Zero-Waste Solutions for Texas
Background: No Shortage of Landfill Space
There is no shortage of landfill capacity statewide. With the exception of one year, there have been steady increases in capacity since 1989. There is no economic rationale for weak standards for trash facilities, as there is adequate landfill capacity in almost all regions for the foreseeable future.
Report: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality report shows an abundance (perhaps over-abundance) of landfill space in Texas: Click here to read the report.
Weak and unenforced environmental standards for landfills undercut our recycling programs in Texas by giving landfills an unfair economic advantage. In short, if landfills are allowed to cut corners and endanger public health it can be cheaper to dump trash than recycle it.
“Zero waste” is at once both the concept and the goal of eliminating waste altogether. Just as there is no waste in nature, proponents argue that the very idea of waste is unnecessary. Waste is a design flaw, and one that can and must be solved if we are to create a sustainable future.
Trash and landfills are much more than unappealing eyesores. They are leading contributors to global climate change, air, soil and water pollution, and unsustainable consumption patterns. Zero waste is part of a solution beyond our current recycling efforts that is being embraced and implemented by governments and businesses worldwide. Of course, advocates don’t expect literally no waste at all, but often use a 90% reduction as a benchmark.
You may not realize it when you’re tossing that water bottle into the recycling bin, but the bottle itself only represents a tiny fraction of the total waste generated. It’s the tip of the “wasteberg” – about 70 times more waste was created in the process of getting that product into your household. This is why increasing recycling is only part of the zero waste solution. Here are some other components of zero waste:
Zero Waste Has Five Basic Tenets
Redesigning products and packaging: Planning in advance to limit product resource consumption, toxicity, and waste, and recovering materials through reuse, recycling, or composting - designing products for recycling, not for the dump.
Producer TakeBack: Manufacturers are held responsible for the waste and environmental impact their product and packaging creates, rather than passing that responsibility on to the consumer. The end result is that manufacturers redesign products to reduce materials consumption and facilitate reuse, recovery and recycling.
Investing in Recycling, Not Landfills or Incinerators: Rather than using taxes to build new landfills and incinerators, communities can continue to invest in recycling facilities designed to take the place of a landfill or incinerator.
Ending Taxpayer Subsidies for Wasteful and Polluting Industries: Pollution, energy consumption and environmental destruction start at the point of virgin resource extraction and processing. Manufacturers use virgin resources for raw material partly because tax subsidies and other social policies make this a cheaper and easier alternative than using recycled or recovered materials. Additional public subsidies exist to keep "disposal" costs through landfills and incinerators artificially low by not assigning significant costs to the harmful emissions produced by these facilities.
Creating Jobs and New Businesses from Discards: Wasting materials in a landfill or incinerator also wastes business opportunities that could be created if those resources were preserved. According to the Institute for Local Self Reliance's report Wasting and Recycling in the United States 2000, "On a per-ton basis, sorting and processing recyclables alone sustains ten times more jobs than landfilling or incineration." The report adds, "Each recycling step a community takes locally means more jobs, more business expenditures on supplies and services, and more money circulating in the local economy through spending and tax payments."
- from Grassroots Recycling Network
Central Texas Strives for Zero Waste
Austin and Travis County have become this first Texas governments to commit to a goal of zero waste! Austin is in the process of designing a Zero Waste Plan to reach that goal by 2040.
Click here to learn more about Austin's Zero Waste Plan.
However, dozens of cities around the country and world are already several steps ahead. San Francisco’s recycling rate is already approaching 70%. Two-thirds of the cities in New Zealand have adopted zero waste goals.
Click here to see a list of zero waste cities worldwide!
Here are some more great resources for learning more about zero waste:
Zero Waste Alliance
Grassroots Recycling Network
Eco-Cycle
Campaign Press
Texas Environmental Agency to Pursue Weakening of Landfill Rules on Toxic Waste (TCE)
Trashing the Trash Rules (Austin Chronicle)
Landfill regulations get tougher (News 8 Austin)
Take Action
Tell Austin City Council to Shorten the Timeframe on the Bag Ban
The Austin City Council has rightfully included paper bags in the single-use bag ban ordinance, but the Mayor's suggested timeframe should be reduced from 4 years to 6 months. The bag, retail and grocer industries have had almost 7 years to get with the program and adding another several years will only delay what Austinites have been asking for for some time now.
Leander ISD School Board to Get with the Recycling Program
Leander ISD has had contracts with Allied Waste & Clawson Disposal for trash collection & single-stream recycling which provides for all recyclables to be put in one bin - including cardboard, paper, plastics and metals. Many schools were unaware that this service has been available since 2008. The school district has not effectively worked with most of the schools to set up the recycling program in the schools and other facilities. Click here to contact the LISD School Board.
Tell San Marcos City Council to Ban Single-use Checkout Bags
The City of San Marcos is considering a ban on single-use bags at retail and grocery checkout registers. Plastic bags use dirty fossil fuels and paper bags use natural resources and copious amounts of water during production. Single-use are a blight on Texas communities, clog up waste water and sewage systems and cost tax payers valuable dollars. Please click here to tell the San Marcos City Council that a single-use ban on both paper and plastic bags is in order.
Houston Residents: Tell City Council Members to Expand Quality Recycling for All!
Recycling is on the rise. Nationally, we recycle about one-third of our discards, some major cities are recycling 50%-75%. More Americans now say they recycle than vote regularly! But despite this national progress, the Houston area has one of the lowest recycling rates of any major U.S. region. Less than tenth of Houston’s residential waste gets recycled. Our elected officials can help, if we ask them to.
Tell the City of Austin to Ban Single-Use Bags
In April, 2007, the Austin City Council asked its staff to evaluate options to reduce the use of plastic bags. Then, in January 2008, the Austin City Council passed a resolution and set a goal of reducing the flow of plastic bags into the waste stream by 50% by June 2009. At the request of retailers, the resolution relied mostly on a voluntary effort. The retail, grocery and bag industries have had 4 years to prove that only a voluntary effort was needed in Austin to curtail bag waste, but this effort has failed.
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