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California Businesses Receive 2,152 WRAP Awards: Environmental honors earned by 24 companies in Butte, Glenn, Shasta, Sutter, and Tehama Counties

SACRAMENTO—Creative and innovative waste-cutting successes in the workplace have earned the state's prestigious Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP) honors for 24 businesses in Butte, Glenn, Shasta, Sutter, and Tehama Counties. The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company of Chico, Johns Manville International, Inc. of Willows, four Safeway stores in Shasta County, Albertsons in Yuba City, and St. Elizabeth Community Hospital of Red Bluff were among this year's WRAP winners, which total 2,152 statewide.

Announced in observance of National Pollution Prevention Week (September 16-22, 2002), the 10th Annual WRAP awards are made by the California Integrated Waste Management Board—the state's primary recycling agency. The awards honor California companies of all sizes for reducing the amount of waste they produce and finding workable solutions to reuse and recycle materials, including buying recycled-content products for the workplace.

"We congratulate each of this year's WRAP winners," said Waste Board Chair Linda Moulton-Patterson. "Annually, business waste accounts for half of the materials potentially headed for California's landfills. Every winner of this award has done an outstanding job of finding new uses and recycling opportunities for their surplus materials. That kind of dedication translates into savings for both the environment and the bottom line."

For a complete list of all WRAP winners and their locations by county, please visit us online at www.calrecycle.ca.gov/WRAP/

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company (Butte County)—The Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is the ninth largest brewer in the United States and produces ales and lagers of the highest quality. At every stage in the brewing and packaging process, the company attempts to reduce waste generation. This includes utilizing spent brewing grains, hops, and yeast for cattle feed, recycling cardboard, plastics, metals and other materials, reducing water use and operating its own water purification plant. In 2001, the company reduced waste sent to the landfill by these amounts: 31 million pounds of grain, 436,000 pounds of hops, 9 million pounds of yeast, 320,000 pounds of cardboard, 237,000 pounds of glass, 7,360 pounds of office pack/mixed paper, and a significant amount of various other materials. In this same period, the brewery has saved $1.5 million by reducing high strength water treatment charges, selling recyclable materials, and reusing surplus supplies and equipment.

Johns Manville International, Inc. (Glenn County)—Johns Manville is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality building products. The 142-year-old Denver-based company had sales of $2.2 billion in 1999 with approximately 75 percent of its sales in the commercial and industrial segment. Johns Manville employs approximately 9,700 people and operates 56 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China. The Johns Manville facility in Willows has an aggressive recycling program. The plant has recently entered into an agreement to dispose of a portion of its waste at a local energy cogeneration plant in Anderson, California. In addition, most of the plant's suppliers accept return packaging for reuse. As a result, the facility is able to divert over one million pounds of material from the local landfill annually. The fiberglass insulation produced at the plant contains 30 percent recycled glass. In fact, when comparing recycled material input to waste generated, the recycling operations make the plant a net consumer of waste. In addition, the Johns Manville plant actively searches for other ways to divert its waste from the landfill and keep the Willows community cleaner.

St. Elizabeth Community Hospital (Tehama County)—St. Elizabeth Community Hospital is located in rural Red Bluff. In the last two years, the facilty has reused, reduced and recycled solid waste by 40,000 pounds, saved $6000, and managed to fund local charities with solid waste revenues. Through dedicated reuse and recycling efforts, the employees have funded patient hospice services, paid for field trips and artwork by local aspiring art students, and helped buy food and formula for new mothers without asking for donations. Furniture is sold for reuse at a company-run thrift store for hospice patients. Monies from aluminum cans and cardboard buy formula and food stuffs for local new mothers. Ink and toner cartridges are donated to a local schools to fund field trips for the children. Colored paper, coffee filters and computer paper are turned into artwork by local children in an after-school program and displayed in the hospital's cafeteria. Currently, St. Elizabeth is the only hospital in the nation that turns its waxed produce boxes over to a local company that makes them into recycled fire logs. The hospital staff pride themselves on cutting-edge waste management approaches.

Open to businesses and private, nonprofit organizations, the WRAP awards were initiated in 1993 to recognize companies that develop innovative and aggressive programs to reduce the amount of nonhazardous solid waste they generate. Applicants are evaluated based on a range of waste reduction activities that include waste prevention, reuse, recycling, use of recycled-content products, and employee education and training. More than 8,700 WRAP honors have been awarded to date, including this year's winners, and many companies have earned the award more than once since the program started.

