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CC Resolution No. 17-122 Adopting a Zero Waste Policy for the City of CupertinoRESOLUTION NO. 17-122 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CUPERTINO ADOPTING A ZERO WASTE POLICY FOR THE CITY OF CUPERTINO WHEREAS, CalRecycle defines zero waste as a process and a philosophy that involves a redesign of products and consumption, so that all material goods can be reduced, reused or recycled. CalRecycle has also established as a reasonable goal a 90 percent reduction of waste being sent to landfills and incinerators. WHEREAS, the City Council shares the concerns of other cities and the general public that the generation of waste and the placement of materials in waste disposal facilities such as landfills, negatively impact human health, wastes natural resources, and transfers liabilities to future generations; and WHEREAS, the City of Cupertino Sustainability Commission provided comments which were incorporated into the attached Zero Waste Policy before the commissioners voted unanimously to recommend its approval at the November 16, 2017 commission meeting; and WHEREAS, in 2001 the California Integrated Waste Management Board set a goal of Zero Waste in its strategic plan for the State, and many cities, councils, counties, and states worldwide have adopted this goal for their jurisdictions, including the counties of Santa Clara, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo and Del Norte in California; the cities of Irvine, Mountain View, Oakland, Palo Alto, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, and Sunnyvale in California; Seattle in Washington, Toronto in Canada, Canberra in Australia, the state of New South Wales in Australia, and 45% of New Zealand's local government councils; and WHEREAS, zero waste principles promote the highest and best use of materials to eliminate waste and pollution, emphasizing a closed-loop system of production and consumption, moving in logical increments toward the goal of zero waste through the core principles of: • Improving 'downstream' reuse/recycling of end-of-life products and materials to ensure their highest and best use; • Pursuing 'upstream' re-design strategies to reduce the volume and toxicity of discarded products and materials, and promote low-impact or reduced consumption lifestyles; • Fostering and supporting use of discarded products and materials to stimulate and drive local economic and workforce development; and Resolution No . 17-122 Page2 WHEREAS, achieving a zero waste community requires a shift away from the current "end of life" focus on recycling, composting, and landfilling to one based upon the modern-era materials management hierarchy: first prevent waste, next reduce and reuse, and finally recycle and compost; and WHEREAS, the adoption of this zero waste policy and its guiding principles supports Goal 4 of the City of Cupertino's 2015 Climate Action Plan to "Reduce Solid Waste"; and WHEREAS, a January 5, 2010 study by the Sierra Club's Landfill-Gas-to-Energy Task Force identified that, in the short term, methane is 100 times more potent a greenhouse gas (GHG) than carbon dioxide. Methane is released from even the best designed and managed landfills, therefore, eliminating organics from landfills will reduce the amount of methane produced; and WHEREAS, a 2009 study by the U.S . EPA, Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices, highlights that 44 % of all GHG emissions are related to the extraction of resources and the use of energy in the production of goods and services. Reuse eliminates the need to extract additional resources and reduces GHG emissions from disposal in landfills; and WHEREAS, strategies to reach zero waste can help to promote the over-arching goal of each generation leaving less of an environmental footprint and thus allowing nature to restore ecological systems; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council hereby adopts the attached zero waste policy for the City of Cupertino and directs City Administration to implement this policy and take all reasonable steps necessary to achieve full implementing through a continual improvement approach; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council wishes to assume a leadership role, partnering with other local, regional and international zero waste communities and sustainability advocates to pursue and advocate for strategies and incentives to advance zero waste principles; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council wishes to partner with schools in the Cupertino School District, such as Christa McAuliffe Elementary which participates in a z ero waste program wherein students are trained to recognize was te materials, and sort them accordingly for recycling or disposal; and Resolution No. 17-122 Page3 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Council desires to support local, state and federal policies that promote zero waste principles and that help develop a well- planned statewide waste minimization and recycling infrastructure. PASS ED AND ADOPTED at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Cupertino, State