infoCycling, Fall 2001

In this issue:

• Disposal data maps
• Business outreach programs
• Los Angeles Section relocates
• Editor's note

Disposal data maps!

Take a look at the Board’s new disposal destination and disposal inflow maps. These maps illustrate California county disposal destination data and disposal inflow data for 1999 in an easy-to-view geographical format. Each California county is featured on a disposal destination and an inflow map. The legend on each map displays a county’s total disposal destination or inflow amounts by percent and tons in ranges (for example, less than 1 percent is equivalent to 1 to 1,298 tons; 1 to 25 percent is equivalent to 1,299 to 32,454 tons).

California Counties Disposal Destination Data Maps for 1999 and California Counties Disposal Inflow Data Maps for 1999 can be retrieved on the Board’s LG Central Web site (www.ciwmb.ca.gov/LGCentral/) by selecting Local and Regional Summaries, then California County Summary Information.

Disposal destination maps present a picture of where a county disposed of its waste for 1999, including waste disposed within the county, in other counties, and/or exported out of state. (See the Napa County disposal destination map.) These maps enable you to see disposal destination trends by county and view the data geographically.

Disposal inflow maps show where a county received its waste in 1999, from within the county, other counties, and/or out of state. (See the Orange County disposal inflow map.) One benefit is customers can use these maps to see the percentage and tons of waste moving from other counties to their county.

In the future, look for maps depicting disposal data for the year 2000 and beyond. If you have any questions, contact Peter Staklis at (916) 341-6230 or pstaklis@ciwmb.ca.gov.

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Waste diversion and waste management business outreach programs play a vital role in helping to preserve California’s resources

Waste diversion business outreach programs play an important role in helping jurisdictions meet waste diversion goals. Understanding the role businesses play in helping to meet diversion goals encourages cities, counties, and regional agencies to continue to assist and educate their area businesses on waste diversion. To further assist jurisdictions in their business outreach efforts, the Board provides a wide array of information to assist with business waste diversion. For example, the Board’s waste characterization database (www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WasteChar/JurisSel.asp) provides estimates of the types and amounts of materials disposed in the commercial waste streams of individual jurisdictions in California for 1999.

Data for a jurisdiction can be viewed in several ways, such as overall by business group, overall by material type, details by business group, and details for material types. To access additional information to assist business waste diversion, go to the Board’s Local Government Central Web site’s Business Waste Characterization Web page at www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WasteChar/BizData.htm. Here you will find a summary page on business waste characterization and links to other related pages. These pages are:

Business Disposal Rates (www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WasteChar/DispRate.htm) displays a table listing waste disposal rates for the 39 business groupings in the solid waste characterization database as well as the typical density of waste disposed by each grouping. (Residential disposal rates are on a separate page at www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WasteChar/ResDisp.htm.)

• Business SIC Groupings (www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WasteChar/BizSICGp.htm) provides waste information the Board developed for different business types based on the assumption that similar businesses have similar waste streams. Since there are many types of businesses, the Board uses federal standard industrial classification (SIC) codes to group businesses together.
• Business Waste Compositions (www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WasteChar/BizGrpCp.asp) shows the materials by percent that different types of businesses typically dispose.
• Business Waste Generation Rates (www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WasteChar/WasteGenRates/) provides links to pages containing information on waste generation rates for commercial, industrial, institutional, residential, and service establishments. The tables on these pages contain information extracted from various cited sources. The Board does not officially endorse any of these rates and cannot validate their accuracy. However, they may be useful in providing a general level of information for planning purposes.
• Business Waste Reduction Information (www.ciwmb.ca.gov/BizWaste/) provides information such as a Business Waste Reduction Resources Index (www.ciwmb.ca.gov/BizWaste/Index.htm) of programs and services of the CIWMB that help businesses prevent or reduce waste. Jurisdictions throughout California contributed information on a variety of business outreach programs implemented in their area.

Summaries of a sample of these programs are provided below.

San Ramon’s Commercial Recycling, Enhancement, Analysis, Training, and Education (C.R.E.A.T.E.) program provides free integrated waste management consulting services to commercial property owners/managers. The goals of the C.R.E.A.T.E. program are simple: increase recycling and save the property owner/manager money.

The city designed C.R.E.A.T.E. to address the reasons that many property owners/managers give for not implementing or improving recycling programs, such as:

• I don’t have the time or expertise to work on recycling.
• Recycling costs too much.
• Once we get tenants and their employees trained, there’s turnover and nobody uses the services.

