Monthly Archives: July 2012

United Parcel Service Increases Waste Recycling

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It was recently announced in the 2011 Corporate Sustainability Report that UPS, also known as United Parcel Service, has reduced their waste disposal of solid materials by almost three percent compared to 2010. The company, known for their iconic brown trucks and package delivery service recycled almost fifty-four thousand tons of corrugated containers, wooden pallets and wood-product waste materials, and metals.

It should come as no surprise that for UPS solid waste materials are primarily corrugated cardboard containers which comprise more than half of all the waste recycled. Waste materials made of wood or wood by-products make up a quarter of all waste recycled and metal waste materials arrive at a distant third.

UPS has also expanded its electronics waste recycling program for computer and scanning equipment and batteries. Since launching the initiative in 2000, the company has recycled over thirty two million pounds of electronics. Over forty thousand pounds of batteries were recycled last year alone a four percent increase over the previous year.

Two UPS facilities have been designated as achieving a zero landfill waste disposal goal. These two locations will serve as test centers for waste recycling and waste disposal policies and procedures that can then be applied throughout all UPS facilities.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: UPS serves as a great example of turning waste disposal into waste recycling. How can your business operate differently to save the environment and cut back on disposal fees?

Proper Prescription Drug Waste Disposal

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California’s Alameda County has passed a rule that manufacturers of prescription drugs must offer and maintain a program to collect and properly dispose of unused medications.

This is the first such stewardship and disposal law in the United States to involve the pharmaceutical drug industry. All drug companies wishing to sell medicine in the county must fund and operate disposal programs for expired drugs. The proposal was passed by an unanimous vote. Plans from all manufacturers are due to the county by July 1 of 2013.

There are several different manufacturer responsibility laws operating in thirty-two states, these laws cover paint, florescent bulbs containing mercury, and electronics. This is the first law of its kind addressing the damage that unwanted pharmaceuticals can create when placed into a municipality’s common waste stream. County officials have said that residents and businesses in the county should not have to bear the burden of financing solutions to keep unwanted and unused prescription drugs out of the water and waste streams.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: We all know that flushing medication down the drain is a bad idea as it can contaminate our water sources. If your business is responsible for large quantities of prescriptions drugs, it may be time to work with your local government and enact a plan similar to that in Alameda County. It may help to save the environment and disposal costs!

Nationwide Tipping Fees

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A recent nation-wide survey has shown that tipping fees and disposal costs for municipal waste in the U.S. range from $18 per ton to nearly $106 per ton. Of all the states, Idaho has the least expensive disposal fees and Massachusetts has the most expensive. The surveys included both public and private landfills. Only the top five largest landfills in each state were included, so the possibility exists that businesses in need of dumping municipal solid waste may find better pricing deals at smaller facilities.

A big difference is price is whether the landfill is public or privately owned. Public landfills must set their price according to the expensive incurred whereas privately owned facilities may competitively set their price based on location and demand.

The total number of landfills has decreased from almost eight thousand in 1988 to close to two thousand today. This change is the result of the shift from local landfills to regional ones. The Western and Southern parts of the U.S. contain the overwhelming majority of landfills with the smallest number being in the Northeast. Based on this distribution, the least expensive states for disposal fees are in the South and West. Higher fees are found in areas with denser populations, which accounts for the increase in fees in the Northeast.

Another cost factor is the availability of resource recovery facilities. States that have strong recycling and reuse facilities tend to charge higher fees for waste disposal.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Disposing of waste is a part of every business but you can minimize your waste disposal fees by making sure you recycle, reuse, and resell as much of your “waste” material as possible!

PET Recycling and Shrink Labels

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PET recyclers are uncertain about the growing use of stretch sleeve labels on plastic bottles. These new stretch labels replace the use of adhesives, which made the bottle difficult to recycle, but now cause additional concerns such as correctly identifying the bottle resin, proper removal of the label, and preventing the clumping of the removed labels.

These concerns have lead the Washington-based group APR to release a guide to help PET manufacturers in ensuring their stretch sleeve labels do not cause recycling problems.

If labels do not remove easily, they pose a detriment to both recycling and economic benefits. Local municipalities cannot sell the materials and manufacturers who want the material have less sources to purchase it from. The APR guide provides comprehensive measurements and analysis of when a label will remove easily and when it will cause clumping. Their research shows that the denser the label, the more likely it is to cause recycling problems. The ideal label is one that is light enough to float and with enough transparency as to allow scanning machine to identify the PET resin.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: When an item can be properly recycled and resold, it goes from being a financial liability to a financial gain. Take a look at the products your business sells or uses. Are you letting money get away?

 

Ignoring Lead Paint Rules Leads to Fines

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In the state of Rhode Island, residential property owners will face fines for not notifying tenants about potential lead paint hazards.

Private Reserve Properties faces fines of $421,900 for repeatedly violating the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act and the federal Lead-Based Paint Disclosure Rule pertaining to residential properties. The purpose of these regulations is to make sure that tenants have sufficient information about the health hazards of lead paint in housing to make an educated decision about the safety of their family.

Lead paint exposure is a serious health concern. Infants and children are especially at risk to the toxicity of lead, which can result in lowered intelligence, learning disabilities, hearing impairments, behavior problems, and attention deficit. Lead exposure in adults can result in difficulties with pregnancy, high blood pressure, disorders or the nervous system, and muscle and joint pain.

