Association News

STRUCTURAL USES FOR PLASTIC LUMBER SOUGHT

The Plastic Lumber Association, Akron, and Battelle, Columbus, Ohio, are initiating a collaborative alliance with the public and private sectors to develop technologies for structural uses of plastic lumber. The three-year, $1.8 million project focuses on a Battelle-managed research alliance between plastic lumber manufacturers, the plastic materials industry and state and federal agencies. The focus of the alliance is to apply technical expertise in delivering optimized, recycled-content plastic lumber products to the structural marketplace. Initial areas of product focus will include residential decking, marine applications and material handling areas.

FIRST OIL FILTER RECYCLING WORKSHOPS ANNOUNCED

The first-ever used oil filter recycling workshops – sponsored by the Filter Manufacturers Council, Research Triangle Park, N.C., the American Petroleum Institute, Washington, and the Steel Recycling Institute, Pittsburgh – will be held in Montpelier, Vt., on Wednesday, October 2, and in Marlborough, Mass., on Thursday, October 3.

The workshops will provide assistance to businesses on proper oil filter and used oil disposal and management procedures. Information presented will include an update on regulations affecting oil and filter disposal in New England, methods of recycling oil and filters, and an overview of recycling options for these products. For more information, call the Used Oil Filter Hotline at (800) 993-4583.

BUY RECYCLED ALLIANCE PUBLISHES 1996 PROFILES

The Buy Recycled Business Alliance, a project of the National Recycling Coalition, Alexandria, Va., has published its 1996 Profiles In Buying Recycled, which highlights 26 companies that are making buying recycled a part of their everyday procurement activities. The Alliance began four years ago with only 20 members, but now has more than 2,400 participating companies. NRC estimates that there are currently more than 4,500 recycled-content products currently on the market. For a free copy of the profiles, call (703) 683-9025.

NRC ADVANCES SOURCE REDUCTION

Through its Source Reduction Forum Steering Committee, the National Recycling Coalition, Alexandria, Va., has established three priority source reduction projects. The first project is targeted at reducing transport packaging such as refillable shipping containers and reusable pallets; the second project will promote source reduction at the local government level; and the third project will identify and analyze economic, regulatory and legislative barriers and incentives to source reduction. Sessions on the first two projects are planned for the next NRC congress and exposition to be held in Pittsburgh this fall.