PLANNING SUSTAINABLE NEIGHBORHOODS
Collection and Recovery
Figure 11.3: Recology’s waste sorting guide. Source: Recology
147
INDIVIDUAL TOOLS
Figure 11.4: Recology’s Collection Bins. Source: Recology
|
The IRR tool works at the community level by instituting processes for waste removal, and it also works at the per-person level through its educational functions. Once piloted, the IRR tool can be replicated or scaled to inform nationallevel adoption and related policy change.
Recology’s success cannot be separated from enthusiastic support by the City of San Francisco. In 2009, San Francisco became the first City in the United States to mandate waste sorting, composting, and recycling programs. Those not in compliance with sorting requirements may be fined up to US $100. San Francisco’s businesses and residents also helped bolster Recology’s success by demanding compostable servingware from restaurants and giving purchasing preference to products made with recycled materials.
INTEGRATION : SYSTEMS
Nationally, there must be policies and standards around waste disposal, encouraging that which is appropriate (recycling, composting), and discouraging that which is environmentally damaging (landfilling, incinerating). At the urban- and neighborhood-level, there must be processes and institutions established to retrieve accumulated garbage and transport it to disposal sites. Finally, and perhaps most important to the shift in thinking that must occur if dumping is to be stopped at the source, education of the public must be deployed so every person can learn how to consume in a low-impact manner.
|
What is this tool’s Scale?
Once collected, contents of the Blue bins are separated by material and shipped off to become recycled products. Contents of the Green bins are either sent to local composting farms and converted to premium soil for sale, or diverted to an anaerobic digestor for conversion into biogas. Contents of the black bins are landfilled into holds with paved bottoms that prevent the waste from leeching into the soil and ground water; the holds are also enclosed by walls and a roof, to deflect wildlfe and contain noxious fumes. Finally, Recology runs special receiving operations for hazardous materials like paint, electronics, and batteries.
ANALYSIS : SYSTEMS
Figure 11.2: Beijing’s “Seventh Ring” of garbage dumps. Source: Wang Jiuliang
|
Recology, an IRR company in San Francisco, runs the largest composting facility in the United States, employs over 2000 people, and generates more than US $300 million in annual revenue. The IRR process begins with the end-use consumer sorting their trash into three colored bins: Blue for mixed recyclables, Green for organic compostables, and Black for residual waste. Recology then collects the bin contents into special trucks with partitioned bellies that maintain the physical separation of the three bins until the processing plant is reached.
INTRODUCTION
CASE STUDY: RECOLOGY