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Make Sure Program Is Sustainable
Like any recycling program, government programs require a great deal of
planning and coordination. A sustainable program will:
- Be comprehensive in scope to improve the organization’s overall
environmental performance. A waste reduction program involves much more
than placing recycling bins in common areas. A comprehensive program
incorporates waste prevention, reuse, recycling, and recycled-content
product procurement into everyday business.
- Focus on improvement to internal processes. A waste reduction program
should focus not on the waste but on processes that generate the waste.
Improving processes within agencies that provide services or receive
support from other State agencies or employees will provide maximum
savings and reduced waste for the State. The CIWMB examined its process used to disseminate monthly Board meeting
agendas and agenda items to both staff and external clients. The CIWMB
implemented a fully automated system that provides better information
dissemination and access, requires less staff time, and reduces costs.
Following are some of the system’s features:
- Average monthly paper savings of 35,000 sheets of paper.
- Average of $832 per month savings of CIWMB mailing costs.
- More than $4,500 savings to CIWMB clients requesting agenda items
electronically.
- Secure upper management support and solicit employee input.
Successful waste reduction requires commitment and support from both the
upper management and staff level employees. The staff members responsible
for performing the business functions are best able to identify wasteful
practices and recommend areas for improvement. Management must see that the benefits of waste reduction outweigh the
costs. Managers must understand that this is not a problem to be fixed, it
is an ongoing improvement to internal processes. With upper management
support, the improvements can be implemented and the waste reduction savings
can be realized.
When developing a program, it is important to have a clear understanding
of the agency’s policies and goals from the outset. The ultimate goal is to
make waste reduction part of the culture of the workplace.
- Know your waste types. Two methods to identify waste are waste assessment
and analysis of business functions:
- Waste assessment: A waste assessment or audit identifies materials
and items that are major contributors to an organization’s waste stream.
A waste assessment also provides a baseline for measuring the effects of
waste reduction practices. Waste assessments can range from visual
inspections of garbage cans to more formal retrieval, separation, and
weighing of disposed materials. For health and safety concerns in an
office environment, visual assessments are recommended.
- Analysis of business functions: Examining major business processes for
opportunities to reduce materials, labor, or time will produce greater
overall cost savings and reduce waste at the same time. A key example is a change the Fair Political
Practices Commission (FPPC) instituted for completion of their Form 700,
Statement of Economic Interest. Formerly, hard copies (at 31 pages each)
were provided to each State employee. However, most completions required
only a signature on the front page, leaving the other 30 pages unused. The FPPC now provides the form electronically,
allowing employees to print only the pages of the form they need. The FPPC
realizes savings in several areas: reductions in paper, postage, storage,
and labor costs required to manage the volume of paper previously used, as
well as the reduction in paper waste.
- Set waste reduction policies and goals. Waste reduction
policies reflect the visions and priorities of the department. Policies
should be drafted early in the process of implementing a waste reduction
program and then formally adopted by the agency. Formal adoption
demonstrates support and commitment. Once adopted, standard operating
procedures, new employee orientations, and other training programs should
include the waste reduction policies. Waste reduction goals should be adopted as
part of the policies of the agency. They can be part of the policies
themselves, included as part of budget targets, and/or adopted as a separate
document. The goals should be set for a specified time period, such as one
or two years. Setting realistic and measurable goals will ensure success.
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Follow Key Steps to Develop a Program
Following are key steps to
establishing a waste reduction program for State offices:
- Designate a waste reduction team and coordinator. A waste
reduction coordinator should be appointed by management to ensure that the
policies and goals of the agency are met. A waste reduction team of staff
(generally from every floor, different location, office, branch, and
division) should be designated to assist the coordinator in implementing and
maintaining the program.
- Develop an action plan. The waste reduction team should draft
an action plan to achieve each established goal. The plan should outline
tasks to be accomplished, staff responsible for each task, and a timeline
for completion of each task.
- Measure savings. This task provides information to help sustain
current efforts and improve upon them. Measuring also provides a system to
identify and correct unexpected problems quickly.
- Educate/publicize results. Once the savings are measured, they
can be used to educate staff and management of the goals achieved and the
success of the campaign. Highlighting savings keeps employees and management
involved and enthusiastic about the changes that have been made. Education
should be viewed as an ongoing effort, to emphasize the importance of waste
reduction and to encourage a conservation ethic.
Make Waste Prevention and Reuse a Priority
Waste prevention and reuse,
sometimes referred to as source reduction, is preventing or reducing the
amount of waste produced in the first place. Preventing waste means using
less material, such as paper, to do the same job. Reusing materials also is
a form of waste prevention because materials go further, thereby producing
less total waste.
Waste prevention and reuse measures should be the first steps in a
comprehensive waste reduction program. Successful waste prevention requires
creative and analytical thinking. Waste reduction coordinators should first
analyze how a reduction in materials can be accomplished. Further analysis
is then done to explore how to reuse materials that have been used only
once. Too often recycling systems alone are considered, rather than systems
that incorporate reduction and reuse.
