Photo Courtesy Of Mission Trails GreenTown Los Altos, a grassroots environmental organization, helped research the city’s new waste collection service provider, Mission Trail Waste Systems of Santa Clara.

GreenTown Los Altos, a grassroots environmental organization, has given the thumbs-up to the city’s new waste collection service provider, Mission Trail Waste Systems of Santa Clara.

The Los Altos City Council voted unanimously March 23 to award an expanded waste contract to Mission Trail, culminating a two-year effort by city staff, consultants, the city council, the Los Altos Environmental Commission and GreenTown’s Waste Management Committee.

GreenTown Executive Director Kacey Fitzpatrick said the contract with Mission Trail represents an “environmental victory over waste and greenhouse-gas pollution.”

GreenTown members spent six months researching waste management in the Bay Area.

The result was a 40-page analysis of key findings, including long- and short-term goals, which GreenTown provided to the city’s Environmental Commission in December 2008, according to Margie Suozzo, GreenTown committee co-chairwoman.

“We were pleased to see 10 key recommendations, which were endorsed by the commission and adopted in January 2009 by the council, incorporated into the new contract,” Suozzo said. “This 10-year contract will enable Los Altos residents and business owners to enjoy a significant reduction in the amount of waste sent to the landfill and all the environmental benefits that come with that.”

The new contract calls for a 78 percent waste diversion from the landfill, through expanded recycling, organics collection and curbside and on-call household hazardous waste collection.

Organics include yard and food waste – such as vegetable scraps, meat and food-soiled paper – and represent approximately 40 percent of Los Altos’ waste stream, Fitzpatrick said.

Composting such materials will produce a valuable soil amendment and reduce the amount of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, created when organic matter is sent to the landfill, she added.

Terms of the new service agreement include a public education plan, another GreenTown recommendation.

“This is an historical step toward sustainability, greenhouse gas reduction and to becoming a true ‘green town,’” Fitzpatrick said.

The new service agreement is effective Sept. 15.

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