King County Honors Bellevue City Hall, Schools, Others For Environmental Workplace Efforts

For the fourth year in a row, Bellevue's environmental stewardship efforts have earned it a "Best Workplace for Recycling and Waste Reduction" honor for 2011 from King County.

Bellevue was recognized by the county's Solid Waste Division for making recycling easy for employees and visitors to City Hall and all satellite buildings.

To qualify as a Best Workplace for Recycling, organizations had to meet at least 10 criteria out of a list of 33 good recycling practices -- choices that range from placing recycling bins by every desk, to collecting food scraps for on- or off-site composting. Eighty-nine businesses and agencies made the list this year.

In addition to adding new items last year, including block Styrofoam, compact fluorescent light bulbs and rigid plastic lids, the city expanded what is accepted in its commingled recycling program this year to include all plastic containers and cold and hot cups. The deli at City Hall began using compostable service ware and instructional displays were set up in the cafeteria to show employees how to sort their recyclables.

In late 2010, Bellevue conducted a waste sort to monitor progress toward city recycling goals, and discovered that it had reduced the overall amount of waste generated. The city continues to promote zero-waste events, and all nine fire stations continue to recycle food waste after a successful pilot program.

King County Regional Recycling also .

They are:

CDM

CH2M Hill

CHS Engineers, LLC

David Evans and Associates, Inc.

HDR Engineering, Inc.

Jeffrey Schur DDS MSD Orthodontics

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

Printex Press

Roth Hill, LLC

Safeway Beverage Plant

Sound Intellectual Property PLLC

Symetra Financial

T-Mobile

Last year, businesses in King County sent more than 200,000 tons of recyclable materials to the landfill. Surprisingly, the commercial waste stream still contains 22 percent paper, what many consider the easiest item to recycle. At 27 percent, the largest percentage of material heading to the landfill from businesses is food scraps and food-soiled paper.

The 2011 list spans a wide array of businesses in King County including hospitality, medical services, professional services, retail, finance, government, arts and entertainment and others. Innovative recycling and waste reduction strategies also run the gamut, from electronic computer records to a cell phone recycling program and the elimination of ink and toner cartridges for printers.

For more information on the other winners, visit http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/garbage-recycling/best-workplaces.asp.

-- Information from the City of Bellevue and King County Regional Recycling