Zero Waste Resource Guide

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For Use at Home or Events & Gatherings

Use this Zero Waste Resource Guide for daily living in your household – or to plan your next event or gathering – with sustainability in mind! This Guide provides useful resources and tips to help implement zero waste efforts – either at home or at public and private events organized by city agencies, community groups, and individuals in Greenbelt.

Zero Waste is a philosophy and strategy to conserve resources and reduce our environmental footprint by minimizing the amount of waste that is landfilled or burned.  

To put the value of Zero Waste efforts in perspective, the most recent study of waste (2014-2015) at the Prince George’s County landfill found that 61.7% of residential waste and 59.1% of commercial waste consisted of materials that could have been recycled or composted.

Zero Waste at Home

Use this chart to increase Zero Waste practices in your home by adding composting to your recycling efforts in your daily routine. You can separate food scraps and other compostable items from your household waste and take them to composting collection sites such as the city’s Food Scraps Drop-Off Site at Buddy Attick Park or MOM’s Organic Market.

The chart provides a handy guide to sort what can be composted and what can go in your recycling bin.
Composting is a sustainable alternative that puts nutrients back into local soils and our food system by using the finished compost as a soil amendment for local gardens, yards, public spaces like parks, and farms. This helps create a truly sustainable food cycle system. Separating your food waste in this way may also lead to cost savings for your household by increasing awareness of the amount wasted and adjusting your usage and buying habits accordingly.

The chart also offers suggestions for how to combine reusable items with composting to maximize your sustainability efforts.

Also, there are links to additional resources, including details about certifiable compostable products.

Zero Waste Events

The entire Zero Waste Resource Guide is especially designed for use in implementing zero waste efforts at events – public or private, large or small. The guide presents three options for maximizing waste reduction at events, and includes specific tips for advance planning.

Why Zero Waste Matters

Zero Waste is a local solution to some of our most pressing environmental, economic and social challenges.  Zero Waste helps:

  • Protect and Conserve Natural Resources
  • Promote:
    • Climate Resilience
    • Strong Local Economies, Green Jobs
    • Healthy Soils, Healthy Food
    • Healthy People, Healthy Planet
    • Social Equity

     Source: Eco-Cycle Solutions

Additional Resources

To learn more about Zero Waste, visit Eco-Cycle Solutions: Why Zero Waste Matters or view these short videos:

What Is Zero Waste? Video Lessons
• Simple, basic explanations of individual Zero Waste practices, and useful tips for home in short video clips (5 to 8 minutes). Each lesson has links to suggested activities for kids, teens, and adults.

Zero Waste: The Choice for a Sustainable Community
• Basic information about the impact of waste on climate, and how Zero Waste practices offer solutions to reduce impact on our climate (7 minutes).