The program targets commercial generators that are clustered in retail centers, office complexes, and multifamily housing (apartments, condominium complexes, townhouses, etc.). When a property owner/manager expresses an interest in recycling efforts, the city’s program consultant, Synergis Waste Management Services, performs a preliminary waste assessment of the efficiency and cost of the property’s existing solid waste and recycling services. The waste assessment provides city staff with an overview of the opportunities to increase recycling, as well as estimates of potential cost savings and the cost of proceeding with a more detailed analysis. If the preliminary assessment indicates opportunities exist to increase recycling without substantially increasing costs, city staff authorizes Synergis to develop a customized set of program improvements to meet the needs of the business.

Synergis discusses its recommendations with city staff and the property owner/manager and then implements the program improvements with additional assistance provided through the C.R.E.A.T.E. program. The C.R.E.A.T.E. program usually identifies ways to significantly increase recycling (recycling rates can typically be doubled), although not always in conjunction with cost savings. In such instances, property owners/managers are under no obligation to spend more to implement the recommendations.  However, many businesses and property owners/managers do realize considerable savings while increasing recycling.

 When a business participates in the C.R.E.A.T.E. program, it receives three valuable benefits:

• Analysis and fine-tuning of existing programs.
• Increased recycling.
• Lower solid waste collection costs.

In one instance, the Commons Office Park, a 29-building, multi-tenant facility in San Ramon, implemented and expanded its office paper recycling program and changed its level of solid waste service after participating in the C.R.E.A.T.E. program. The Commons Office Park is now on its way to saving thousands of dollars annually. C.R.E.A.T.E. helped the property manager save over $1,000 per month in disposal and cleanup costs.  The office park’s recycling rate jumped from 33 percent to 67 percent. In another case, program recommendations C.R.E.A.T.E. presented to the San Ramon Marriott are expected to save the hotel $30,000 a year as the Marriott implements a new paper recycling program.

In addition to helping commercial property owners/managers increase recycling and save money, C.R.E.A.T.E. provides the following benefits:

• San Ramon pays all program costs and the property owner/manager is under no obligation to implement the C.R.E.A.T.E. program recommendations.
• San Ramon provides desktop and centralized recycling containers to businesses participating in the C.R.E.A.T.E. programs.
• C.R.E.A.T.E. provides employee/tenant orientation and followup. This orientation includes the development of easy-to-reproduce, site-specific educational materials.
• C.R.E.A.T.E. also is a real asset in resolving potential nuisance abatement issues at commercial properties that stem from inadequate solid waste services levels, poor collection service, and improper tenant disposal practices.

The program provides an opportunity for property owners/managers, the waste hauler, and the city code enforcement officers to work cooperatively toward positive solutions to messy situations. To learn more about San Ramon’s C.R.E.A.T.E. program, contact Kevin Carunchio, City of San Ramon at (925) 973-2550 or kcarunchio@sanramon.ca.gov. 

Thousand Oaks approved an agreement with Philip Services Corporation (PSC) in July 2001 for the collection and disposal of household hazardous waste and hazardous waste. PSC provides monthly collection from conditionally exempt small quantity generators (CESQG) (i.e., businesses that generate less than 220 pounds of hazardous waste per month, or a maximum of 2.2 pounds of acutely hazardous waste per month) and household hazardous waste (HHW) collection that serves the Ventura County area.

PSC was awarded the agreement based on its reputation for providing professional and reliable service, extensive knowledge and experience in operating CESQG programs nationwide, and a willingness to reach out to the business community to attract more small business customers. PSC operates programs for the City of Los Angeles as well as Sonoma, San Joaquin, Napa, Placer, San Mateo, Fresno, and Yolo counties.

Each potential small business customer is prescreened by PSC to ensure residential customers are excluded from the small business program. Once it is determined the customer is qualified to participate, a preregistration form and information packet is provided to the customer. The information packet includes a hazardous materials inventory and cost sheet that informs the customer of the potential disposal costs.  Once the paperwork is completed, an appointment time is provided.

The cost to a business varies based on the quantity and type of hazardous waste collected by PSC.  However, the city offers a 15 percent discount off the total cost of disposal as an incentive to increase participation.  The current rate sheet is provided, and the only cost to the city is for the incentive discount offered to each customer. The savings to a participating business customer that brings in its hazardous waste for collection is significant compared to the cost of hiring a hazardous waste company to come to the business to collect the waste.

Community Outreach
PSC advertises its program in a variety of ways, including presentations geared toward small business waste collection and through the city's Web site (www.toaks.org/electronics_recycling.htm), PSC's Web site (www.contactpsc.com/coreservices/b_smallquantityservices.asp), and direct mail marketing.

Direct mail marketing includes an expanded Internet service that offers program specific information for residential and small business hazardous waste customers.  Small business customers are able to download the applications and inventory forms—saving time and money. Residential customers are able to access the city’s Web site to schedule an appointment to attend the monthly collection event.  Appointments are staggered to reduce customers’ waiting times, which are currently 10 minutes. The city also does a separate direct mailing to potential customers based on SIC codes, which help define what each business in the city does.