of California, this 19th day of December 2017, by the following vote: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ATTEST: Members of the City Council Paul, Sinks, Chang, Scharf None Vaidhyanathan None APPROVED: ~,ff ~ ~,-p Darcy Paul,~ Grace Schmidt, City Clerk City of Cupertino /fl/Fi'~ CUPERTINO GREEN Zero Waste Policy City of Cupertino Resolution No. 17-122 POLICY PURPOSE: The City of Cupertino understands that the generation of waste, and the placement of materials in waste disposal facilities such as landfills, negatively impacts human health, wastes natural resources, and transfers liabilities to future generations. Furthermore, waste that is not properly contained and responsibly disposed becomes litter or illegally dumped material which results in blight and unsanitary conditions. The purpose of this Zero Waste Policy is to: • Protect the environment and conserve natural resources • Prevent pollutants from entering the air, land, and water • Follow the principle of highest and best use so that reducing and reusing waste materials occurs first, followed by recycling and composting, so that eventually no material goes to landfill or high-temperature destruction. • Create a more sustainable, efficient economy • Preserve the environment for future generations POLICY STATEMENT: It is the policy of the City of Cupertino that the City will work to: 1. Reduce the amount of waste being generated and disposed of by Cupertino employees, businesses and residents. 2. Encourage employees, businesses, and residents, through education and the provision of infrastructure, to reuse and recycle materials judiciously and pursue source reduction by selecting products or processes that use fewer natural resources, are minimally packaged, and minimize or eliminate the use of toxic materials. 3. Reduce food waste by purchasing only what can reasonably be consumed. Divert recovered food waste to its highest and best use following the EPA hierarchy of feeding people first, then feeding animals, then producing fuel through anaerobic digestion and finally turning food scraps into compost. 4. Educate consumers to use their buying power to demonstrate a preference for less-toxic, durable, re-usable, recycled, or composted products and materials over unsustainable, toxic, disposable, single-use products. 5. Acknowledge that lifecycle analyses show that re-usable food ware is generally preferable to single-use containers when materials extraction, fabrication, transport, distribution and disposal are all considered. 6. Reduce the proliferation of urmecessary plastic reusable food service ware and packaging in daily commerce, to the extent practicable. This preventative measure is also intended to mitigate the harmful nature of single-use plastics to the marine environment. 7. Support extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation that shifts financial and physical responsibility for material recovery, at the end of product life, from local government to the producers and sellers . 8. Support legislation and policy that drives producers to minimize environmental impacts through improved product design. 9. Support regional, state and federal efforts to implement laws, policies and regulations that promote zero waste objectives. 10. Require, through the City's waste hauling franchise agreement, steadfast and ongoing efforts by the City's franchisee to maintain a minimum residential and commercial waste diversion rate of 75% with a goal of reaching and maintaining 80 % by 2025 . 11. Ensure that facilities, infrastructure, and outreach are in place to enable all people in Cupertino to divert all discarded materials correctly and entirely. Properly manage all recovered materials and continue to provide incentives and public training to support proper and effective backyard composting. 12 . Pilot and steadfastly work to expand collection and processing programs that result in materials being diverted from the landfill to their highest and best use, and innovative, cost effective programs that reduce waste generation. 13. Require that all private construction projects that come through the City's permitting process, and all City projects (through contract requirements), to recover and divert at least 65 % of the construction waste generated by the project. 14. Work locally ,md regionally to assist m zero waste planning and implementation. 15 . Lead by example, implementing zero waste goals for all City buildings by: • Adopting and enforcing an Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy • Making reusable food ware available and encouraging its use • Implementing zero waste objectives during event plarnling and encouraging food take-home and donation immediately after events 16 . Adopt policies that favor environmental and economically sustainable practices including Green Building practices . With Pe rmi ss io n fr o m th e C ity o f Sunn yva le, C up e rtin o 's Zero Was te Po li cy, d ated December 19, 2 01 7 , is s ubs ta nti a ll y s imil a r to th e C ity of Sunn yva le 's Zero Waste Po li cy a do pted in December 2008 .