Statewide WRAP winners, Sept. 21, 2002, Press Release

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California Integrated Waste Management Board

California Businesses Receive 2,152 WRAP Awards: Companies cut waste and earn State environmental honors

SACRAMENTO—Throughout California, 2,152 businesses have received the state’s prestigious Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP) honors for creative and innovative waste-cutting successes in the workplace. Among this year’s winners are Goodwill Industries, Northstar-at-Tahoe, the Red and White Fleet, and Walt Disney Studios.

Announced in observance of National Pollution Prevention Week (September 16-22, 2002), the 10th Annual WRAP awards are made by the California Integrated Waste Management Board—the state’s primary recycling agency. The awards honor California companies of all sizes for reducing the amount of waste they produce and finding workable solutions to reuse and recycle materials, including buying recycled-content products for the workplace.

"We congratulate each of this year’s WRAP winners," said Waste Board Chair Linda Moulton-Patterson. "Annually, business waste accounts for half of the materials potentially headed for California’s landfills. Every winner of this award has done an outstanding job of finding new uses and recycling opportunities for their surplus materials. That kind of dedication translates into savings for both the environment and the bottom line."

For a complete list of all WRAP winners and their locations by county, please visit us on line at www.ciwmb.ca.gov/WRAP/

Goodwill Industries, Inc. (San Diego)—Goodwill Industries of San Diego County, Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 1930 to "assure the employability of people with disabilities and other barriers to employment." Goodwill operates 14 retail stores selling clothing, and household goods donated by the community. The revenue from the sale of donated goods is used to support workforce development programs. These include a six month state-certified vocational training center for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment offering a combination of classroom and paid on the job training; Goodwill WORKs centers that provide free employment services to the community at large; Community Employment, which provides supported employment to people with more severe disabilities, and more. In 2001, Goodwill Industries of San Diego County, Inc. received approximately 19,512 pounds of donated goods, diverting over 12,000 pounds from the landfill. The sale and/or recycling of diverted goods brought the organization $11,460,618 in revenue in 2001 alone.

Sierra-at-Tahoe (El Dorado County)—Sierra-at-Tahoe, located in the beautiful El Dorado National Forest, is a winter snow sports facility offering a wide variety of activities for all ages including alpine and telemark skiing, snowboarding, tubing, and snowshoeing in the pristine Tahoe basin. Sierra-at-Tahoe staff have made the environment a top priority through convenient and easy recycling collection systems generating 517 tons of recycled white paper, seven tons of glass, and 686 pounds of aluminum over the past year. In addition, Sierra-at-Tahoe has a complimentary shuttle bus program that provides transportation to and from the resort to the south shore, keeping the air clean by reducing gas consumption. Sierra-at-Tahoe's longstanding dedication to its recycling program has decreased by at least 50 percent the amount of waste generated at the resort since 1993. Sierra-at-Tahoe has received the WRAP award seven times since 1996. Other awards include the 1995 Silver Eagle Winner for Excellence in Environmental Education, 1996 Golden Eagle Award Winner for Overall Environmental Excellence, and 1996 Silver Eagle Award for Environmental Community Outreach. The Eagle Awards are presented by the Time Mirror Corporation.

The Red and White Fleet (City and County of San Francisco)—The Red and White Fleet, the premier cruise operator on San Francisco Bay since 1892, is the first bay cruise company in San Francisco to reduce, reuse and recycle all products generated by their vessels, offices and employees. As a previous 1999, 2000 and 2001 WRAP winner, the Red and White Fleet has been, and remains committed to, managing its waste in the most environmentally responsible manner possible. The family of Red and White Fleet employees has, for years, been conscientiously working to hone the efficiency of their operations with an eye on both the environmental and economic benefits. More recently, they have developed an outreach program, joining with nonprofit organizations such as Save the Bay to offer the Bay Area community a means to learn more about conserving and protecting their shared environmental treasure of San Francisco Bay. As a result of these efforts, the Red and White Fleet reduced its disposal costs by 15 percent last year and made considerable gains in emissions reduction by powering the fleet with low-emission diesel engines.

Walt Disney Studios (Los Angeles County)—The Walt Disney Company is recognized as a world-leading provider of family entertainment with business segments in theme parks, resorts, motion picture/television production, and consumer products. This year, the combined efforts of the Studio, Imagineering, ABC TV Hollywood, El Captain Theater, and Featured Animation enabled the company to recycle more than 7,000,000 pounds of materials and diverted from landfill disposal a minimum of 182,000 pounds through donations and reuse. By eliminating the annual holiday card, the company not only saved more than 12,000 pounds in paper generation, but saved $109,273 in avoided purchasing and handling costs of cards, envelopes, and inserts. By ordering office supplies electronically instead of fax ordering and paper billing, the company saved over $100,000 in incentives and rebates. Buying recycled is equally as important, and this year's recycled-content purchases totaled more than $2 million in products ranging from office paper, toner cartridges and office supplies to furniture, promotional products, and printed materials.

