Zero Waste – Organic Recycling – Alternative Solutions

Recycling has become a national habit, a daily ritual practiced by over 100 million people every day. Yet recycling alone will not end our dependency on landfills, nor reverse the rapid depletion of our natural resources. As world population and consumption continue to rise, it is clear that our one-way system of extracting virgin resources to make packaging and products that will later be buried is not sustainable.

Zero Waste is a new way of looking at our waste stream. Instead of seeing used materials as garbage in need of disposal, discards are seen as valuable resources. A pile of trash represents jobs, financial opportunity, and raw materials for new products.

The price of a product does not currently reflect the full costs of the environmental degradation and public health impacts associated with the virgin resource extraction, processing, manufacture, transportation, and disposal of that product. When the market prices begin to include such costs, the more environmentally friendly product will also be the less expensive.

Forward Thinking:

A Zero Waste program was started at the Cascadia Hotel during the month of May 2009. Service containers are located throughout the Hotel including all of the guest rooms for three streams of materials. They are as follows;

Materials Recovery Categories
1.Mixed Container Recycling – Blue Receptacles
All recyclable materials including beverage containers and plastic jugs as well as metal cans and bottles;

• No Plastic Packaging
• No Food Scraps

2. Organic Recycling Containers, (kitchens, lunchrooms & washrooms) – Green Receptacles
Including soiled paper products

• No Plastic
• No Metal
• No Glass

3.Alternative Recovery – White, Black or tan Receptacles
A recovery program for non-recyclable materials that have little or no $ value but high BTU values;

• No Food Scraps
• No Metal
• No Glass

Other residual material recycling and recovery programs that are included, but are not limited to;
E- Waste – EW
Electronic Components
Cardboard – OCC – Can go into MCR
Cardboard only
Mixed Paper – MPP – can go into MCR

The following residual materials will require special arrangements for collection;
Wooden pallets, broken down equipment and furniture as well as florescent light tubes, batteries and paint products. The objective is to eliminate solid waste/trash/garbage services at this Hotel and others like it and in turn to assist with sustaining our resources and environment.

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