Successful waste prevention requires making changes to materials that
come in as raw materials, supplies, or packaging, rather than thinking about
waste reduction as only trash going out. All materials that are recycled or
disposed have been paid for in some way. Consider revising purchasing
practices to see if fewer materials can be used to accomplish the same task.
Minimizing the amount of raw materials, supplies, or packaging used produces
direct savings.
The CIWMB has undertaken a comprehensive waste prevention initiative in
its headquarters. The CIWMB formed an in-house committee to develop and
implement a waste prevention program to reduce waste at the CIWMB and serve
as a model for other public- and private-sector office settings. After the
first nine months of the program, white office paper use was reduced 25
percent under the following practices:
- Discouraging avoidable or excess copying and printing.
- Encouraging communications via electronic mail.
- Encouraging two-sided copying and printing.
- Making two-sided printing an automatic computer feature.
- Reducing the size of documents.
- Streamlining document review processes.
- Turning one-sided paper into scratch pads.
- Pruning mailing lists.
These efforts will result in annual savings of the following items:
- 364 cases (3,640 reams or 1.8 million sheets) of white paper.
- $16,724 in reduced postage costs.
- $68,370 in reduced photocopying costs.
- $5,500 in reduced printing costs.
- $10,151 in reduced purchasing costs (paper and note pads).
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Use Materials Exchanges
A number of materials exchange programs are
available to collect and distribute reusable products and property. The Department of General Service’s surplus property program (SPP)
receives, stores, and reissues salvaged and surplus property from State
agencies. The program initially makes this property available to other State
agencies, political subdivisions, and assistance organizations for a minimal
service and handling fee. If one of these organizations does not take the
property, SPP invites the general public to purchase it on a cash-and-carry
first-come-first-served basis.
The SSP also receives surplus materials and salvaged items that federal
programs and agencies donate and reissues them to qualified organizations.
Organizations that may receive this property are State and local public
agencies and nonprofit institutions. Unfortunately, materials from the
federal program are not available to the general public.
The SSP maintains a list of all property available at its facilities at
any one time. The goal of the program is to make its entire inventory
available online so the public has an opportunity to preview merchandise
ahead of time. Customers can purchase a wide variety of goods ranging from
office furniture, computers, cleaning supplies, bicycles, playing cards, and
bulletproof vests (available only to law enforcement agencies) for a
fraction of their original costs.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) realized
significant savings when it obtained office furnishings another agency sent
to the SPP. The agency no longer needed the furniture because it had moved
into a building that came with furniture. CalTrans took the unneeded
property and saved $1.5 million.
The California Materials Exchange (CalMAX), operated by the CIWMB, also
provides an opportunity to reuse products and materials. CalMax is a free
service designed to help find uses for materials that have been
traditionally discarded. CalMax recognizes that materials discarded by one
agency may be a resource for another.
CalMax publishes a quarterly catalog and maintains a
CalMax Web site. Both of these list available or wanted
materials throughout the State of California. Listings are provided at no
cost, and exchanges are handled directly between interested parties. Some of
the items listed may be low- or no-cost, but the receiving party must
provide transportation.
Consider Deconstructing Old Buildings
A strategy for waste prevention
growing in popularity at government facilities involves deconstruction of
old buildings. Salvageable materials may include the following: lumber, all
fixtures (doors, plumbing, and windows), ferrous and nonferrous metals,
concrete, and scrap wood for mulching. Here are some examples of
deconstruction of government facilities around the state:
- Building Resources Materials Re-use, a nonprofit organization, worked
on a demolition project with Beyond Waste at the closed
Presidio Army compound in San Francisco. Out of the two buildings they
deconstructed, they were able to salvage roughly 85 percent of the first
building and approximately 40 percent of the second building. Most sales
took place at the deconstruction site, avoiding the significant cost of
transportation.
- Beyond Waste is working with Youth Employment Partnership,
Inc., to train 12 young people to properly deconstruct buildings at the Port
of Oakland, a former naval supply center. The warehouse they are currently
deconstructing has more than 400,000 board feet of lumber, including
old-growth Douglas fir and redwood. Beyond Waste hosts an open house at the
port and is soliciting local architects and contractors to buy the materials
available.
- Building Material Distributors, a nonprofit organization
located in San Diego, specializes in recovering materials that can be
shipped south into Mexico. Building Material Distributors is in negotiations
for demolition and deconstruction work at the Naval Training Center.
- Lewis Homes, a Kaufman and Broad company, will be demolishing
obsolete military housing units at the former Mather Air Force Base in
Sacramento and then building new homes. The company will use demolition
concrete as subbase in its development project.
Proper training of the crews is important in the deconstruction business.
The more conscientious and trained the crews, the greater the amount of
valuable materials can be salvaged from a job. Materials include old-growth
lumber no longer available on the “new” market.
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