A key goal of the ZWA is to help build circular economies around the trash generated by our communities, enabling the growth and expansion of businesses centered on composting/mulching and recycling. With the incredible support of community businesses and individuals, we started this process by conducting an intensive waste audit in Todos Santos and Pescadero. Over the course of 5 weeks we made collections from most areas of our community, including

• 365 from households

• 112 from restaurants

• 41 from hotels

The process involved collecting, sorting, weighing and analyzing this waste to understand its composition. This allowed us to extrapolate and quantify the effect we could have if we implement measures to both:

1. Reduce the production of certain types of waste and

2. Reuse certain types of waste for circular economies.  

We are currently sharing the audit results with local and state governments to influence the planning process.  Going forward we will use the results to feed business cases for new circular businesses and to measure our progress as we achieve our objectives.  

1. Households

By analyzing the waste we collected from households we have extrapolated that we generate approximately 12,067 tons of waste per year in Todos Santos and Pescadero. The following chart presents the waste opportunity in our community by household income tier:

2. Restaurants

The data indicates that restaurant waste is comprised of 4 main categories:

Daily waste generation by restaurants in Todos Santos and Pescadero by tier:

If we extrapolate the the data to an annual basis it means we have a waste opportunity from local restaurants of 1,397 tons per year:

3. Hotels

The data indicates that hotel waste is comprised of 4 main categories:

Daily waste generation by hotels in Todos Santos and Pescadero by tier:

If we extrapolate the the data to an annual basis it means we have an a waste opportunity from local hotels of 744 tons per year: