Monthly Archives: January 2013

Verizon Promotes E-Waste Recycling

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Telecommunications company, Verizon Wireless is showing customers they take the issue of properly recycling electronics waste seriously. The company is sponsoring nine specialized e-waste community events across the country over the next several weeks and the kick-off event was held in late January at the company’s headquarters in Temple Terrace, Florida.

In 2011, Verizon reported that they collected approximately five hundred and thirty one thousand pounds of electronics waste that was earmarked for recycling and reuse. The goal of the new community events is to achieve a one hundred percent recycling rate or a zero-to-landfill goal, so that all electronics waste materials collected during the events will be recycled or reused.

Properly disposing of e-waste is often a concern for both individuals and businesses as proper removal of the data contained on cell phones, computers, and handheld devices is of the utmost importance. Verizon’s goal with the community events is to help members of these communities be able to dispose of their unwanted or unusable electronics in both a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

Additional communities that will be hosting electronics recycling events include Albuquerque, New Mexico, Wilmington, North Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, and Ashburn, Virginia. The events are open to employees of Verizon as well as members of the community.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Is your business viewed as an environmental friendly one by the community you serve? Let people know about your efforts in proper waste management and recycling – you may acquire publicity and new customers as a result of it!

Plastic Bag Ban Resurfaces In California

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The debate about instituting a state-wide ban on plastic bags has once again resurfaced in California with San Rafael Assemblyman Marc Levine introducing a bill banning all plastic grocery bags of a single use nature starting in the year 2015.

The bill is almost identical to a measure that was introduced last year but did not make it past the state Senate after receiving negative feedback from grocery stores and manufacturers of plastic bags.

The proposed legislation would require grocery stores earning more than two million dollars annually or retail locations with with greater than ten thousand square feet of space to stop providing customers with plastic bags.

Stores falling into this category would be required to offer reusable bags for sale and free paper bags made of recycled materials. After a year long grace period, stores will be allowed to charge a fee for paper bags.

The ban does not include the plastic bags used for vegetables, fruits, bulk grains and meat.

As more and more individual cities and towns in California have passed municipal plastic bag bans some feel public sentiment is turning to favorably accept the legislation for all municipalities throughout the state.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: If you do business in California, you’d be well served to start finding alternative solutions to plastic bags. It’s better to be ahead of the curve than caught unprepared!

Washington Collects Holiday Styrofoam

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Clark County in the northwestern state of Washington held its first even holiday Styrofoam recycling event in early January of this year. The county believed that close to two hundred and seventy five residents participated and dropped off for recycling over three thousand pounds of Styrofoam.

The Clark County Environmental Services offices is responsible for coordinating community recycling events at various locations during the year. This was the first time that a special event was held for Styrofoam – an item that can be recycled but all too often ends up in the trash heading for a landfill.

The county estimates that these special events are responsible for collecting up to two hundred and fifty thousand pounds of recyclable materials and hazardous waste items with each individual country event collection approximately three thousand pounds of waste materials for recycling.

The Environmental Services Department has made an effort to collect waste materials such as oil because it has value on the re-use market. Other unwanted items such as furniture, textiles and housewares are donated to country social service agencires and not for profit groups.

County officials decided to launch the Styrofoam recycling collection event in January due to its high use a packing material for gifts purchased over the holidays. Due to the success, it is expected to become an annual recycling event.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: If your town is looking to reduce space and fees paid to landfills, increasing recycling efforts is a way to do it. Does your town make an effort to collect Styrofoam? Maybe they should!

Washington, DC Number One In Green Building

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In a recent report published by the United States Green Building Council, the metro area of our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., comes in number one on the most recent list of locations acquiring certifications for green buildings from the the Leadership in Environmental Design and Energy program.

Washington, D.C. boasted almost thirty seven square feet of certified LEED space per resident last year. Runners up included the states of Virginia and Colorado. Other locations that were commended for their efforts in green building certifications included Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Washington state, California, Texas, and Nevada.

