StopWaste

Learn more about building healthy soil with this guide that provides tips to help you get started in your garden. It covers soil building strategies including composting, sheet mulching and cover cropping.

Since 1976, StopWaste has been helping Alameda County's businesses, residents, and schools waste less, recycle better, and use water, energy and other resources efficiently. We're a public agency governed by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority, the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board, and the Energy Council. With local partners, we helped launch the green building movement in California and organized one of the first and largest food scrap collection programs in the country.

The Alameda County Waste Management Authority is a public agency formed in 1976 by a Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement among the County of Alameda, each of the fourteen cities in the county, and two sanitary districts that provide refuse and recycling collection services. The Authority has a seventeen-member board composed of elected officials appointed by each member agency. The Authority is responsible for preparation of the Alameda County Integrated Waste Management Plan and Alameda County Hazardous Waste Management Plan.

Our work began in 1976 with the founding of the Alameda County Waste Management Authority. In 1990, Alameda County voters overwhelmingly approved the Measure D ballot initiative that created the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board. At that time, only 14 percent of discarded materials were diverted from the county's landfills. We've come a long way since then. Alameda County now has one of the largest food scrap recycling programs in the country. Plant debris is banned from landfills, and construction and demolition debris accounts for only 12 percent of the county's waste stream, down from 21 percent in 2010.

StopWaste's revenue derives in large part from voter-approved landfill disposal fees. These fees fund waste reduction and recycling programs that benefit the residents and businesses of Alameda County. A significant portion of our revenue also comes from our successful pursuit of federal and state grant funds for waste prevention and energy-related projects. Download the Basic Financial Statements for the FY 17-18 and FY 18-19 for the Alameda County Waste Management Authority, Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board and Energy Council.

StopWaste's office building in downtown Oakland, California was the first building renovation project in the nation to receive Platinum certification, the LEED Green Building Rating System's highest honor. Putting our waste reduction and sustainability principles into practice, we took a rundown structure built in 1927 and transformed it into a beautiful, environmentally responsible and healthy workplace.

StopWaste works with urban farms and community gardens to fight climate change with carbon farming practices. Practices such as feeding the soil with compost and keeping unplanted areas covered help these communities grow healthy food and sequester carbon in the soil. Massive wildfires are part of the new norm in California and it's making gardeners concerned that smoke and ash are ruining their produce. Are the fruit and veggies that you worked so hard to grow still safe to eat? The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) recognized StopWaste as one of four inaugural WaterSmart Partners at a ceremony on March 12, 2019.