Municipal Recycling

The city of Omaha, Neb., has announced a 5.6 percent increase in recycling volume following the conclusion of a four-month pilot program with the Curbside Value Partnership (CVP).

The city of Omaha Public Works Department partnered with the CVP to launch an educational campaign called "Recycling…It’s O! So Easy!"

Using media relations, marketing and grassroots outreach, the city reported a 40 percent increase in the number of bin requests during the campaign.

As the 19th municipality to join the invitation-only CVP, Omaha initiated an extensive grassroots campaign targeted toward pockets of the city with lower levels of participation. The campaign included the development of the slogan, "Recycling…It’s O! So Easy," the production of billboards, art work for litter cans and bus shelters and child-friendly materials for schools.

The CVP is a national initiative, funded by the Aluminum Can Council, designed to help communities grow participation in their residential curbside recycling programs.

Waste Management held the grand opening of its new residential single-stream recycling center at its Davis Street Station for Materials Recycling and Transfer April 14.

The facility is capable of processing 400 tons of material per day. The new recycling center also has more than doubled the number of employees at the facility from 40 to 96.

The Davis Street Station for Material Recycling and Transfer has been operating since 1980 and currently accepts household recyclables, green debris and food scraps, construction and demolition debris and municipal solid waste for transfer.

The Davis Street facility manages a total of 4,000 tons of material daily.

Pennsylvania’s Gov. Edward Rendell has announced that 16 Pennsylvania communities will share grants totaling more than $2.2 million because of successful recycling efforts in 2004.

"Recycling performance grants offer communities a strong incentive to strengthen their recycling programs," Rendell says. "The more communities recycle, the larger their grants will be. These grants can be used for innovations in technology and processes that will make their recycling programs self-sustaining or profitable in the long-term."

The Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center is a nonprofit corporation established by the state’s Department of Environmenal Protection to expand markets for recovered secondary materials and to help stakeholders overcome market barriers and inefficiencies.

A complete list of grant recipients from Bucks and Montgomery counties is available at www.RecyclingToday.com.

Wisconsin’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Waste Materials Recovery and Disposal, which was formed by Gov. Jim Doyle in June 2005, has issued its recommendations in its final report.

The Task Force was assembled to study and make recommendations regarding the economics of landfilling and recycling solid waste in the state. The Task Force is comprised of 19 members representing communities, private sector business and other organizations across the state.

In its report, the Task Force identified a number of materials the state should focus on when it comes to increasing recycling rates, including C&D material, which makes up more than 28 percent of Wisconsin’s solid waste stream, scrap paper and organics.

The report states a goal of reducing the amount of usable paper in landfills to less than 15 percent in five years and less than 10 percent in 10 years. This can be achieved by promoting household and business recycling of recoverable paper, increasing education on the value of recovered paper as a resource and reducing the contamination of recoverable scrap paper, according to the report.

The full report is available online at www.wasteresources.wi.gov.