Total 122 100,000 £ 3,071,986

* 365 days per year. Based on 100,000 metric tonnes per year of available resources.

Prepare a Zero Waste Strategic Plan (Palo Alto Plan)MISSION

Divert 75% of discarded materials from landfills or incinerators by 2010 and achieve Zero Waste, or close to it, by 2020.

SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

1. Design and manage products and processes to reduce the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them. Ask product designers and marketers to consider Zero Waste to be a critical design criterion.

2. Increase incentives for waste generators and service providers to design out waste and separate materials for their highest and best uses.

3. Develop programs and policies to address specific needs of each major sector in Palo Alto: manufacturers; retailers; restaurants; medical services; offices; and single-family and multi-family residential dwellings.

4. Increase reuse, recycling and composting collection and processing options and develop new markets that add value to materials recovered and minimize residues requiring disposal. Zero Waste systems should be particularly encouraged that provide the greatest economic development benefit for the region (e.g., jobs, increased tax base).

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan ContinuedSUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

5. Engage community-wide support to achieve Zero Waste through more interactive community participation, outreach and education programs. Encourage people to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are resources for others to use. Coordinate outreach programs for sustainability and pollution prevention with Zero Waste, waste prevention and recycling programs, and use Zero Waste Business Principles as basis for their evaluation of business performance. (Obtain input and include recommendations from City staff and Zero Waste Task Force on other opportunities for local, countywide and regional education and outreach programs that would support Zero Waste messages.)

6. Minimize environmental impacts and City liabilities from wasting and ensure that the burdens and benefits of zero waste systems are equitably distributed. Eliminate all discharges to land, water or air that may be a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health.

7. City lead by example to achieve Zero Waste goals for all facilities owned or leased by the City.

Palo Alto Zero Waste

Strategic Plan Continued

KEY STRATEGIES, Years 2005-10

STRATEGY 1:

Determine how and where materials are discarded, and establish a monitoring and tracking database system to evaluate performance of diversion and source reduction programs by material type and sector. Identify the value of materials that are currently being landfilled, and the potential for additional recovery through expanded reuse, recycling and composting.

STRATEGY 2:

Ask local businesses to adopt Zero Waste goals, to develop Zero Waste plans, to adhere to Zero Waste Business principles, (1) to meet waste diversion targets, and to source separate designated materials that can be reused, recycled or composted.

STRATEGY 3:

Adopt policies and economic incentives to restructure the marketplace to encourage waste prevention, reuse, recycling & composting. Change Ordinances, contracts, franchises, permits, zoning, General Plans and garbage rate structures so that it is cheapest to stop discarding materials, and reusing, recycling or composting discarded materials is cheaper than landfilling or incineration. (1) http://www.grrn.org/zerowaste/business/

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan ContinuedKEY STRATEGIES, Years 2005-10

STRATEGY 4:

Develop programs and policies to address specific needs

a) Residential discarded food (2) collection and composting

b) Expanded institutional and commercial recycling; particularly for paper recycling and other services needed for top 4 waste generating sectors (Medical/Health Services; Restaurants; Other Retail Trade; and Business Services)

c) Institutional and commercial discarded food collection and composting

d) Expanded emphasis on deconstruction and support for adaptive reuse

e) Expanded recovery, reuse and recycling of used building materials

f) Expanded support for collection and drop-off of other reusable products

g) Successful implementation of City’s new ordinance to encourage construction, remodeling, landclearing and demolition debris recycling.

(2) Whenever referenced, also includes food contaminated paper (e.g., pizza boxes and frozen food containers) and assumes CIWMB hierarchy for food scrap management is followed, to (1) prevent food waste, (2) feed people, (3) convert to animal feed and/or rendering, and (4) compost (see http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/FoodWaste/).

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan ContinuedKEY STRATEGIES, Years 2005-10

STRATEGY 5:

Support existing reuse, recycling and composting businesses and nonprofit organizations and help them expand to the degree the operators of them want to do so, to minimize public investments required. Develop locally owned and independent infrastructure, on an open, competitive basis.(3) Develop local or regional resource recovery park(s) to provide locations for expansion of reuse, recycling and composting businesses.

STRATEGY 6:

Extend use of landfills (Palo Alto and Kirby Canyon) as long as possible, so don’t have to arrange for more capacity elsewhere. Minimize long-term landfill liabilities by ensuring that full capital and operating, closure and post-closure costs are factored into current rates and financial assurances.

STRATEGY 7:

Adopt Precautionary Principle and expand focus on purchasing environmentally preferable products. Help City’s Sustainable Purchasing Committee to expand the purchase of environmentally preferable products. Encourage or require all new private construction and major renovation projects in Palo Alto to follow the lead of the City’s Green Building policy and build only LEED-certified Green Buildings.

(3) http://www.crra.com/irc/guide.html

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan ContinuedKEY STRATEGIES, Years 2005-10

STRATEGY 8: Support state and federal policies to eliminate subsidies, internalize externalities for virgin material production and wasting, and involve producers in taking physical and/or financial responsibility for their products and packaging to reuse, repair or recycle them back into nature or the marketplace. Work with other local governments and businesses to build useful alliances and share successes.

STRATEGY 9: Adopt Zero Waste as an economic development priority to make Palo Alto businesses more sustainable and globally competitive.

STRATEGY 10:

Fund community Zero Waste initiatives with fees levied on the transport, transfer and disposal of wastes and by leveraging the investments of the private sector. Structure fees and taxes in ways that provide additional incentives for designing out waste, reuse, recycling and composting.

