Monthly Archives: September 2012

Increased Levels of Food Waste Recycling Needed

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Did you know that in the United States, the amount of unconsumed food has a dollar value of over one hundred and fifty billion dollars a year and has a weight of approximately twenty pounds of food per month per person? This amounts to over forty percent of all edible food in the country heading for waste disposal in landfills.

That amount of waste equals between one and two thousand dollars per year in annual losses for a household with four members. In comparison to other regions of the world, the typical American throws away ten times the amount of food as the typical person residing in southeast Asia.

Almost a quarter of all food waste is comprised of fruits and vegetables. Dairy products and meat/fish/poultry follow with twenty percent of all food waste per category.

The problem with uneaten food is that it is disposed of in landfills and is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas methane emissions. Cutting food waste disposal and increasing food waste recycling would help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce landfill space, and help agriculture composting and soil replenishing efforts in addition to feeding families who do not have a stable supply of food

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: What are you doing at home or work to reduce the amount of food that must be thrown in the garbage? Investigating ways to compost, donate, or make smarter purchasing decisions can not only help the environment and your community, but save you close to two thousand dollars a year!

 

More Polystyrene Bans in California

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Hermosa Beach, California is expected to become the state’s sixty-fifth city to enact a ban on polystyrene food containers.

The new rule will also include polystyrene packaging used by supermarkets for food items including rotisserie chickens, individual deserts, and packages of muffins. The California Grocers Association is concerned that the inclusion of these types of packages will cause hardships for grocery store owners. Currently, the clear polystyrene packaging used for food is recyclable unlike its styrofoam counterpart which is primarily used by restaurants.

The Hermosa Beach city council, which has a population of 20,000, is convinced that grocery stores in the area have access to affordable, alternative materials such as PET and polyethylene packaging to replace the clear food containers. Currently, one-third of the polystyrene bans in the state include the clear polystyrene packaging.

The new rule is expected to being in March 2013 and will include polystyrene plates, bowls, trays, wrappings, condiment containers and cartons, and cups — but it does not apply to cup lids, straws, utensils or packaging used for uncooked fish, poultry, or meat.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: As a business owner it pays to be ahead of the trends. When was the last time you looked at pricing for more environmentally friendly containers? You may find that going green is easier on your budget than you expected!

Waste Recycling Opportunities In Rural America

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A national issue is facing rural communities as they strive to implement successful recycling programs. Two of the main stumbling blocks are overall low population number  and the distance from reuse markets. However, despite these challenges there are opportunities, it just takes some creativity and a decision not to force rural communities to follow a metropolitan-area recycling model.

For example, one community in rural Kansas shredded select waste material from a local manufacturer and used it as an alternate means for ground cover.

For those rural areas that also have agriculture-based businesses, small scale anaerobic digestion of organic waste is also a popular and successful model to implement. The results are rich compost and other matter that can be reused or sold.

Another solution is for small rural communities to work together collectively to establish waste recycling opportunities. With a regional system, costs are shared and more materials can be collected for resale.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Are you in the business of waste disposal and waste recycling? Take a look at the business opportunities provided by small rural communities. By helping these regions of the U.S. go green, you might be able to make some green as well!

Canadian Company Waste Recycles Light Bulbs

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Dan-X Recycling in Nova Scotia, Canada, may be the first recycling company of its kind to be devoted strictly to the waste recycling of light bulbs. The business uses its own, specially designed and built machine to break apart the bulbs and separate the different parts for recycling and reuse.

The aluminum caps from the bulbs are sold to a Canadian scrap metal recycler and the phosphorous at the core of the bulb is sent to a company in Quebec for removal and reuse of mercury. The company is still looking for a business interested in acquiring the glass which could be used in the manufacturing of decorative patio stones, concrete, and other building materials.

Dan-X receives its light bulbs from local recycling and trade-in programs designed to have individuals and businesses trade in old, inefficient bulbs for energy-saving ones. In the first two months of operation, the business received over 275,000 light bulbs, with many more to follow.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Take a moment and look at the items ending up in your business’ garbage. What are you paying money to dispose of every month? Could some of that waste be recycled and save you money?

City Limits Household Trash

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Citizens in Hamilton, Ontario Canada are only allowed to waste dispose of one, thirty-six gallon trash container per resident per week at a maximum weight of fifty pounds.  This number has been reduced from the original rule of a weekly maximum of nine containers per week.

Hamilton is comprised of six smaller towns that merged together in 2000. There is a total population of a little over half a million and the municipality manages over five hundred million pounds of waste annually.

In 2000, when the nine-container per household rule was in place, the waste recycling rate was only sixteen percent. Between 2001 and 2006, Hamilton updated its waste management strategic plan and as a result improvements were made to its materials recovery facility with the addition of a composting area, a recycling area, and increased community education and outreach. During this time period, the waste recycling rate of the city rose to forty percent.

However, the number of allowable containers per week was still to high and it was decided that it should gradually be reduced. The city first moved to a three-container maximum in 2008, and then progressed to a one container plus one bag rule, and then finally to the one bag or one container rule that stands today.

Since enacting the rule in mid-2010, ninety-eight percent of the residents have complied. Those household who exceed the weekly limit are given three warnings before fines are administered.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: How is your town or business handling waste disposal and waste recycling? The more you throw away, the more you pay, so it’s worth it to increase your volume of recycled materials!

Waste Recycled Drywall Potential

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Some construction and demolition materials can easily be resold or recycled after a project is completed. Items like scrap metal, masonry, and wood typically are in high demand and there are many organizations and businesses interested in acquiring them. But what to do with building materials that have less demand like gypsum wallboard?

