Monthly Archives: February 2013

Seattle Sets High Waste Reduction Goals

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The city of Seattle, Washington is setting some high organic waste recycling goals for its residents and businesses. A plan that is currently under review by city officials would require all residential homes, multi-family apartment buildings and business operating within city limits to recycle and compost all organic waste including food scraps and lawn and yard trimmings. The plan, if approved, would be implemented incrementally until 2016. The plan represents a bold move to strengthen the official Plan for Solid Waste Management that is administered by the city and approved by lawmakers.

In addition, if enacted, the new plan would also require that by 2017, all commercial demolition debris and construction material be recycled or reused and no longer disposed of in regional landfills.

The new solid waste plan has strong support from residents  businesses, and other government agencies. The current recycling rate in the city is slightly over fifty five percent. The plan outlines the following recycling goals:

* Setting a  sixty percent rate for recycling by 2015 and a seventy percent rate by 2022.
* Launching residential organic waste collection by 2014 and multi-family collection by 2015.
* Establish a ban on all businesses sending to landfills waste plastic film and clean wood by 2014.
* Enacting a single-use plastic bag ban for select stores by 2015.
* Creating a composting program for diapers and pet waste by 2020.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: More and more cities and municipalities are embracing strong recycling goals as a way to reduce landfill costs and generate income. These goals impact both residents and businesses. Be aware of and involved in the changes taking place in community and get a jump start on making improvements to your home or workplace’s recycling efforts!

Texas Hotels Offer Composting

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A Texas company has launched a new innovation for those in the hotel and overnight accommodations industry. Texas Disposal Systems has recently partnered with the Four Season Hotel in the capital city of Austin to offer visitors and guests the first ever, in-room food waste recycling and composting program.

The goal of the partnership is to divert ninety percent of the hotel’s waste from ending up in local landfills; thus reducing waste disposal costs while offering environmentally aware consumers the opportunity to “go green” and recycle unwanted food while traveling for work or pleasure.

The on-site composting program combine food scraps and waste from the hotel’s restaurants, bars, and coffee cafe areas and then combined with organic outdoor waste such as landscaping trimmings from trees, shrubs  flowers, and grasses that are a part of the Four Seasons’ property.

All of the hotel’s organic waste will be used to create nutrient-rich compost by local company, Garden-Ville. Which will then be sold as well as used by the hotel for grounds-keeping.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Not only is the on-site composting program offered by the Four Seasons an economically and environmentally smart one, but its partnership with two other local businesses also helps to strengthen the regional green economy – creating more jobs and profits for all involved! What kinds of partnerships can your business establish to create something similar?

Community Launches New Recycling Program

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City officials from the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania have formed a partnership with the textile recycler business, Community Recycling, to launch a new program for community residents and businesses to recycle unwanted textile goods that can be re-used such as shoes, clothes, bags and belts.

Community members will now have access to designated recycling bins throughout the borough to recycle and donate textiles. The collected items will be collected, cleaned, sorted, and distributed to social service agencies and organizations such as homeless shelters, food and clothing pantries, and welfare to work programs serving individuals and families in need.

City administrators from the department of sanitation and environmental protection see the new program as serving two goals. First, is to reduce the amount of waste materials being disposed of in area landfills and second is to help those in need by providing good quality clothes, linens, and shoes.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Textiles represent one of the “greenest” waste materials – they can be reused many times, used to create new textiles and other products, and are needed by all people around the world. If your business is putting textiles in the garbage, you are losing valuable dollars! Consider selling or donating those unwanted shoes, towels, shirts, dresses… you’ll be “going green” and making “green” at the same time!

Marines Redouble Recycling Efforts

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The United States Marines’ Corps base in North Carolina is making efforts to increase and enhance its recycling efforts.

Camp Lejeune has established a goal of cutting by fifty percent the amount of waste material it disposes of in regional landfills. The base’s Environmental Management Division has teamed up with the Camp Lejeune’s 2nd Marine Logistics Group to plan, develop a strategy, and implement the new program for all those who live, work, study, and visit the base.