In the future, Thousand Oaks and PSC plan to add electronics collection to the program, specifically cathode ray tubes (CRTs). Other electronics will be collected at a rate of $0.25 per pound. The electronic equipment collected in the program will be either refurbished and resold or remanufactured to reclaim components such as memory or hard drives. Plastic cases will be separated by color and baled and when possible the plastic will be recycled.  The wire, yoke, and circuit boards will be separated and sold to refineries for metal reclamation.

For additional information on this program, call Grahame Watts, City of Thousand Oaks at (805) 449-2453 or visit the following Web sites: www.crra.com, www.dtsc.ca.gov, www.ciwmb.ca.gov/electronics/.

San Jose requires that all its franchised haulers mail city-provided brochures twice per calendar year as part of their outreach programs to businesses. These brochures explain how businesses can choose a hauler/recycler that best meets their needs. The brochures also provide information on the free waste assessments, free desk-side recycling containers, and free mini-solid waste cans the city offers.

In addition to the mailers, the city also offers a one-time rebate of up to $5,000 for businesses that install equipment that reduces waste normally hauled to landfills. Qualifying equipment a business could install includes: on-site composting machinery, centralized recycling containers, or split janitorial collections carts. As a result of San Jose's efforts, nearly 350 businesses have directly benefited from the city's technical assistance program.

Most businesses assisted decreased their monthly solid waste bills by over $100.  For example, a medium-sized printed circuit board manufacturer decreased its solid waste bill from $1,853 per month to $925 per month. For more information on San Jose's programs, please visit www.sjrecycles.org/business/ or call Michael Foster, City of San Jose at (408) 277-3949 or michael.foster@ci.sj.ca.us.

Westlake Village implemented an "Equal Capacity" ordinance, whereby all businesses are required to have equal capacity for recycling and solid waste disposal. For example, if a business has two solid waste dumpsters, then the business must also have two recycling dumpsters.

Realizing that it would not be enough to just place recycling bins and expect businesses to participate, the city used the equal capacity requirement to augment its ongoing outreach program. When the new effort began in 1998, only a few businesses had equal capacity. Several businesses had no recycling capacity at all.  Many businesses were skeptical about the program, citing space restrictions in solid waste enclosures as the major reason for non-compliance. In many cases, a phased-in approach was used. Over several months solid waste capacity was reduced, freeing up space for additional recycling bins. Businesses either reduced the number or size of their solid waste bins or reduced the number of times the solid waste was serviced, which ultimately saved businesses money by reducing their solid waste bills.

Westlake achieved 70 percent compliance with the equal capacity ordinance by working one-on-one with property managers and business owners. City staff work with property managers and business owners by:

• Visiting each business and completing a waste audit.
• Making written recommendations to the property manager and/or business owner.
• Following up with a revisit or phone call to determine the business’ progress.

The followup visit or phone call may necessitate further recommendations based on the business’ progress. The ordinance also prohibits:

1. Placing solid waste or green waste in the recycling container.
2. Placing recyclables or green waste in the solid waste bin.

Waste haulers place a warning tag on any bins in violation of this ordinance. After several warnings, the haulers may refuse to service the recycling and solid waste bins. Westlake Village continues its efforts to increase diversion by working with multibuilding office parks to increase recycling capacity. For additional information on this program, please contact Brandy O'Gorman, City of Westlake Village at 1-800-579-4979 or polisassociates@yahoo.com.

Santa Clara County's Recycling and Waste Reduction Commission assists local jurisdictions to meet waste prevention and recycling goals by sponsoring countywide waste prevention outreach. The commission also takes advantage of opportunities to work with local cities and Bay Area counties to develop cost-effective waste diversion business outreach campaigns. Two recent Santa Clara County campaigns include:

The Paperless Campaign
The Paperless Campaign targeted businesses using high volumes of paper as the primary audience and also included messages for the general public and business audience. The Paperless Campaign development and implementation involved multiyear cooperation among Santa Clara County jurisdictions.

Based on the findings of a 1996 waste prevention awareness and interest survey of office managers in businesses using high volumes of paper, the Paperless Campaign consisted of three phases:

1. Phase one consisted of an outreach campaign that included a direct mail postcard, a poster, and a computer disk presenting a twelve-step waste reduction plan (see the plan online at www.ReduceWaste.org). In addition, newspaper and radio advertising was used to reach the general business audience and to educate the public. Print advertisements were produced in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Newspaper and radio advertisements listed a toll-free telephone number and a Web site where the public could access information on other ways to reduce paper waste.
2. Phase 2 focused on increasing acceptance and use of double-sided copying for business documents.
3. Phase 3, currently under development, focuses on reducing paper used by computer users. Periodic tracking studies test changes in awareness of and attitudes toward waste reduction, as well as recall of Paperless Campaign messages.