Currently, research in underway at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte to determine the effectiveness of this material as a soil additive.

While drywall isn’t considered a toxic material, when it is disposed of in a landfill it can produce hydrogen sulfide, a potentially dangerous gas. When the drywall is left for garbage, it’s beneficial components, namely, calcium sulfate, a proven and safe soil amendment, are wasted from being reused.

In preliminary research, gypsum drywall successfully increased the yield of a canola crop when it was used as a soil additive. The study also showed that there is potential for the drywall to increase the amount of carbon captured in the soil and thus reduce the amount released into the atmosphere as green house gas.

Establishing a way to waste recycle drywall would benefit construction firms by saving money on waste disposal fees, reduce the incidence of dangerous gasses developing in landfills, and help to replenish and strengthen crops and other agricultural needs.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: With waste recycling becoming an important part of the construction industry, to pays to stay on top of the latest research and developments. Cutting disposal costs will help you to go green and save green!

Textile Waste Recycling In Philadelphia

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Citizens in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania will soon be able to recycle unwanted and pre-owned textiles with a new curbside recycling program administered by textile recycling company Community Recycling and the hauling and waste disposal business, George Leck and Son.

In the business partnership between the two local companies, George Leck and Son will include textiles as part of its curbside recycling services for its customers and Community Recycling will purchase the clothes, handbags, shoes, belts, cloth, and other textile items.  Community Recycling then sorts and prepares the materials for resale, reuse, or recycling  to companies and manufacturers wanted recycled textiles throughout the United States and abroad.

According the Environmental Protection Agency, thirteen million tons of textile waste was produced last year. However, only two million tons of that was recycled – the rest was disposed of in landfills.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Innovation and partnerships are important to helping your business go green and save green. Take a look at what you routinely place in the trash – do you see an opportunity to move from waste disposal to waste recycling?

Set Reasonable Goals for Zero Waste Construction

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When considering the goal of zero waste construction projects, there are many apparent, and hidden, factors to consider. The first factor is understanding the definition of zero-waste. While different businesses can have different opinions, the most common is that the organization recovers, recycles, and reuses the most material possible so that a minimum amount most be disposed of in landfills.

Common strategies in zero-waste construction projects include using recycled steel, concrete made of fly ash, solar panels, and interior finishes such as flooring made with recycled materials.

One of the larger construction projects of this kind was the Hangar 25 LEED Platinum certified jet hangar in Burbank, California. The facility was constructed using thirty-five percent recycled materials, with over seventy-five percent of all material waste heading to recycling facilities instead of landfills. The hangar’s energy needs are complete met using photovoltaic solar power.

There’s no doubt that striving for zero waste can have its challenges, including collecting and reclaiming waste materials, and securing participation from customers. But having realistic goals and patience can pay off in the long run. The end-result of zero waste construction isn’t about getting to “zero”, it’s about making the strongest effort possible.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: It’s impossible to be “perfect”, either as an individual or as a business. Zero-waste construction is about reducing your waste disposal  and increasing your waste recycling as much as possible. Set small goals and keep looking for new ideas – ever step is a positive one towards saving the environment and helping your business to prosper!

MillerCoors Makes Waste Recycling Goal

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MillerCoors recent sustainability report indicates the company achieved a zero waste-to-landfill goal for four facilities and is currently in the process of establishing a recycling center at another.

The Chicago-based company also surpassed its target of reducing landfill waste disposal by fifty percent, instead obtaining a fifty-five percent waste recycling rate. This rate is greatly increased from 2010, when the company only achieve a thirty-two percent diversion rate.

By 2015, MillerCoors has stated that it will reduce the overall packaging weight throughout its product line by two percent, the equivalent of sixty-eight million pounds of materials.

A new recycling center was established at its brewing facility in Eden, North Carolina, and included an aluminum baler, a cardboard baler, and recycling containers.The result was that the facility recycled ninety-two percent of its generated waste.

In addition, the company also reuses or recycles spent brewer’s grain and yeast, glass, wood, plastic, aluminum, and other materials.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: How is your business handing waste disposal and waste recycling? Setting short and long term sustainability goals can help you move forward in saving green by going green!

Waste Recycling Mandated For Certain Items

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A mandatory takeback program has been successfully enacted in San Luis Obispo County, California for fluorescent lights, household batteries, medical supplies and latex paint in an effort to keep these toxic and hazardous items out of landfills. The mandatory program was agreed upon after a similar program of a voluntary nature was found to be ineffective in reducing the waste disposal of these items.

The mandatory program targets retailers that sell the four targeted groups and allows consumers the ease and convenience of knowing that all stores will accept the used items for recycling. When the system was voluntary, select stores did not participate thus causing confusion about how and where goods could be recycled.

San Luis Obispo has 267,000 residents. Since starting the recycling program in 2009 the retailers have collected almost eight million medical sharps, two and a half million household batteries, one hundred thousand fluorescent lights, and over three thousand liters of latex paint. Were the recycling program not it place, this large quantity of waste would have been disposed of in the regional landfill.

The county ordinance states that if retailers sell these items, they must also offer a way to collect it for recycling. The stores then contact the county waste office for pick-up. The retailer is charged a small fee, but they are allowed to pass that cost along to consumers if they choose. However, few stores have done this as the recycling bins prompt customers to return to the store and therefore help to increase visits and sales.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: What is your local government or business doing to help increase the waste recycling of fluorescent lights, household batteries, medical supplies and latex paint? Is there an opportunity here for you to increase sales while diverting waste from landfills?