Sustainability Plan for University City - Revised 01-08-12

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Sustainability Strategic Plan for the City of University City, Missouri September 12, 2011/ REVISED JANUARY 8, 2012 Page 21 Waste/ Resource Conservation Committee Members: Hilary Davidson, Lynnette Hicks From a municipal perspective, University City is already doing much to reduce waste and recycle. The city was one of the first statewide to implement a single stream recycling program for residents, which has encouraged residents to recycle through the ease and convenience of single stream recycling. At a municipal level the city is also striving to reduce waste; in 2009 the city implemented a new copying and printing policy, in which departments were encouraged to print double-sided and to reduce waste. While municipal government has made great strides, more needs to be done. This plan encourages the use of waste audits to better track the amount of garbage generated by the city government and to determine the effectiveness of new green policies. Furthermore, while recycling containers are free and available to the public, as of May 2010 about 70% of residents have a recycling cart and are using them by participating in the curbside collection program. For the 12 month period of March 2009 to March 2010, 15,939 tons of waste had been generated by the 11,550 participating residential, municipal and commercial solid waste accounts. About 5,252 tons of the waste was recycled (33% of total waste). We believe that, with greater public outreach, the percentage of waste being recycled could be substantially increased. Greater emphasis on composting yard waste would also substantially reduce the waste stream. Finally, local businesses that have trash and recycling services through a private hauler have not been included in the City’s waste reduction incentive. We need to audit the amount of waste being generated by participating local businesses, and then work with local businesses to ramp up recycling efforts. 1. Municipal Goals Actions 1 Reduce City (municipal) waste and increase recycling volume by 30% by 2015. a Determine and compare the volume of materials recycled for each 5 year period of 2005-2009 and 2010-2014 for municipal buildings. As of March 2010, data is not available for the volume of trash collected at municipal buildings since it is collected and included with the city wide total. Track the volume of trash collected at municipal buildings, if data is available. i Confirm the volume of materials recycled in municipal buildings from 2005-2009. City staff reported that the volume of materials recycled by employees and visitors increased by approximately 14 tons during the 5 year period (11.20 tons in