Solid Waste and Recycling
This indicator describes the disposal and diversion of solid waste (also known as "municipal solid waste/ MSW," "trash," "refuse" or "garbage") in the Puget Sound Georgia Basin from 1999 through 2003.

What are we doing about it?

Public Sector Responses and Community/County Involvement

County and Regional District Solid Waste Management Plans

Local solid waste management plans are the cornerstone of solid waste management and reduction in the Puget Sound Georgia Basin.

In Washington State, these comprehensive plans detail and inventory all existing solid waste handling facilities within a county and provide an estimate of long-range needs for solid waste facilities projected over a 20-year period. The plans are intended to serve as a guiding document for a county to develop its infrastructure.¹⁹

With the implementation of Beyond Waste Program, local government planning jurisdictions will be encouraged to incorporate Beyond Waste principles and actions into their local comprehensive solid waste management plans.²⁰

In the Georgia Basin, BC amended the Waste Management Act in 1989 to require regional districts to prepare and submit solid waste management plans for approval by 1995. Each regional district was expected to help achieve the provincial goal reducing per capita MSW requiring disposal by 50 percent by the year 2000 compared to 1990 by reducing the regional MSW stream as much as practical. The amount of waste requiring disposal decreased significantly as regional districts began implementing plans. By 1996, MSW management became a lower priority for many local governments. As a result, the disposal rate in 2000 was only reduced by 29 percent compared to 1990.²¹ Read more about the annual Waste Tracking Reports.

As many local governments and businesses all over the world have discovered, zero waste is the ultimate goal of waste reduction. In its simplest formulation, committing to zero waste means adopting an ecological attitude to waste as misplaced resources, and implementing a strategy of continuous improvement in waste reduction.

In the Georgia Basin, six regional districts have committed to the zero waste goal and four others are considering doing so. The Regional District of Nanaimo was the first in the Georgia Basin to commit to zero waste.

Business, Citizen and Public Policy Response

Promoting Waste Reduction and Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

The most successful strategy to reduce solid waste is to decrease the overall amount of waste generated at its source, thereby avoiding the costs of both disposal and diversion. Waste reduction can be accomplished through:

• Eliminating or reducing packaging
  
• Buying in bulk
  
• Reducing paper use
  
• Vermicomposting of food waste and backyard composting of organic matter, including yard waste
  
• Buying items with replaceable parts and extended warranties
  
• Leasing the service of items rather than items themselves
  
• Reusing items and not purchasing disposable products²²

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing policies use bid specifications and criteria to reduce the volume of products purchased, as well as reducing toxicity and environmental impacts associated with products.²³

Promoting Industry Product Stewardship or Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

Industry Product Stewardship is an environmental management strategy that shifts responsibility for end-of-life management from local governments and the general base of taxpayers to industry and consumers. It also calls for extending the manufacturer's obligations throughout all stages of the product's life cycle, in terms of minimizing the product's environmental impact and enhancing reusability or recyclables of its products. Manufacturers are typically best positioned to control the life cycle impacts of their products. There are several business pilot programs in the Puget Sound Georgia Basin in which products are designed and managed through their lifecycles for end of life management. This might mean design for disassembly or deconstruction so component parts can be made into next generation products, and in some cases, designed for composting.²⁴

In British Columbia, a progressive approach was taken by requiring industry to develop plans for managing products at their end-of-life and to incorporate the costs into product price in some way. EPR programs in British Columbia focus on the industry responsibility and polluter-pay principles, and began with products that contribute to the household hazardous waste (HHW) stream.

As a result, there are extended producer responsibility programs for, paints, pharmaceuticals, gas, pesticides, solvents and used oil, filters and containers. Brand-owners of beverage containers were also required to establish province-wide return collection systems for used beverage containers under a deposit-refund system.

In October, 2004, the existing industry stewardship regulations were cancelled and their key provisions incorporated into schedules of the new Recycling Regulation, which is the single regulatory vehicle for all EPR programs in British Columbia. In February, 2006, the Recycling Regulation was amended by adding a schedule for electronic products. Producers of televisions and computers are required to submit stewardship plans by February 2007, and to implement them by six months later.²⁵ More on BC's product stewardship programs.

Business and Industrial Waste Reduction Efforts

While waste reduction efforts may involve greater upfront capitalization costs, businesses that isolate environmental compliance costs only miss valuable opportunities to reduce expenses through waste reduction. According to "Saving Salmon, Saving Money: Innovative Business Leadership in the Northwest," 137 Northwest businesses saved $42 million over the last seven years through product reuse and recycling. Sound Ford Auto Body Shop in Renton, Washington, introduced two innovations: they let car painters reap the cash benefits of paint conservation, and the company introduced a computer tracking system-with associated savings of $7,000 per month or$84,000 per year in paint and disposal costs.²⁶

Making Reuse and Recycling Easy

Reuse is the basis of everything from yard sales to share sheds at landfills or transfer stations. The advent of curbside recycling or the ubiquitous presence of "blue boxes" has increased the rate of recycling because people do not have to travel, or travel as far, to drop-off sites.

Growth in Food Recovery and Composting

Programs designed to encourage food donation, as well as composting, have dramatically reduced the amount of organics in the garbage system. In the United States, over 96 billion pounds of edible food are thrown away as garbage each year. This is astounding given that Washington State ranks second in the nation for hunger, only rivaled by Oregon, and ranks tenth for food insecurity.²⁷ Contact Food Lifeline to see how you can help: (206) 545-6600.

Both a U.S. and Washington Good Samaritan Limited Liability Act have helped facilitate food donations.²⁸

In addition to expansion of food recovery programs, many communities are discouraging the disposal of yard waste in garbage by providing access to commercial composting services and programs for education and development of home composting systems. In the Seattle area, a new pilot is allowing table scraps, animal and fish bones and other previously non-compostable items to be commercially composted²⁹ (visit Cedar Grove Composting for more information).

Beyond Waste and Thinking About the Future

The Beyond Waste project is a series of strategic plans for decreasing hazardous and solid wastes, increasing recycling, properly managing wastes that remain and reducing the use of toxic substances. This collaborative effort includes ideas and strategic planning from government, industry and business, citizens, environmental groups and other interest groups.

The 30-year Beyond Waste Plan vision calls for transition to a society where waste is viewed as inefficient, and where most waste and toxic substances have been eliminated. This will, in turn, contribute to economic, social and environmental vitality.³⁰ Status reports indicate great progress with: (1) collaboration; (2) focusing on reducing mercury and flame retardants; (3) improving technical assistance with a waste reduction focus; (4) providing incentives; (5) enhanced web-based tools; (6) researching and promoting green products; (7) and continued research.

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