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This week my staff and I got the opportunity to tour multiple Greenwaste recycling and waste management facilities. First we went to the Zanker location in Alviso and were just blown away by the high tech machinery, techniques, and human effort put into making sure every piece of material that can be recycled is removed and sorted, keeping it out of the landfill.
There’s no other facility like this in the world! Waste materials from construction and demolition sites and large dumpsters are brought here, sorted, and recycled. Nearly everything is reused to maximize diversion from the landfill. Organic waste is even fed into digesters, creating electricity that’s added back into the power grid. I’m excited that District 4 has such remarkable, vital assets like this.
Next we toured the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) on Gish Road. This is where over 45 tons per hour is processed, recovering up to 85% of the recyclable material and preventing it from being put into a landfill. Greenwaste employees work hard to mitigate the damage caused by the material byproducts of our way of life. As consumers, we should make purchasing choices partly based on avoidance of single-use plastics and reduced packaging.
Seeing the avalanche of debris and garbage our city creates and collects every day is sobering but I'm glad to know Greenwaste is working so hard to make the best of the mess.
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