40+ years building a Zero Waste future.
Policy planning, salvage operations, consulting, science and facility design — from a company that tests its ideas every day in real-world trading.
Zero landfilling. Zero burning. Maximum recovery.
Zero Waste emerged in the 1990s as a synonym for total recycling: the idea that all discards can and should be preserved for commercial reuse.
It’s an urgent idea — one of the few paths to saving the Earth for our grandchildren’s grandchildren — and also an emerging industry, a vision and a social movement. Zero Waste industries compete with waste industries for the entire supply of discards, and because resistance to landfilling and burning keeps driving up the cost of wasting, Zero Waste is generally less costly. The central premise: highest and best use.
Twelve master categories.
Developed by founder Dr. Daniel Knapp and first presented in 1986 — the only set of categories built to recover everything for market, including reusables.
Estimated share of the municipal discard supply (weight & volume). Proportions vary by place.
Expertise, tested daily.
Urban Ore is an operating company that doesn’t need consulting income to prosper. We don’t respond to RFPs — if you want to work with us, just call or email.
Policy planning
Business acumen and political savvy. We’ve helped write landmark laws passed overwhelmingly by voters and elected officials.
Salvage operations
Salvaging at the Berkeley Transfer Station since our beginning — 2 to 6 tons a day, with an outstanding safety record and living wages.
Consulting
Urban Ore Development Associates has designed Zero Waste facilities in the USA, UK, New Zealand, Australia, India and Africa.
Facility design
Over two dozen resource-recovery park designs worldwide. Schematic site plans typically run US $15,000–$30,000.
Science
The Twelve Master Categories and the Universe of Total Recycling — the conceptual infrastructure for Zero Waste industries.
Ecopark tours
Bring your class, group or delegation to see Zero Waste in action. Groups over 20 are split into smaller tours.
Reuse first. Wasting last — and most expensive.
In a purpose-built Zero Waste facility, commodities cluster into four areas: reuse, recycling, regulated materials and composting — each with its own receiving, processing and export practices.
In 2007 Urban Ore hired architects Mark Gorrell and Greg VanMechelen to create a schematic redesign of Berkeley’s 1983 transfer station — and donated it to the City.
From the archive.
The Berkeley Burn Plant Papers
Dan Knapp’s 1981 “yellow book” that helped voters reject the incinerator.
The Lone Recycler
A 1984 Zero Waste comic by Nancy Gorrell — with a coloring page.
The West Virginia Report
The 1986 keynote that introduced the Twelve Master Categories.
Designing for Zero Waste?
We’d love to help your community. Call or email info@urbanore.com.