In June 2007 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi started Green the Capitol. The goal was to make the Capitol carbon-neutral by the beginning of 2009. That didn’t happen, but the House has started recycling and composting in a serious way.

According to “Capitol Gains” in the March-April 2009 issue of Audubon, “the House complex produces about 250 metric tons of garbage every year, half of which is cafeteria waste.” By the time the article was researched, that number had dropped to 11 tons per month, or about 132 tons per year.

The various initiatives included in Green the Capitol are too numerous to list, but you can find them by clicking on the link above.

The administrator of the program is Daniel P. Beard, chief administrative officer for the House.