Publication Date: Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Beyond recycling
Beyond recycling
(October 19, 2005) Council adopts goal for city to be waste-free by 2021
by Jocelyn Dong
Come 2021, nearly all the garbage that's produced in Palo Alto could be eliminated -- if the city can get its residents and businesses to follow a "zero-waste" strategy adopted Monday night.
To achieve that lofty goal, everyone in the community will have to change their habits, said members of the city's Zero Waste Task Force. They will have to use less, find new uses for old items and recycle or compost materials. The group of business people, city staff and residents met for six months this year to develop a seven-point strategy.
"Zero waste" means diverting at least 90 percent of materials used or which could have been used from being put in landfill. The council also agreed to an interim goal - diverting 73 percent of waste by 2011. The city already keeps 57 percent from the dumps now, better than the state's average of 48 percent. The city generated 166,548 tons of waste in 2003, according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board.
Mayor Jim Burch, a proponent of zero waste, called the council's action, "the best decision during my six years on the council." Other members agreed, saying it was "historic" and congratulating Zero Waste Task Force chairmen Bud Mission of Roche Palo Alto and resident Walt Hays.
The task force presented the strategy, and among the objectives are: encouraging businesses to manufacture products that use less materials and produce less waste; offering recycling and composting services to all; creating incentives for businesses to cooperate in garbage reduction; and developing a zero-waste operational plan.
"The essence of zero-waste goes beyond recycling," Hays said, referring to the other approaches to eliminating garbage -- reducing, reusing and composting.
He particularly advocated for a resource-recovery park, saying it was a "key" part of the plan. Residents and business people would be able to take used materials to a single location in the city, where some materials would be recycled or composted and others would be reused rather than dumped. Only items that couldn't be salvaged in any way would end up in a landfill.
Aware of the community's negative stance toward locating a dump and recycling center in the Baylands -- an idea the council rejected earlier this year -- the task force included a recommendation that no parkland would be used for zero-waste facilities.
Along with the adoption of goals and strategies, the council agreed to conduct a waste-generation study, which would identify the types of materials various segments of the community are disposing of so that the city can tailor plans for eliminating waste. The report is expected in December.
The council also authorized the development of a zero-waste operational plan to implement the strategy that the council unanimously adopted. That document is expected by next summer.
In other city matters, the council agreed to oppose state Proposition 76, which outlines state-spending and school-funding limits. Members also voted to put a discussion about local tourism on a future agenda.
Senior Staff Writer Jocelyn Dong can be reached at jdong@paweekly.com.
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