A few visionary government leaders, in collaboration with private-sector partners, have launched sustainability projects that are producing incredible results. One has to wonder why all governmental entities are not as aggressive.
Here’s a shocking statistic. The city of New York produces 33 million tons of trash each year. That’s so much refuse that landfills can’t be built fast enough to contain it all. So Mayor Bill de Blasio launched a “Zero Waste Challenge” and asked 30 large businesses in the city to reduce their production of waste by half by June. In the five months since the challenge was issued, the city has trimmed its waste production by 50 percent.
Quasar Energy Group’s digester provides the OARDC campus with 30 percent of its electricity. (Photo by Ken Chamberlain)
Of the trash not delivered to landfills, more than 30,000 tons are being composted and another 300 tons of food that would have been discarded are being donated. New York’s Zero Waste Challenge resulted from the city’s One NYC program which was developed to reduce waste deposited in landfills over the next 20 years.
That’s important because research has shown that landfills are a major source of methane gas, a key ingredient in greenhouse gas. By lowering the amount of trash in landfills, cities can have a huge impact on the nation’s efforts to combat the effects of climate change.
Here’s another “gutsy” move made by a visionary city. San Francisco recently passed an ordinance prohibiting the sale of polystyrene in the city limits and has a stated goal of reaching “zero waste” by 2020. Polystyrene is present in many products – foam egg cartons, ice chests and coffee cups. In addition to banning the sale of polystyrene products, the ordinance also requires companies to replace polystyrene products with compostable and less harmful products.
San Francisco is the first city in the U.S. to push forward an ordinance as restrictive as banning plastic foam and similar products. Both the state and its major cities are attempting to reach zero waste. In 2000, the city of San Francisco achieved the state’s mandate of 50 percent landfill diversion. By 2003, the city had banned plastic bags at grocery stores. In 2009, the city again became the only one in the nation to enforce on both businesses and residents a requirement to separate compostables, recyclables and landfill trash into separate waste bins. The effort has been so successful that by 2013, the city reached an 80 percent diversion rate of trash from landfills.
Other public organizations are working on similar programs. The Ohio State University just completed its third consecutive year of striving for zero waste during football season. That’s quite a feat because college campuses find themselves covered with litter after sports events. More than 100,000 fans fill the Ohio Stadium for football games, but the Buckeyes are committed to diverting 90 percent of stadium-generated waste. Even tailgaters will soon be impacted as the university introduces the same mandates related to recycling and composting to the thousands who swarm the stadium grounds during games.
The university’s success in waste reduction related to sports has motivated others. Campus-wide waste diversion rates have almost doubled since the start of the zero waste football days. More than 30 percent of the campus waste was diverted in 2015 and efforts continue this year. Other sustainability projects are notable as well. The university’s Columbus Campus receives more than 20 percent of its electricity from wind power and has added 237 solar panels to the Recreational Center’s roof.
The Ohio Agriculture Research and Development Center on the Wooster campus has partnered with a private energy company to find ways to generate affordable renewable energy from biomass and food waste. The university has a goal of attaining “carbon neutrality” by 2050. That goal will include not only waste reduction, but also more energy-efficient buildings.
Vision, innovation and collaboration seem to be the building blocks for sustainability initiatives that create significant results! Kudos to visionary leaders who set big goals and then partner with private-sector firms, organizations and citizens to accomplish them!