While Washington, D.C., topped the list in terms of certified LEED space per capita, the state of California has the largest amount of overall certified square footage for the prior year at over fifty four million.

Representatives from the District of Columbia Department of the Environment attribute the success to initiatives and increased awareness, in both the private and public sectors, to the importance of achieving green building certification.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: If you’re in the construction or remodeling business, it pays to be knowledgeable about green building certification. As more and more residential and commercial property owners seeks this designation, you’ll be able to make more green while helping clients “go green”.

Composting On The Rise In New York

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Local government administrators in Sullivan County, New York are currently conducting research and evaluation of best-practices for composting food scraps and other organic wastes. After analysis of last year’s waste disposal practices for residents and businesses located in the county, it was determined that approximately seventeen thousand tons of organic materials and food waste was disposed of in the county landfill.  This amount had stayed consistent over the past several years of data collection.

As it is expected that New York State government will pass legislation making state-wide waste regulations more stringent in the coming years, Sullivan County officials are considering a move to adopt a  county-wide food and organic waste composting program similar to the one currently in place in bordering Ulster County. The Ulster County plan has been in place for several years and is considered success at reducing the amount of tonnage sent annually to regional landfills.

Sullivan County’s plan may include a collection and compost facility at the centralized landfill  which would require individuals, business  or wast haulers to bring organic waste in, an at-home program for residents who would like to compost at home, or a combination of both options.

The county expects that eliminating the seventeen thousand tons of food waste would save close to ninety thousand gallons of gasoline each year in waste disposal transportation costs.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: More and more municipalities are looking to add composting of food scraps and organic waste materials to their roster of services. Not only does it reduce space needed in landfills and fees paid in waste hauling, but some enterprising communities make money by selling the organic compost to buyers eager to nutrient-rich soil for their landscaping and gardens!

Recycling Cigarettes for Cash

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New York State may become the first state in the nation to offer its residents a bottle-bill-deposit type law for cigarettes. The propsed initiatives would require a small deposit upon purchase of cigarette packs and then pay out a return when the filters or “butts” are returned for recycling.

Queens Assemblyman Michael DenDekker proposed the new recycling program, which would have a one cent deposit and return for each cigarette.

While the concept might seem a bit strange, non-profit groups around the country have recently started working with recyclers who use cigarette filters for re-manufacturing purposes – receiving cash for every pound collected. Because of this, DenDekker believes there is a legitimate market for the unwanted butts that either end up in the trash or as road-side litter.

The New York Commissioner of Health would need to formally approve of the program, and a minimum of one redemption facility would need to be established in each county. Part of the initiative also includes an educational campaign geared to inform smokers about the dangers and environmental consequences of improperly disposed of cigarettes.

Similar to bottle bills, the idea could also reward ordinary citizens and groups with a cash incentive for redeeming cigarette butts that have been disposed of as litter.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: When it comes to managing waste and recycling, it always pays to be thinking “outside the box” and two steps ahead of your competition. Today’s crazy idea could very well become tomorrow’s reality!

Oregon Fines Company for Hazardous Waste

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The Department of Environmental Quality for the state of Oregon has recently fined a Washington State business for improper disposal of hazardous waste.

As a result of the charge and findings, the company was required to pay approximately two thousand dollars in fines for improperly managing and identifying dry cleaning solvent. The chemicals and residues from dry cleaning operations are considered hazardous waste and must be disposed of according to regulations.

The business, Anderson Environmental Contacting, had deposited five hundred pounds of dry cleaning solvent generated from Alsco Linens in a Hillsboro, Oregon landfill. Representatives from Anderson had indicated to the landfill the waste material was non-hazardous. Had the chemicals been classified properly, Anderson would have been required to transport them to a certified and approved disposal facility designed specifically for toxic and hazardous waste.

