Zero Waste Plans for
Communities
GRRN National Zero Waste Action Conference
July 30, 2011, San Diego, CA
By Gary Liss & Associates
916-652-7850 gary@garyliss.com; www.garyliss.com
Ask for ZW Goal and Plan
 Ask
to Adopt Zero Waste as a goal
and to direct staff to return with a
Plan within 6 months to 1 year
 Include Zero Waste as a goal in
Sustainability or Climate Change
Plans
ZWIA Principles and Practical
steps towards Zero Waste
1. Adopt ZWIA Zero Waste definition
2. Establish benchmarks and a
timeline to meet goals for
measuring success and
monitoring accomplishments
3. Engage the whole community
Don’t leave Zero Waste to “waste experts.”
 Involve all organizations that provide
waste reduction, takeback, reuse,
recycling and composting services
 Challenge all to pursue Zero Waste at
home, at school, at university, at work and
at play, while communities develop longer
term policies and programs

4. Manage Resources not Waste

Existing incinerators must be closed down
and no new ones built.
 Reform landfill practices to prevent all
pollution of air and water
 Pre-process all residues at landfills before burial
to stabilize organics and prevent methane
generation
More energy can be saved, and global warming impacts
decreased, by reducing waste, reusing products,
recycling and composting than can be produced from
burning discards or recovering landfill gases.
EU LANDFILL DIRECTIVE
 Requires
all Member States
to introduce measures to
reduce the quantities of
biodegradable material
going to landfill, to 35% of
1995 levels by 2016.
 Waste must be treated
before being landfilled
5. Program Funding
 Avoided
Collection & Disposal Costs
 Use fees levied on tons of waste hauled
or landfilled to fund programs:
 To develop policies, programs and facilities
 To provide startup funds for EPR programs
 To educate and train Resource Managers to
use a Zero Waste approach
 To create green jobs
 New
Rules Stimulate Private Investment
6. Education and Outreach
 Educate
residents, businesses and
visitors about new rules &
programs
 Zero Waste is a strategy not a
technology that aims for better
organization, better education and
better industrial design to achieve
the cultural change needed to get
to Zero Waste
Alameda County Billboards
Alameda County Transit Ads
7. Zero Waste Assessments

ID source, amount, type and value of
discarded materials
 Collect Data locally or get data from
comparable communities
 Use as baseline to ID recovery and
employment opportunities, cost
savings, and to measure success of
reduction and recovery programs
Evaluate what additional source reduction, takeback,
reuse, recycling and composting programs and facilities
are needed to make those services more convenient to
users than mixed material collection and disposal
services.
Where would you take this discard?
(Circle item if you don’t know;
mark “TB” if you take back to store)
1. Reusables
Working large appliances
Working small appliances
Durable plastic
Usable textiles and leather
Usable furniture
Usable mattresses
Used books and catalogs
Used building materials
Other bulky items
Other reusables / repairables
2. Paper
Cardboard
White ledger
Newsprint
Magazines / catalogs
Other office paper
Paperboard
Composite paper and plastic
3. Plant Debris
Leaves & Grass
Prunings and trimmings
Large branches & stumps
4. Putrescibles
Vegetative food scraps
Fish and meat waste
Compostable paper
Sewage sludge and manures
5. Wood
Untreated wood
Treated wood
6. Ceramics
Concrete
Asphalt paving
Mixed C&D
7. Soils
Gypsum wallboard
Fines (including rocks and dirt)
8. Metals
Aluminum cans
Steel cans
Ferrous metals
Non-ferrous metals
Non-working appliances
Auto bodies, engines and motors
9. Glass
Clear glass
Colored glass
Mixed glass
Window (flat) glass
10. Polymers
# 1 PET (CRV) containers
#1 PET containers
#2 HDPE (CRV) containers
#2 HDPE containers (e.g., milk
jugs)
#4 LDPE Film, plastic bags
Other plastics
Carpet
Carpet padding
Tires
Asphalt Roofing
11. Textiles
Poly fibers
Cotton and wool
12. Chemicals and Ewaste
Batteries
Motor oil, filters & other auto fluids
Paint
Fluorescent lights
Pharmaceuticals
Other household hazardous wastes
Disposable diapers /hygiene items
Treated medical waste & syringes
Treated wood
Brown goods
Computers and peripherals
TVs and Monitors
Know Your Discards Value
Material
% in Wastes
Value ($/ton)
Reusables
6%
$400
Putrescibles
26%
$35
Paper
21%
$100
Ceramics (C&D)
10%
$15
Metals
9%
$80
Polymers
9%
$150
Soils
6%
$15
Glass
4%
$25
Textiles
3%
$20
Plant Debris
3%
$35
Wood
2%
$15
Chemicals
1%
$200
Richard Anthony, Resource Management in the New Millennium, 2005,
http://www.richardanthonyassociates.com/presentations/rm_2005.ppt
8. Residual Separation &
Research Facilities
 To
link community responsibility and
industrial responsibility
 Residuals need to be made very visible to
ID
 Bad industrial design
 Bad purchasing habits
 Change
through dedicated research and
education
9. New Rules and Incentives
 Communities
can significantly
change what is “economic” in the
local marketplace with new policies,
new rules and new incentives.
 Restructure contracts and policies
to make the avoided costs of
collection and disposal a key engine
for moving towards Zero Waste.
Hawai’i New Rules & Incentives

