2007-05-22_PWETC_AgendaPacket - Laserfiche WebLink

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section3 . . . , . 'u &1 , . -- -.l. .'.;c z~- \. , .. ." L'-'r1t.' '1..,... _"f -"-'f.~ _ :', ~.... ".__t__ ~._~ "'---'. ., best practices & resources Recycling and Waste Reduction Best Practices San Francisco's Organics Collection Program The City of San Francisco instituted residential curbside collection of organic material as part of Its Fantastic Three program. The program provides each household wIth a green cart for organic waste. a blue cart for commingled recyclablcs. and a black cart for all remaining trash. Residents and businesses are encouraged to place all food scraps and yard trimmings into the green cart. which is collected for composting at a regional facility, By instituting curbside organics collection. San Francisco became the first large city in the nation to collect food scraps clt)"Nidc. The fantastic Three program enabled the City to reach a reported overall 67 percent garbage diversion rate in 2004. The rough outreach and other methods. the CIty plans to expand the Fantastic Three program and increase both the amount of organics and rccyclables collected, The program's expansion is projected to achieve an annual cC02 reduction of 70.000 tons. Seattle's Ban on Recyclables from Garbage Since January 2005 the City of Seattle has prohibited the disposal of certain rccyclables from residentIal. commercial. and self.haul garbage by law. The new recycling ordinance is aimed at eliminating recyclable or compostable paper. cardboard. aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and yard debris that. until recently. have constituted approxImately 25 percent of the CIty'S garbage. The city hopes the new ordinance will save residents and businesses as much as $2 million per year and keep future garbage costs low, as well as help to reverse the recent decline In Seattlc's recycling rates. The measure is projected to achieve an annual reduction of 260.000 tons of eC02. Montgomery County. Maryland Retrofits a landfill into an Energy Source The County installed a gas collection system for the Gude Southlawn Sanitary Landfill In Rockville. MD The landfill was open for almost 20 years and collected an estimated 4.8 million tons of waste under 91 acres. Forty.four wells wcrc establishcd to feed an on-site generation facility with two generators to recover the landfill gas and turn It into electricity_ Thc 1.500 kilowatt electrical generators are connected to the local power grId and revenues is generated from selling this electriCity to Potomac Electric Power Company under a 20-year agrcement. To date ratepayers have saved millions of dollars in capital costs after the costs of installing the methane colfection system in the landfill; approxImately 600 million cubiC feet of landfill gas is prevented from going into the atmosphere each year. At 50 percent methane content. that's the global warming polution equivalent of approximately 120.000 tons of CO2 emissions prevented. 20,000 megawatt hours per year are generated-enough to serve an estimated 2,700 homes. Additionally the County makes substantial revenues from the sale of landfill gas rights.