Update: L.A.'s Plan For Zero Waste

BY MADDALENA SERRA
Conservation Coordinator

CONSERVATION COORDINATOR MADDALENA SERRA AND MEMBERS OF THE ANGELES CHATPER ZERO WASTE COMMITTEE ATTENDED THE CITY WIDE ZERO WASTE CONFERENCE

On May 30th the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works presented the draft of the Solid Waste Integrated Resource Plan, (SWIRP) Phase 2 at the 4th City Wide Zero Waste Conference at Our Lady of the Angeles Cathedral Conference Center. The planning phase of the SWIRP will last 6 years.

The city of Los Angeles SWIRP, started in 2007, is a stakeholder process that will produce a 20 year Master Plan which aim is to reduce the city waste to zero.

The guiding principles of the SWIRP developed on phase one focus on education aimed at decreasing consumption and increase recycling, city leadership as a model for zero waste practices and as a model for increased recycling, manufacturer responsibility, consumer responsibility, convenience, incentives, new, safe technology, protect ion of public health and the environment, equity and economic efficiency.

Phase 2 focused on policy, program, and facility plan and included five scenarios for maximizing diversion from landfills:

Scenario 1: no new programs, Scenario 2: New policies and programs, Scenario 3: Mandatory Requirements added to Scenario 2, Scenario 4: upstream policies added to Scenario 2, and Scenario 5: upstream policies added to Scenario 3.

Each one of these scenarios obtained a different diversion rate of waste from landfills.

Scenario 1 obtained 62 % diversion from landfill, which is what the city obtains at the moment.

Scenario 2 will obtain a 72% diversion potential from landfills.

Scenario 3 will obtain 80% diversion from landfill.

Scenario 4 will obtain 73% diversion from landfill

Scenario 5 will obtain 81% diversion from landfill

To obtain 100 % diversion or Zero Waste, the Sanitation Department says that it needs to process the Black Bin materials with alternative technologies. The black bin are materials that cannot be recycled or composted or get thrown away by mistake.

The facilities to process Black Bin materials are:
Mixed materials processing facilities, Advanced Thermal Recycling (waste to energy facilities), Alternative Technology: biological - anaerobic digestion, thermal , plasma Arc, gasification and pyrolysis.

The Sierra Club does not support the burning of waste for energy, which is not recycling, many of these alternative technologies do use heat to burn the waste and produce energy. The Los Angeles Zero Waste Plan does include the use of these alternative technologies but since none of them are in use in the USA, data from the USA is not available. Many questions arise in reference to these technologies , like among others emissions, heavy metals and residue. The Dept. of Public Works is planning to build from 7 to 15 of these facilities in Los Angeles, but at the moment it is still in the evaluation process.

To learn more and get involved with this issue, join the Zero Waste Committee. Zero Waste meets the fourth Thursday of every month at Chapter headquarters at 7:00 p.m.