By: Alex Ehrman ATOC 4800 19 September 2017 G.H.G reduction & avoidance opportunities from materials & waste management practices By: Alex Ehrman ATOC 4800 19 September 2017

Contents Why I’m presenting on waste management. How waste impacts our environment and climate change. What is waste and material management. Environment & climate benefits of reducing waste. Waste management policies. CU’s Zero Waste Program. How can you help. Class discussion about what can be done to address waste management.

Why I’m presenting on waste management Interned at CU’s Environmental Center Doing research on Zero Waste. Researched credible and current information pertaining to the education of zero waste and best management practices for the recycling industry. Collaborated with universities and industry professionals to ensure the content of the Environmental Centers website is current, credible, and relevant. Provided assistance to further developed CU’s Zero Waste Program. Interned at CU’s Environmental Center Doing research on Zero Waste. I focused on helping to develop the recycling, composting, and waste management research program here at CU and in Boulder. I have come to learn a lot about this topic and the negative impacts of waste and how beneficial waste management can be.

Waste Facts “Every year Americans produce around 258 million tons of Trash”. 4 “About 95% of food that can be composted ends up in landfills”.4 “In the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in all previous history”.1 “With less than 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. was responsible for about one- third of the world’s total material consumption in 1970-1995”.1 “The majority of materials now consumed in the U.S. are nonrenewable, including metals, minerals, and fossil-fuel derived products”.1 “40% of emissions in the United States are associated with the products we use”.3 The U.S. buried or burned more than 170 million tons of resources—paper, plastic, metals, glass and organic materials—in landfills and incinerators in 2014. We recycled and composted only one-third of our discards.3 

How waste impacts our environment & climate change GHG’s are emitted during the harvesting, mining, extraction and transport of raw materials. Manufacturing products releases GHG during processing and as energy is expended during product use. Burning some kinds of waste in an incinerator increases greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases are emitted as waste decomposes in landfills.

What is waste and material management? Managing material resources as they flow through the economy, from extraction or harvest of materials and food, production and transport of goods, provision of services, reuse of materials, and, if necessary, disposal. “Life-cycle materials management: an approach to serving human needs by using/reusing resources most productively and sustainably throughout their life cycles minimizing the amount of materials involved and all the associated environmental impacts”.1 “To move from a traditional waste disposal system to a cyclical resource management system”.7 “Moving from a society that generates disposable waste to a society that avoids the use of virgin resources”.7 refers to how we manage material resources as they flow through the economy, from extraction or harvest of materials and food (e.g., mining, forestry, and agriculture), production and transport of goods, provision of services, reuse of materials, and, if necessary, disposal.

Environment & climate benefits of waste and material management  It conserves energy, reduces air and water pollution, reduces greenhouse gases, and conserves natural resources. Conservation of energy and natural resources and the prevention of pollution that is generated to make a new product. ”Diverting 87.2 million tons of materials from landfills Prevents 186 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent being emitted. Equivalent to taking over 39 million cars off the road for a year”.2 “Reducing our waste 1% per year and recycling and composting 90% of our discards by 2030, we could save 406 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent every year. equivalent to shutting down 21% of our nation’s coal-fired power plants.”5

Material and Waste management policies Waste Wise – “A voluntary partnership between EPA and U.S. businesses, Federal, tribal, state and local governments, and institutions to prevent waste, recycle, and buy and manufacture products made with recycled materials. Presently, more than 1,200 organizations are participating in the Waste Wise program”. 2 Pay-As-You-Throw Programs – “EPA provides technical and outreach assistance to encourage communities to implement pay-as-you-throw systems for managing solid waste. Under pay-as-you-throw, residents are charged based on the amount of trash they discard. This creates an incentive for them to generate less trash and recycle more. Currently, there are over 5,000 pay-as-you-throw communities in the U.S. On average, communities with pay-as-you-throw see waste reductions of 14 to 27 percent”. 2 “The City of Boulder has committed to achieving the goal of 85 percent diversion by 2017 and the county has committed a goal of beyond 90 percent levels by 2025”.