All winners of the Waste Board's WRAP award receive the right to promotional advertising and use of the WRAP logo, as well as a certificate of recognition. Pacific Bell, for instance, a multi-year WRAP winner and a top-ten 2001 WRAP of the Year honoree, features the logo on the back of its SMART Yellow Pages and White Pages directories.

A number of businesses with multiple locations also applied for 2002 WRAP award consideration, including such notable companies as the Walt Disney Studios, Del Monte Corporation, SureWest Communications, Southern California Edison, and Goodwill Industries. Among this year's winning businesses with locations statewide are:

Albertsons, Inc.—One of the world's largest food and drug retailers, Albertsons, Inc. has annual revenues of approximately $38 billion. The company is based in Boise, Idaho and employs more than 200,000 employees. Albertsons, Inc. operates approximately 2,300 retail stores in 31 states across the United States under banners including Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Sav-on Drugs, Osco Drug, Max Foods and Super Saver. The company stands behind its environmental commitment by continuing to recycle 50 percent of its waste stream, including 319,328 tons of old corrugated cardboard and 4,363 tons of plastic grocery bags and pallet wrap at 744 sites in California. Albertsons, Inc. has also spearheaded innovative new packaging designs such as the standard footprint produce box and wax-less boxes for meat, fish, and poultry. Albertsons and its sister stores encourage not only employees but consumers to explore new avenues and new concepts to reduce/reuse/recycle. Albertsons has won the WRAP award five times between 1998 and 2002, and is also a previous WRAP of the Year winner.

Safeway, Inc.—Among the largest retail companies in North America, Safeway, Inc. operates 582 California stores in its Vons and Northern California Divisions. Since 1995, Vons has implemented a composting program for green waste at its stores that converts material that was previously a waste into a valuable product: compost. This program has been expanded into Safeway's Northern California Division. Notable cost savings have resulted from a reduction in waste disposal costs. Last year, the two divisions diverted 68,785 tons from landfill disposal. In addition, Safeway's two California divisions diverted over 148,657.2 tons of other materials from landfills including corrugated cardboard, plastic, meat waste, metal, paper, and glass through recycling programs. Safeway has won the WRAP award four years consecutively from 1999 through 2002.

Save Mart Supermarkets—Save Mart Supermarkets is a retail chain comprised of 81 conventional supermarkets and 14 warehouse-style markets. The company has two very successful closed-loop recycling operations. Bakery and produce trim are collected from each site and converted to compost that is sold in Save Mart Garden Shops. In addition, tons of compost have been donated to schools, churches, and city parks. In a cooperative program with Enviro-Bag, customers' plastic carry-home bags are collected by schoolchildren for fund-raising. Bags are recycled into Enviro-Bag brand trash and kitchen bags and subsequently sold on retail shelves. In 2001, this recycling teamwork recaptured 310,000 plastic bags—a 24 percent increase over the previous year. Save Mart's multi-faceted recycling efforts have reduced waste sent to landfills by over 70 percent. Save Mart is a three-year winner of the WRAP award, having received honors in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

Target Corporation/Mervyn's Stores—The Target Corporation is a leading retailer in the discount, middle-market and department store marketplace. The company is committed to leadership, excellent guest service, team member opportunities, and community outreach. Last year, Target Corporation was able to recycle over 300,000 tons of materials nationwide. Additional waste was reduced through salvage programs and donations of unsellable items to charitable organizations and humane societies. The Target Environmental Services Department is recognized for designing and implementing a successful, innovative program that established recycling goals in comparison to the sales per store. This ongoing waste reduction program was first developed several years ago for Target stores. Today, goals for the company's Mervyn's stores are currently being developed. Target first received the WRAP award in 1997 and then was honored four more times from 1998 to this year.

The six-member California Integrated Waste Management Board is responsible for protecting public health and safety and the environment through management of the estimated 68 million tons of solid waste generated in California each year. The Board works in partnership with local government, industry, and the public to reduce solid waste disposal and ensure environmentally safe landfills. California now diverts 42 percent of its solid waste away from disposal.

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