City Passes Zero Waste Resolution

The Davis City Council passed a motion on Dec. 6 pushing Davis into the waste diversion headlines by adopting a Zero Waste Resolution.

This resolution sets a new goal for Davis to achieve 75% recycling by 2020 by implementing zero waste strategies. This makes Davis the 1st city in the Sacramento region and the central valley to adopt such a resolution.

What is zero waste?  The Zero Waste International Alliance defines zero waste as 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.

Dean Newberry, the chair of the Natural Resources Commission congratulates the City Council for passing the zero waste goal with the following: "The City of Davis can now develop plans to reach that goal. Those plans will help reduce the amount of waste going to local landfills, increase reuse and recycling of existing resources, and increase purchasing of recycled and environmentally preferable products."

This Zero Waste Resolution will provide the basis for the development of solid waste strategic plan that the City staff is currently developing and will guide the City recycling program for the next several years.   The strategic plan is scheduled for review at the March 2012 Natural Resource Commission meeting, and to City Council for approval thereafter.

“The strategic plan will prioritize recycling program actions, evaluate sanitation service costs, and assess long range sanitation rate impacts,” says Jacques DeBra, Utilities Manager for the City of Davis.

In 1989, the Integrated Waste Management Act (AB 939) was passed and dramatically transformed the solid waste process statewide. The law mandated that all California jurisdictions recycle 25% of the waste it produced from landfills by 1995 and 50% of the waste by 2000.

This October, AB 341 was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, increasing California’s recycling goal from 50% to 75% by the year 2020.  While this is not a mandate for individual cities and counties yet, it is anticipated that the State will soon extend the AB 939 requirement to 75%. 

Davis is currently recycling 60% of discarded materials; achieving an additional 15% is not going to be easy. “It’s going to come down to organics,” says Jennifer Gilbert, Conservation Coordinator for the City. “In order to achieve a 75% recycling rate, we’ll probably have to start removing food scraps from the trash, from both businesses and residents.” The strategic plan that the City is developing will look at different options to achieving that goal with the lowest rate impact.

Earlier this year, the City started a new program collecting food scraps at several restaurants and grocery stores in Davis.  Davis Waste Removal (DWR) collects the food scraps and brings them to a local composting facility where they are turned into compost. This pilot is helping the City and DWR gather data and determine how a larger city-wide program might work.

“Diverting our food scraps at Caffé Italia has been very easy, it feels good to do the right thing, and we’ve been able to save money too,” says Shar Katz, owner of Caffé Italia and member of the Yolo County Waste Advisory Committee.  “Removing food scraps from the trash along with recycling has cut down our waste that goes into the landfill by 80%."