Case study on CU’s Zero Waste Program “Established in 1976, the mission of the University of Colorado’s Recycling Services is to cost-effectively reduce and recover resources from the waste stream, while promoting the environmental and social benefits of recycling, and providing opportunities for meaningful student involvement”. “As the University of Colorado Boulder continues to achieve progress towards carbon-reduction goals outlined in the university’s Conceptual Plan for Carbon Neutrality (CPCN), the campus must place greater emphasis on waste reduction programs in order to decrease its impacts on ecosystems and communities”. “pursuing zero waste operations, defined as a 90 percent diversion of municipal solid waste”. “CU should increase its landfill diversion rate to at least 90 percent by 2020”. support zero-waste practices. “Design and Integrate infrastructure and systems that support zero-waste practices”. “Construct off campus composting facility to process all campus pre and post consumer organics”.

Case study on CU’s Zero Waste Program In 2015 CU Boulder7: “Reused, recycled, and composted, diverting 2,541 tons and over 43% of campus materials from area landfills”. “Composted over 267 tons of grounds debris and 712 tons of pre/post-consumer food waste”. “Zero Waste Events across campus led to over 50 tons of materials recycled or composted, along with an average diversion rate of 83% at Folsom Stadium during the football season”. “Recycled five grades of paper totaling over 1,077 tons”. “Completed and opened on campus Recycling Operations Center to densify campus recycling operations”.

How can you help? Reduce the amount of materials you use which reduces the amount of waste you create. Reuse and recycle when possible. Rethink the material you use and what you throw away. Get Involved: CU Environmental Center’s Green Teams. Ralphies Green Stampede. ECO-Cycle’s Zero-Waste Initiative.

Class discussion Form Two groups and discuss what can be done to address this issue: Group #1 – Individual Action How can each of us further reduce the amount of waste we produce? What can you do to promote waste management locally? What can you do to promote your state and federal government to make waste management policy? Group #2 – State/federal Policy What are some policies that can help incentivize companies and households to reduce their waste? What programs can be implemented to provide options for recycling and composting? Programs to educate the public on the benefits of reducing waste? When considering these questions remember: The feasibility and cost for some people to reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost. Incentives people have to manage their waste. Path dependency of the life styles we currently live.

Bibliography: 1 Allen, Derry. "Sustainable Materials Management." (2012): n. pag. US EPA.gov. June 2009. Web. 17 Apr. 2017. <https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015- 08/documents/sustainable_materials_management_the_road_ahead.pdf>. 2 US EPA, Office Of Solid Waste. "Climate Change and Waste." Climate Change and Waste: Reducing Waste Can Make a Difference/US EPA ARCHIVE DOCUMENT. Web. 17 Apr. 2017. <https://archive.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/web/pdf/climfold.pdf>. 3 U.S. EPA, 2009. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States, Detailed Tables and Figures for 2014. 4 Phillips, Steven P., Laurel Lynn Rogers, and Claudia Faunt. "Advancing Sustainable Materials Management." Fact Sheet (2016): n. pag. June 2015. Web. 15 Apr. 2017. <https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015- 09/documents/2013_advncng_smm_fs.pdf>. 5 Platt, Brenda, and David Ciplit. "Stop Trashing the Climate." Dictionary Geotechnical Engineering/Wörterbuch GeoTechnik (2014): 243. Www.stoptrashingtheclimate.org. June 2008. Web. 14 Apr. 2017. http://compostingcouncil.org/wp/wp- content/uploads/2011/03/Stop-Trashing-the-Climate.pdf. 6 EPA. "Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices." (n.d.): n. pag. EPA Office of Solid Waste Management. Sept. 2009. Web. 1 Apr. 2017. <https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/ghg-land-materials-management.pdf>. 7 University of Colorado Boulder, Environmental Center, Recycling and Zero-waste.

Thank you!