CITY OF PLANO'SCOMMERCIAL ORGANIC FOOD SCRAP RECYCLING PROGRAM

摘要

The City of Plano's Environmental Waste ServiceDivision (EWSD) identified a need to focus on thecommercial recycling and waste minimization activitiesthroughout the city during the 1997-98 fiscal year. In1998 after careful evaluation of the existing servicesoffered to the local Plano businesses the EWSDidentified the most applicable business recyclingprograms and was awarded a regional $58,000 grant tobegin what is now knows as the Commercial DiversionProgram. The grant provided for a part-time coordinatorand capital to purchase necessary equipment in order toprovide and service commercial businesses, whichgenerated high volumes of food scrap/waste. TheOrganic Food recycling program was implemented intoseven elementary schools within the Plano IndependentSchool District in the beginning of the 1999 – 2000school year, helping to identify and resolve programchallenges and unknowns. The benefits of this programprovided to be so successful by the end of the fifthmonth, the program began to be implemented intoindividual restaurants, corporate cafeterias, and grocerystores. Through the past four years of program development,growth, and enhancements, three additional full-timeCommercial Diversion coordinators have been added,3,941 tons of organic material have been diverted fromour local landfill and recycled through our compostingoperation into Plano Pure Compost, and there arepresently 83 individual locations supporting therecycling of this organic material.