Resource Library
EPA's Toolkit for Reducing Wasted Food and Packaging: A guide for Food Services and Restaurants. Provides an overview of wasted food and packaging, a food recovery hierarchy, and a tutorial for EPA's Tool to Track Wasted Food and Packaging.
Monetary Awards for Businesses, Institutions and Nonprofits in Alameda County that have projects relating to Food Waste Prevention and Food Recovery.
Success StoriesShinsei Gardens is an award-winning housing development with 39 apartments for low-income households. With a Bay-Friendly Rated Landscape and LEED Platinum and GreenPoint Rated buildings, the project provides residents with a healthy and attractive environment indoors and outdoors.
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This guide explains how to reduce waste and create beautiful landscapes using salvaged and recycled-content materials. It includes types and sources of materials as well as a section on using “urbanite” to build benches, garden walls and more. Although it was written for landscape professionals, it contains useful information for home gardeners.
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The Grasscycling Guide (available in English and Spanish) explains how to create healthy, attractive turf by recycling grass clippings on the lawn instead of removing them. The grasscycling case study features Del Conte's Landscaping's experience with grasscycling.
Success StoriesUC Berkeley’s foodservice provider Cal Dining measures types and amounts of pre-consumer food waste with specialized tracking equipment, then uses the findings to modify purchasing and food prep routines. Cal Dining has reduced food waste by 19%, equivalent to 27 tons/year, or $98,402/year in reduced food costs.
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Template for creating a debris recovery plan prior to demolition or construction
Success StoriesCompost made by Recology Grover Environmental Products (RGEP) is produced at a 166-acre composting facility in the Central Valley town of Vernalis. About 40-50% of the food scraps and yard trimmings used as feedstock originate in Alameda County, including the cities of Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Hayward, Livermore, Oakland and the sanitary districts of Castro Valley and Oro Loma.
Success StoriesThe Zero Net Energy Center (ZNEC) in San Leandro is a partnership of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 595 and the Northern California National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA). Completed in 2013 as a retrofit of an outdated commercial building, the 46,000-square-foot facility is the largest building in California that generates enough renewable energy on-site to meet its own electricity demand.
Success StoriesWM EarthCare is Waste Management’s line of compost and mulch, produced at the company-owned composting facility at the Redwood Landfill in Novato. The locally sourced feedstock includes food scraps and yard trimmings from Alameda County residents in Albany, Castro Valley Sanitary District, Emeryville, Hayward, Oakland and Oro Loma Sanitary District—about 80,000 pounds each day.
