1. Sustainability and
Waste Management -
Finding the Lemonade in Waste?

2. Who Am I?
Son of God, brother of the universe
Mr. Healy’s brother
An Identical twin
Father of 3 Bellarmine CP Grads (Rob - 1999,
Pat – 2001, Peter - 2004)
High School Confirmation Teacher
Ministry – Care for God’s Creation (St. Francis)
Environmental Engr., Waste Mgmt (32yrs)
Environmental Remediation Group Manager

3. What is Waste?

4. What is Waste?
Waste:
a) refuse from places of human or animal
habitation: as : garbage, rubbish
b) excrement —often used in plural :
sewage

5. What is Refuse?
Refuse:
a) the worthless or useless part of
something : leavings
b) trash, garbage

6. What is Garbage?
Garbage:
a) food waste
b) discarded or useless material

7. What is Rubbish?
Rubbish:
a) useless waste or rejected matter :
trash
b) something that is worthless or
nonsensical <few real masterpieces are
forgotten and not much survives —
William Bridges-Adams>

8. What is Trash?
Trash:
a) something worth little or nothing: as :
junk, rubbish

9. THIS IS TRASH!

10. ???????

11. How Much are we talking
about?
Nation-wide

12. How Much are we talking
about?
California - 2008

13. State of California Waste
Generation
~40 m tons/yr
Fill AT&T Park ~1,400 times/yr or ~4 times/day

14. Santa Clara Co. Waste
Generation
~1.5 m tons/yr
Fill AT&T Park ~52 times/yr

15. What’s in the “Waste”?
Nationwide -2007

16. What’s in the “Waste”?
California Wastes Composition - 2008

17. Recycling Rates

18. Lemonade in Waste?
“One man’s trash is another man’s
treasure”
Perspective

19. Lemonade in Waste
Recycled materials
Glass, metals, plastics
textiles, paper, green wastes
Energy resource
Raw waste
Decomposed waste

20. More Recycled Products
Plastics
Outdoor furniture,
Wheel stops
Trash cans
Fabrics
Shoes

21. Recycled Products
Glass
Glassphalt,
Drainage materials,
Landscaping
Countertops
Flooring

22. More Recycled Products
Paper
Many recylced paper products
Many companies

23. More Recycled Products
Metals
Aluminium
New aluminum cans
Jewelry
Houses
Ferrous
resmelted

24. More Recycled Products
Green Wastes
Compost
Mulch

25. More Recycled Products
Textiles
Good Will, second hand stores
Rags
Wetsuits to lunch bags
Patagonia refurbishes their returned clothing

26. Future of Waste?
Trash: something worth little or
nothing
Trick is to make what waste is left worth
something so that there is NO TRASH
left.

27. San Jose’s Zero Waste Plan

28. San Jose’s Zero Waste Plan
Diversion Plan Goals
2000 - 50% (statewide requirement)
2009 – 62% (actual)
2013 - 75%
2022 - 100%

29. San Jose’s Zero Waste Plan

30. Yard Waste Recycling

31. Food Waste - Composting

32. San Jose’s Zero Waste Plan

33. Conversion Technologies
Development Status

34. Municipal Waste Composting

35. Anaerobic Digestion
• Barcelona, Spain

36. Anaerobic Digestion

37. Waste Combustion
Hamburg, Germany

38. Waste Combustion

39. Pyrolysis
• Burgau, Germany

40. Pyrolysis

41. Gasification
• Karlsruhe Germany

42. Gasification

43. Where does your "trash"
go after you "can" it?
What happens to the stuff we don’t
recycle, reuse (at the source)?

44. Sorting Facilities
More Recycling
SMART Station – Sunnyvale, Mountain View
Green Team

45. Landfills
What does a modern landfill look like?

46. Liner/Capping Systems

47. Landfill Isometric
http://www.mrwmd.org/videos.html

48. Landfill Gas Collect/Flare/
Energy Generation

49. What can you do to Affect
Zero Waste??
Reduce – waste generated.
Reuse – everything as much as you can.
Recycle – when can’t reuse.
(i.e. Make lemonade!!)

50. Questions?