Waste Prevention and Reduction

Wasteshed programs for a two percent recovery rate credit
Reduce Per Capita Waste Generation by two percent

Oregon Administrative Rule 340-090-0045(1)(b)(A): Reduce the wasteshed annual per capita waste generation by two percent each year.

What is "waste generation?"

Waste Generation is the total amount of municipal solid waste disposed, PLUS the amount recovered for recycling. Municipal solid waste includes residential and commercial, but not industrial waste.

Both the per capita recycling (or recovery) rate and the disposal rate have increased each year in Oregon for the last five years. Thus, even though recycling has been increasing, we are still generating more waste per capita each year.

How Can You Reduce the Per Capita Waste Generation?

For your program to qualify for the recovery rate credit, you need to be able to measure the 2 percent per capita reduction of municipal solid waste generated in your wasteshed. DEQ can give you a baseline of how much was generated in the previous year and how much of it was disposed. The generation number for the following year should show a 2 percent decrease.

Example: If the current annual per capita municipal solid waste generation rate in your wasteshed is 1500 pounds, households will have to reduce the amount of garbage they put out at the curb that year by 30 pounds per household member.

The term "waste reduction" implies different strategies to reduce the amount of waste generated. Waste reduction includes waste prevention, reuse and backyard composting. In order to reduce waste generation in your wasteshed, you must prevent waste in the first place and aggressively pursue reuse.

The best way for a household or a business to find out what they generate is to actually sort through the trash. What does each family member, each department throw away?

To find out what the composition is of the municipal solid waste in your wasteshed, see the DEQ waste composition study.

The next step is to decide what to target and with what strategy. What materials take up the most space? Which ones are the heaviest? Is anything reusable or repairable? Can the amount of disposable products be reduced? What can be composted on site? Is grasscycling an option?

A Program to Reduce Waste in Your Wasteshed

Here are some ideas to get the households and businesses informed, interested and participating in the effort to reduce the amount of waste they generate by 2 percent.

• Organize a kick-off;
• Distribute pledge cards on which participants promise to decrease the amount of waste they generate by a certain percent this year and indicate how they are going to achieve that.

Another idea to reduce waste wasteshed-wide is:

• Investigate the "Pay as You Throw" (PAYT) system, also called variable can rates. Under a PAYT program the per-pound cost of garbage disposal for households decreases when they use smaller garbage containers. Pay-As-You-Throw pricing systems are considered to be one of the best incentives for residents to reduce their generation of waste. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has an excellent Pay-As-You-Throw web site at: http://www.epa.gov/payt.

Examples of Waste Prevention

• Grasscycling. When grass clippings are picked up in a yard debris collection program, they become part of the generation rate. However, if they are left on the lawn they can often reduce the amount of waste a household or business generates by more than 2 percent. Grasscycling shreds grass clippings and returns them to the soil as you mow and reduces the need for fertilizers. This method of mowing saves time and work and can produce a more attractive and healthier lawn.
• Reduce junk mail. To get off national mailing lists, write to the address below and ask to be placed on a "suppress" file. Include a list of your name and address in all the different ways it appears on your junk mail. The Mail Preference Service places your name in the suppress file for five years. The Direct Marketing Association sends this list to its business subscribers four times a year. Be patient; it takes three to six months before you notice a reduction in your junk mail.
  • Mail Preference Service
    Direct Marketing Association
    PO Box 9008
    Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008
• Xeroscaping or naturescaping is the art of landscaping with indigenous plants to create a landscape that needs less water and pruning to keep the garden look good. That in turn leads to less yard waste as well as less need for fertilizers etc. For more information, contact your local OSU Extension Service or your local "Soil and Water Conservation District". The Extension Service is listed in the telephone book in the blue Government pages under "Oregon State University Extension Service",
  • References:
    Daniels, Stevie. 1995. The Wild Lawn Handbook: Alternatives to the Traditional Front Lawn. Macmillan, New York, NY.
    Taylor’s Guide. 190. Water-Saving Gardening. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.

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