1999 Trash Cutter Awards Program Case Studies

City of Sunnyvale: Best Waste Prevention Program

• Program Description
• Program Summary
• Costs
• Benefits
• Contact

Program Description

Since 1992, the city has held its annual "Citywide Garage Sale," designed to both reinforce the reuse message among residents and provide them a way to divert usable household items from the landfill. As the first jurisdiction in Santa Clara county to implement this program, Sunnyvale has offered technical assistance and made its public education/promotional materials available to many other local governments in the area.

Program Summary

The Garage Sale is administered by the Recycling Program, a part of the Solid Waste Division of Public Works. The public education specialist has the lead in this program, with support from many other staff. The garage sale idea was adapted from a similar program in the City of El Cerrito and has become a much anticipated annual event in Sunnyvale.

Public outreach has taken the form of print ads in the San Jose Mercury News and other media, a direct mail Spring Clean-Up brochure, radio spots, Internet, outdoor banners, etc. Residents who wish to participate for the first time call in to request a packet of information, which includes a sign-up form that they may mail or fax to the Recycling Program office. Residents who have held a sale in the previous year are sent a packet with a letter inviting them to participate again. The registration forms are color coded so the Recycling Program has some information on how many sign-ups are from those who have held sales in the past.

Sales that are registered are listed in a full-page ad in the San Jose Mercury News. The ad lists the address and items to be sold and features a map of the city, which is split into 10 sections for easy location of sales for prospective shoppers. The local 7-Elevens partner with the city by posting information about the sale and have maps at each store with the list of addresses and items for sale.

Costs

Excluding city staff salaries, the city spends an average of $67,000 a year for educational efforts. As an enterprise fund, the daily operation of the city's Recycle Center is paid for mainly through residential billing, a 16 percent waste hauler gross receipts fee, and a monthly fee from Smurfit Recycling Company, the city's contractor.

A $2,000 grant helped finance an elementary school pilot "WasteLess Lunch" project, which showed that 85 percent of school lunch waste can be composted or recycled. Warner Bros. Studios Facilities provided $5,000 for the city school district to complete an in-depth school waste analysis and waste reduction plan expansion.

Benefits

Benefits of the program are not all tangible, such as the community spirit that the sales foster. However, the more tangible program benefits include (1) converting unproductive assets into productive assets in the local economy, (2) replacing demand for items made with virgin resources, (3) releasing space in the garage or home where productive activities can occur, (4) putting cash in the hands of residents to be circulated in the local economy, and (5) putting surplus house items into circulation for sale or reuse sooner rather than later, decreasing the probability that they will be landfilled in the future.

A significant benefit is the amount of material being diverted and this quantity is calculated based on some assumptions:

1. For every registered sale, there is at least one unregistered garage sale taking place.
2. An average of 200 pounds will be released by each garage sale based on participant experiences and staff observations.
3. From the original survey of participants, 70 percent of materials are generated by residents who have been in their homes for over 40 years. Since this represents material that has been in storage for an extended period of time, it is likely to be eventually thrown out. Therefore 70 percent of the garage sale material is considered to be diverted from the landfill.

Based on these assumptions, the city calculates diversion according to the following formula: Average participation rate of 550 X 2 garage sales (one registered, one not) X 200 lbs. of material per sale X 70 percent (material that would have been landfilled), equals 154,000 lbs. diverted per year, or 77 tons.

The city will be surveying participants again to determine if these original assumptions remain valid, and there is a plan to survey the many reuse organizations listed in the registration packet to see if there was an increase in donations after the events.

For Further Information Contact:

City of Sunnyvale
P.O. Box 3707
Sunnyvale, CA  94088
(408) 730-7277

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