REDUCING WASTE: Recycling fast becoming the norm

Article by By Lois Courchaine
Posted 11-22-11

Last month, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law establishing a new California State goal of reducing solid waste going to landfills by 75 percent by the year 2020. Currently, municipalities are required to reduce, reuse or recycle a minimum of 50 percent of their trash.

Some may argue the merits of this new law. But one thing is for sure -- here in the Golden State we are shifting away from the old standard solid waste management systems, like landfilling, to newer ways of thinking about how we dispose of materials. For me, having chosen to make a career out of dealing with the way people discard their "waste" has been a challenging and fascinating time. It seems more people are becoming aware of the importance of their choices, both at the beginning of waste cycle (purchasing a particular product) and at the end (discarding a product or its packaging). Hence, the large increase in "environmentally preferable" products showing up on retailers' shelves, well as the increase in recycling we're seeing. In 2010, residents and businesses in Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda and Walnut Creek together recycled 58 percent of their waste, compared to 51 percent in 2007.

It's clear that Californians are trying to steer away from landfilling and shift their efforts to "resource recovery." It's also clear that shift will, undoubtedly, increase costs for solid waste services.

Why? You would think that with all the recycling going on, the companies recovering and selling those materials would naturally be operating at a hefty profit. Let me explain why this is seldom true, by way of an example. An individual home or business owner's garbage is collected at least once per week. That garbage is taken from their property to the Martinez Transfer Station, where it is commingled with other people's waste and put into very large truck. That truck then heads off to Keller Canyon Landfill adjacent to Pittsburg, where the trash is buried, and will probably never see the light of day again. So that means two trucks and about four employees were involved in the landfill "transaction."

The recycling process is very different...

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