GENERAL COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will provide participants an understanding of the history of recycling in California. The course will cover the development of residential, commercial and institutional recycling programs, composting, construction and demolition debris diversion, and hard to recycle Sections of the waste stream. The course will provide an overview of state legislation and regulations relating to waste management concepts, with a strong focus on AB939, AB2020 and AB32. The course will cover the original 3Rs, plus an additional 3Rs; reduce, reuse and recycle (and compost), plus recovery, remanufacture and repurchase.

The goals of the course will be to examine ways to eliminate waste, and achieve your program goals. This course will also provide participants an understanding the issues of resource management. In this course, participants will be introduced to:

1. How and why we recycling works, including what materials really are recyclable;
2. System changes to eliminate waste generation;
3. Collecting and processing resources;
4. Involving the public in recycling; and
5. What happens to materials placed in a landfill.

Concepts include maximizing waste prevention, reuse and recovery, while increasing participation by consumers, directing discards to reuse in the production of new products. It will cover recovery and recycling; composting of organics; and proper management of hard to recycle materials.

The course will also cover:

1. how and why we have wastes, including what is in the waste stream;
2. designing systems to eliminate waste and use resources efficiently;
3. the effects of collection and processing
4. marketing recyclables as feedstocks for manufacturing,
5. the raw material needs of manufactures;
6. getting the public to understand resource management concepts; and
7. ways to make all these features come together into one system to close the loop.

COURSE OUTLINE

Section #1: Rethinking Wastes
(30 min)
What do we throw away?
Recycling in Nature
Disposal practices - then and now

Section #2: How Does Recycling Work?
(30 min)
Recycling as a natural process – in the US before WWII
Recycling as a human construct in a wasteful society in the US since 1942
Recycling in California - State mandates since 1972

Section #3: Collecting and Processing Resources (Not Wastes)
(60 min)
Collection, processing and marketing of recyclables
Collection, processing and marketing of organics

Section #4: Resources as Feedstocks for Manufacturing
(60 min)
Collection systems to recover resources
Processing systems to separate what is collected mixed together
Composting systems to process organics

Section #5: How Landfills Really Work
(30 min)
What happens when a truck full of garbage arrives at a landfill?
What happens to the resources lost to the landfill once they are covered?
What is 'Alternate Daily cover?

Section #6: What Are Wastes?
(30 min)
How do food, products, packaging and landscaping wastes fit into an integrated waste management or resource management system?

Section #7: Eliminating Wastes!
(30 min)
How can we prevent the generation of wastes in our homes, at our businesses and elsewhere? You are what you buy – not just what you eat!
Contact a product manufacturer
Buying durables – light bulbs
Buy recycled – to create a demand for recovery
Xeriscaping

Section #8: Best Practices
(30 min)
Preventing waste by better design and utilization of resources
Elements of an integrated resource management system
Designing an integrated resource management system

Section #9: Involving the Public in Recycling & Buying Recycled
(30 min)
Designing elements of your promotions program
Identifying your target audience
What types of messages work for each audience, and why
Focus on direct contact and involvement
Expanding market demand for recovered materials

Section #10: Public Understanding of Goals
(30 min)
Promotion of program changes
Promotion of on-going programs
Direct contact with generators

Section #11: Closing the Loop!
(30 min)
Fitting all of the pieces together
What goes around is good!

PREREQUISITES:
None, this is an introductory course.

READING
There is no single introductory text on Resource Management. Please browse copies of Resource Recycling, BioCycle, MSW Management, and other periodicals.

A 20 year old overview available through the US EPA is the Decision Makers Guide to Waste Management. It is available on-line at: http://www.epa.gov/garbage/dmg2.htm

A feel for the integration of the system can be gained by reading the executive summary of the Single Stream Recycling Best Practices Manual and Guide, Kinsella and Gertman, 2007; which is available on-line at http://www.conservatree.com/learn/SolidWaste/bestpractices.shtml.

CLASS TEST
A short 'open-book' test will cover the materials presented in the course.

CLASS PROJECT
Ideas for Information to Action Project:

1. Write letters to your State legislators asking that they support recycling legislation.
2. Start a campaign; like asking your friends to take some waste prevention actions.
3. Seek the truth - ask what is really happening to materials collected in your community. What new products are they made into?
4. Contact the City in which you live/work, and ask them to do more to support waste prevention, recycling, composting or banning organics from landfill.
5. Other, as approved in advance by the course instructor.

COURSE MATERIALS
Course outline handouts will be supplied by the CRRA.

INSTRUCTOR
Richard Gertman,
Principal, Environmental Planning Consultants

Highlights of Mr. Gertman’s 37-year career include:

• Co-author of the Single Stream Recycling Best Practices Manual and Implementation Guide.
• Recycling Programs Manager, City of San Jose, where he implemented the first large city curbside recycling collection program and plant trimmings collection program in the United States.
• Recycling Coordinator, Davis Waste Removal Co., where he developed the first citywide curbside recycling program and the first municipal yard waste composting program in California.

He currently serves as a board member of Californians Against Waste, and has served on the boards of the National Recycling Coalition, the California Resource Recovery Association, and the Northern California Recycling Association. He was named "Recycler of the Year" in 1982 by the California Resource Recovery Association.

Mr. Gertman's current focus is on promoting ways for communities and businesses to make more efficient use of resources, and innovations in waste prevention and waste diversion.