Zero Waste

Zero Waste in Marin County 

 All of the cities and towns in Marin joined effort after California passed the Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989. "The Act established a new approach to managing California’s waste stream and mandated goals of 25 percent diversion of each city and county’s waste from disposal by 1995 and 50 percent diversion by 2000" (Zero Waste Marin, 2018).
Since the cities of Marin decided to join effort to decrease waste production in Marin, the public and private waste agencies have worked together to develop Marin’s Integrated Waste Management Plan. They also created the programs necessary to meet the mandates of the Integrated Waste Management Plan. In 1996, the partnership forged with the MOU led Marin’s cities and the County to form the Marin Hazardous and Solid Waste Joint Powers Authority (JPA).

Marin is currently aiming to reach a zero waste goal by 2025. Each town in Marin offers free composting services and free recycling. In Mill Valley, where I live, waste management really encourages residents to recycle and compost by making it as easy as possible. Recycling is mixed all together and sorted at the waste management site. They also make it easy to recycle electronics, hazardous materials, and provide information on how to recycle materials that they do not process themselves like construction waste. See https://zerowastemarin.org/residents/recycling-disposal-reuse-guide/
Marin county had decreased their waste by over 90% with recycling and composting. In addition to recycling, I compost all of our food scraps as well as any paper that gets wet from food.

A few years back, I heard about Bea Johnson, the women mentioned in the zero waste Ted Talk. Bea is a local and lives in Mill Valley and is currently living a zero waste life. I found her story inspiring because she has a family of four and produces no more than a shoebox of trash each year. She doesn't buy anything that she cannot recycle or compost. When I read an article about her five years ago, I purchased cloth napkins and paperless paper towels that I used on a daily basis to reduce waste in our house. At that time, I also switched to using baking soda and vinegar as our household cleaning supplies. However, I could do more. I could bring jars to the store to fill with bulk items and bags for my produce.  I could also eat in rather than taking out food at restaurants or only take out of restaurants that use compostable containers.

Why doesn't USF provide composting on campus? Isn't it the law in SF to compost?
Here is a link to Bea Johnson's blog on how to live a zero waste lifestyle.
https://zerowastehome.com/blog/

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