Recycle on the Go Success Sto
San Francisco's Moscone Center Aims
For 75 Percent Waste Diversion by 2010
San Francisco is a national leader in waste diversion and its premiere convention center, the Moscone Center, has
an overall recycling rate that has exceeded 50 percent since 1998. Over the last five years, the convention center
has annually diverted an average of more than 800 tons of materials from the waste stream. Since compost
collection began in 2004, overall diversion numbers have continued to climb, reaching 500 tons in the first half of
2008 alone. Of this, over 10 percent repn
Facts at a Glance
The Moscone Center
consists of more than
2 million square feet of
building area, including
700,000+ square feet of
exhibit space and 106
meeting rooms.
• Moscone averages nearly 1
million visitors and more
than 110 shows annually.
Moscone annually diverts
more than 800 tons of
waste through recycling,
composting, and donation.
• Since the recycling program
began, Moscone has reduced
its waste disposal more than
50 percent (by weight).
• Moscone recouped its initial
$ 180,000 investment in the
recycling program in just
two years through avoided
waste disposal costs.
Over 20 local nonprofits
and public schools benefit
from Moscone's donation
of reusable goods. Donations
annually comprise over 10
percent by weight of the
overall amount diverted.
j
\,
I
O
-
PRO
«r
Photo: Naina Ayya for SMG
The Moscone Center covers more
than 20 acres on three adjacent
blocks. The convention center
recouped the initial $180,000
investment in its recycling program
in just two years through avoided
waste disposal costs.
Program Overview
Owned by the city and county of San Francisco, the Moscone Center has been privately
operated by the management company SMG since 1981. The facility annually hosts an
average of one million visitors and more than 110 conventions and tradeshows and is
among the busiest convention facilities in the country.
In 1989, California passed historic legislation to decrease the amount of materials disposed
in landfills. Assembly Bill (AB) 939 mandated municipalities to divert 50 percent of their
waste streams from landfills by the end of the year 2000. In San Francisco, businesses
generate nearly 70 percent of all waste.
In 1996, SMG made a corporate commitment to environmental responsibility in all
operations at the Moscone Center, with the intent to significantly reduce the facility's
waste stream and waste removal costs, use resources more efficiently, and benefit the local
nonprofit community through donation of reusable materials. SMG hired consultants to
conduct a waste audit and develop a waste prevention and recycling plan. The resulting
plan called for a full time recycling manager and phasing in a recycling program to handle
implementation issues such as staff training and market development.
California law AB 2176, passed in 2004, further requires that the largest venues in each
city and county develop and implement plans to reduce solid waste and report information
regarding waste reduction efforts to their respective jurisdictions annually. The San
Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to achieve 75 percent landfill diversion
by 2010, with the ultimate goal of achieving zero waste by 2025. In 2008, the city achieved
a 70 percent diversion rate, the highest in the nation.
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY Recycle on the Co
-------
The first phase of the Moscone Center's waste reduction plan
began in 1998 and concentrated on materials that provided the
greatest diversion in the shortest time with the least net economic
cost. This effort involved recycling corrugated cardboard, mixed
paper, and beverage containers, as well as donating leftover goods
such as event giveaways and food to local nonprofit organizations.
The Moscone Center places a priority on working with local
nonprofits whose efforts benefit residents of San Francisco and the
greater Bay Area.
The second phase, begun in 1999, included diverting contractor-
generated materials such as carpet padding and wooden pallets,
and donating event decorations such as foam core signs and
vinyl banners. In 2000-2001, SMG purchased wood compaction
equipment, which decreased the volume by a factor of 3:1 and
significantly cut the cost of recovering large, broken crates and
pallets. The program also focused on strategies to collect mixed
paper from the exhibit hall floor during move-outs.
During phase three, SMG began focusing on waste prevention by adopting an expanded
recycled-content purchasing program and switching to reusable plates, utensils, and other
food service items. During the 2002 construction of the new facility Moscone West, new
city legislation required that the project contractors track, report, and recycle construction
and demolition debris; architects employ resource-efficient materials and design principles
and allocate dedicated space for recycling in the layout of the new facility.
Various other waste prevention measures are in place at the convention center. For
example, in 2007, new paper towel dispensers were installed that eliminated the need for
batteries and used coreless roles, preventing thousands of cardboard cores
from being disposed in 2007. Bakery racks are returned to the vendor.
