Annual Report Summary - (Printer Friendly Version)

This section of the annual report presents the methods in which your agency informed both employees and customers served that a recycling program was being implemented. Below are identified the programs you reported were continued or implemented during 2006.

This section of the annual report presents your compliance with the State Agency Buy Recycled Campaign (SABRC). The activities identified below were reported as implemented or continued during 2006. (Note: Completing this section does not meet the SABRC reporting requirements (PCC Section 12162(b)).

The waste stream has probably remained much the same since the Integrated Waste Management Plan was submitted. There have been some new programs that have recently been implemented that should help decrease the waste stream in the future. One in particular is with the Adopt-A-Highway program. Part of pilot program is to give specially made bags for the volunteers to use in order to separate out recyclables from the rest of the waste that is picked up along the highways. This is currently being done as a pilot project and upon its success, these bags will be distributed to all of the Adopt-A-Highway groups. The Department is also looking into other possibilities to increase our diversion efforts These include establishing recycling containers at all of the 88 Road Side Rest Stops throughout the state.With the implementation of these projects along with gathering valuable information from our annual AB 75 reports, the Department anticipates that the waste stream in future years shall decrease.

At the District Offices, Headquarters, and the larger field offices, typical office supplies, furniture, and equipment are recycled. For example, white paper, mixed paper, beverage containers, cardboard, beverage containers, toner cartridges, are diverted. At some of the smaller field offices, the employees are encouraged to recycle the above-mentioned materials, but because of their location or relatively small amount of waste generated, is not always tracked and therefore not included in the report. When appropriate, office furniture and computer equipment is donated to charitable organizations.

Other types of materials that are generated by the Department are a result of the fleet of vehicles owned by Caltrans. Some of these materials include motor oil, engine lubricants, anti-freeze, tires, and solvents. Even though these waste materials do not count towards AB 75, they still do get recycled. Over the years, the Department has undergone a significant move to lower emissions from our vehicles. Caltrans has termed this “Greening the Fleet”. More information on this can be found at http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/eqsc/CleanAir/greenfleet.htm.

Another source of waste that Caltrans generates is construction and demolition (C & D) debris generated from our construction projects and from our maintenance crews. Types and amounts vary widely and can include concrete, asphalt, steel, guard railing, and vegetation. Even though this material is being diverted from the landfills, how this will be tracked and documented is still being evaluated within the Department. For the 2001 AB 75 Report, one construction project per district was selected to determine the amount of C & D debris that was diverted from the landfills. The intent is to have information from all construction projects and maintenance operations report on their recycling activities in the future.

Amounts of materials disposed and diverted were determined by a variety of methods. For materials generated within the District Offices and Headquarters, which were recycled, the documentation was achieved by reviewing the actual receipts from the independent vendors who supply this service. In cases where obtaining actual receipts was not feasible, estimates were used by extrapolating the size and weight of containers and multiplying by the frequency of service. For materials, which were disposed of, the primary source for documentation was to extrapolate by determining the approximate average weight of the material in the disposal containers multiplied by the frequency of service. For determining the weights of the C & D debris and for some of the office supplies that were donated, the use of conversion charts was used.

The Department does encourage the use of email, double-sided photocopying, and the reuse of envelopes.

Recently, the Department has updated their Forms Flow software. This is to obtain forms as a Department

While these activities are included in the programs, they do not figure into the diversion calculations.

The Department has identified one recycling coordinator in each district and at headquarters along with a Resource Conservation Senior in the Headquarters Resource Conservation Branch. No additional PY’s were allocated for these positions. The recycling coordinators have the responsibility to report on AB 75 in addition to their prior duties.