![]() ![]() The city found success by changing to three separate streams for its trash, and by including financial incentives in its planning. San Francisco California is known as one of the best Zero Waste Cities in the world. Newport continues to analyze ways to reduce its waste stream. In 2020, the city opened two thrift stores where residents could donate clothing, preventing those goods as well from going to the landfill. The increase in recycling saved residents hundreds in taxes each year, as the city saw lower costs for waste disposal and higher returns from its quality recycling material. Over 8 years, the recycling rate increased from 48% to 66%, while waste not being recycled declined from 52% to 38%. It began an extensive campaign of engaging and educating residents about the value of recycling. Newport in Wales, a city of 141,000, was dissatisfied with its low recycling rate in 2012. This system saves 9000 tons of CO2 per year, and also improves recycling of other materials like cans and plastics, because they are less likely to be contaminated by food waste. Here it is converted into biogas, which is used to power vehicles or turned into compost, 20% of which is distributed free of charge to homeowners, and the rest resold to area organic farmers. Food waste is now collected multiple times per week in Milan, and then sent to a processing plant. In 2012, Milan Italy, a city of 1.4 million residents, 80% of whom live in high rises, put into action a plan for reducing food waste, by implementing a separate collection system for food waste. Here are some success stories from cities that are embracing the Zero Waste concept around the world. Since then, the movement has spread around the world, and many cities both large and small have embraced the goal of becoming Zero Waste Cities that is, becoming cities that transform the many forms of waste into something environmentally useful. The term “No Waste” morphed into “Zero Waste” at the first Zero Waste Conference in New Zealand in 2005. It began as an effort to convert waste, seen as something undesirable, into an asset that could be resold or redistributed, thereby generating revenue or other value, while at the same time avoiding the environmental costs of waste disposal. The Zero Waste movement has been around under different names, including “Total Recycling” and “No Waste,” since 1995. The Zero Waste Cities Approach is a continuous effort to phase out waste-not by burning or landfilling it-but instead by creating and implementing systems that do not generate waste in the first place. Green Notes from OSP Creation Care Team: The Future of Zero Waste Cities
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