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Zero Waste & Waste Diversion: A Guide to a Greener and Healthier Future

By: Caitlin Dimalanta  |  December 3, 2020

In 2018 the EPA reported a total of 292.4 million tons of trash collected, translating to roughly 4.9 pounds per person on a daily basis in the United States alone. Approximately 32 percent of this trash was either recycled or composted. This waste diversion statistic is an impressive feat. However, the trash being generated year by year is steadily increasing along with environmental and economical impacts.

These impacts can range anywhere from reduced oxygen levels of diverse habitats to toxicological threats to our wildlife through ingestion and entanglement. On top of the ecological effects, the cost of mismanaged waste can be substantial. In a 2012 an EPA study recorded that West Coast communities of the United States spend more than $520 million dollars annually to prevent trash from littering the ocean.

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Topics: Zero Waste, Facility Maintenance, Waste Diversion

America Recycles Day: Keep Calm & Recycle On

By: Briana Smith  |  November 13, 2019

America Recycles Day is coming up this Friday, November 15th and it’s a day to educate, to motivate & to make recycling bigger & better!

We are at a crossroads when it comes to the state of the recycling industry. As was mentioned in our The Future of Recycling article, China started banning “foreign garbage” in 2018 which encompassed recyclables from the United States that are often contaminated due to improper collection & disposal practices. This contamination in the recycling stream has caused processing problems at recycling centers here as well, as consumers are unaware of their local waste management rules & regulations resulting in “hopeful recycling.”

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Topics: Zero Waste, Recycling, Sustainability, Waste Diversion

Trojans and Rams Get the Gold for Going Green in 2016, Crossing Zero Waste’s Goal Line

Photo by Mike Anderson/WAXIE Sanitary Supply

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, in partnership with USC Sustainability, becomes largest NFL stadium and second-largest college stadium to achieve zero waste status, repurposing over 90 percent of waste created by over 1M patrons, totaling 233 tons

As the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum concludes the football season with the final Rams game this Sunday, it will be the culmination of a historic campaign for a venue that now hosts both the Los Angeles Rams and USC Trojan football. Fans in attendance at the game will be a part of a Coliseum sustainability effort that will help push the facility over the “zero waste” goal line.

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Topics: Zero Waste, Recycling, Sustainability, Waste Management

How Zero Waste Initiatives Affect Businesses

By: Derek Markham  |  October 18, 2016

Zero waste is fast becoming a sustainability staple in the business world, but what does it mean, how do you get there, and how does going zero waste affect the businesses which do so?

First, a definition of zero waste from Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA):

"Zero Waste is 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. Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them. Implementing Zero Waste will eliminate all discharges to land, water or air that are a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health."

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Topics: Zero Waste, Recycling, Sustainability, Waste Diversion

America Recycles Day – A Day to Think About Recycling

By: Keith Schneringer  |  November 14, 2013

America Recycles Day is November 15!

Each year since 1997, the Keep America Beautiful organization has celebrated November 15 as “America Recycles Day”.

What is America Recycles Day?  

It is a day dedicated to promoting recycling – a day focused on educating and motivating people to divert more waste from the landfills – and a day to ask people to strive to make their recycling efforts bigger and better for all the other days of the year.

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Topics: Zero Waste, composting, Recycling