San Jose, CA Zero Waste Plan

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Type: Policy

Status: Ongoing

Source File: http://www.sjrecycles.org/zerowaste.asp

Description:

As part of the City of San José’s Green Vision, we are developing a Zero Waste Plan to divert 100% of waste from the landfill by 2022.

Imagine a Zero Waste San José, in which nothing goes to the landfill. Zero Waste is preventing waste wherever possible and recycling all materials back into nature or the marketplace in a manner that protects human health and the environment.

Benefits of Zero Waste

Greenhouse Gas Reduction:

  • Saves energy by reducing energy consumption associated with extracting, processing and transporting ‘virgin’ raw materials for manufacturing
  • Avoids methane emissions from landfills by directing biodegradable materials to composting or energy recovery

Environmental Protection:

  • Products and raw materials are used for their entire beneficial life
  • Maximum resource recovery, reuse, recycling and composting
  • Less impact on our land, water, and atmosphere

Economic Development:

  • Job creation: recycling creates ten times more jobs than landfilling
  • Recovered ‘trash’ becomes raw material for new products, such as plastic bottles being made into fleece jackets

You can help us by incorporating waste prevention and recycling into your everyday activities.