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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
A new cardboard-crusher at the Sunnyvale Town Center Mall will reduce trash output by more than 40 percent.
City and businesses teamed up and managed to cut trash in half
Town Center Mall will be the site of a 110-city program launch
By Sam Scott
In the bowels of the Town Center Mall, a new lime-green compactor stands ready to crush cardboard to a fraction of its original size. What goes in measuring twenty cubic feet comes out measuring less than two. The machine--which reduces cardboard to 1/16th of its volume--represents a marked improvement for the mall. The old squeezers could only manage to cut the volume in half.
Ken McGee, the mall's manger, says the installation of two new compactors, along with two grinders, will have immediate influence on the mall's garbage cost.
"For every trip we don't make to the landfill, that's hundreds of dollars for our tenants."
McGee estimates that the new machines will save more than a quarter million dollars in trips and landfill fees over five years, a 65 percent savings.
Thursday, a Bay Area-wide awareness campaign will kick-off at the Sunnyvale Materials Recovery and Transfer recycling station (known as the SMART station). The campaign is aimed to teach people and businesses to do what the mall does: save money and reduce the impact on the environment.
Linda Bagneschi of the SMART station says the annual program, in its fifth year, will involve 110 cities, 400 supermarkets, and a three-week ad campaign. The ceremony will be held at the SMART station on Borregas Avenue.
The campaign is aimed at a public that may not be aware of the financial benefits of being environmentally conscious. Residents won't save by reducing their garbage, but by getting a better price for their food. Bagneschi says families can save up to $3,000 a year by buying things in larger containers while reducing their packaging and hence their trash.
All California cities have a stake in reducing trash flow is something. In 1989, the state legislature passed AB939, a law requiring cities and counties to reduce flow to landfills by 50 percent by the year 2000. A potential fine of $10,000 a day was set up to greet delinquent cities when the figures for 2000 are crunched next year. Sunnyvale achieved the goal three years early, says Bagneschi. The latest state numbers show Sunnyvale with a 53 percent reduction from 1990. The city disposed of 162,035 tons in 1990 and only 113,511 in 1998, the most recent year with numbers available. The county's average is a 43 percent reduction.
"Sunnyvale is very progressive. They have an excellent program in the city," says Margaret Rands with Santa Clara waste management board.
"We took it seriously early," Bagneschi says.
With a two-thirds of the city's garbage coming from the commercial sector, the involvement of businesses was vital to Sunnyvale's success, says Gail Bentley, who heads commercial recycling for the city. She says many of the companies have been very helpful. Many of them contacted her.
"It's entirely voluntary," she says. "If they reduce the amount of garbage they generate, they can reduce their solid waste bill. Most also want to do the right thing for the environment."
Bentley says many of the steps companies take don't stand out. Reusing palates has cut down what used to be one of the biggest sources of trash. Double-siding copies has been another.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
