This document summarizes strategies for moving Prince George's County, Maryland towards a goal of zero waste. It discusses the work of Community Research, a nonprofit advocating for zero waste and sustainability. It defines zero waste and discusses various policies and programs that can help achieve zero waste, such as pay-as-you-throw trash fees, composting, recycling mandates, and creating green jobs in reuse and recycling industries. The document recommends steps for Prince George's County to integrate food scrap composting, switch to unit-based pricing of trash, conduct a waste audit, and commission a zero waste strategic plan.

1. Moving Prince George’s County
towards Zero Waste
Suchitra Balachandran
Greg Smith
Community Research
January 23, 2013

2. Community Research is a Prince George’s County-based
nonprofit that conducts public-interest research, education and
advocacy on the environment, public health, sustainability, and
other issues.
Community Research has helped to set up Zero Waste Prince
George’s, a is group of about 60 activists in the County who are
interested in resource recovery from waste.
We are working with Clean Water Action, the Energy Justice
Network, and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance to build Zero
Waste Maryland, a statewide campaign and alliance for zero
waste.
communityresearch@igc.org

3. What is “Zero Waste”?
"Zero Waste is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and
visionary, to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices
to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials
are designed to become resources for others to use.
Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes
to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of
waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not
burn or bury them.
Implementing Zero Waste will eliminate all discharges to land,
water or air that are a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant
health."
-- Zero Waste International Alliance, November 2004.

4. Nuts and Bolts Definition
of Zero Waste
Zero waste means that:
 First, the amount of waste generated is systematically
reduced
 Nothing that can be recycled, reused or composted goes into
a landfill or an incinerator
 Green businesses are encouraged to mine resources from
what would otherwise be wasted and destroyed through
landfilling or incineration
 For many jurisdictions, the final goal is to reduce landfilling
and incineration to less than 10% of the waste produced

10. Alameda County Waste Management Authority &
Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board

11. Best Practices Study – Mecklenburg County
Residential Curbside (City and County)
Residential Multi-family
Commercial/Industrial/Institutional
Construction and Demolition Waste
Schools
Event Recycling
Local Government In-house Recycling
Waste Prevention (Reduce, Reuse)
Litter

13. Which companies are interested?
• Manufacture of rotary, in-vessel compost units in a range of sizes for commercial
generators of organic wastes including animal manures – 30 jobs
• Mattress and carpet materials recovery – 30 jobs
• Electronic Scrap, hand dismantling and processing of electronic discards – 20 jobs
• Industrial Rubber Compounds – 50-65 jobs
• Topsoil and compost – 8 jobs
• Anaerobic digestion – 8 jobs
• Storage and resale of recovered building materials – 20 jobs
• Glass processing, industrial grade glass products, container glass – 3 jobs
Direct Jobs 200-300; Indirect Jobs 200-300
Alachua County collects about 200,000 tons of waste annually
It has about 250,000 residents and covers roughly 970 sq. miles

14. Safeco Field – Seattle Mariners
Recycling rate increased from 17 to 80 percent
Stadium has 17 trash cans, 200 recycle bins and 300
compost bins
“All that’s left are potato chip bags, condiment
containers and wrappers for licorice ropes.”
Saved over $100,000 annually in landfill fees.
Sustainability initiatives written up on ESPN website
Unwasted: The Future of Business on Earth (http://sagebug.com/zerowaste/)

15. Local Initiatives
Not everything innovative and inspirational is
happening somewhere else
• Cheverly - household composting
• University Park - food scrap collection
• College Park - bulk waste pickup for reuse
• Laurel – mandates residential recycling
• University of Maryland - Sustainability Initiative
• Community Forklift, Eco City Farms

16. CB-87-2012
• Sets 60 percent recycling goal by 2020
• Mandates business recycling
• Mandates pilot food waste composting
program
• Revives and expands the Solid Waste
Commission and tasks it with resource
management
• Requires periodic waste audits
• Requires convenient recycling in apartments

17. U.S. municipal waste “disposed”
160.9 million tons in 2009
Source: US EPA, 2009 data (http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/msw99.htm)

18. What Prince George’s County Probably Landfills -
Percentages from Montgomery County Waste Sort
Mean
Category Material Composition Tonnage
Paper Recyclable Paper 17.40% 78300
Paper Non-Recyclable Paper 9.90% 44550
Ferrous Metal All Ferrous 2.70% 12150
Non-ferrous Metal Aluminum Cans 0.50% 2250
Non-ferrous Metal Everything Else 0.70% 3150
Wood All wood 5.30% 23850
Yard Waste Grass - Leaves - Brush - Pruning 3.10% 13950
Organics Food Waste 19.20% 86400
Organics Textiles & Rugs 6.60% 29700
Organics Rubber, Tires, Diapers, Fines 4.60% 20700
Organics Misc. Organics 7.00% 31500
Glass Clear, Brown, Green, Non-Container 2.50% 11250
Plastic PET #1, HDPE #2 1.90% 8550
Plastic Polystyrene 1.30% 5850
Plastic Other Recyclable Containers/Tubs 0.60% 2700
Plastic Film Plastic - Shopping Bags & Other 6.60% 29700
Plastic Other Ridge Plastic 3.70% 16650
Inorganic Concrete, Sheet Rock, Paint, Electronics 4.20% 18900
Hazardous Mostly Medical 1.70% 7650
99.50% 447750

