Travis County recycled 369 tons of material and diverted roughly one-third of waste from landfills in the past year, according to the county's annual sustainability report, which was presented to the Commissioners Court on July 17. The county—alongside the city of Austin—aims to be zero-waste by 2040, meaning 90 percent of discarded materials will be either recycled or composted.

Commissioners stressed the importance of developing and fine-tuning procedures to streamline these efforts across the county's more than 70 buildings, 5,500 employees and 47 departments.

"I think when people realize how harmful it [discarding waste that could be recycled] is, they'll make an extra effort," Commissioner Brigid Shea said. "Especially if there's an easy place to dispose of [recyclable materials]."

Nationwide, the average employee creates 4.4 pounds of waste in the office every day, from paper, plastic and other supplies, said county staff with Transportation and Natural Resources (TNR). The county is looking to decrease the amount of waste and increase revenue by recycling office commodities, such as toner cartridges, electronics, cardboard and metal.

During the last fiscal year, Travis County spent $202,450 for landfill services, $78,778 for single-stream recycling services, $2,634 for universal waste, such as lamps, batteries and paint and $24,863 for shredding confidential documents, according to the sustainability report.

"There are things we can do to manage inventory better, and there are places where we can train our staff to do that, if we choose to," Commissioner Jeffrey Travillion said.

Recycling programs generated $104,697.19 in revenue last year, the report found. Of that amount, electronics recycling brought in more than $73,000. Additional revenue generating opportunities include recycling metals and cardboard, TNR staff said.

TNR Environmental Program Manager Emily Ackland outlined opportunities to increase recycling rates, decrease disposal costs and generate revenue through alternate disposal methods. Ackland's suggestions include revisiting food vendors' contracts to ensure compositing practices, establishing a reuse store for county employees to swap office supplies rather than dispose of them and expanding future sustainability reporting to include water use, energy use and the county's carbon footprint.