The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

County pushes businesses to recycle

By Steve Enders

Californians have been hearing the mantra "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" for years, and while many residents and businesses have made an effort to live by the catchy phrase, many haven't.

Advanced Micro Devices is one business in Sunnyvale that has, according to county Supervisor Joe Simitian.

Last week, Simitian chose AMD as the backdrop to kick off a countywide campaign to push businesses to recycle. According to a state mandate, cities and counties have until the year 2000 to reduce waste by 50 percent or face fines of up to $10,000 per day.

By successfully partnering with businesses such as AMD, Sunnyvale met its recycling goal in 1996.

Sunnyvale's success can be attributed to its proactive approach to businesses and individual residences, said Dorlene Russell, the city's recycling information specialist.

"It takes a major commitment," she said. "It can come either from the grass roots or the top down."

Sunnyvale started its program in 1982, Russell said, making it one of the first cities in the state to begin an aggressive recycling effort.

Pushing more businesses to recycle really started about two years ago, she added.

"We identified Sunnyvale businesses and approached them with a newsletter, and made them aware that we're here if they need assistance," Russell said.

Now, she said, she and other Sunnyvale staff members make personal visits and do "waste audits" in local businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones that the county has identified as using the most paper.

"We identify garbage types and suggest different uses for those materials," Russell said.

The small and medium-sized businesses, according to city recycling coordinator Rich Gurney, are the toughest to get to recycle much of their waste.

"The large businesses like AMD, Hewlett-Packard and Lockheed have seen the benefits of reducing waste. It becomes profitable for them," Gurney said.

But small and medium-sized businesses are different, he added. "They don't usually have the resources to have independent recyclers come in, and they aren't aware of the resources available to them."

He said part of his job is to link these businesses with recyclers and establish office programs for them.

According to Russell, AMD was a good choice for showing off how recycling can be done.

"They're a great community partner," she said. "I've never seen anyone so committed to recycling."

She said a section in the company handbook is devoted to recycling, and the company has won awards from the city for its efforts.

As for the state's requirements, Gurney says that it's tough to say whether every city will meet the mandate as Sunnyvale has. He said they're trying, and some cities are looking to Sunnyvale for advice on how to spark recycling interest.

"We've got a citywide garage sale program where residents sign up and have sales. The idea is to reuse, and we invite people from other cities to come here and we show them how it's done."

He said the city sponsors the sale program and advertises for those that want to have sales. About 800 households participated in the last big sale, he said.

According to the county's solid waste commission, 900,000 tons of waste comes from county businesses each year. Each office in the county uses almost 1.5 pounds of paper per person per day. Those employees, on average, throw away half a pound each day.

Law offices, accounting firms and financial institutions use the most paper, according to the county.

One smaller Sunnyvale law firm, Jackson, Brown and Efting, has its own methods of keeping paper out of the trash.

Receptionist Judy Elliott says the firm has recycled its paper waste for at least three years.

"We have a bag here that we put envelopes, paper and newspapers in. There's one person who takes it home and puts it in her bin," Elliott said. "We don't really have that much."

But every little bit can help, which is why the city and county is targeting smaller businesses.

As Supervisor Simitian said last week, businesses can raise their bottom lines by concentrating on keeping expensive paper out of the trash.

The state says that businesses spend, on average, about 5 cents per copy and about 1 cent per page of paper.

For reducing business costs and paper usage, the county recommends the following: Review documents on computer screens if possible, and only print when necessary; extend margins and use compact font sizes; make double-sided copies; reuse boxes for storage; and eliminate or reduce the size of fax cover sheets.

For more information from the county, call its recycling hotline at 1-800-533-8414.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 25, 1998.
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