Waste Reduction
Recycling more—and minimizing landfill waste
We’re reducing the amount of waste we send to landfills. Our San Diego campus alone recycled more than 1,000 tons of “mixed recycling” in 2010—a substantial jump over the 680 tons recycled last year. One of our goals is to achieve a disposal rate lower than the average for San Diego businesses. We met that goal in 2010 with a per-capita disposal rate of 2.2 pounds per person per day (PPD), compared to the average of 11.4 PPD (current as of 2008, the last year for which information is available).
In 2010, we recycled more than 244 tons of electronic waste worldwide. On a single day in January, as part of a special e-waste recycling event, employees at our Santa Clara campus turned in more than 3,300 pounds of e-waste, including 1,225 pounds of cathode ray tubes from televisions, 685 pounds of computers, 378 pounds of consumer electronics and more than 1,000 pounds of tin.
Total Weight of Waste and Disposal Methods (tons)
Hazardous Waste
We generated 56.5 tons of hazardous waste at our California facilities in 2010 and recycled 73 percent of it by reclamation. Typical hazardous waste reclamation activities involve recovery of spent solvents such as acetone or metals such as lead. Hazardous materials not recovered were disposed of through either thermal treatment or inorganic waste treatment. (See table below.) We also recycled 178 tons of debris—or 61 percent of total waste—from construction projects at our San Diego facilities.
Hazardous Waste Final Disposition
Besides recycling, we’re looking for innovative ways to keep waste out of the waste stream. The Office Outlet, an internal program by our Administrative Services department, was established to collect all unused office supplies and redistribute them through an online catalog. In 2010, the Office Outlet redistributed nearly 1,000 items and reported cost savings of $38,000.