What happens when a community has reduced, reused, and recycled all it can from the waste stream? The remainder has become much more complex and challenging to manage. The complexity of the waste stream now requires that each portion, organic, in-organic, recyclable, reusable, convertible, be managed in multiple ways to meet each community’s priorities and goals. This presentation will focus on managing the remainder of waste within the hierarchy. Jennefer will discuss how she guides communities through the conversion of waste materials into valuable products using technologies such as anaerobic digestion, waste to energy, and other waste conversion technologies. This process includes evaluating what is in the waste stream through waste characterizations, prioritizing of available materials, identification of technologies and vendors that can manage the available materials, followed by a procurement process. This is all completed under the guidance of the US EPA Hierarchy. Jennefer will use the example of the City of Tucson, Arizona Zero Waste Roadmap and how the Roadmap was influenced by a search for alternative uses of materials from the Los Reales Sustainability Campus. Specifically, this presentation will address:

• Understanding waste streams
• Managing waste within the US EPA hierarchy
• Creating flexible waste management solutions
• Communications and outreach as a component of procurement
• Technology as a solution to climate change