Zanker began operations in 1985 as a Class III landfill. Since then, it has developed into a major full service, resource management, composting/recycling facility and landfill. Zanker’s recycling activities were developed in response to the City of San Jose’s, 1983 Solid Waste Program, which set goals of reducing San Jose wastes to landfills by 25% by 1990. Zanker has met and significantly exceeded these recycling goals by systematically analyzing the opportunities for cost-effective new recycling programs, experimenting with new equipment and technologies, and pioneering new markets for recycled materials.

From the very beginning, Zanker realized that environmental concerns with landfilling wastes would provide it with a receptive audience for its services. By aggressively providing services which the public wanted at prices they could afford, Zanker has led the way in all aspects of recycling.

Zanker has also helped the City of San Jose to expand its Waste Reduction Strategy, develop policies and structure its fees and taxes to provide economic incentives for waste generators, haulers and landfill operators to increase recycling. As a result of these efforts the City has establish a competitive marketplace, by aggressively providing options to local businesses for a wide range of solid waste and recycling services. Zanker has expanded its San Jose efforts by permitting and operating another facility just for recycling of construction and demolition debris in San Jose, the ZMPF, and a third major site operated by its subsidiary, Z-Best Products in Gilroy, for composting of both green wastes and food wastes.

History

Zanker Road Resource Management, Ltd. (ZRRML) is a partnership that was formed in 1985 to operate the Zanker Road Landfill. Zanker currently receives up to 1,300 tons per day of materials. In 1989, the state of California adopted AB939 which required that all Cities and Counties in the state meet a 25% reduction in waste by 1995 and 50% by the year 2000.

Years before the State adopted AB939, the City of San Jose had adopted broad solid waste and recycling goals (adopted in 1983). Chief amongthese was the goal to reduce wastes being landfilled by 25% by 1990. ZRRML responded to the challenge of this goal and with the Zanker Landfill proved that it was cost effective and appropriate for the City to pursue.

C&D Debris Recycling
Since 1988, Zanker has been a leader in processing mixed loads of construction and demolition (C&D) debris with a unique "float tank" and screening system that separates the soil, mixed concrete, and wood components from the mixed debris.

The mixed C&D debris is screened to separate the soil and then loaded into the float tank. Wood floats to the surface and is collected and dried. Metals and rubble drop to the bottom of the tank, and are collected then sorted using a screen and a magnet.

Concrete Recycling
Zanker’s concrete plant was one of the first in the nation to convert concrete debris into a gravel product suitable for foundation and road base construction. Zanker applied knowledge and skills from the crushed stone and mining industry developed since the early 1960’s throughout the world to design and operate their first concrete plant for the recycling of concrete debris in the Bay Area.

The concrete recycling process begins with incoming concrete debris loads being tipped at the site. The feedstock consists of clean concrete, reinforced concrete. Once the materials are tipped, non-acceptable materials are hand sorted out and recycled or disposed. Materials that are removed consist of wood, plastics, loose metals, and trash. A 980-wheel loader is used to move the remaining material from the tipping pad to the initial feeder. The material moves along the feeder into the primary crusher where it is crushed. After the primary crusher, the material passes a magnetic belt where steel is removed before passing through a secondary crusher that further reduces the particle size. The material is then screened to remove oversized pieces which are re-circulated back through the crushing circuit.

The screened material (3/4" minus) is sold as "base rock" to local construction and paving contractors. Base Rock Analysis

Wood Waste Recycling
Zanker’s wood waste recycling plant processes clean wood loads hauled by residents and businesses, or separated from mixed waste loads or the demolition processing plant.

Using heavy equipment, wood is loaded into a grinder which shreds the wood. The shredded wood is then screened to separate the material into wood chips and fines. The wood chips are accumulated and sent to market as fuel for electric generation facilities or as a landscape mulch product, z-mulch. The fines are sold as soil amendments, organic soil amendment

Gypsum Recycling
Gypsum wallboard is also recycled at Zanker. Generally the scrapped material is received from contractors or separated from incoming debris loads. The gypsum wallboard is ground then screened. The powered gypsum is removed and stored for sale to markets. The residual paper is added to the green waste composting process which adds calcium and sulfur to the finished compost.

Waste Composting
Zanker has been processing green wastes into compost and other products since 1989. Zanker was awarded the City of San Jose’s composting program and the California Resource Recovery Association has recognized Zanker’s operation as the "Best Composting Program" in the State of California.

Green waste processed at Zanker is primarily residential yard waste received on a contract basis from a variety of communities in the area. Zanker also accepts green waste self-hauled by residents or businesses. Zanker currently processes approximately 350 tons per day of green waste on site, and has developed another 157 acre composting site in Gilroy, the Z-Best Composting Facility, which currently accepts up to 800 tons per day of green waste.

Once green waste is deposited on to the tipping pad, it is inspected for contamination and contaminants are removed. Green waste is than screened to remove the (fines) grass and leaves from the woody fraction (trimmings and brush). The fines are stockpiled and transported to the Z-Best Composting Facility. The woody fraction is directed to the wood waste operation.

Metals/Bulky Items/ E-Waste
Metals are accepted at the gate and collected from several areas at the Zanker facility, including the landfill face, the demolition debris recycling plant, and the concrete crushing plant. Once metals have been deposited onto the metal tipping area, it is separated by type. The categories of metal include: tin, copper, brass and aluminum. An excavator moves the tin and steel (separately) into open top trailers. The copper, brass and aluminum are loaded into separate drop boxes and transported to market.

Bulky items are also accepted at the metals processing area. "White goods" (e.g., refrigerators, washers and dryers) are checked for CFC’s and oil. Those items are then dismantled, with the recyclable materials being brought to the processing area and then transported to market. Bulky wood items such as large stumps are placed into a special shredder and than added to the other recycled wood waste.

E-waste is also accepted in the site for recycling. These materials are sent to a state certified recycler in the Bay Area.

Products and Pricing
The primary goal of any recycling operation is to process materials in a way that commands the best market prices for the finished products Zanker takes great pride in its quality control efforts which are meticulously designed to produce the highest value products possible. By combining the quality of its products with a thorough understanding of the market demands for various products, Zanker is able to determine what products to produce and where the products can be marketed at any given point in time. Zanker also will not use any of its organic materials as alternative daily cover (ADC) in landfills. Zanker believes that organics should be used to improve the soils of California and ADC does not meet the spirit and intent of AB939.

Zanker’s wholly owned subsidiary, Z-Best Products, is responsible for marketing all of Zanker’s finished products. Due to Zanker’s strong performance and commitment to quality over the past nine years, Z-Best is able to successfully market all of Zanker’s finished products to over 210 customers. In fact, Zanker’s markets are looking forward to obtaining more of the high quality organic materials that Zanker produces.