The complaint, which was brought on by the Environmental Protection Agency, states the company failed to inform prospective tenants, including families with young children, about the health hazards connected with lead paint. The complaint details 61 violations for 16 rental leases administered from 2009 to 2011.

The company owns 130 rental units in areas that have poverty rates higher than average.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Residential property owners with older buildings containing lead paint have two choices. Either to re-mediate the toxic paint through proper hazardous waste disposal practices or comply with federal regulations about disclosure of the toxic substance to prospective tenants. Failure to do will land you in hot water with authorities!

 

 

From Waste to Kitchenware

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Natural Home Products is using wasted bamboo sawdust to manufacture a line of earth-friendly, nontoxic kitchenware including utensils and bowls. The dust is combined with rice starch and a plant-based binder to make Moboo, also known as molded bamboo. The combined powder is molded and compressed in four colors: pistachio, cherry, natural and charcoal.

Sold through Target stores, Moboo products have been popular with consumers who want to buy inexpensive green products. The molded bamboo offer the convenience and easy care of plastic but is all natural and environmentally-friendly.

In addition to the utilizing Moboo, Natural Home’s kitchen gadgets and tools also incorporate recycled stainless steel, recycled cotton, recycled glass, and recycled fabric in their utensils, oven mits, mixing bowls, measuring cups, and cleaning cloths.

Products are available for sale directly through the company’s website or at Target stores.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Innovative thinking can set your business apart from the competition! What are things that you could do differently to reduce costs, increase market share, and go “green”?

Billions of Dollars in Recyclables Wasted Every Year

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In 2010 over four million tons of recyclable cardboard, estimated at a value of over one billion dollars, was disposed of in landfills.

This information comes from the non-profit group As You Sow that advocates for corporate social responsibility and environmentalism.

The group also reports that PET materials with a value of almost three billion were sent to landfills in the same year. While close to half of all aluminum cans are recycled, at a value of one an a half billion, the total number of PET recycling is closer to 25%.

HDPE materials such as laundry detergent bottle and milk jugs was ranked second, after cardboard, as the most valuable discarded recyclable, worth almost three billion dollars.

As You Sow encourages companies to increase their responsibility for the recyclable material that they generate during the manufacturing process, and also suggests that municipalities improve their waste and recycling collection methods to obtain larger amounts of these valuable goods.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Are you leaving money on the table by not recycling and reselling items that you are currently paying to dispose of as garbage? Take a look at your waste stream and see if your trash can be someone else’s treasure!

 

Composting Toilets Takes Green Homes A Step Further

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There is a grown trend in the green housing community for using composting toilets. While traditional toilets flush human waste and paper away with water to a septic system or municipal sewer treatment plant, the “green” composting toilet is allowing homeowners another way to conserve water and contribute to replenishing nutrients in their soil.

Owners and manufacturers of the composting toilets vigorous agree that when disposal is done correctly there is no smell or danger to humans or animals. Several styles of composting toilets have been designed to keep pace with the demand. While some require emptying every few weeks, and more closely resemble outdoor port-a-johns, there are also design that look identical to traditional toilets that contain a special internal composting unit that needs to be emptied only a few times each year.

Users of composting toilets need to add a mix of special bacteria to accelerate the composting process and create an odorless environment.  Composting toilets can save homeowners up to eight thousand gallons of water each year and for communities with high water and sewer prices, this can result in significant savings.

While not every residence is ideal for a composting toilet, they are suitable for areas with weak sewers and limited septic capabilities. They are also ideal for pool-houses or outdoor cabin where traditional plumbing would be cost-prohibitive.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: While composting toilets may not be ideal for every  home, they can provide both cost-savings and environmental benefits to some.

Food Packaging Recycling

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A Plastics Recovery Group has been created by the Foodservice Packaging Institute. This is the second such group established to address recycling methods and best practices for  the food-service industry. There are nineteen corporate and industry members and the group is looking to grow.

The group is focused on addressing the issue of food packaging items that are currently not recycled or recovered due to lack of end markets or current infrastructure.  The companies are banding together with the hope of collectively establishing industry change as opposed to each business working independently.

The group would like to establish processes and policies so that consumers can separate their food packaging materials into appropriate recycling or composting streams; municipalities support these materials being collected; and end markets are identified for purchasing the recycled materials.

To enhance the recycling of food-service materials, the group will be working closely with leaders in the waste collection industry and government and creating educational materials to better inform individuals and businesses about the opportunities that are available when food packaging is recycled.

Waste Care Wants You to Remember: Are you involved with food packaging or recycling? The Plastics Recovery Group may be a great way for your business to learn more about this exciting new recycling and revenue saving initiative!

Composting Biosolid Waste

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In a new waste recycling decision, over half a million tons of sewage sludge, also referred to as biosolids, from Southern California will be transported to a composting facility in the San Joaquin Valley.

The Westlake Farms Composting Facility will process the biosolids along with waste and debris from area farms. The farmland, which spans  almost fifteen thousand acres, is owned and operated by the Los Angeles Sanitation District.

The project will begin by composting approximately 100,000 tons of sewage sludge annually and then progress to over a million tons of anaerobically digested biosolids and green waste. It is expected that the project will yield over 300,000 tons of compost yearly that can then be sold as a nutrient to help crops such as wheat, cotton, pomegranate, and pistachio.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Biosolid waste is a fact of life and is in a never ending supply. When you think of innovative ways to recycle to reuse, you turn a financial liability into a financial asset. What is your community doing with biosolids?