W4.4 Waste audits *
Provide waste audits for business owners and education on practices that decrease waste (ex. compost, recycling, reuse).
A study by a waste consulting company, based on 200 audits of commercial offices across the country, concluded that about 77% of the waste was not trash. Their sample contained organics (34%), followed by paper (23%), glass/metal/plastic (19%), and e-waste (1%). The County does audits of the material arriving at the Waste and Recovery Center. The most recent one, from 2014, found 20.1% organics (31,830 tons), 16.6% wood and construction debris (26,300 tons), 15.6% paper (24,690 tons), 11.6% plastics (18,360 tons), 4.9% metal (7,740 tons), and 4.2% glass (6,610 tons). (This doesn’t include food scraps and yard debris from the green bins, source- separated recyclables, or specially-handled materials such as large appliances.) The next audit will be in 2022.
San Francisco requires the 400 or so organizations that generate 40 cubic yards or more of waste a week to do an audit every three years to help insure compliance with the city’s mandatory composting and recycling law. These 400 accounts generate about 20% of the city’s solid waste. (An analysis of audits at nine large commercial and multifamily accounts showed that the audits saved them money, cutting their trash services an average of 66 percent while increasing their recycling and composting by more than 150 percent.) The ordinance also requires organizations that fail an audit to appoint or hire a zero-waste facilitator to ensure compliance over the next two years.