Producer and Retailer Responsibility, takeback of non-recyclable, reusable or
compostable products and materials
 Source Separation (of designated
organics, reusables & recyclables)
 Compostable Organics out of Landfill
 Construction & Demolition (C&D) reuse
and recycling plans & permits
10. Extended Producer
Responsibility (EPR)





Businesses take back products and
packaging at no cost to the public
Advocate for state and national EPR
policies
Incentive to redesign products to be less
toxic and easier to reuse and recycle
Don’t export harm and properly reuse,
recycle or compost
Support small, local businesses and
nonprofits
11. End subsidies for wasting

Remove subsidies for wasting locally
controlled, and call for removal of others
 Tax incentives for mining and timber
harvesting
 Subsidies for “Energy from Waste”
 Landfill regulations that inadequately address
leachate, methane generation and perpetual
long-term care
 Shift community adopted garbage rates to Pay
As You Throw incentives
12. Zero Waste Procurement











Adopt Precautionary Principle for municipal
purchases
Purchase Zero Waste products and services
Avoid single use products and packaging
Return to vendors wasteful packaging
Reduce packaging and buy in larger units
Use reusable shipping containers
Purchase reused, recycled and compost products
Buy remanufactured equipment
Lease, rent and share equipment
Buy durables (using life-cycle cost analyses)
Encourage businesses and Institutions to follow
13. Zero Waste Infrastructure
Develop locations for reuse,
recycling and composting, including
Resource Recovery Parks





Get Compostable Organics out of Landfills
and back to the soil
Support Zero Waste practices at businesses
and institutions
Adopt deconstruction, reuse and recycling
policies citywide for Construction,
Demolition, Landclearing and Remodeling
(C&D)
Support locally owned and operated local
enterprises.
Resource Recovery Park, U.K.
14. Zero Waste Businesses

Thousands of Businesses already divert
over 90% of their wastes from landfill &
incineration
 Zero Waste Businesses reduce costs,
increase efficiency, decrease carbon
footprint and decrease long-term liability
 ID, recognize and promote Zero Waste
Businesses locally and challenge others
to follow.
Reduce First!
 Design
out Waste
 Waste is not Inevitable
 Businesses save the most by
eliminating inefficient practices
 Refuse and Return
 Takebacks
Zero Waste Plan Scope
Review
Data, Policies and Programs
Participation Strategy
Service Opportunities Analysis
Policies, Programs and Facilities
Options
Economics & Impacts (Jobs, GHG)
Implementation Plan (including
timeline & “low-hanging fruit” for quick
success)
Key Lessons for Pursuing ZW
 Someone
Has to ASK to Adopt ZW
 Envt. Group, Staff, Elected, State
 Connect
to Other Problems
 Jobs, Economy, Facility Siting,
Sustainability, Climate Change
 Educate
and Build Support
 ID & Promote Local ZW Businesses
Resolution for Zero Waste
WHEREAS:
The placement of materials in waste disposal facilities, such as landfills and
incinerators, causes damage to human health, wastes natural resources
and/or inappropriately transfers liabilities to future generations, and
Landfills are the single largest man-made source of methane in the United
States, and contribute significantly to global warming, and
Reduced wasting, and increased reuse, recycling and composting could
dramatically help reverse climate changes, and
Communities are currently forced to assume the high financial cost of
collecting, recycling, and disposing of increasingly complex and toxic
products and packaging, which is an unfunded mandate, and
A resource management based economy will create and sustain more
productive and meaningful jobs, and
Subsidies for wasting and use of virgin materials send the wrong economic
signals to both consumers and producers, and
Federal, state and local governments around the world are adopting policies
to hold producers financially and/or physically responsible for
collecting, recycling, and properly handling of products and packaging,
and
Resolution for Zero Waste
Producers should design products to ensure that they can be safely
reused or recycled back into the marketplace or nature, and
Most toxic product and packaging waste can be eliminated through
the use of non-toxic alternatives in product design, and
Voluntary recycling goals have not reduced wasting sufficiently, and
Zero Waste policies and programs will establish practical ways in our
community to eliminate waste or safely reuse, recycle or
compost discarded products and packaging;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT
The [City/ County/ Organization] hereby adopts a
Zero Waste goal and directs staff to return with
a Zero Waste Plan to implement that goal within
one year.
If you’re not for Zero Waste,
how much waste are you for?