Read the full story at Environmental Leader.
Connecticut has passed the nation’s first-ever extended producer responsibility (EPR) bill for mattresses that supporters say will save local governments about $1.3 million and increase recycling opportunities for businesses. The law will require mattress manufacturers to finance and manage a mattress collection and recycling program.
The bill will now go to Gov. Dannel Malloy to sign into law.
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) has launched a new tracking and transparency system that gives customers complete real-time access to the status of their organizational recycling efforts, the company says.
The MyTrackTech software gives organizations that recycle their electronic waste through ERI up-to-the-minute access to their accounts and allows them to schedule shipments, review reports, and customize their recycling tracking.
Read the full story at GreenSource.
If you thought you knew a little bit about repurposing things that might otherwise be seen as waste, you may find you still have a lot to learn – unless you’ve already been reusing things like pole vault crash pads, of course. That’s right, and weren’t you wondering what happened to all that vinyl from the gigantic political billboard near your highway exit after the election was over?
Lots of these ungainly materials are automatically carted off to local landfills, but a Denver-based business repurposedMATERIALS is finding a second life for them. They define the castoffs they purchase and resell as “byproducts and waste that have value ‘as is’ to a second, unrelated industry,” and they are the only company in the United States whose entire product line is “preowned.” Part of what makes this company different is that what they sell is not recycled, which can require energy to melt, grind, or chip the original item, but utilizes each product in its original form. They don’t need to make things into something else: repurposedMATERIALS has found plenty of customers who want what they have to offer just the way it is.
Read the full story in GreenBiz.
The recycling rate in the U.S. has been stuck in a rut, slowly inching up year by year, a signal that any major increases will need to be spurred by major actions.
Those on all sides of the issue may agree that changes need to be made to recycling systems, but a recent dustup over a trade group’s position paper shows they’re not seeing eye-to-eye on some ideas.
Take extended producer responsibility (EPR). It’s the concept that makes those who produce items also responsible for funding (and sometimes also operating) recycling systems for those same items.
For brands it means added costs, but also incentives to use easily and readily recyclable material. For governments, it shifts away some waste disposal and recycling expenses. And for recyclers, it means possible changes to the way they operate as well as potential new or expanded material streams.
ICLEI has produced the Recycling and Composting Emissions Protocol (RC Protocol) in recognition of the contribution recycling and composting can make to greenhouse gas reduction efforts, and the high degree of influence that local governments have in this area. ICLEI is requesting public comments on the draft protocol through April 29, 2013.
The RC Protocol represents the new national standard for measuring emissions benefits of recycling and composting at the community level. The RC Protocol complements ICLEI’s Community Protocol by providing additional guidance on accounting for the emissions benefits of recycling and composting activities in a community.
The RC Protocol is intended to help local governments account for the overall net emissions benefits of recycling and composting activities in their communities, as well as to estimate additional emissions reductions that occur outside the boundary of a community inventory. Review the RC Protocol and submit comments.
Read the full story at Environmental Leader.
Properties owned by Indianapolis-based real estate company Simon Property Group Inc. have begun collecting and baling clear plastic packaging materials — such as individual plastic bags that contain the clothing that is delivered to the malls — for recycling.
Concord Mills in Concord, NC, is using a so-called “plastic room,” complete with hydraulic baler that compresses plastic such as garment bags and shrink wrap, to collect plastic for recycling, writes Plastics News. Two other Simon malls also have a plastic baling program.
Read the full story in Environmental Leader.
Facilities are now allowed to recycle plastics separated from automobile shredder residue, according to the EPA’s new interpretation of existing regulations.
The interpretation permits recycling plastic scrap containing levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) less than 50 parts per million. The EPA banned the manufacturing, sale and distribution of PCB products in US in 1979 because of the health and environmental hazards that these chemicals can cause. The EPA still permits PCBs in what it calls “totally enclosed” uses, such as transformers and capacitors.
On April 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local agencies and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public its sixth opportunity in three years to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked. Find a location near you.
Read the full post at Green Sports Alliance.
A case study recently released by London Bio Packaging illuminates the quantitative impact of the comprehensive waste-diversion plan implemented by the 2012 London Olympics. Utilizing data from the London 2012 Post-Games Sustainability Report, the case study shows how the Olympiad was able to divert over 90% of all waste generated at the Games from reaching landfills.
Read the full story at WOUB.
Ohio University Campus Recycling has created a visual representation of how recyclable materials can add up over the course of just four weeks.
The group is in the process of creating a giant sculpture at the former Howard Hall site comprised of four weeks’ worth of recycled #1 and #2 plastics collected on campus.
The project, entitled “It All Adds Up,” will be a cylinder 16 feet high and 50 feet in diameter and will remain in place until Friday, when the 31,400 cubic feet of plastic bottles will be recycled through the Athens Hocking Recycling Center.
The structure is also made partially of wood from waste pallets and plywood, which will be donated to a local charity when the sculpture is dismantled.
