San Diego Zoo Global has been presented with a Recycler of the Year award by the city of San Diego, in recognition of the organization’s successful and innovative recycling program. The Recycler of the Year awards, now in their 27th year, were presented by the city’s Environmental Services Department during a ceremony at the San Diego Central Library on Wednesday, May 1.

The SDZG programs include composting food waste, using a green-certified laundry for staff uniforms and instituting an ongoing change-out program for LED lighting fixtures.

“San Diego Zoo Global continues to implement new methods to increase our diversion of materials going to local landfills and to encourage guests to do the same,” said Adam Ringler, director of performance improvement at San Diego Zoo Global in a press release. “At our San Diego Zoo facility, we worked closely with summer camp kids in 2018 to encourage zero waste after finishing their lunches by limiting plastic and using recyclable and compostable methods for disposal. Kids in camp were also taught the importance of bringing refillable water bottles, so plastic can be reduced.”

The Recycler of the Year Awards are designed to help San Diego achieve its Climate Action Plan and Zero Waste goals. With the ultimate goal of having zero waste end up in landfills by 2040, the Climate Action Plan is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the city by 50% and to generate all electricity used in the city from renewable sources by 2035. Similarly, the city’s Zero Waste Plan established intermediate goals of diverting 75% of all trash by 2020 and 90% by 2035.