Annie Hauck-Lawson, of FoodVoice.net shares a series of composting videos that are a must see.

How did they do it?

Simple, they went the extra mile with recycling, food donation program and organic composting.

The stores now divert all non-contaminated waste from landfills and incinerators. In total, over 95% of all waste products from both stores are recycled, reused or composted — exceeding the 90% threshold commonly recognized as zero waste.

What’s especially cool is that Albertson’s partnered with the City of Santa Barbara to establish one of the first citywide composting programs in the United States, which is a key piece of their waste diversion efforts. As a result of this program the city will compost 4,000,000 lbs. of foodscraps from 120 program participants this year alone. So kudos to each of the participants.

Another key component of the waste diversion program includes donating staple and perishable products that would otherwise go to waste for area food banks. Called the Albertsons Fresh Rescue Program, these two stores donate on average a total of 149,598 lbs. per year of food to the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County.

The good news is, they are making progress!

With International Paper and Mississippi River Pulp, LLC, Starbucks has finished a six-week pilot project that for the first timeproved Starbucks used paper cups can be recycled into new paper cups. So this success takes them one step closer.

Starbucks also has another recycling pilot project underway in New York. The company is collecting paper cups at 86 of its Manhattan stores (just how many do they have in Manhattan anyway?) to determine whether they can be recycled into bath tissue and paper towels.

Another recycling project is slated for 2011 in Chicago, which aims to transform the company’s discarded paper cups into napkins for use in its stores.

This past year, Starbucks began front-of-store cup collection in Toronto and Seattle, where its cups can be recycled, and in San Francisco, where its cups can be composted.

Do you know of any other interesting paper recycling initiatives? If you do, let me know!

Hello Tim,

I have researched your order, unfortunately at this time we do not provide free shipping for items that are eligible for recycling only. If you would like to send your items please send them to:

Gazelle

61 North Beacon St.

Suite 3000

Boston Ma, 02134

If you would rather not send in your item here is a link to a page on our site that can help you locate a local recycle center so you can responsibly recycle these items.

Thank you,

Nicole

Customer Care

This is just a bit of a snafu don’t you think? No where is this policy mentioned on the site, or in the order fulfillment process. In fact, I was instructed to print up a packing slip and the FAQ says an envelope will arrive shortly.

At a minimum, this policy should be revealed during the order fulfillment process, prior to the step where one prints up the packing slip.

I venture to say that the envelope should be sent anyway in order to “buy a customer.” Everyone knows that customer acquisition is much more costly than repeat business, so Gazelle would do well to suffer a small loss in order to acquire a customer who will experience a smooth process from the get go, gain confidence from the experience and then continue to do (profitable) business with them.

As it is, I’m grumpy with Gazelle, doubtful that I’ll do business with them in the future and I now have to source a local cell phone recycler – after having old junk clutter my desktop for two weeks.

Graciously, David agreed to let me post an excerpt. Let me know what you think about his take!

Lower Rates than those in Cities with a Single Exclusive Hauler Rates for commercial refuse collection service in cities with non-exclusive systems are
typically lower than those in cities in which a single hauler provides exclusive service to both the residential and commercial sectors. This is mainly due to two factors: market pressure and ‘subsidization.’

First, in non-exclusive systems, there is continued downward competitive market pressure on rates. If a hauler increases its rates too much, the customer is usually able to readily switch to another service provider.6 As a result, the freemarket keeps rates in check.

However, commercial rates in cities that have a single hauler with a city-wide exclusive contract typically suffer from a phenomenon known as ‘subsidization.’ In these cities, the commercial rates often subsidize the residential rates.

This phenomenon typically occurs over time when a single hauler provides exclusive service to both the residential and commercial sectors, typically under a single contract. From the hauler’s profit-seeking perspective, it usually views the city as a whole. The hauler is typically indifferent as to how much of its profit comes from the residential or commercial sector, as long as the whole contract is profitable. Consequently, as rates are adjusted and the
contract re-negotiated over time, there is a tendency for the commercial rates to be increased more than the residential rates.

This tendency is caused by two factors. First, residential rates usually consist of one or two simple monthly charges that are charged to a large number of single family customers. These high-profile rates are easily understood and often compared to similar rates in nearby jurisdictions. However,  commercial rates are more abstract, and are based on a more complicated matrix of the size and number of bins, and number of weekly pickups.
Consequently, residential rates are often subject to more scrutiny when they are adjusted or re-negotiated.
The second factor is the political nature of local government. There are simply more voters in the residential sector. Elected officials tend to represent the needs of their constituents, and more of their constituents are residential ratepayers. As a result, commercial rates tend to increase more over time than residential rates. Those commercial rates tend to be higher than the rates charged in non-exclusive systems, which are kept in check by market pressure.