Gunnery Sgt. Ethan J. Mahoney is the team’s coordinator for environmental compliance. n a recent statement about the project he indicated that while many Marines grew up with recycling, and recycle when they are back home, the base has limited opportunities currently in place for recycling. The rules are vague, there aren’t any receptacles in the barracks, and there’s a great amount of uncertainty about what is expected. It is not surprising then that few participate in waste recycling efforts and that the overwhelming majority of waste ends up in the trash receptacle.

The first step in the new plan was the placement of twenty one recycling containers at key locations throughout the base with clear signs indicating what types of recyclables – plastic, glass, cardboard/paper — belong in each and the proper way to separate them. In time, the number of receptacle will increase to thirty nine and then possible move beyond that depending on their overall use.

The base plans to sell the recyclable waste material and use the revenue to fund the cost of the recycling program and additional pollution prevention programs.

The overall strategy is to carefully monitor the success and failings of the program, determine ways to increase recyclable materials as a revenue generator, and expand the program to other Marine bases across the country.

WasteCare Want You to Remember: How clear and easily accessible are your recycling containers and policies regarding waste recycling and garbage disposal? If you’re wondering why more of your employees aren’t embracing recycling initiatives  you might want to consider how you’re implementing it!

Boston Schools Focus On Recycling

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Earlier this month, all Boston Public Schools began switching to a single-stream recycling method for their cafeteria, classrooms, and office areas, and used National Green Week as a way to promote and publicize the event.

Assisted by the Green Education Foundation, students in all three hundred and twenty two Boston Public Schools spent National Green Week learning about and joining in activities, lessons, and games to get ready for the switch to single stream recycling and what it means for their school, their neighborhood, and the global environment.

Boston Public Schools are part of the city’s “Greenovate Boston” program, a municipal policy initiative that targets those living and working in the Boston area to reduce, reuse, and recycling with the goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by twenty five percent  by the year 2020.

The change to the single stream recycling method will take place gradually over the course of the school year.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: What is the school system in your community doing to promote recycling and cut waste disposal costs? Every day, schools generate a large amount of paper, food, and plastics material waste. Make sure your child’s school is doing everything it can to teach good environmental awareness and practice what they preach!

NYC Next Stop On Polystyrene Foam Ban

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New York City is the next location that is considering a city-wide ban on all food containers containing polystyrene foam.

The action was initiated by the Sustainability Director of New York’s Department of Sanitation. The ban, if approved, would place responsibility on the food service providers and coffee shops operating within city limits. Sanitation officials were clear in stating that consumers would not be responsible for shouldering the burden by charging higher fees for food containers make of recyclable materials.

One of the 2013 goals for the Sanitation Department is to significantly increase the rate of recycling waste materials in New York City. With its high number of fast food and dine-in restaurants, as well as coffee shops and cafes, the number of non-recyclable food containers ending up in regional landfills is staggering – and expensive.

Disposing of Styrofoam in the garbage is not only costly to taxpayers but also bad for the environment as it doesn’t degrade properly as other environmentally friendly materials do.

The ban is currently under discussion and would likely take several months of negotiations before implementing.

Styrofoam food containers have been banned in a number of other large cities such as Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Brookline, Massachusetts; and by more than fifty municipalities in California.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: If you’re in the food business and currently using Styrofoam containers for take-away meals and leftovers, you’d be well served to investigate environmentally friendly packaging options. While many cities do not have bans on this material in place, it is only a matter of time. Better to be ahead of the legislation that scrambling to catch up after the fact!

Sims Receives Top Recycling Honors

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The metals recycling corporation, Sims Metal Management, was recently awarded the honor of being one of the world’s top one hundred most environmentally sustainable companies. This is the fifth year that the international business has earned the honor.

Based in Australia, Sims came in at the number fifteen spot. The rankings are compiled by  the sustainable business magazine, Corporate Knights, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The yearly ratings, which began in seven years ago in 205, utilize several factors, including business practices, resource management, and financial health.

