Climate Solutions
Climate Initiatives
Coalition for Resource Recovery
Global Green USA has selected New York City for the launch of a new waste diversion initiative, the NYC Coalition for Resource Recovery (CORR). While cities represent less than 3% of the earth’s land area, they are responsible for 75% of global energy consumption and 80% of greenhouse gas emissions.
The consumption and loss of materials and energy can be seen daily in the solid waste export from our cities. New York City’s five boroughs generate and export 15,000 tons of landfilled garbage each day, at a cost of $400 million dollars annually. In addition to these costs, landfills are the second largest source of methane in the US, the most potent greenhouse gas.
New York City’s businesses, government, and non-profit organizations have the opportunity to lead by developing a model sustainable city, one that utilizes renewable energy, and where materials flow in closed loops, benefiting communities, the environment, and the economy throughout their life cycles. Global Green’s NYC CORR will facilitate this transformation through utilizing the supply chain coalition approach successfully employed by GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition and Wal-Mart’s Sustainable Value Networks to support the discovery and harvesting of assets in New York’s City’s waste stream.
Targeted material streams include: commercial food waste, food and beverage packaging, and plastic bags. Additional information on the Coalition for Resource Recovery can be found at: www.thecorr.org.
Commercial Food waste
Food waste is a significant portion of the waste stream throughout the US as well as in New York City. Approximately 285,000 tons of food waste is discarded annually from restaurant and retail operations in NYC, accounting for about 11% of New York City’s commercial solid waste stream. Transporting this waste and discarding it in distant landfills results in the release of an estimated 200,000 metric tonnes of CO2 per year.
Through connecting members of the value chain, a range of options will be evaluated for reducing food waste including: food rescue programs, dewatering (reduce volume & weight of organics by removing water), anaerobic digestion, composting, and energy recovery.
Wholesale Packaging
In the US, over 1 million tons of Old Corrugated Cardboard (OCC) (3.5% of all OCC and less than 12% of Non-Recycled OCC) are coated with non-biodegradable, nonrenewable water repellents for transporting refrigerated and iced perishables. However, high performing, cost-competitive recyclable coatings are available, and boxes with recyclable coatings are identifiable through the Fibre Box Association recyclability seal. The CORR will facilitate the transition to recyclable wholesale packaging through a demonstration trial at Hunts Point Food Distribution Center located in New York City’s South Bronx. Hunts Point Food Distribution Center is the largest food distribution center in the world.
The CORR will support this demonstration and transition to recyclable wholesale packaging by raising awareness about box options among Hunts Point vendors and restaurants that procure meat and produce at Hunts Point, and monitoring and reporting on box performance, solid waste reductions, greenhouse gas reductions, and cost savings to key stakeholders
Fiber-based Food Packaging
5.9 million tons per year of paper plates, cups, and folding cartons are discarded in the US and 21.5% of refuse from Quick Serve Restaurants is classified as miscellaneous or remainder/compostable paper. The US would enjoy a reduction of 23 million metric tonnes of C02 emissions if all paper plates and cups and folding cartons that are currently discarded were recycled.
Though food packaging has seldom been considered a likely candidate for recycling in the USA, it is considered an excellent source of high grade recyclable fiber in Japan, China, and several European countries where it is commonly separated, collected, and recycled.
The CORR, in partnership with PIRA Energy Group, seeks to adapt the recyclability protocol for recyclable transfer packaging to classify and certify fiber-based food packaging as a high grade secondary fiber that can be collected and recycled with OCC. With this designation and proper sorting mechanisms, spent food packaging can be collected with OCC bundles, reducing the waste stream and adding significant quantities of fiber to the recycling stream. Once the protocol has been developed, pre-sort receptacles will be piloted.
The Coalition for Resource Recovery is funded by Founder’s Circle members:
- Action Carting Environmental Services
- Chemol Co
- Interstate Resources
- Pratt Industries
- Turner Foundation
- Tomra
The Coalition is seeking additional Founder’s Circle members. Find more information here.
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Publications
Solar City Report: How Los Angeles can Gain the Economic and Environmental Competitive Edge
Global Green USA's proposal for the City of Los Angeles to develop its solar resources by committing to "carving out" 1% (80 megawatts) of its electrical generation capacity for photovoltaic technology. Benefits for the City include economic development opportunities, stabilizing electric rates, improving air quality and reducing green house gas emissions. Winter 2005.
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Green Building Developer Fact Sheets
As part of Global Green's Greening the Tax Credits Campaign, an effort to encourage various states around the country to adopt sustainable building practices as part of the state-administered federal low-income housing tax credit program, we recently published Green Building Developer Fact Sheets, which highlight various sustainable building practices and provide information about local product availability and cost. The first set of fact sheets is for Louisiana, the second set for NY State.
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