City of San José
Home MenuPopular Searches
68℉Zero Waste Element (ZWE)
Zero Waste Element (ZWE)
On November 18th, 2025, the San José City Council approved the Zero Waste Element (ZWE) to be incorporated into Climate Smart San José (Climate Smart), the City's long-term climate action plan. Waste reduction and diversion goals in the ZWE will help the City move towards its goal of carbon neutrality by 2030 and serve as an update to the 2008 Zero Waste Strategic Plan.
Read more: Zero Waste Element
ZWE GOALS
The ZWE follows the Zero Waste Hierarchy pyramid, created by the Zero Waste International Alliance, shown below in Figure 1, by focusing first on rethinking and redesigning systems, then reducing and reusing items to prevent waste.
The ZWE includes goals, milestones and supportive City actions for reducing the GHG emissions associated with solid waste through 13 broad City-led zero waste strategies shown in Figure 2 below. Each strategy is supported by one or more recommended City-led actions.
These strategies have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 244,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) per year, which is equivalent to 52,574 gasoline-powered vehicles driven for a year or 30,735 homes’ energy use for one year.
The ZWE sets a new target to reach 96% diversion by 2050, as shown in Figure 3 below, along with interim targets.
PUBLIC OUTREACH
The City of San José Environmental Services staff conducted a series of outreach and engagement events from January 17 to February 11, 2024. The outreach engagement period included a community survey, a virtual community meeting, and an online open house, all of which helped shape ZWE's content.
Over 200 community members and stakeholders provided feedback on the Draft Element. 81% of survey takers indicated that preventing waste is very important to them, and participants shared ideas for community education, such as reaching schools, community events, and multifamily residences, to ensure that low-income communities have the knowledge and resources to access waste programs.
Participants requested more education on food waste prevention and sustainable eating, and suggested partnering with organizations such as food recovery groups, repair clinics, and thrift stores.
ZWE Resources
Zero Waste Element Executive Summary
- English version: page 11
- Spanish version: page 3
- Vietnamese version: page 3
Residential and Business Playbooks
- English version: page 69
- Spanish version: page 13
- Vietnamese version: page 13
ZWE - Technical Appendix
- ZWE – Technical Appendix starts on page: page 75