Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP)

2002 WRAP of the Year

The 2002 WRAP of the Year winners are:

Other WRAP of the Year Winners: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996

Briar Patch Community Market--Grass Valley

Briar Patch Community Market is a medium-sized natural food co-operative with over 1,000 owner-members. Briar Patch reuses and/or recycles 96 percent of the materials generated in store operations, saving over $18,000 per year in waste disposal fees. Cardboard boxes account for much of the diversion: 27,284 pounds of wax-coated and 12,584 pounds of regular cardboard boxes are reused each year, and 22,916 pounds of cardboard are recycled. Each year, they also give over 6,000 pounds of produce waste to farmers and gardeners for compost or chicken feed, and they even collect empty egg cartons for reuse. Packing materials such as Styrofoam and bubble wrap are re-used by costumers or a local mailing service. The Briar Patch Community Market will continue to find innovative ways to reduce what it contributes to the waste stream.

Dominican Hospital--Santa Cruz

Dominican Hospital is a full-service community hospital in Santa Cruz. Founded in 1941 by the Adrian Dominican Sisters, Dominican is a member of Catholic Healthcare West, a nonprofit health system, co-sponsored by eight congregations of religious women. Since 1994 Dominican has operated "Domin-Again", a distribution center where materials that are still useful and can have another life again are collected. Its best "customers" are employees and those from the community associated with schools and day care centers, as well as those interested in arts and crafts. Dominican also finds uses for larger cast-off items; excess and obsolete medical supplies and equipment go to clinics in Central America and Africa, while unneeded furniture is give to local schools and government agencies. The hospital operates a full spectrum of recycling programs including glass, aluminum, batteries, fluorescent tubes and plastic. Since May of 2001, they have diverted over 14,000 pounds of blue sterile wrap and plastic from the landfill.

Leisure World, Laguna Woods--Laguna Woods

Leisure World, Laguna Hills, a retirement community of approximately 18,000 residents, is located in Orange County, California. Since 1987, Leisure World has been an innovator in waste reduction and recycling efforts in California through its successful green waste composting operation; newspaper, glass, aluminum, construction debris, and metals recycling programs; as well as the initiation of new re-landscaping techniques that source reduce the amount of green yard waste produced. As a result, Leisure World, Laguna Hills has achieved a solid waste diversion rate of over 58 percent. In county landfill tipping fees alone, approximately $264,000 was saved in 2001 through these recycling efforts, and revenues of over $185,000 were received.

Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego--San Diego

Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego is a hotel committed to waste reduction and environmental preservation. In addition to an advanced water reuse system, which helps preserve one of the earth's most precious resources and saves over 3,000 gallons of water a day, the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego focuses on recycling cardboard, aluminum, paper and glass. The Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego collected 163,440 pounds of cardboard, 668 pounds of aluminum, 77,085 pounds of paper and 74,129 pounds of glass. This program diverted 315,322 pounds of trash in 2001/2002 and resulted in $10,663.48 of revenue of the hotel.

Marian Medical Center--Santa Maria

Marian Medical Center, a health organization identifying stewardship as one of its core values, is a 167-bed hospital with two hospital campuses and a 95-bed extended care center. Dedicated to caring for the wellness, health, and healing of its community members' live, work, and play. To do their part in keeping the community clean, Marian employees and volunteers regularly give time to clean a stretch of Highway 101, as well as to keep Joe White Park in Santa Maria sparkling clean. Additionally, to encourage recycling, Marian houses the Franciscan Store where employees can shop at no charge for recycled hospital goods. Other Marian programs divert over 55,000 pounds of green waste from the landfill, and the Clean Green Waste to Compost program diverts hospital wrapping materials for a savings of 15,600 pounds a year. Additionally, through its energy conservation program, the hospital has reduced the usage of all utilities by 13 percent at a cost savings of over $60,000.

Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club--Redondo Beach

The Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club is a beautiful, deluxe hotel located in Redondo Beach on a lush, private peninsula on King Harbor. This property is Los Angeles' only oceanfront hotel and offers magnificent, panoramic views of the harbor, the Pacific Ocean, Palos Verdes and Catalina Island. The Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club has created a recycling program that is similar to that of the residents of Redondo Beach. The hotel offers comingled recycling for its Live Aboard tenants. What used to be thrown away now is being collected at the same location and recycled. The hotel also offers the marina tenants an oil collection facility for any used motor oils or diesel fluids to keep it out of the trash. The Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club has been able to divert 42 percent of its trash stream by providing marina tenants with a comingled program, recycling from the restaurant, hotel and convention center, and reducing green waste. By implementing these programs, the Portofino Hotel & Yacht Club has reduced its trash bill significantly.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company--Chico

The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is the ninth largest brewer in the United States and produces ales and lagers of the highest quality. At every stage in the brewing and packaging process, the company attempts to reduce waste generation. This includes recycling cardboard, plastics, metals and other materials, utilizing spent brewing grains, hops, and yeast for cattle feed, reducing water use and operating its own water purification plant. In 2001, the company reduced waste sent to the landfill by these amounts: 31 million pounds of grain, 436,000 pounds of hops, nine million pounds of yeast, 320,000 pounds of cardboard, 237,000 pounds of glass, 7,360 pounds of office pack/mixed paper and a significant amount of various other materials. In this same time period the brewery has saved $1.5 million by reducing high strength water treatment charges, selling recyclable materials, and reusing surplus supplies and equipment.

Tofu Shop Specialty Foods, Inc.--Arcata

Tofu Shop Specialty Foods, Inc. provides fine organic tofu products throughout the North Coast. The 22-year-old company with 17 full-time employees proudly diverts 99.7 percent of its waste and only puts out one and a half garbage cans per week. By giving its by-product soybean pulp to local farmers, the Tofu Shop diverts 240,000 pounds of pulp per year. The Tofu Shop saved $9,000 last year by diverting its waste.

Westfield Shoppingtown Mission Valley--San Diego

Westfield Shoppingtown Mission Valley is a super regional outdoor mall located in Central San Diego with three major department stores, over 100 tenants, an AMC-20 Multiplex Theater and numerous full service restaurants, including a micro-brewery. The Shoppingtown occupies 81.5 acres, has 1,583,469 square feet of stores and 7,181 parking spaces. On an average day, 26,000 people will arrive at the Shoppingtown to shop, eat and drink, see a movie or just enjoy the time in an exciting environment. The Shoppingtown will recycle over 1,300,000 pounds of cardboard, paper and plastics this year. In addition to these results, the Shoppingtown will save over $180,000 in electrical costs alone with the brand new "State of the Art" central plant installed this year to heat and cool the entire Shoppingtown.

Whole Foods Market Sebastopol--Sebastopol

Whole Foods Market is the world's largest natural and organic foods supermarket. Whole Foods Market donates surplus food and equipment to nonprofit organizations, uses recycled materials in its packaging, recycles and reuses extensively, provides environmental education, and gives monetary support to environmental organizations. Whole Foods Market Sebastopol was recently recognized as one of the top 15 food donors of Food for Thought Food Bank to which it makes daily donations. Whole Foods Market Sebastopol donates five cents to a local environmental nonprofit for each grocery bag which is reused. Since the program's inception, grocery bags are reused 73 percent more frequently. Whole Foods Market also received the first "Green Building" award in 1998 for sustainable renovation of its corporate headquarters that lead to a 42 percent reduction in waste and the EPA profiling Whole Foods Market as a construction waste reduction and recycling record-setter.

Last updated: March 06, 2008