19. Resources and Dollars Landfilled
Recyclable Paper + Metals + Plastics = 192,000 tons
At $6/ton MRF + $59/ton landfill cost = $12 million
Commodity Prices: $100/ton for paper
$60-80/ton for metals
$10-15/ton for plastics
Food Waste + Non-recyclable paper + yard waste = 145,000 tons
At $20/ton for compost assuming 2:1 ratio of waste to compost and
$59/ton landfill cost saved = $10 million

20. Problems with Burning and Burying
• Both destroy valuable resources.
• Both pollute air, land, water, people and other living things….
upstream and downstream.
• Both destroy jobs and often export money from communities
• Both increase emissions of greenhouse gases.
• Both are subsidized at the expense of recycling, composting and
clean renewable energy.
• Both tend to be sited in communities with lower incomes, higher
percentages of minorities or rural areas.

21. Even More Problems with Burning
• Ton for ton, incineration is the most expensive waste
“disposal” option.
• Watt for watt, incineration is the most expensive way to
generate electricity.
• Watt for watt, burning trash emits more greenhouse gases
and more of certain toxic air pollutants than burning coal.

22. Costs to Build, Operate and Maintain a
1500 Ton Per Day Trash Incinerator
• Construction costs can exceed $1
billion to build, including interest on
30-year capital debt.
• Gross operating and maintenance
costs can approach $2 billion over 30
years.
• Retrofits to meet new standards or
simply to deal with wear and tear can
be very expensive.

23. 1,500 TPD recycling facility
= $8 million investment
Institute for Local Self-Reliance

24. Job Creation:
Reclamation vs. Disposal
Type of Operation Jobs/10,000 TPY
Computer Reuse 296
Textile Reclamation 85
Misc. Durables Reuse 62
Wooden Pallet Repair 28
Recycling-Based Manufacturers 25
Conventional MRFs 10
Composting 4
Landfills and Incinerators 1
MRF = materials recovery facility Institute for Local Self-Reliance
TPY = tons per year

25. So How Does
Zero Waste Happen?

26. Key Steps to Zero Waste
• Inform, Inspire, Habituate
• Implement Pay As You Throw trash fees
• Accept many materials for recycling
• Compost
• Mandate recycling
• Target all sectors
• Augment curbside with drop-off
• Market materials
• Create green jobs by welcoming business that
reuse, refurbish, upcycle, recycle and compost
Institute for Local Self-Reliance

27. Policy Framework
• Landfill bans of certain materials, e.g., yard waste
• Recycling goals and requirements
• Beverage container deposits
• Recycled-content laws
• Creative funding mechanisms
• Buy recycled programs
• Pay-as-you-throw trash fees
• Product bans
• Product fees
• Extended producer responsibility (EPR)
Institute for Local Self-Reliance

28. Prince Georges County:
Current Fee Structure Sends No Clear Signal
Charges the same rate to all “single-family” households:
Base Charge $33.52
Recycling Charge $58.16
Bulky Trash $20.94
Garbage $234.33
Typical Total $346.96
Municipalities - solid waste charge is not broken out

29. EPA advocates PAYT for Environmental and Economic Sustainability and for Equity

30. Unit-based Pricing Sends a Clear Message
Worcester, MA San Francisco, CA
Population 173,000 Population 775,000
Unit based pricing is just a different way of paying for waste
Source: Kristen Brown, Green Waste Solutions, www.thewastesolution.com

31. Composting & Recycling Collection System Designed
for High Diversion
Recycled Paper Food Scraps
21% 20%
Yard Trimmings
5%
Glass and Plastic Bottles
Aluminum and Steel Cans
5%
Compostable Paper
10%
Construction and
Demolition Waste
25%
Other
Courtesy of City of San Francisco 15%

32. Easy to Understand Program
Courtesy of City of San Francisco

33. Designed for Easy Participation
Labeled Lids
Kitchen Pail Wheeled Cart
Courtesy of City of San Francisco

34. Recommended Steps Towards Zero Waste
Integrate food scrap composting
Switch to PAYT
Study feasibility of Resource Recovery Park
Conduct and analyze waste audit
Post monthly reports on website:
landfilled tonnage
recycled tonnage
revenues obtained
Re-evaluate MRF Contract
Commission Zero Waste Strategic Plan

35. "If it can't be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt,
refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or
composted, then it should be restricted,
redesigned or removed from production."
-- Berkeley Ecology Center