LOS ANGELES, CA (August 26, 2019)— Commissioner Kevin James, President of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, presented two recycLA Star Awards Friday, August 23, 2019. The recycLA Star Award program celebrates local businesses that demonstrate an exceptional commitment to reducing the environmental impact of their operations by making the significant investments and behavioral changes to achieve the highest levels of recycling.
Since January 2018, recycLA has hit several milestones with recycling and landfill diversion:
- Over 4,100 tons of food has been rescued through recycLA from January 2018 to April 2019.
- Between January 2018 and April 2019, approximately 73,527 tons of recyclable material have been collected from blue bins.
- recycLA has brought 500 clean fuel trucks to LA’s roads, replacing stinky, noisy and unhealthy old diesel trucks.
- recycLA services 66,000 customer accounts citywide and has a 99.9% on-time collection rate.
L.A. LIVE
L.A. LIVE is a large entertainment venue that debuted in Downtown Los Angeles in 2007. L.A. Live currently diverts 55% of its waste from landfills and continues to work with its recycLA service provider (RSP) NASA to review bins and weights to improve their diversion rate by the end of 2019. In 2018, L.A. Live diverted 182 tons of cardboard and 65 tons of grease waste.
A few examples of L.A. Live’s other components which are instrumental in their success:
- Green, blue and black stripes have been painted on the floors leading the way to the correct bins for organics, recycling and garbage to avoid any confusion.
- Recycling signage is prominently featured behind the scenes, including the break room, hallways, elevator lobby, etc.
- Special tanks were installed under the loading dock area for grease collection. They have an outside recycling vendor who collects the grease and recycles it in numerous ways, including making soap.
ROOM AND BOARD
Room and Board is a large national furniture company of showrooms and delivery centers. Their delivery center in the City of Los Angeles, which is being recognized today, has been in Los Angeles since 2009. They are a very progressive, sustainability focused operation. Their corporate office in Minnesota is a founding member of the Sustainable Furnishings Council.
Room and Board sets an excellent example to other businesses on how to successfully recycle, diverting 82% of their waste from landfills. In 2018, this included: 137 tons of cardboard, 9 tons of low-density polyethylene packaging and 4 tons of plastic.
Both companies were awarded the Platinum recycLA Star. Scot Liptak, Delivery Market Manager and Greg DiDonato, Leadership Associate accepted the award on behalf of Room and Board. Blanca Diaz, L.A. Live Building Manager and Mark Clay, LA Live Operations Manager accepted the award on behalf of L.A. Live.