Tempe is on track to meeting its solid waste landfill diversion goals for the coming fiscal year, according to a recent council presentation, covering the numbers for diversion over the last year.
Public Works Director David Tavares presented an update at Tempe City Council’s Feb. 13 work study session, going over the latest with the city’s solid waste program and landfill diversion numbers.
Tavares first shared how far the department is in meeting its target goals for fiscal year 2025-26, which expects solid waste landfill diversion to be up to 25% for residential, 15% for commercial and 20% city-wide.
As of 2024, the department is at 19% for residential, 9% for commercial and 14% for the city-wide category.
“Our operators, supervisors and coordinators do a great job handling the municipal waste that we get,” Tavares said.
He said that the department has recorded only a few missteps in its waste collection, which consists of approximately 20,000 containers each day.
However, Tavares did cover some of the municipal challenges that the department faces in its work, from confusion about what materials are able to be recycled to recycling infrastructure lagging behind in the evolving stream of demands for taking care of waste.
Other challenges consist of reduced markets for recycled materials and expanding beyond recycling to accommodate other items like electronics, textiles and concrete.
“What we’re looking at is to do more of a circular economy — where we recycle, make and collect,” Tavares said.
Compared to a linear economy, where materials are harvested, made into a product and then thrown away at the end of its life cycle, a circular economy provides a more sustainable solution to excess waste being sent to a landfill.
Speaking of Tempe’s efforts to divert waste, Tavares highlighted the city’s commingled recycling and green waste diversion — the former consisting of more familiar recyclables like bottles, paper and cardboard and the latter being waste from shrubs, trees and grass clippings.
“This is our key diversion piece right here between our residential, commercial and bulk programs, so as you can see, approximately 14,000 tons are being diverted from landfill,” he said.
Commingled recycling, Tavares explained, comes from materials collected from residents, commercial buildings, multifamily dwellings, schools, city buildings and special events.
After being picked up, the waste is processed at a recycling facility where it is sorted by both people and advanced machines. Then, those sorted materials are compressed into bails before being sold to buyers that process them into raw materials for new products.
For residential diversion, 9,979 tons were diverted in 2024, and 4,754 tons were diverted from commercial uses.
Tavares also brought up the city’s other diversion programs like its Household Hazardous Waste and Zero Waste Day events, its inert recycling in managing construction waste with city projects, and water treatment sludge diversion from Tempe’s water treatment plants that is being worked on with Arizona State University.
“It’s important because we can divert an extra 8 million pounds of material from our waste stream, that would be a huge number for our diversion numbers,” he said.
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Meet Caroline Caroline Yu joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2020 as a summer intern covering Scottsdale. As an intern, she continued her coverage of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Tempe. After graduating in 2022, Caroline became a full-time reporter for Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. She is currently reporting for the Tempe market.
Community: She is a supporter of the environment and tries to get involved with related community events.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications, with a minor in French.
Random Fact: She used to be a ballet dancer for 10 years.
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