Improve city operations and procurement to prevent and reuse, recycle and compost waste from all public facilities (including libraries, parks, schools, municipal health care facilities), and minimize use of toxics and generation of hazardous waste.
Best Practice of this action
Keywords
schools
Rating Guideline
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Measure/audit waste generated; adopt goals for reducing the generation of overall solid waste; goals for diverting a percentage of overall solid waste into recycling or organics collection; goals for specific waste streams such as public works waste, disposable cafeteria ware, waste from parks. Note that some cities entered, before 2018, completion of this action under BPA 22.2 |
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Describe actions taken, such as refurbishing office equipment, reusing building materials, increasing e-commerce, getting off junk mail lists, collecting organic material and beverage containers from parks. |
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Report measures that show goals were met by the reduced amount of waste generated, the increased amount of waste diverted into recycling and organics collection. |
Resources
- Like the food pyramid, the Minnesota waste management hierarchy quickly and visually helps us all focus on the benefits of top priority actions around solid waste - reducing it and reusing it - while showing the others (recycling/composting, energy recovery, treatment & disposal). Note the role of city purchasing policies in preventing and reducing waste.
- Assistance in reducing waste is available from the MN Pollution Control Agency and Minnesota Waste Wise, a program of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.
- TRUE Zero Waste Certification is available for any physical city facility and its operations, including buildings owned by the city, schools, municipal utilities, public housing, etc. This third-party assessor-based program rates how well facilities perform in minimizing their non-hazardous, solid wastes and maximizing their efficiency in the use of resources.
- On average, approximately 24% of the total waste generated in elementary schools is food waste. Schools pay three times for this waste: purchasing, handling, disposing. The Minnesota School Recycling Toolkit, (MPCA, Recycling Association of Minnesota: 2011) developed in consultation with counties and schools that have successfully developed or improved school recycling programs. The Toolkit is geared toward school staff and administrators as well as cities interested in increasing recycling in school districts within the city.
- See the University of St. Thomas Sustainable Communities Partnership report for the City of Elk River on Sustainable Behavior among Elk River Employees that includes city staff behavior change examples and resources.
Order Number
1
Action Type
Finite