Sustainability Project

Recycling Programs

Katie Kishimura, Kellina Lohman, Erica Trimble, Joslyn WoodTuesday, October 23, 2012

Terms• Diversion rate• Municipal solid waste• Life-cycle cost• Metrics• LEED-NC and LEED-EBOM• Construction and demolition waste (C&D)• Waste-to-energy plant• RFID chips

Pros of Recycling• Paper and Plastic Recycling

o Less waste is taken to landfills, increasing the diversion rate and lowering the cost of trash pickup.

o Beverage container recycling grants.o Recycling programs cost less to operate than waste

collection, landfilling, and incineration.

Pros of Recycling• Used Oil Recycling

o Used oil can be reused by converting it to biofuel.o Many companies will take away used oil and might pay

you for it.o Grants are available for recycling used oil.

• More benefits of recycling...o Positive reputation for "being green."o It can stimulate the economy by creating businesses and

jobs.o The long list of environmental benefits.

Cons of Recycling

•Glass and paper transportation and sorting is expensive and can offset the savings of using recycled products rather than raw materials

•Transportation of these items for recycling consumes fuel and produces air pollution, which can counterbalance the energy and pollution savings

• The Waste Reduction and Recycling Working Group has been focusing on the challenges of reducing municipal solid waste in the University’s Medical Centers.

•They have created an online reporting tool to monitor this.

Cons of the UC Recycling System

•Training of staff, as budget cuts have reduced staffing and service levels• Developing sustainable financial structures for waste reduction and recycling programs

Kimball Electric,azelectricalcontractors.com, 2012

Cons of the UC Medical Centers

•Including the cost of waste disposal and recycling into procurement life-cycle cost analyses –accuracy is difficult to attain•Defining appropriate metrics for reuse

• Developing zero waste best practice for LEED-NC (•Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-New Construction)

and LEED-EBOM (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-Existing Buildings: Operation and Maintenance)

projects

Cons of the UC Medical Centers

UC System PolicyZero Waste by 2020

UC System

• "Campuses are doing a good job of recycling and composting is the next step"

• UC Press prints 75% of the books it publishes each year on recycled paper.

• Construction and demolition of buildings accounts for a large part of the UC system recycling. Bren Hall, UCSB- 100% of demolition material and 92% of construction material.

• All the UCs follow the same strategy of pairing all trash cans with recycling bins. o UC Davis-Self-sufficient, recycles small and large.o UC Berkeley-Small space, big problems.o UCSF-Recycles the miscellaneous.o UC Merced-recycle all that can be recycled.o UC Santa Cruz- Rapid improvement in a few years.

Individual UCs

o UCLA - waste-to-energy planto UC San Diego - ChemCycleo UC Riverside - online resources, but still needs to

implement real changeo UC Irvine - readily available e-waste bins, fun projects,

widespread re-use projects

Individual UCs

Increasing Public Participation

Cleveland, Ohioo Recycling carts with RFID (radio-frequency identification) chipso $100 fines for improper recycling and trash sorting

Increasing Public ParticipationCherry Hill, New Jersey

o RecycleBanko Tracks amount of household recyclableso Rewards residents promoting good recycling habits with points that

can be used towards popular companies

Increasing Public ParticipationStanford Business Study

o Urgent, negative information needed to best motivate recycling habits

individuals are more willing to recycle in the presento "Feel good" messages about benefits of recycling useful for

information, not as effective motivates people to recycle in the future