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A GREENER MRF

Green Building Initiative (GBI) has formally acknowledged the Summit County (Colorado) Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) as the first U.S. recycling facility to be recognized by the Green Globes environmental assessment and rating system for commercial buildings.

The GBI says it has awarded eight buildings with Green Globe designations in the last year.

GBI Executive Director Ward Hubbell presented the local leaders with a plaque recognizing the building’s rating of two Green Globes at the facility’s grand opening in late September. The building was recognized for its merits in heat recovery, the use of salvaged and recycled materials and for maximizing the use of daylight.

The 11,000-square-foot building is operated by the High Country Conservation Center in Colorado’s Summit County and is open to all haulers.

Dave November, president of the board of directors for the High Country Conservation Center, says it made sense to try to build a greener MRF in light of the building’s function. "It matches the goal of the use of the facility: resource conservation and energy efficiency through recycling," he says.

Matthew Stais of Matthew Stais Architects, who designed the building, says the green mindset was in place before the project began—a key factor in its success. "The earlier you establish that mindset, the better it is for the project."

More information on the Green Building Initiative and its Green Globes system is available at www.thegbi.org.

Recycling meets ready-to-wear during an episode of the Bravo network’s "Project Runway."

The show’s nine designers sift through mounds of paper, mylar, bottle caps and other materials at Waste Management Recycle America’s material recovery facility (MRF) in Port of Newark in New Jersey and incorporate their finds into a dress for an episode titled "Waste Not, Want Not."

Based in Houston, Waste Management Recycle America (WMRA) operates 70 MRFs that handle 5.8 million tons of secondary commodities per year. The WMRA facility at the Port of Newark is a commercial MRF.

"WM [has released] an updated advertising campaign in early September that continues the environmental protection messages from last year’s campaign," says Matthew Coz, vice president of WMRA’s Eastern division. "One of the new ads features a recycling message, so this opportunity presented another platform to educate viewers on recycling. This is an influential show targeted at people who have an impact in our culture through fashion design."

Waste Management purchased the dresses from the episode and will use them to raise money in the communities that the designers call home.