Collection corner

Researching recycling

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, and JASON Learning, Ashburn, Virginia, have announced the winners of the nationwide 2017 Youth Video & Poster Contest, designed to promote the value of recycling among youth.

Seventh grade student Jacob Folwell from Caldwell, Idaho, won this year’s grand prize with his video submission detailing the automobile recycling process. Folwell’s video submission used Legos to demonstrate the step-by-step process of how a car is recycled, including how it goes through a shredder. The nearly two-minute-long video, which can be viewed at http://bit.ly/2qBcXFu, provides information on the amount of energy saved from recycling cars as well as the environmental benefits of avoiding mining for ore.

Winners for this year’s poster contest, by grade category, are:

• Elementary School – Max Zwilski, Leesburg, Virginia;
• Middle School – Malisa Lo, Kapolei, Hawaii; and
• High School – Alexandra Fryman and team, Plainview, New York, and Sophia Ho and Iris Tu, Piscataway, Township, New Jersey.

An app for that

The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) has launched DSNY Info, its smartphone and tablet app that provides sanitation service reminders, updates and special event schedules. The app also includes tips to reduce, reuse and recycle, making it easier for New Yorkers to send zero waste to landfills by 2030. The free app is available for Apple iOS and Android operating systems and can be found by searching DSNY Info in the Apple App and Google Play stores.

“For long-time residents and newcomers alike, and for home owners and renters, we all have a role in helping the city meet its zero waste goal,” says Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. “Easier access to service information is one way we’re making this a reality.”

Vision for recycling

Contact lenses help to correct vision, but what is the correct way to recycle them? In light of the small size of contact lenses and their packaging, these materials typically get sorted out of the recycling stream at material recovery facilities (MRFs) and ultimately get sent to landfills.

A partnership between Trenton, New Jersey-based TerraCycle and Bausch + Lomb offers a recycling program that ensures the plastic lenses and packaging, as well as the metal layers of the blister packs, are recycled separately and appropriately.

The cardboard boxes the lenses are packaged in are recyclable through residential curbside recycling programs, the companies note.

The Bausch + Lomb One by One Recycling Program is free for consumers and eye care offices. Visit www.BauschRecycles.com for more information.