>> cheryl: welcome to "beyond the headlines," i'm cheryl jennings. today we explore recycling in the bay area. all of us are getting better at it and recycling and sometimes

compos tipg is required by many local cities. but first, a recent survey named san francisco as the greenest big city in both the united states and canada. survey was commissioned by siemens a global health care and energy company. it ranked 27 major cities including energy, transportation and waste. san francisco ranked first because of mandatory come posting and recycling. they praised the city's public transportation system. the other cities in the top five vancouver, new york city and denver. in the studios is gary wolf is director executive director of stopwaste dost org and we were talking about recycli it'shy it's so important, why is it so

important? >> there is traditional benefits that reduces greenhouse gases and overall preserves natural resources because secondary materials use a lot of those resources but also it's a green job program. processing and baling and shipping and that sort of thing. about 200 direct jobs, 200,000 tons are processed. >> where do people go to find these jobs? >> we have to get the materials out of the garbage can and into the right containers. we throw about hundred million dollars per year of recyclable material in alameda county. if we capture all of that. we're talking about 800 jobs through different franchise provider in alameda county could hire people to do. >> cheryl: san francisco did well on the ratings. how about the area? >> the bay area is a great place for sustainability. we're proud of accomplishments in san francisco. we have many accomplish nysd

east bay. we have largest food scrap program in the country. if you add up the consolidated food strap skrap in the total program it's the largest food scrap program in the country. >> tell me aboutwaste.org? >> we are charged management of solid away and we have recycling board. we have the mandate of going beyond 75% diversion that was created by the voters 20 years ago. we operate programs that help the public to figure out how to recycle more and reduce the waste. >> cheryl: you are doing great? >> many successes. >> how about recycling electronics? >> it's an open market situation if you will. the state has a fee reimburse to

companies that collect that material. so using that as a main source of revenue and also the value of the cases, computer cases can have a lot of value, many companies go out and create collection events, drop-off events partnered with a community group and then they get some of tha the that is the primary method for electronic recycling. >> cheryl: final thoughts about why this is so important? >> it's so important. we're driving home the economic message. we need to employ people. we can bring hundred million dollars from alameda from asian manufacturers buying materials and using that to employ people. >> cheryl: money and jobs. we doe take a have take a break. we're going to learn how creative people

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>> cheryl: welcome back to "beyond the headlines." we've been talking about the importance of recycling for our environment, for our hltsz and for our artistic side. let me explain. there is an art gallery with the focus on that at candlestick park. don sanchez shows us some of the artwork built from recycled goods. >> reporter: a circular keyboard from upright piono controlled by

a laptop. it's part of an environmental drawing. welcome to the studios of the two artists at recology. this is their finished work. and this is their resource. place where people drop off their trash. >> had i no idea what i would find. >> it seemed to have a lot of things built it and was discarded was interesting to me. >> it's like treasure hunt. what may be one person's trash could wind up as a piece of art. >> look what they did with discarded bannister. >> so reusing materials in a way to sort capture ideas i'm thinking about. >> she is from the stanford art department. >> also the way it's having on

our environment. >> i'm exploring different ways of the story i usually tell. >> it's all done by hand and all done materials found here. the paper and drawing materials. >> yes, pastels have been thrown away. hundreds of artists and some of them are displayed here. they give tours and they hope it's inspirational. >> so see what the artists are doing with these materials they are reusing we hope it encourages them to recycle or reuse materials. >> or they could become artists. wild.ryl: that is s joining us right now is paul giusti, public affairs manager at recology. paul, that program is amazing? >> it's effective program but

one only of the most popular one. >> cheryl: tell me about recology? >> we provide garbage recycling on and come posting services here in san francisco. we have little carts here today. >> cute little buckets or little bins. >> about ten years ago we looked at, we needed to move beyond the curbside recycling programs. the types of material we could accept in our program. we piloted in program with the three separated bins and it gave us a lot more room for recycling and we starred to compost program, food waste composting. >> this is for what we call co-mingled rec your all your newspapers, envelopes,

