The Office of Sustainability is offering its first-ever 7-session in-person Zero Waste Academy course to educate Chula Vista residents on the concepts and practices of Zero Waste. Opportunities to gain knowledge and become advocates for implementing Zero Waste practices will be highly encouraged. A key course theme:  many "wastes" are actually "resources" which can be used again until their useful life is no more. The weekly course will be offered in February 9 to March 23, 2023. Participants who complete the course will be recognized as “Chula Vista Zero Waste Champions.”

The interactive course will include presentations, videos and tours of the Otay Landfill and Materials Recovery and Construction and Debris facilities. The course will be limited to 20 in-person participants; online participation is also available via Microsoft Teams. To learn more about the course specifics, numerous topics presented, the schedule for the 7-sessions that comprise the course, please click on the links below, start with the course syllabus.

Learn more, read the Course Syllabus.

The Course Syllabus details content of the Academy class, facility tours and expectations of participants.

Academy Class Schedule

The Schedule provides dates, times, locations of the course classes and tours. It is subject to change.

Register for the Zero Waste Academy Course.

This page serves as the registration page for the Zero Waste Academy and contains the Academy application along with the mandatory Release of Liability and Photo Release.

The registration is currently closed. Please click here to join the waiting list for the next class later this year.

Zero Waste is an ideology based on ideas and science supporting a design framework that promotes reuse, recycling, and conservation programs, but more importantly sustainability. Zero Waste looks at wastes or discards as “resources” that can be used for other purposes instead of disposed of into landfills or the environment.

Zero Waste considers the total lifecycle of products, processes, and systems that are cradle-to-cradle not cradle-to-grave. Zero Wastes shifts the focus to waste reduction, product redesign, and elimination of wasteful practices. Zero Waste Plans and Programs have been implemented by cities in California and throughout the nation.

In the Zero Waste Plan, the City of Chula Vista has adopted this definition from the Zero Waste International Alliance, “Zero Waste:  The conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.” This definition is a guiding factor for developing Zero Waste strategies and specific actions.

Key objectives of Zero Waste are as follows:

 Zero Waste follows an orderly hierarchy to achieve its objectives.

Zero Waste encourages local and regional public-private partnerships to provide the infrastructure and services needed to accomplish these functions. In an ideal Zero Waste system, any material that cannot be easily and conveniently reduced, reused, recycled, or composted are either returned to the manufacturer directly or through retails channels, or are no longer used.

Zero Waste thinking considers the “upstream” obtaining of virgin raw materials for use in the manufacturing and production of consumer products and the wastes generated and discarded from these processes. The obtaining of raw materials to produce steel, aluminum, cardboard, paper, and plastic products, including packaging, can have a devastating impact on the environment. This often involves clear cutting of woodlands and forests for strip mining for iron for steel and bauxite for aluminum. The clear-cutting process is applied to produce wood pulp for paper products. These techniques often include blasting, scraping off and removal of topsoil which results in erosion that impacts surrounding vegetation and wildlife. Fracking and drilling for oil and natural gas, raw materials to produce plastics, similarly affects the environment.

Using virgin raw materials requires intensive use of energy to create ready-to-use materials in the manufacturing processes. Reducing, reusing, and recycling uses less energy than extracting and processing raw materials. For example, recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy it would take to make alumina out of bauxite; alumina is the material used to create aluminum products. In turn, energy saved in production reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the environment and this helps combat climate change.

Besides the environmental impacts of obtaining virgin raw materials, the manufacturing of products creates discarded materials. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that for every ton of waste buried in a landfill, an average of 20 tons of waste were generated in “upstream” production. Products, such as electronics, may generate 1,000 tons of wasted material for every ton of finished product.

Zero Waste embodies the concept eliminating the impacts of “upstream” practices and is based on ideas and science that supports a design framework that promotes not only reuse, recycling, and conservation programs, but more importantly sustainability considering the entire life-cycle of products in a circular cradle-to-cradle manner.

Implementing a Zero Waste Plan for Chula Vista will benefit the entire community. The biggest overall benefit is achieved by keeping organic materials out of the landfill and reusing or recycling these materials. This effort is an important part of meeting State of California emission reduction goals. Organic materials decompose in the landfill and enter the atmosphere. The predominant gas produced by landfills is methane, the most potent of the greenhouse gases (GHGs). Methane is at least 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, the most common GHG, and some studies indicate methane is 84 times more potent during its first 20 years in the atmosphere. Keeping organics out of the landfill reduces the release of GHGs into the atmosphere and would help combat climate change. The community would also benefit from cleaner air.

Organic materials, including food wastes, can be composted on greater scale providing nutrient rich matter for use on the city’s vegetation and landscapes, and provide a source of high-quality material to landscapers and the agriculture industry. Using locally produced compost reduces water use, prevents soil erosion, and avoids the use of chemical fertilizers.

Implementation of the City’s Zero Waste Plan conducting numerous actions under the six key operational strategies would reduce GHGs emissions by an estimated 104,394 metric tons of carbon equivalent.

Zero Waste practices are not just limited to recycling. Residents, as well as businesses, can think Zero Waste by adopting the Zero Waste Hierarchy to everyday living. This hierarchy shown in a previous discussion presents a simple, orderly approach to making changes that benefit the environment. Changes can also result in saving money. A good way to learn what you can do as individuals or families is to start changing your mindset. A recommended resource are the family practices of Fredrika Syren, a self-learned Zero Waste expert.  She had taught her family a variety of ways to live a Zero Waste lifestyle. Practicing even some of these measures can make a difference. Visit, www.zerowastefamily.com to view their film and learn valuable tips.

The Expand Your Zero Waste Knowledge page serves as an informational resource and provides links for topics covering a variety of Zero Waste issues. It serves as an easy reference point of introductory and in-depth readings and videos. Some of the many topics include:  Zero Waste organizations, reuse, the recycling business, corporate and business sustainability, and green washing.

Visit Expand Your Zero Waste Knowledge page