November 18, 2020
San Diego Mesa College Receives Business Waste Reduction and Recycling Award
Helping the City of San Diego Achieve Zero Waste by 2040
By Office of Communications
SAN DIEGO – In an effort to encourage a more sustainable future for all, the City
of San Diego is recognizing 10 local businesses and organizations - including San Diego Mesa College - that implemented or expanded innovative waste
reduction and recycling programs. From establishing a cigarette butt collection and
recycling program, to creating a system to track solid waste tonnage to identify diversion
opportunities, the 2020 Business Waste Reduction and Recycling Award winners displayed forward thinking in their programs.
“By reducing their carbon footprint in our communities, these workplaces are showing
the community they care about the City’s future,” said Environmental Services Interim
Director Gene Matter. “We applaud these businesses and organizations for leading the
way to a greener environment and exhibiting a strong determination to make a difference
for generations to come.”
These businesses and organizations are helping the City reach its Climate Action Plan
goal of achieving Zero Waste by the year 2040. Zero Waste is a principle that focuses
on waste prevention, recycling, composting and other technologies to extend the life
of the Miramar Landfill.
Award winners have also shown their waste reduction programs lead to greater efficiency
and contribute to their bottom line. The list of winners, recognized for work completed
in 2019, includes:
• LJ Crafted Wines - Wine membership utilizes reusable bottles with swing tops that
are returned and exchanged for a sanitized bottle where customers choose which wines
they want, directly from the barrel. This avoids single-use bottles, foils, corks
and cartons.
• San Diego County Regional Airport Authority - Established a cigarette butt collection
and recycling program. The butts are collected and shipped to TerraCycle which composts
the cigarette paper and tobacco. The plastic filters are recycled and turned into
outdoor benches and tables. A total of 17 pounds were collected in 2019.
• San Diego Mesa College - Composted 16.34 tons of pre-consumer food scraps from campus
cafeterias and coffee shops for use in the on-campus garden.
• University of California San Diego - All construction and demolition projects are
required to divert 75% of debris from the landfill.
• San Diego State University - Implemented the SkySpark solid waste tracking system:
an online, interactive waste dashboard that tracks tonnages specific to buildings
on campus to help analyze and identify diversion opportunities.
• Jansen R&D (Johnson & Johnson) - Efforts taken to become a paperless facility, such
as a switch to digital signage to reduce the number of posters and flyers, and canceled
subscriptions to scientific paper publications encouraging use of the centralized
library with online journals.
• Hazard Center – Hosted annual Recycle/Spring Clean Up event for tenants to properly
dispose of items that do not belong in the recycling container.
• San Diego Zoo - “Recycles” electricity via a one-megawatt energy battery that stores
and discharges energy during peak hours to assist with park operations.
• Sharp Healthcare - Diverted 4.2 million pounds of material from the landfill. This
included composting 500,000 pounds of food waste and reprocessing 106,000 pounds of
surgical instruments. Expired, unusable medical equipment was donated to Ssubi is
Hope.
• San Diego Food Bank - "Turbo Separator” can take unopened but damaged and inedible
cans, boxes, and jars of food and separate the food from the packaging for compost
and recycling, respectively.
To read more about how these businesses and organizations contributed to waste reduction
and recycling, visit the Recycling Award webpage.
Tags: Composting, Business Waste Reduction and Recycling Award, Sustainability, Press Release, Environmental Services
