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The Next Wave: Aluminum Bottles?

A top selling point for plastic beverage containers over aluminum has been resealability. Bottles with caps don’t spill as easily in cars, and servings that aren’t finished can be re-capped and consumed later.

The Daiwa Can Co., Tokyo, is seeing growing demand in Japan for its aluminum “bottle can.” The can features an aluminum body shaped like a bottle sealed with an aluminum cap.

The container could prove to be a recycler’s dream, since aluminum tends to have the greatest value of container materials, and because the all-aluminum composition would not require any sorting and separating.

The company is reporting that consumer reaction to the container has been good since it was first introduced in 2000. Daiwa is now supplying the bottle cans for some 50 brands of beverages and has “seen orders for aluminum bottles surge since the beginning of 2001,” a company official has told the Nikkon Weekly in Japan.

Getting Manic About Recycling

A university recycling contest has doubled in size by pitting four universities against each other. Last year, two schools took part.

The 2001 Recycle Mania contest featured students from Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, and Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, competing to achieve the highest recycling rate over a period of 10 weeks.

This year, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, and Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., are also joining the fray.

Students from the universities can collect metal, glass and plastic containers and several grades of paper, including cardboard, newspapers, office paper and magazines. Results will be determined by dividing the number of students at each college into the tonnage they collect, providing a per student average.

The event’s creators—Ed Newman from Ohio University and Stacy Edmonds from Miami of Ohio—say Recycle Mania is intended to “provide students with a fun, proactive activity in waste reduction.”

A trophy will be presented to the student government and president of the winning university.

All Batteries Included

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp. (RBRC), Atlanta, is now accepting rechargeable batteries of all chemistry types.

The move was encouraged by some 300 manufacturing and marketing companies who said they would support RBRC’s expansion beyond nickel-cadmium batteries.

Additional batteries that the non-profit group will now accept include nickel-metal hydride, lithium ion and small sealed lead rechargeable batteries. The move allows RBRC to broaden the types of wireless power units it can collect.

“Our battery recycling message is now very simple: If you can recharge it, you can recycle it’,” says RBRC president and CEO C. Norman England. “Now that our program’s expansion is official, we can further our mission to keep rechargeable batteries out of landfills.”

Knocking Down The Door

The National Association of Demolition Contractors (NADC), Doylestown, Pa., is helping to help solve any future labor shortage by getting the word out regarding careers in the industry.

“The NADC receives daily inquiries from students who are interested in learning more about our fascinating business,” says NADC executive director Michael Taylor. “Since the curiosity level is so high, we decided to develop a program to educate students about what is involved in being a demolition contractor and why it’s a great way to make a living.”

Taylor notes that the construction industry also targets engineering and construction management students during their college years, so the NADC needs to make sure its industry is considered.

The NADC executive director and select demolition contractors will travel across the country to speak to students about the $3.5 billion industry, which is comprised of some 1,000 contractors.

Taylor says the organization has a good story to tell. “Studies show that the job satisfaction rating among demolition contractors is one of the highest in American industry.”

The NADC is also going to create a student membership category, and will offer “situation wanted” classified ads to these students in the trade publication Demolition.