Coming in at the coveted number one spot was Umicore, a materials recycling company based in Belgium. The United States and Canada had the greatest number of businesses in the top 100, with ten companies each. Health care company Biogen Idec Inc., was the top rated American company.

To be considered for the ranking, a business must demonstrate environmental stewardship in addition to having established business policies. In the case of Sims, the company regularly measures and reports on carbon dioxide emissions, generation of waste, and water and energy consumption.

In 2012, Sims reduced generated waste by over twenty percent and carbon emissions by seventeen percent.

Sims operates approximately three hundred facilities worldwide, with a third of all locations being in North America.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Is your business a member of a industry or professional organization? If so, does that group recognize leaders in environmental sustainability or awareness? If so, making changes in waste recycling and reduction can help you to gain positive publicity and establish your business as a leader in your field!

 

US Leads In Waste Generation

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A recent research study conducted through the Conference Board of Canada showed that the United States and Canada are responsible for generating the most waste material per person out of sixteen countries.

Canada had the poorest performance of the countries under review, producing over seventeen hundred pounds of municipal waste per person for the year 2008. The United States was close behind as the second worst performer with an average of sixteen hundred pounds per person for the same year.

The Board assigned letter grades to all countries involved in the study. The United States and Canada were given a D for their levels of municipal waste. Japan, on the other hand, produces half the amount of waste as Canada, was given a grade of A. Norway and Sweden closely followed Japan with low rates of waste disposal.

The other countries that participated in the project were Sweden, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, and Switzerland.

WasteCare Wants you to Remember: Everyone wants to be a top place winner, don’t they? But placing in the top tier for municipal waste production is not the best honor to receive! What is your community, business, or home doing to reduce, reuse, and recycle? Change doesn’t happen overnight, but with small steps big goals can be achieved. Are you doing all you can to save money on trash disposal and reduce the waste that is sent to landfills?

Increasing Plastics Recycling

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The state of Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is investigating how they can improve their rate of recycling for waste plastics materials. Currently, it is believed that over sixty four million dollars worth of plastics is being disposed of in local landfills.

The study is being done to see what areas in the recycling sector can contribute to job growth and economic development for the state. So far, the greatest potential lies with recycling waste plastic bags and lightweight plastic film used in packaging, in addition to hard plastics. Due to the preliminary findings, the DNR is preparing to launch a test program for recycling lightweight plastic film packaging materials.

DNR officials believe that by increasing recycling throughout the state, municipalities will be better positioned to create new jobs and business opportunities in the “green sector” as well as reduce their fees for maintaining costly landfills.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: The recycling market is always changing. Waste materials that once had little or no value are now in demand on the recyclable materials manufacturing market. Plastics of all kinds can be used to create a huge number of building, construction, housewares, and personal products, so if you’re community or business isn’t recycling them then you’re missing out on reducing your garbage disposal fees and possibly making money by re-selling!

Pennsylvania Offers Recycling Grants

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The Environmental Protection Department for the state of Pennsylvania has recently announced that it has provided almost eighteen million dollars in grant funding to one hundred and thirty one counties and municipalities for developing new and improving existing recycling programs in the communities they serve.

The grants will provide for close to ninety percent of the recycling costs and those areas that are considered financially impoverished will be eligible for additional funding to cover unmet costs.

Community recycling projects that received funding include ideas such as: establishing composting facilities; creating online educational programs about recycling for residents, schools, and business consumers; enhancing existing processing operations, providing recycling vehicles with data collection tools, improving or establishing curbside recycling opportunities  and distributing educational materials throughout the community.

Officials from the Department of Environmental Protection firmly believe that increased recycling efforts can help to preserve the environment while improving the regional economy and that local involvement is essential to program success.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Is your town or community making the most of the recycling opportunities available? Whether you’re a public or private entity, funding does exist to help with the launch “green” initiatives. The smart town administrator or business owner is one who knows how to find these opportunities and harness them for the benefit of the organization!