As part of the settlement process, Anderson has also agreed to improve its policies and training so that employees can properly identify hazardous wastes and how to safely handle and dispose of them.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Hazardous and toxic waste is a danger to humans, animals, and the environment when it is not handled or disposed of properly. If your business works with substances classified as hazardous, it’s essential that you stay up-to-date on state and federal regulations. Otherwise, you risk endangering your community and incurring fines!

EPA Establishes Composting Center in Tijuana

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The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is helping to battle waste and improve recycling along the U.S. border with Mexico by providing a special grant to the border city of Tijuana to help establish an urban center for composting food waste and organic materials.

The Mexican not for profit group, Tijuana Calidad de Vida, is working with city officials from Tijuana to take organic waste materials supplied by city collection efforts and turn it into landscape grade compost.

It is expected that the new compost center will produce close to one hundred and fifty tons of compost material in its initial year of operation. The compost will in turn be used to plant trees and landscaping within the city, improving air quality and quality of life for residents, tourists, and businesses.

The composting initiatives is also expected to protect the watershed area between San Diego, CA and Tijuana by keeping the organic materials and food scraps out of regional landfills.

The grant is offered through the Border 2020 U.S.-Mexico Environmental program, which strives to improve environmental quality and public health in geographic areas along the border.

In addition to composting, the center will also work to increase public knowledge about the important economic and environmental benefits of recycling, re-use and composting.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Environmental and economic concerns don’t end at borders between counties, states, or countries. If your business is on a border, play it smart and see how improving your waste recycling and disposal can better the region as a whole. You might be able to save green and make some green at the same time!

Increases in Improper Disposal of Pharmaceutical Waste

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The state of Wisconsin has determined that “take-back” programs for pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs have resulted in only two percent of unwanted and unused over the counter and prescription medications being collected for proper disposal. This latest news was recently released by a study conducted by the the University of Wisconsin-Extension and the Wisconsin Product Stewardship Institute.

The research study showed that the ninety eight percent of medications not brought back for disposal are generally flushed down a toilet, garbage disposal, or sink drain, thrown in the trash for general disposal in landfills, or left in bathroom medicine cupboards well past the effective expiration date. All of these actions can create both environmental hazards to both land and water sources or cause danger to pets, animals, or other humans should the drugs be consumed accidentally or by confusing with other medication.

It is believed that close to one-third of over thirteen million pounds of all classifications of pharmaceutical drugs sold in Wisconsin annually becomes unused and therefore must be properly disposed of. While many municipalities throughout the state have launched different kinds of voluntary drug collection programs, all of the programs face problems such as cost to administer and increasing public knowledge of the importance of disposing of their medications in a safe and proper manner.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: If you or your business works with medical and pharmaceutical waste, what opportunities exist or can be created to collect the millions of pounds of unwanted and unused medications? The person who comes up with a cost-effective solution will become one wealthy person!

Hawaii Starts Plastic Bag Ban

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The big island of Hawaii has instituted a law that will gradually ban plastic bags. The new policy went into effect on January 17, 2013 and was announced by the Department of Environmental Management for the County of Hawai’i.

Under the new policy, all businesses located on the island are required to charge a small fee for single use plastic carryout bags. Businesses included in this mandate are grocery stores, retailers, restaurants, and farmer’s markets. The law provides businesses a year to transition into the new procedure and all single use plastic bags will be completely prohibited from the island by January 17, 2014.

There are a few exemptions and those include plastic bags used for meat, fish, bulk produce such as nuts and grains, fresh produce such as fruits and vegetables, small hardware items, clothing, and prescription drugs.

City Council representatives said the measure was essential to protect the beauty and environmental sustainability of the island which has limited landfill resources.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: As more and more municipalities adopt plastic bag bans and regulations, your business would be well-served by coming up with strategies to address plastic bag usage before it is regulated. If you start now, you’ll be steps ahead of the competition!