Waste and Recycling

Recycling Analysis and Business Outreach
Client: Hayward, CA
Cascadia Consulting has provided waste and recycling assistance to the City of Hayward, CA since winter 2008 through waste stream analysis and targeted outreach to businesses and institutions.  The initial waste stream analysis provided baseline data about the current recycling practices of Hayward business, and ongoing analysis every season provides data updates concerning the waste and recyclables streams from individual businesses.  Cascadia’s outreach team has conducted in-person and telephone outreach to businesses to increase commercial sector recycling. In an initial, concentrated, three-day effort to sign up businesses for new or improved recycling services, Cascadia reached 330 businesses and recruited over 55% for new or improved recycling services.  Cascadia continues this work in both providing outreach and assistance and measuring success through real data on the Hayward business waste stream.


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Cascadia began to immediately overhaul the way Resource Venture services were marketed, delivered, and tracked; ultimately resulting in superior outcomes. Among the dramatic changes we noted were (1) an increased level of accountability; (2) a more strategic focus; and (3) service documentation that demonstrated a more effective and efficient program. In particular, Cascadia’s “targeting and tracking” database made it possible to focus on the biggest commercial resources users with the greatest potential for conservation, and then measure their progress over time. The program’s unique targeted approach is extremely cost-effective; Cascadia has helped reduce the City’s program costs from about $100/ton diverted in 2006 to about $45/ton in 2008.


- Phil Paschke, Seattle Public Utilities