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CITY COUNCILPOLICY
SUBJECT: ZERO WASTE NO.: K-22
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this Policy is to establish a Zero Waste goal for the City of Mountain
View and to set standards to guide the City in its waste handling, prevention, and
reduction efforts. The generation of waste, and the placement of materials in waste
disposal facilities such as landfills, negatively impacts human health, wastes natural
resources, and transfers liabilities to future generations. The City is committed to
responsible waste management that:
Protects the environment and conserves natural resources.
Minimizes pollutants from entering the air, land, and water.
Follows the principle of highest and best use so that reducing and reusing waste
materials occurs first, followed by recycling and composting, so that eventually no
material goes to landfill or high-temperature destruction.
Creates a more sustainable, efficient economy.
Preserves the environment for future generations.
POLICY:
It is the policy of the City of Mountain View that the City will:
1. Work to reduce the amount of waste generated and disposed of by Mountain View
employees, businesses, and residents with a goal that 80 percent of materials are
diverted from landfill by 2020 and 90 percent by 2030.
2. Adopt a continual improvement approach to reducing waste generation and
disposal, utilizing relevant data and current scientific research to develop
financially realistic strategies and measures targeting remaining materials in the
waste stream. For example, current research around sustainable materials
management offers principles based on life-cycle analysis for reducing the total
environmental impact of materials, focusing our attention on more than just
recyclability and weight-based diversion.
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CITY COUNCILPOLICY
SUBJECT: ZERO WASTE NO.: K-22
3. Encourage employees, businesses, and residents, through education and the
provision of services and infrastructure, to reuse and recycle materials judiciously
and pursue source reduction by selecting products or processes that use fewer
natural resources, are minimally packaged, and minimize or eliminate the use of
toxic materials.
4. Support efforts to reduce wasted food by recovering usable food to feed hungry
people.
5. Educate consumers to use their buying power to demonstrate a preference for less-
toxic, durable, reusable, recycled, or composted products and materials over
unsustainable, toxic, disposable, or single-use products.
6. Reduce the proliferation of plastic food service ware and packaging in daily
commerce, to the extent practicable.
7. Support extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation and efforts that shift
financial and physical responsibility for material recovery, at the end of product
life, from local government to the producers and sellers (Mountain View
Resolution No. 17329, adopted October 2008).
8. Support regional, State, and Federal efforts to implement laws, policies, and
regulations that promote zero waste and sustainable materials management
objectives.
9. Lead by example and implement waste management plans with high diversion
goals for all City facilities and events.
Effective Date: June 19, 2018, Resolution No. 18224
CNLPOL
K22-CP
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