The Buy Recycled Paper Public Outreach Campaign
The Buy Recycled Paper Public Outreach Campaign encourages businesses and residents to choose recycled paper whenever they buy paper. The goal is to increase consumer demand for recycled-content paper. The expectation is that paper suppliers will stock more recycled-content paper in response to increased consumer demand, leading to a wider variety of choices and competitive prices.

The City of Sunnyvale, and the Counties of Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Alameda, developed and implemented the Buy Recycled Campaign as a joint project. The Buy Recycled Campaign was conducted in October and November 2000 for America Recycles Day (November 15, 2000) and included newspaper advertising, radio spots, in-theatre advertising, special Web site content, public service announcements, in-store displays, utility bill inserts, and posters. Multijurisdictional cooperation increased the Buy Recycled Campaign development and advertising budget, thus providing wider distribution for their message.

The Buy Recycled Campaign ran again in fall 2001 as a regional campaign coordinated by the Bay Area Regional Outreach Committee. This regional campaign included nine Bay Area counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma) and approximately 110 cities within those counties. More information is available at www.bayarearecycling.org/. For more information on Santa Clara County’s program, contact Margaret Rands, County of Santa Clara at (408) 441-1198 or Margaret.Rands@pln.co.scl.ca.us.

Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority (MSWMA) provides business waste audits for member jurisdictions (cities and county).  These member jurisdictions include Fort Bragg, Ukiah, Willits, and Mendocino Unincorporated. 

Each jurisdiction in the MSWMA works with a private hauler. The private haulers provide the recycling collection service working under exclusive franchise contracts with either a city or Mendocino County. The MSWMA’s active outreach program is conducted by two recycling specialists, Linda Cushman and Karen Gridley. The recycling specialists focus on the commercial sector, which includes businesses, agencies, and local government.

The waste audits are different for every business or agency, depending on the goals of its management and the need for information. For example, complete waste characterizations (weighing the percent of disposal) have been performed in some instances, and analyses of total disposal output (looking in dumpsters to see what is being discarded) have been conducted in other instances.

MSWMA helped its member jurisdictions start their curbside recycling programs in the early 1990’s and now MSWMA is helping them switch to commingled collection. Last year, MSWMA worked closely with the city of Willits to start the North Coast’s first commingled program. In Willits, the recycling specialists visited each business and all multifamily complexes and distributed information about the new system and information on the 65-gallon plastic carts.  

The single-stream commingled system, which replaced the source-separated, three-stream recycling system, allows the public to mix all recyclable paper, cardboard, cans, glass bottles, and plastic bottles together in a 65-gallon wheeled plastic cart. Businesses are generally receptive to the outreach efforts. Most businesses implement some recycling programs and some businesses have outstanding programs, like Fetzer Vineyards. Fetzer carries out its own comprehensive diversion programs and serves as a model program for other businesses. Fetzer purchased a baler for its cardboard and plastic film, reuses wine bottles, composts extra corks, and holds recycling education meetings for all employees.

The MSWMA also provides outreach to schools.  The recycling specialists prepare detailed site-by-site data on the waste generation and diversion of each school, and meet with school administrators, superintendents, and school boards to recommend written waste management policies. For additional information on the program, contact Mike Sweeney at (707) 468-9710 or Sweeney@pacific.net.

This is a sample of the successful, innovative waste diversion business outreach programs that jurisdictions and businesses have implemented. If you know of an outstanding or innovative business outreach program that should be considered for a future issue of infoCycling, please contact Tracy Webb at (916) 341-6240 or twebb@ciwmb.ca.gov.

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The Board’s Local Assistance–Los Angeles Section relocates to Long Beach

The Local Assistance–Los Angeles Section, previously located in the city of Los Angeles, has moved to a new location. As of November 27, 2001, the new location and mailing address is:

California Integrated Waste  Management Board
2929 East Willow Street
2nd Floor
Long Beach, CA 90806

Contact Steve Uselton at (562) 981-9095 or suselton@ciwmb.ca.gov if you have any questions.

Coming Soon—Look for an updated contacts map in an extra edition of infoCycling! This map lists the staff county contacts in the Board’s Local assistance staff and Local Assistance–Los Angeles Section, along with their phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and the counties each staff person represents.

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Editor's Note

I hope you found this issue of infoCycling interesting and informative.

Here's what we're planning for the Winter 2002 issue:

• An article on electronic product management.
• An update on the legislatively mandated SB 2202 report, A Comprehensive Analysis of the Integrated Waste Management Act Diversion Rate Measurement System.

I welcome comments or suggestions on articles you would like to see included in infoCycling and announcements of events in your jurisdiction. Please contact me at (916) 341-6240 or by e-mail twebb@ciwmb.ca.gov. 

Tracy

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Last updated: December 28, 2007