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Kitsap County, WA: A Leader in Waste Reduction Among Local Governments
Since joining WasteWise in 1999, Kitsap County has been at the forefront of reducing waste. The County has steadily improved their waste reduction program, "WasteWise Kitsap," over the years, and has picked up a few WasteWise awards along the way-six to be exact. Their hard work and planning has paid off, literally. The County has saved taxpayers more than $1.15 million in avoided disposal costs over the past two years alone. By continuously implementing innovative and easy waste reduction measures, Kitsap was awarded the 2006 WasteWise Local Government Partner of the Year.
Wa$teWise Kitsap began as a small program, targeting paper use by promoting double-sided printing and copying and implementing an office recycling program. Today, Wa$teWise Kitsap has grown into a comprehensive waste prevention program, with annual waste reduction goals and a training program. Constantly looking for new opportunities to further reduce waste, WasteWi$e Kitsap has recently implemented a junk mail and fax waste reduction program. An opt-out postcard was created for employees to send to the direct mailer/faxer to reduce the number of junk mail and faxes received. The post card was a hit-eliminating more than 1,200 pieces of junk mail and 1,000 junk faxes in just one year. Another recent success is the internal "Wa$te Exchange" program. By making it easy for departments to swap surplus office supplies through the Wa$te Exchange, the County saved almost $7,000 through reduced purchasing and waste disposal costs in 2006 alone.
Kitsap County attributes much of their waste reduction success to outreach, education, and their designated department waste coordinators. Posters, newsletters and departmental coordinator workshops inform staff on how to maximize their participation in the successful waste reduction program.
Besides saving their taxpayers' money, Kitsap County's recycling and waste reduction efforts in 2006 yielded significant environmental and energy savings Using our WAste Reduction Model (WARM), the County's 2006 efforts avoided the creation of greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 154 cars from the road for one year.
Not content to rest on their laurels, Kitsap County leaders already are working to raise the bar this year. Goals for 2007 include further curbing paper use by exploring electronic methods for delivering employee leave and pay data and archiving files.
Kitsap County's recycling and waste reduction initiatives exemplify the types of activities that the Resource Conservation Challenge encourages within the national priority area of Municipal Solid Waste and Recycling.