bottles, cans, plastic, magazines and old days of having to look at the bottom if its one five or seven are gone. any plastic container can go into the bin. green bin is traditional composting, yard trimmings but also food waste and even beyond the vegetables, we take meat, bones, fish, anything like that and make a really great compost out of that. the box is this. that is where we wants to get to is zero waste. >> composti i, i try hard with that. why compost? >> first of all it's great for the environment. it helps reduce greenhouse gases. >> organic material that gets

thrown in a landfill eventually decomposes and the gases can escape into the atmosphere and lead to greenhouse gases which is global warming. through the composting we suppress the carbon into the plants from the compost and put the nutrients back into the ground. we have hundred that do it. organic farmers, growing great organic vegetables. >> cheryl: and i wanted to get to an rob i can digestion? >> that is a system we're trying out to out. the food waste is actually composted is without oxygen. what it does, the methane gas that would be normally washed into the atmosphere and used for fuel either to make electricity

or to run garbage trucks on. >> wow! >> that is fantastic. final thoughts for people? >> you know, just use your blue and green bins and we'll get to zero waste. >> cheryl: thank you so much. we do have to take another quick break. we'll be back with a story of a nonprofit that is

>> cheryl: welcome back. we are talking about recycling

efforts around the bay area. a northern california nonprofit wants to clean up our oceans by cleaning up plastic trash for cash. it's like going back to the future. >> i need fuel. >> that dream of turning garbage into fuel is being nurtured by a lot of inventors and one have them has come up with a small portable device that burns up certain kinds of plastic trash and turns it on into unrefined oil. some environmentalists captain jim holm was to apply it to a massive project. >> to remove the plastic trash that is floating around in the world's ocean.

>> she with the clean oceans project. they want a large machine to fit into the hull of a 60 foot solar powered boat. it's been designed to scour the oceans for floating plastic. >> we'll be able to take the plastic trash and convert it into usable fuel. >> that bigger conversion machine has the ability to melt 3500 pounds of plastic trash a day making 66 gallons of fuel. we saw a demonstration with a small desktop model in santa cruz. first plastic trash was stuffed into the machine. the lid was sealed tightly to prevent fumes from escaping. then the heat was turned on to more than 800 degrees. >> the plastic turns into gas which bubbles up to water that cools it and then it condenses into the liquid oil you see floating on top of the water. it took about two hours. the machine is made by a company

in japan. they dropped by abc7 in san francisco. >> i invented this kind of oil making machine. there is so much plastic in the world. it will be a serious problem. >> his partner is the ceo of the company. this video from the united nations university showed them demonstrate ago desktop unit at a school in japan to teach children about the importance of cleaning up plastic trash. >> in nepal there was a truck that runs around. it is powered by the fuel. the system basically has a filtration that is similar to a converter. so the only two things that is coming off is water and small amount of co2. >> this is one area they want to

a garbage patch. a yyra is a system that swirls around a central point that create a whirlpool effect that pushes the debris to the center. >> some estimate there are millions of tons of plastic floating over many square miles of ocean. >> one of the biggest things we can help to keep the plastic out of the ocean to provide a monetary value for the plastic trash. >> they would like to see a program similar to recycled cans and bottles. they could melt the trash and sell the fuel. >> for every ten pounds, we make a gallon of fuel. >> down side is cost. $15,000 for the desktop and $275,000 for the unit used by the clean oceans project.

so the upside is make plastic trash into a usable resource. >> cheryl: that is make. and cofounders of the clean oceans project, captain jim holm and nick drobac. you drove all the way from santa cruz to be with us. this is a big deal. what do you want to do? we talked b a little bit about it in the story? >> the object of our game is to eliminate the plastic trash that is in the ocean and we are doing a number of different methods. research is very important and the educational component as we said before is absolutely essentially. where we differ ot other organizations, we're also looking to take direct action and try to physically remove the trash from the oceans and beaches. we also figured once we get it

out off the beaches we need to do something. >> what are you going to do it w it then? but that is incredible thing. now a number of different ways, you are doing it using satellite imagery? >> in terms of locating it. technological challenges, talking about enormous area that is affected with plastic. in order to cover every square inch of that it would take hundreds of millions of dollars and we had some way to find concentrations of the plastic. we chose to look at satellite and radar technology to find areas of convergence. so far it's been very promising. >> cheryl: are you getting close to take the boat out? >> we're getting very close to take the boat out there. >> is some indication we may be out this summer. >> cheryl: so how much solution there in the oceans today? does anybody even kn know? >> there has been studies, it's