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan ContinuedKEY STRATEGIES, Years 2005-10

STRATEGY 11:

Develop Zero Waste Implementation Plan (ZWIP) after the City updates its detailed 1997 waste characterization study (scheduled for FY2005-2006), to detail proposed policies and programs, budget and cost implications, and timing of implementation. Identify City priorities for additional publicly financed facilities to support to be developed, including appropriate reuse, recycling and/or composting activities for Palo Alto Landfill site consistent with existing zoning once the landfill is closed. Recommendations must be environmentally sustainable, practically implementable, economically viable, and socially responsible. Do not implement local bans, mandates and required product stewardship policies until the adoption of the ZWIP and evaluation of progress over the course of the year after adoption of the City’s Zero Waste Policy. However, immediately support state and federal producer responsibility and advanced recycling charges for difficult to recycle or toxic materials. Evaluate implementation of new policies and programs and recommend how to continuously improve them after adoption of the ZWIP.

Palo Alto Zero Waste Strategic Plan ContinuedKEY STRATEGIES with TACTICS

Include appropriate tactics from “Menu of Policy Options” and program recommendations after agreeing on Mission, Objectives and Strategies (similar to those suggested in Draft 1 of the “Outline of Palo Alto ZW Action Plan”).

Perform a Service Needs Assessment

• The Service Needs Assessment will identify possible areas that would benefit from expanded services. • Identify service needs by class and discard item.

ItemProgram

sFacilities Needs

1. REUSABLE

Appliances

Small Appliances

Durable Plastic Items

Textiles

Mattresses & Furniture

Composite C & D

Books & Catalogues

Other Reusables and Repairables

Service Needs Assessment Continued

ItemPrograms Facilitie

sNeeds

2. PAPER

Cardboard

White Ledger

Newsprint

Magazines / Catalogs

Other Office Paper

Paperboard

Other / Composite Paper

3. PLANT DEBRIS

Leaves & Grass

Prunings

Branches & Stumps

Branches & Stumps

Service Needs Assessment Continued

ItemPrograms Facilitie

sNeeds

4. PUTRESCIBLES

Food Waste

Fish and Meat Waste

Sewage Sludge

5. WOOD

Untreated Wood

Treated Wood

6. CERAMICS

Concrete

Asphalt Paving

7. SOILS

Gypsum Board

Fines

Service Needs Assessment Continued

ItemPrograms Facilitie

sNeeds

8. METALS

Auto Bodies

Aluminum Cans

Steel Cans

Ferrous Metals

Non-Ferrous

9. GLASS

Clear Glass Containers

Mixed Glass Containers

Clear Glass

Green Glass

Mixed Glass

Brown Glass

Window Glass

Other Glass

Service Needs Assessment Continued

ItemProgram

sFacilitie

sNeeds

10. POLYMERS

#1 PET (CRV)

#2 HDPE Colored

#2 HDPE Natural

#1 PET Plastic

#4 Plastic Bags

Tires

Other Plastics

Asphalt Roofing

Film Plastics

Service Needs Assessment Continued

Item ProgramsFacilitie

sNeeds

11. TEXTILES

Poly Fibers

Cotton and Wool

12. CHEMICALS

Used Motor Oil

Household Hazardous Waste

Disposable Diapers / Feminine Hygiene

Treated Medical Waste

Source Separation Categories/ Clusters and Destination PointsTWELVE MASTERCATEGORIES of

DISCARD MATERIAL

CLUSTERS PROCESSING CENTERS

• Reusable • Paper• Vegetable

Debris • Putrescibles • Wood• Ceramics • Soils• Metals • Glass • Polymers • Textiles • Chemicals

Paper and containers;Paper, Metals, Glass, Polymers

Organics;Food, vegetative debris, food dirty paper, paper, plant debris, putrescibles, wood

Discarded Items;Furniture, appliances, clothing, toys, tools, reusable goods, textiles

Special Discards;Chemicals, construction and demolition materials, wood, ceramics, soils

Recyclables;Papers, plastic, glass and metal containers

Organics;Food, vegetable debris, and food paper, putrescibles, untreated wood and sheetrock

Reuse & Repair;Reuse, repair, dismantling, reconditioning, remanufacturing, manufacturing and resale of furniture, large and small appliances, electronics, textiles, toys, tools, metal and ceramic plumbing, fixtures, lighting, lumber and other used building materials

C and D;Rock, soils, concrete, asphalt, brick, land clearing debris, and mixed construction and demolition materials

Regulated MaterialsUsed motor oil, paint, pesticides, cleaners, and other chemicals

ClusterCapital(per year)**

O&M (per year)

Annual Costs

Landfilling Savings***

Sales(per year)

Gate Fees (per year)

Tonnes (per year)

Benefits/(Costs) per Tonne

Reuse £ 30,511 £479,649 £510,160 £439,362£

1,340,986£ 2,630 9,000 £ 141

Recycling

£ 38,833 £210,725 £249,558 £657,969 £351,673 £552,598 43,000 £ 31

Regulated Materials

£ 33,285 £176,331 £209,616 £195,272 £ 14,500 £164,000 4,000 £ 41

Organics £131,671 £249,052 £380,723£1,806,26

6£275,911 £352,626 37,000 £ 56

C&D £ 42,244 £176,331 £218,575 £341,726 £ 94,308 £140,000 7,000 £ 51

Total £276,544£1,292,088

£1,568,632

£3,440,595

£2,077,378

£1,211,854

100,000 £ 52

* Note: These figures do not include the impacts of expected economic multipliers. ** Amortization: 20 years for buildings and paving, 6 years for equipment and fixtures. *** £49 per tonne savings by avoiding landfilling costs.

Benefits and Cost of a Zero Waste Centre by Cluster*

Site Plan For Resource Recovery Park