Tire Shark

Anyway, I can’t find any mention of Tire Shark on the Oakleaf web site, except for a product launch press release. I found an expired domain name, “thetireshark.com,” but so sign of the beast.

Can anyone tell me, is it still around?

All I can find are these tire sharks:

Tire Shark for Tots

The Art Crowd's Tire Shark

Gazelle enables recycling through a neat business model that’s akin to Netflix, another favorite of mine. View how Gazelle works here, but suffice it to say you notify Gazelle of the items you want to dispose of, they make you an offer and, if accepted, send you the box. When you send it back, you get paid!

Not a bad way to close the end of life loop for consumer electronics!

What’s more, businesses, non-profits and schools can sell to Gazelle in bulk too!

I hope Gazelle pans out. It’s a novel idea and a needed one. I am going to try it out soon and I’ll post my experience when I do.  Why not try Gazelle yourself and let me know how it goes?

What is a Franchise Waste Collection Area?

Here is a compare and contrast I excerpted from Los Angeles:

Current Open-Market System
Solid waste collection services are provided through an open-market system in which each resident directly arranges for services with the hauler.  Although many waste haulers are doing a good job, this system has been unable to meet demands created by changes in Federal and State laws, public attitudes toward protecting the environment, and consumers’ demands for better services and protection against excessive rate increases.

Proposed Franchise System
The new franchise system will provide residents with ways to dispose of solid waste in an environmentally-friendly way.  Haulers selected to provide solid waste collection services are required to enter into a franchise agreement with the County based on specific terms and conditions.  The agreements are based on services expressed by the community and are designed to improve customer service, increase accountability, promote cleaner neighborhoods, and regulate rates charged by haulers.

Benefits of Franchise System
The franchise system is designed to provide uniform service standards for haulers operating in each franchise area.  The system provides each community with the flexibility needed to create services that will benefit area residents.  These features are modified to reflect feedback received through survey cards, community meetings, and telephone calls.  This interactive process allows the County to tailor each agreement to meet the needs voiced by each community.  The franchise system also benefits the community by limiting the wear and tear on County streets, assists the County in meeting the State’s waste reduction mandate, and reduces the need for new landfills.

To me this definition is vague. Essentially franchise waste collection areas serve to reduce the number of garbage trucks driving around town and ensure a greater amount of compliance for the community.

What this means for an organization is that they have a difficult time negotiating rates because there is no competition. The rates have been determined by the local government. This is widely true, but not always. You have to make a few calls to double check.

Since most people’s idea of waste cost reduction is simply rate negotiations, you can see why they give up when confronted with a franchised market. However, waste reduction and recycling is still wide open and can provide a a big cost reduction.

Keep in mind that recycling rates are most often lower than waste disposal rates and recyling more can net you a win. Then there are other methods of reducing the frequency of pick ups that will drive down costs.

To be honest, these projects take some elbow grease and often busy managers never find the time to do their best. In short franchise markets are a great place to get a third party involved. OK, that’s a plug, but it’s the reality.

The first was literally acres of tarps. These are the blue tarps you can buy at any home improvement or hardware store. Thing is, they were huge since they’re meant to wrap trains during transit. We sourced a local home improvement non-profit who was willing to accept the tarps and cut them down to (re)salable sizes. A win-win, but also one with strong local PR and media potential.

How to recycle tarps

The second waste stream was small spools. Purchasing sourced the material at lower cost, but the spools were not recylable nor were they returnable to the supplier. Nor was the disposal cost part of Purchasing’s math. This item made the case for a sustainable or green purchasing practices.

It's smart to source recyclable or returnable spools

What materials at your plant or shop can you recycle with just a little effort and creativity?

Waste to energy typically entails building a small processing plant that serves a small area, one project we’ve proposed is meant to serve just one plant – and save $10,000,000 annually plus avoid $5,000,000 in planned capital replacement expenditures.

Contrary to most people’s understanding, waste to energy does not mean incineration. Rather it entails gasification or other chemistry to create the desired product whether that be steam to power a turbine or in this example, $10 a barrel oil.

How can waste to energy benefit your organization?