Zero Waste 3

Want to see the Mayor and the Department of Public Works get serious about composting in the District?  Sign our petition demanding curbside compost pickup and readily available compost drop-off sites in all Wards at: http://bit.ly/SierraDC-ZWSurvey.

Why is composting important?

• Food scraps in landfills make METHANE as they break down. Methane is much worse than carbon dioxide for global warming. 

• Incinerating food scraps makes air pollution as well as greenhouse gasses. (A lot of DC trash goes to an incinerator in Lorton, VA.)

• About half of trash could be composted, leading to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emission and air pollution. 

• COMPOST is a highly valuable product.

• Adds nutrients that plants need to grow

• Filters pollutants that would otherwise enter the water supply

• Protects against erosion

How can you compost in DC?

• Drop off your food waste at a designated collection point

• DPW - Food Waste Drop-Off (mostly at farmers markets, 10 locations)

• Mt Pleasant Community Compost

• Select grocery stores:

• Glen’s Garden Market (Dupont Circle)

• MOM’s Organic Market (Ivy City, various locations in MD and VA)

• Join a compost cooperative at a community garden: DC Community Compost Cooperative Network (50 locations)

• Pay for a food waste pickup service (for yourself individually, or organize your building to subscribe)

• Apex Organix

• Compost Cab

• Compost Crew

• Key Compost

• Pluvr

• Veteran Compost

• If you want to compost yourself:

• You can start backyard composting or vermicomposting!

• Attend a (virtual) workshop through the DC Home Composting Program, and get up to $75 rebate for your composting equipment/supplies

Check our our Commercial Composting Guide

Watch our October 2020 webinar, Composting in the District: Policy and Progress (Passcode: Compost2020!)

Coming soon:

• DPW’s curbside compost collection pilot program

Want to see the Mayor and the Department of Public Works get serious about composting in the District?  Sign our petition demanding curbside compost pickup and readily available compost drop-off sites in all Wards at: http://bit.ly/SierraDC-ZWSurvey.

• DC's Department of Publi Works (DPW) conducts curbside pickup of waste and single-stream recycling at private residences of three or fewer units, including single-family houses

• Multi-family houses of 4 or more units and businesses must establish their own contracts with trash haulers according to Solid Waste Regulation 21-7

• DC requires multi-family buildings to provide recycling services.

• All recycling haulers in DC must accept all of the products listed under the Mayor’s list of recyclables and compostables.  This list is updated every two years. 

• Information on bulk, yard waste and other trash services provided by DPW 

• DC's DPW provides drop off services for food waste at these farmers markets locations which are generally only open on one day a week with several closed during winter months

• DPW provides rebates for home composting - either worm bins or outdoor composting barrels

• DC's Department of Energy and the Environment (DOEE) oversees programs runs by “producers” to collect e-waste and paint, and is establishing a battery producer responsibility program 

• DOEE provides grants to help restaurants transition to reusable foodware.

• Title 21, Chapter 7 of the DC Municipal Regulations - who is responsible for trash services in the District

• The Sustainable Solid Waste Management Amendment Act - established DC’s 80% waste diversion goal to be achieved by 2032.

• Sustainable DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2014 - established the expanded polystyrene food service ware ban and requirement for disposable food service ware to be compostable or recyclable

• 2020 Zero Waste Omnibus Amendment Act includes multiple zero waste requirements – many of which have yet to be implemented – including:

• Requirements for DC Department of Public Works (DPW) to:

• Provide recycling infrastructure in public places;

• Develop a comprehensive organics management plan; 

• Provide source-separation and collection of glass; 

• Provide training and guides on source-separation for private collection properties;  

• Conduct outreach to ensure back-of-house composting for retail stores, colleges and universities, arenas and stadiums, hospitals and nursing homes; 

• Requirements for the DC Department of Energy & the Environment (DOEE) to:

• Establish a battery stewardship program (Producer organization created; plan expected January 1, 2023), 

• Establish a donation and reuse program; 

• Conduct education, outreach and enforcement of serve-on-request requirements for restaurants & food-ordering platforms, and 

• Provide grants for reusable food service ware 

• Material requirements for food service ware which effectively bans expanded polystyrene foam along with straws and stirrers because they do not appear on the Mayor’s List of Recyclables and Compostables 

Simple actions you can take today:

• Reduce:

• Learn where to shop package-free in DC

• Learn how to organize zero waste events

• Opt out of single-use plastic utensils, condiment packets and napkins: 

• Starting on January 1, 2022 restaurants can only provide these items if a customer requests them.

• Food ordering apps must update their online ordering platforms to enable customers to top-in to request specific items.

• Let your favorite restaurant know about the serve-on-request requirements

• Buy dry staples like rice and nuts in bulk, packaged in your own containers or bags and avoid the disposable packaging 

• Make or grow your own to avoid the packaging

• You can make your own bread, yogurt and other foods 

• You can grow your own herbs and veggies 

Did You Know: You can leave DOEE a tip if you suspect a business is not in compliance with DC recycling and zero waste laws and regulations 

• Reuse: 

• Switch from single-use to reusables

• Use reusable water bottles and shopping bags

• Carry your own utensils 

• Support restaurants and bars that serve on reusable plates and cups or let you bring your own takeout container . 

• Recycle: 

• How to sort your waste and recycling in the District

• Understand everything you can recycle 

• Get rid of your bulk waste or check the Mayor’s Office of the Clean City Facebook and Twitter feed for updates on  bulk waste roll-offs in different Wards

• Drop off your e-waste and paint 

•  Ask @CharDreizen on Twitter and @charrecycles on Instagram. She knows the recycling rules inside out!

