I have a project that is up for recertification next year and wants to pursue the MR credit for diverting ongoing consumables. During the project’s last certification we achieved the credit for “reuse, recycle or compost 50% of the ongoing consumables waste stream,” however this time they are interested in getting the 70% credit. Any advice for achieving this? I’ve worked on several projects to obtain the credit for 50%, but never 70%. This is a high-rise office building, and currently there are recycling containers in every office and 4 yard recycling bin and 4 yard paper bin that takes all the recycling at the end of each day. Still, recycling only accounts for a little over half of the total waste volume. The other half is largely made up of food packaging, such as takeout boxes, salad containers, disposable coffee cups, etc. There’s also a fair amount of non-recyclable paper board items and shipping materials. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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Trista Brown
Project DirectorWSP USA
449 thumbs up
April 12, 2018 - 4:16 pm
Hi David, I've worked on a couple high-rise, multi-tenant projects that reached the 75% threshold, and each of them had a composting program. As you indicate in your post it can be very difficult (if not impossible) to close the gap between 50% and 75% just by capturing more of the standard recycling stream. Maybe you can pilot a composting program with some of the more willing tenants, or in a centralized food service area where a large amount of compostable waste is generated?
David Baker
ConsultantDC Environmental
April 12, 2018 - 10:55 pm
Thanks Trista. I will look into the composting and bring it up in our next meeting. I know a big challenge will be where to put the compost. Janitorial already has to be very careful with trash handling at night because of rodents.
I forgot to mention there is a small cafe onsite. It doesn’t account for a large portion of the wet waste, but if we could get them to switch to compostable containers it still might help if we do get a compost onsite.