enormous area and it's very dynamic. the totals that have come up is extrapolation based on small samples. it's hard to say how accurate they are but the working total is five and ten million tons just in the north pacific. >> cheryl: what kind of chemicals leak into the ocean? >> that is a good question. again, it's difficult to answer. all of the things that we're putting into our automobiles drift here and there and rain puts them in the ocean. those are chemicals. farm chemicals are washed into the oceans in huge numbers. previously unexplained dead spots in the oceans from chemicals and fertilizers. >> the breakdown of the plastic. this is broken down plastic.

so it never really goes way it gets smaller and smaller. >> we like to say breaking up than breaking down. it becomes smaller and smaller pieces. it has a characteristic that it attracts other chemicals similar to it. they kind of stick to it. so chemicals floating free into the ocean, if they happen to come in contact with plastic, they adhere to the surface. >> makes it worse. >> cheryl: you inspired a school. >> we got an e-mail from a fourth grade teacher from pennsylvania, that her kids had done an art project they had put on these stainless steel water bottles and sold them as a fund-raiser. they raised $700 and sent that to us in a check.

they are still working on selling the other half of the bottles. we'll put something on our website to tell folks how they can help support the school. >> cheryl: congratulations and good luck with everything. we do have to take another break. when we come back, we're going to learn about some of the jobs created by rec

>> cheryl: black band to "beyond the headlines." we are discussing recycling in the bay area. it doesn't just help the environment it also creates jobs. seated with me right now are from civi corps, executive director, alan lessik and brand perry. alan i want to start with you? >> civi has for around for eight years. we're a charter school in the oakland unified school district for kids 18-24 years old who dropped out of school, want to come back and get a high school diploma. we have a job training program which is an inducement, once they join that they get paid a

salary. when they graduate they can become an intern in our recycling program. >> cheryl: do they get referred to you? >> people volunteer. our name is known. also also work with agencies bt most of folks come because they heard about the incredible job we do. 85% of our kids graduate withgha high school diploma. >> cheryl: brandon is one of huge success stories? >> i needed a high school diploma. that is what i wanted to get it and doing a job and learning how to recycle and prune trees and stuff like that. >> cheryl: what had you been doing before? >> nothing. sitting at home and doing nothing. >> cheryl: how did you hear about it? >> couple people tell me about it. you can get a high school

diploma and job at the same time. killing two birds with one stone. >> cheryl: tell me whuash doing now? >> i'm an operating the forklift and front leder a bob cat and recycling. >> cheryl: that is very exciting. >> and brand is going to college. >> cheryl: so you are going to college and you are got money. that is huge success s a and yo0 scholarship. >> cheryl: that is fantastic. alan, tell me how much of an impact does this program have on the bay area? >> two different ways look at it. last year we recycled over two million pounds of bottles, glass and paper. there is that obvious one. the most important one like brandon, that we offer a chance, basically a second chance of life. they get on to come back to

school and get the diploma. 80% of our kids are going to college or finish with the programs and they learn real valuable skills. brandon has a choice. she learning to forklift and driving. he has money to go to college and continued with college. so he has a choice where three years ago he was sitting around in his home. >> cheryl: do you have a waiting list? >> we recruit and bring in people every six weeks. anyone who shows up at our door, there is a short application process and you can start probably in about six weeks. >> cheryl: how much has it affected the rest of your life? >> having been successful and people like me. get a job. you can do that. if i can do it, you can do it. it's easy.

so be a leader and show other people the way of life. >> cheryl: are you going to finish the college and that what do you plan? >> start my own business. i don't know what i'm going to do but start a business. >> cheryl: all right. any last thoughts. >> anyone can show up. also the north bay civi corps and san jose. we're available and ready. >> cheryl: thank you both for being here. congratulations. we are out of time. special thanks to our guests and that is it for this edition on "beyond the headlines." everything that we talked about is available on our website at abc7news.com/community. thanks for joining us. we'll see you next time. bye-bye.

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