• NOTE: Never place single-use plastic grocery bags in the blue recycle bin

• Compost: 

• Find places to drop off your compost

• Take training and get a rebate for home composting 

• Hire a compost pickup service

• Ask your apartment building, co-op or condo to provide compost collection for residents.

• Click on our Compost Campaign page for more

• Speak up for changes in DC: 

• Citizens can testify at DC Council agency oversight and budget hearings at the beginning of each year, especially for:

•  the Committee on Transportation & the Environment covering:

• DC's Department of Public Works (DPW) and 

• DC's Department of Energy and the Environment (DOEE), 

• the Committee on Government Operations & Facilities covering

• Department of General Services (DGS), and 

• the Committee on Committee on Housing and Executive Administration covering

• DC Housing Authority (DCHA)

• The schedule for oversight hearings is available on the DC Council calendar and includes rules for submitting testimony.  Full list of DC Council committees available here.

• Looking for ideas. Feel free to echo Sierra Club testimony available here, including calling for a plastic bag ban and increasing funding for reusable food service ware grants.

• Tweet or post pictures of plastic trash on Instagram using #plasticfreeDC and tagging political leaders like @MayorBowser, @CleanCityDC, @councilofdc, @DCDPW, @TommyWells and @DOEE_DC.  

• Sign our petition to Mayor Bowser and DPW in support of improved compost services in the District at http://bit.ly/SierraDC-ZWSurvey   

• Let @DCHA know you support… 

• recycling and food waste collection in public housing.

• Let @DCDPW know you support:

• residential curbside food waste collection and food waste drop-offs available 7 days a week in all 8 wards.

• year-round compost drop offs available 7 days a week in all 8 wards.  

• drop-offs for glass available 7 days a week in all 8 wards so our glass can be recycled and not sent to landfill as “alternative daily cover”.

• recycling mattresses that are collected from bulk pick-up. Don’t send them to landfills!

• collection of waste in public trash cans at least twice daily

• the return of public recycling bins throughout all wards.

• funding for recycling education and recycling enforcement.

• Tell @DCDPW you oppose sending DC trash to the Covanta incinerator in Lorton, VA. The Covanta contract is an environmental justice travesty. 

• Sierra Club Zero Waste Policy

• Sierra Club Grassroots Network Single-Use Plastic Plus

• Zero Waste International Alliance Zero Waste Hierarchy 

• Container Recycling Institute

• Institute for Local Self Reliance - waste

• Institute for Local Self Reliance - composting

• The National Reuse Network

Why reduce single-use plastic?

• Single-use plastic pollution contributes to climate change, pollutes our parks and waterways and threatens our health. It’s time for action!

• A recent study shows that ”the U.S. plastics industry’s contribution to climate change is on track to exceed that of coal-fired power in this country by 2030.” 

• The District is projected to create a total of 142,812 tons of plastic waste 

• in 2023 but recycle only 6.5% of it.:

• Plastic bottles make up 65% of waste by weight picked up in the Anacostia River bottles

• Despite the District’s 5 cent bag fee law, DC customers pay for at least 40 million new single-use plastic grocery bags a year

We can reduce single-use plastic

How do we reduce single-use plastic in the District? Here’s what the Sierra Club, DC Chapter Single-Use Plastic subcommittee works on. Our actions make a difference:

• Serve-on-request. Requirements for restaurants to only serve single-use plastic utensils, condiment packets and napkins on request: 

• Starting on July 1, 2021, food ordering apps were required to update their online ordering platforms to enable customers to opt-in to request specific items.

• Starting on January 1, 2022 restaurants can only provide these items if a customer requests them.

• Let your favorite restaurant know about the serve-on-request requirements

• You can leave DOEE a tip if you suspect a business is not in compliance 

• The subcommittee conducted outreach to restaurants to raise awareness of the serve-on-request requirements.

• Reusable food service ware, including for onsite dining and takeout. Reusable food service ware prevents trash being generated. Reusable takeout container services create green jobs. We need DC to invest in reusable food service ware. 

• Check out our webinar Exploring Innovative Reusable Takeout Container Solutions webinar

• Check out our webinar Turning Takeout Green: Exploring Reusable Takeout Container Strategies in DC

• We conduct advocacy for the DC Department of Energy and the Environment (DOEE) to provide grants to incentivize restaurants to adopt reusable food service ware and for DC restaurants to use reusable food service ware for onsite dining once restaurants have recovered from the pandemic..

• Advocacy. We advocate for a plastic bag ban in all stores in favor of reusable bags.

• Styrofoam, straws & stirrer ban. DC’s bans on expa. nded polystyrene (styrofoam) food service ware, straws & stirrers. The subcommittee conducted outreach in 2019 to restaurants to raise awareness for the straw & stirrer ban.

• Brand audits. The DC Chapter also conducts brand audits on plastic and glass bottles and drinks cans cleaned up by partner organizations such as the Anacostia River Keepers (ARK) and Ward 8 Woods. These brand audits demonstrate which companies’ products are found polluting our parks, waters and neighborhoods. DC clearly has a beverage container pollution problem when ARK volunteers can clean up over 1600 drinks containers at Pope Branch Park in just three hours and over 1200 drinks containers were cleaned up by Ward 8 Woods volunteers near Serenity Rehab in Anacostia in two hours.

• We also need more water bottle refill stations in all public buildings and facilities and milk dispensers in public schools to prevent plastic trash from happening in the first place.