Shoreway Environmental Center

Innovative waste reduction and recycling propelled the complete transformation of RethinkWaste’s South Bayside Solid Waste Management Authority Shoreway Environmental Center into an efficient and productive waste-handling complex. JRMA’s master plan updated the complex to achieve its community, economic, and environmental goals. This LEED Gold certified facility fits comfortably in its business park surroundings, showing off a modern three-story glass and metal office and education center to cars passing on the freeway and visitors driving up to the entrance.

A new single-stream materials recovery facility, or MRF, increased recovery of the materials arriving at the center. While this state-of-the-art equipment works hard to keep California’s waste out of landfills, the Environmental Education Center works hard to educate the community on waste reduction, sustainability and the many programs offered by RethinkWaste.

With increased rates of recycling and composting, the Center also needed an expansion to the transfer center that accepts materials for sorting and repurposing. Not only did the modified transfer center, along with a new entrance road and gate house, reduce waiting time and traffic, but it also expanded services by offering a place for residents to hand-deliver their recyclables or receive refunds on bottles and cans.

Tucked high on the roofs of the Shoreway Environmental Center are solar panels that provide 50 percent of the facility’s energy. This solar power, plus other design enhancements and new equipment at the facility, save $1.6 million dollars a year, allowing the Shoreway Environmental Center to keep expanding waste reduction and recycling.