And a switch to all digital communications for event data reduced office
paper usage by 50 percent.
Since facility-wide collection of compost such as wet kitchen scraps
began in 2004, overall diversion numbers have climbed significantly.
For the first half of 2008 alone, overall diversion amounted to 500 tons.
Compostable serve ware, rolled out and collected starting in fall 2007,
added 3 percent to overall diversion. In 2008, kitchen scraps and serve
ware compost comprised by weight nearly 33 percent of overall diversion.
The facility has won many awards honoring its environmental
commitment, including the California Integrated Waste Management
Board's "WRAP of the Year" Award in 2001 for being a leader in
environmental stewardship and a Governor's Environmental and
Economic Leadership Award in November 2001 for demonstrating
that environmental protection and conservation can be reconciled with
economic growth.
Nuts and Bolts
The Moscone Center generates an average of 2,000 tons of waste per year.
Almost half of the convention center's waste stream is generated at the event
move-out stage from the exhibit halls. The waste stream varies from show to show,
but mixed paper is generally the number one material collected by weight, followed
by cardboard, organics for composting, wood (from pallets, abandoned booths, and
Recycle on the Co U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
-------
packing crates), donated goods (such as foam core and vinyl banners), carpet padding, and
beverage containers.
Recycling Bins, Locations, and Labeling. At the Moscone Center, recycling bins are paired
with garbage cans throughout the facility. Bins conform to aesthetic as well as functional
principles.
Bins are labeled according to the material collected, and all display the
chasing arrows recycling symbol. For example, the bins for cardboard
are labeled "Moscone Center, Cardboard Only" with the chasing arrows
recycling symbol. Bins for compostable serve ware are placed in cash-on-
delivery concession locations, where food and beverages are sold. These
bins feature illustrations to help patrons understand that the drink cups,
although they look similar to conventional plastic cups, are actually
compostable.
Signage has proven effective for encouraging can and bottle collection, as
contamination (mixing of trash with recyclables) has not been a problem.
The 2007-2008 composting pilot program for boxed lunches and food
serve ware, however, required additional public education because many
of the products look like plastic and their recyclability was new and
unfamiliar. To improve source separation, volunteers are recruited by some
events to help guide attendees to dispose of compostable lunch boxes
and plastic beverage bottles or aluminum soda cans separately. Preventing
contamination between recyclables and compostables is important. Only 2 percent
contamination is accepted by the waste hauler.
Collection Logistics. The convention facility consists of three main buildings:
Moscone South, which opened in 1981; Moscone North, which opened in 1992;
and Moscone West, which opened in 2003. South has two loading and staging
areas, and North and West each have one. The facility has five compactors, two
balers, a debris box (open-top bin) for wood, three bins for organics, and three debris
boxes for large waste. Additional debris boxes can be brought in as needed.
SMG installed an electronic monitoring system on the compactors to ensure that they are
full before emptying. The balers can be transitioned to bale film plastics when there is a
large enough quantity to warrant it, such as with the annual San Francisco International
Auto Show. The convention center's waste hauler charges for compactor removal
depending on a formula of weight, time, and distance. The charge for emptying the debris
boxes is based on volume. All trash removal service is arranged on an on-call basis.
SMG's recycling staff collaborates with others that affect
the generation of waste within the facility, such as the
exposition service contractors, event planners, and
employees from 10 labor unions, to turn recycling
collection into a standard operating procedure.
SMG labor places unwanted cardboard boxes into
marked blue carts for easy collection, and the material
is baled before being trucked off-site for recycling.
Exhibitors and show managers label leftover, unwanted
giveaways and reusable items, and Moscone's recycling
manager directs the donation of materials to local
nonprofits. Most nonprofits pick up the items from
Recycle on the Co U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
-------
the center themselves, but Moscone is able to deliver some
donations as needed. These items are collected continuously,
and donations are given away after shows have moved out.
Conference exhibitors receive two types of stickers from
Moscone's recycling manager during show breakdown. They
can place green "Recycling" stickers on boxes of paper to be
recycled, such as tradeshow literature, and they can place blue
"Donation" stickers on items to be donated to nonprofits,
such as leftover promotional pens, giveaway bags, and
unwanted sample products.