Open to businesses and private, nonprofit organizations, the WRAP awards were initiated in 1993 to recognize companies that develop innovative and aggressive programs to reduce the amount of nonhazardous solid waste they generate. Applicants are evaluated based on a range of waste reduction activities that include waste prevention, reuse, recycling, use of recycled-content products, and employee education and training. More than 8,700 WRAP honors have been awarded to date, including this year’s winners, and many companies have earned the award more than once since the program started.

All winners of the Waste Board’s WRAP award receive the right to promotional advertising and use of the WRAP logo, as well as a certificate of recognition. Pacific Bell, for instance, a multi-year WRAP winner and a top-ten 2001 WRAP of the Year honoree, features the logo on the back of its SMART Yellow Pages and White Pages directories.

Among this year’s winning businesses with locations statewide are:

Albertsons, Inc.—One of the world's largest food and drug retailers, Albertsons, Inc. has annual revenues of approximately $38 billion. The company is based in Boise, Idaho and employs more than 200,000 employees. Albertsons, Inc. operates approximately 2,300 retail stores in 31 states across the United States under banners including Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Sav-on Drugs, Osco Drug, Max Foods and Super Saver. The company stands behind its environmental commitment by continuing to recycle 50 percent of its waste stream, including 319,328 tons of old corrugated cardboard and 4,363 tons of plastic grocery bags and pallet wrap at 744 sites in California. Albertsons, Inc. has also spearheaded innovative new packaging designs such as the standard footprint produce box and wax-less boxes for meat, fish, and poultry. Albertsons and its sister stores encourage not only employees but consumers to explore new avenues and new concepts to reduce/reuse/recycle. Albertsons has won the WRAP award five times between 1998 and 2002, and is also a previous WRAP of the Year winner.

Safeway, Inc.—Among the largest retail companies in North America, Safeway, Inc. operates 582 California stores in its Vons and Northern California Divisions. Since 1995, Vons has implemented a composting program for green waste at its stores that converts material that was previously a waste into a valuable product: compost. This program has been expanded into Safeway's Northern California Division. Notable cost savings have resulted from a reduction in waste disposal costs. Last year, the two divisions diverted 68,785 tons from landfill disposal. In addition, Safeway's two California divisions diverted over 148,657.2 tons of other materials from landfills including corrugated cardboard, plastic, meat waste, metal, paper, and glass through recycling programs. Safeway has won the WRAP award four years consecutively from 1999 through 2002.

Save Mart Supermarkets—Save Mart Supermarkets is a retail chain comprised of 81 conventional supermarkets and 14 warehouse-style markets. The company has two very successful closed-loop recycling operations. Bakery and produce trim are collected from each site and converted to compost that is sold in Save Mart Garden Shops. In addition, tons of compost have been donated to schools, churches, and city parks. In a cooperative program with Enviro-Bag, customers' plastic carry-home bags are collected by schoolchildren for fund-raising. Bags are recycled into Enviro-Bag brand trash and kitchen bags and subsequently sold on retail shelves. In 2001, this recycling teamwork recaptured 310,000 plastic bags—a 24 percent increase over the previous year. Save Mart's multi-faceted recycling efforts have reduced waste sent to landfills by over 70 percent. Save Mart is a three-year winner of the WRAP award, having received honors in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

Target Corporation/Mervyn’s Stores—The Target Corporation is a leading retailer in the discount, middle-market and department store marketplace. The company is committed to leadership, excellent guest service, team member opportunities, and community outreach. Last year, Target Corporation was able to recycle over 300,000 tons of materials nationwide. Additional waste was reduced through salvage programs and donations of unsellable items to charitable organizations and humane societies. The Target Environmental Services Department is recognized for designing and implementing a successful, innovative program that established recycling goals in comparison to the sales per store. This ongoing waste reduction program was first developed several years ago for Target stores. Today, goals for the company’s Mervyn's stores are currently being developed. Target first received the WRAP award in 1997 and then was honored four more times from 1998 to this year.

The six-member California Integrated Waste Management Board is responsible for protecting public health and safety and the environment through management of the estimated 68 million tons of solid waste generated in California each year. The Board works in partnership with local government, industry, and the public to reduce solid waste disposal and ensure environmentally safe landfills. California now diverts 42 percent of its solid waste away from disposal.