Right now the idea of zero waste in the US sounds like pie-in-the-sky dreaming. We throw out enough plastic to shrink wrap Texas each year, clogging our landfills with millions of tons of trash. But a lot of scientists, municipal leaders and energy consultants are starting to ask: what if all of this waste wasn’t tossed out, but put to work for us?  What if we designed our products and industry around closed loop systems where every material was a resource for another product or process and we didn’t create, burn, or bury any waste at all?

Robin Schindlowski is a part of this ground-breaking movement to throw out the very idea of trash.  She’s a zero waste associate for the city of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment, which boasts one of the most progressive municipal resource (a.ka. waste) management systems in the country. We talked with her about how she helps city businesses reduce their waste.

Greenopia: What does a Zero Waste associate do, exactly?

Robin:   My work is centered on helping San Francisco reach its goal of Zero Waste by 2020.  In practice, this means that I spend a lot of time implementing recycling and composting services for businesses and conducting public outreach surrounding these programs.  

I help businesses identify recyclables and compostables in their waste stream and work with them develop a program to divert those materials from the landfill.  I work with all types of businesses from multi-tenant office towers and property management companies, to restaurants and retail businesses.   Some of my colleagues focus on the same type of outreach for residents.   We work to make connections between the city’s policies for waste reduction and the public.

G: What's hot in the Zero Waste world?

R:  I find some of our recent legislation interesting and exciting.  For example, The Food Service Waste Reduction ordinance that we implemented last year in which we are holding restaurants accountable for the takeout containers they use is quite an accomplishment.

Any to-go packaging food service establishments decide to use in San Francisco, must be compostable or recyclable in the city’s programs, making Styrofoam food packaging illegal.   After one year, we have found that 83% of restaurants have stopped using Styrofoam and the number is growing.  We’ve also seen a sharp decrease in Styrofoam litter on our streets.

Our Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance means that supermarkets and chain pharmacies can no longer offer plastic bags to customers, and as a result we’ve seen an increase in customers bringing their own reusable bags.

G: Does that mean there is no more plastic in San Francisco anymore?

R: Well, not quite. Take-out containers can be made from recyclable plastic, and small shops can still pack up your purchases in plastic bags. But we’ve made real progress with recyclable plastic. Prior to April 21, 2008 we could only recycle three types of plastic containers so we were really limited with what we could recycle. But after Earth day 2008, the recycling program was expanded and nearly all types of plastic can now be recycled.  The exceptions are film plastics like bags and wrappers, Styrofoam and any plastics with electronic materials.

G: But isn’t that still a major use of resources to recycle plastic? Should we really be doing that?

R:  It does take a lot of resources to recycle plastic and other materials, but it is also a huge loss of resources if we send those materials to landfill.   Take the aluminum can for example, it is 95% more efficient to make a can from existing aluminum than it is to make it from virgin materials. 

The best option is to REDUCE the quantity of plastic and other disposable materials in our lives and society because it does take energy and additional resources to recycle materials. 

G: What is the biggest problem that you see over and over again?

R: Confusion about what materials are recyclable and compostable. Because programs are different in every city, you can’t just look at a plastic container and know what to do with it. It depends on the jurisdiction and what their recycling or composting program offers.  You should always check with your municipality to see how they handle different materials.   My work is to help people in San Francisco understand how they can utilize our programs.

G: What’s one easy thing we can do for the planet today?

R:  Food is not trash! Treat it as a resource and keep in mind that food scraps make more food.

G: How do food scraps make more food?

A: If an apple falls from the tree, and lands on the ground, six months later the apple has decomposed and become a nutrient for the soil; part of the natural cycle of life, death and regeneration.  Our program does the same thing but under controlled conditions and at an accelerated rate. You can think about all of your food scraps as that apple—eventually they will become more soil that helps to grow more food.  You can do that on an individual scale in your own backyard or on a municipal level like we do for San Francisco residents and businesses.