Vendor Participation. In compliance with San Francisco's 2007
law mandating that all businesses use compostable serve
ware and to-go containers, Moscone's food and beverage
vendor, SAVOR-Catering by SMG, rolled out its compostable
serve ware program in fall 2007. Plastic serve ware was
replaced with products made from vegetable starches or PLA
(polylactide), including clamshells, salad bowls, water cups,
cutlery, cups, and beverage cup lids. The waste hauler takes all
of these with food waste to a composting facility. Alternately,
china service continues to be available for more upscale functions. Bottled water has
been replaced with pitchers of water wherever possible. For several years, the vendor has
collected food scraps from the kitchen for composting. SAVOR-Catering also regularly
donates leftover meals. At Moscone West alone, meal donation totals nearly two tons per
month through nonprofits such as San Francisco Food Runners, which distribute the food
to city food banks and feeding programs.
Educational Efforts/Public Outreach. To educate and motivate staff and
participating partners such as clients and contractors, SMG incorporated
waste reduction tasks into staff job descriptions, developed written
procedures, and launched, in 1999, a quarterly newsletter, "Changing
Conventions," to promote results.
SMG routinely educates show and event managers about Moscone's recycling
program through on-site pre-event meetings and online resources such as its
"Green Meetings Begin With You" guide (found at http://www.moscone.
com/pdf/Green Meetings Begin with You.pdf) and a recycling section in
its downloadable meeting planners' handbook (available at http://www.
moscone.com/site/do/mtgplanner/guideline/view?id=41). The goal is to have
the convention center and its customers work together early in the planning
process to reduce waste generation, increase reuse, and more fully participate
in recycling. In this way, the responsibility for waste diversion is transferred,
to the extent possible, to the organization responsible for bringing in the
materials. In addition, facility staff present at industry conferences and
meetings and make themselves available at peer-to-peer events to discuss the
importance of advance planning for recycling.
Financial Benefits. A 1996 waste audit put Moscone's waste disposal cost at nearly $525,000
per year. Since then, the waste hauler's rates have more than doubled and Moscone West
opened for business. According to Dick Shaff, general manager, waste diversion is the
number one way to combat these rising costs. SMG/Moscone Center invested $180,000
in its recycling program in the first year in 1996, but recouped those costs in just two years
due to the avoided cost of disposal. Despite the increased cost and one additional facility
Recycle on the Co U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
-------
opened in 2003, the avoided cost of disposal, strong local and state mandates, and access
to markets continue to drive the expansion of these programs.
Reasons for Success
"The most important thing
is getting buy-in from every
stakeholder from the very
beginning," says Shaff. "It
starts with top management
and runs throughout all
levels of the organization. If
it isn't driven from the top,
it's never going to be adopted
throughout."
Cooperation among diverse
stakeholders is critical,
including SMG staff, the
city and county of San
Francisco, labor unions,
show management, exhibitors,
contractors, and attendees.
Future Forecast
As the city and county of San Francisco
continue to pursue the goal of zero waste by
2025, the Moscone Center plans to remain
at the forefront in adopting green practices,
aiming to meet the 75 percent diversion rate
by 2010.
More Information
www.moscone.coin/intgplanners/green meetings.html
www.inoscone.coin/site/do/intgplanner/guideline/view?id=41
For more information, contact:
Naina Ayya, Communications Manager
Moscone Center
(415) 974-4017
nayya@moscone.com
In compliance with the city's law
mandating businesses switch from
plastic to compostable serve ware,
vendor SAVOR-Catering tested
hundreds of models of serve ware before
commissioning a lunch box made from
PLA that was designed to be strong
enough to withstand stresses of high
volume convention service. Shown here
are lunch boxes stacked for lunch at
Moscone West.
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA 530-F-O 8-025
October 2008
www.epa.gov/recycleonthego
.ecycled/Recyclable - Printed with Vegetable Oil Based Inks on 100% Postconsumer,
Process Chlorine Free Recycled Paper
Disclaimer: The mention of any company, product, or process in this publication does
not constitute or imply endorsement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA is partnering with
other federal agencies,
states, municipalities, and
organizations to promote
recycling away from home.
www.epa.gov/recycleonthego
------- |