Municipal Recycling

WASTE MANAGEMENT OF MISSOURI PAYS SETTLEMENT

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources and Waste Management of Missouri have reached an agreement with the help of the State Attorney General’s Office to settle alleged violations at the Courtney Ridge Landfill in Sugar Creek.

The $1 million settlement includes a penalty of $250,000 that was paid to the Jackson County School Fund and $750,000 that was paid for tonnage fees owed to the department’s Solid Waste Management Fund.

The money paid toward the tonnage fees ($750,000 for back tonnage plus interest) went to the Solid Waste Management Fund. The fund provides money to promote recycling, waste reduction and education programs in Missouri.

Waste Management operated the landfill from its opening in 1996 until July of 2000 when Allied Waste Industries purchased it.

The $250,000 penalty addresses alleged violations relating to overfill and to material from the Corp of Engineers Blue River Project rechannelization. During the first six months of 2000, Courtney Ridge Landfill exceeded its permitted height by placing more than 300,000 cubic yards of waste above the landfill’s approved contours, violating the Missouri Solid Waste Management Law and regulations.

"The overfill is serious because it violates a basic condition of the permit, which limits where waste can and cannot be placed at a permitted disposal area," Jim Hull, director of the department’s Solid Waste Management Program, says. Permit conditions are a critical part of the regulatory controls placed on landfills, according to the agency.

During the channelization of the Blue River, the landfill received materials from the excavation that required payment of tonnage fees, which were not submitted to the department. To resolve this, Waste Management paid the $750,000 in back tonnage fees and interest to the Solid Waste Management Fund.

In addition to the monetary settlement, Waste Management has contracted with Allied Waste to relocate a significant portion of the overfill to an area of the landfill that can accommodate the waste.

CITY CARTON TEAMS WITH SKYLINE CENTER INC.

Skyline Center Inc., a nonprofit agency providing services and residential support to disabled people, now offers a state-certified redemption and recycling center to residents of Clinton County, Iowa. The recycling center is a joint effort between Skyline and City Carton Recycling, Davenport, Iowa.

Skyline Director Jack Robinson says, "We though it would be an opportunity to create jobs for people with disabilities." Currently, Skyline serves 140 disabled adults.

Residents receive five cents for each bottle and can brought to the facility. Skyline Center then sells the containers to distributors for six cents each or recycles the cans. Income supports the program and workers’ wages.

Skyline Center also accepts recyclable glass, cardboard, newspaper and magazines. These products are picked up by City Carton Recycling, sorted, processed and baled at their Quad Cities Facility in Davenport and shipped to mills throughout North America to be made into products. Skyline receives the proceeds from the sale of the recyclable materials. City Carton also donated Skyline a baler to bale all the cardboard collected at the center.

Brian Holtz, manager of City Carton Recycling Quad City Facility says that when Skyline approached the company about its idea for a redemption and recycling center, City Carton was behind the idea 100 percent.

For more information on Skyline, visit www.skylinecenter.com.

MAINE PASSES BILL TO REMOVE MERCURY FROM VEHICLES

The Partnership for Mercury-Free Vehicles, a coalition of environmental organizations and industries involved in vehicle recycling, praise Maine’s passage of the nation’s first law mandating auto manufacturer responsibility for the removal of mercury from vehicles.

"We in the recycling industry have long been concerned about the use of potentially hazardous materials such as mercury in automobiles, " Robin K. Weiner, president of the Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), says. "Maine’s new auto mercury law removes from the recycling equation a known public health hazard and helps to ensure that the auto manufacturers share in the responsibility for solving a problem created by their decision to use mercury in the first place."

Bill Steinkuller, executive vice president of the Automotive Recyclers Association, says, "Our members simply cannot assume the significant responsibility for disposing of these toxic substances."

The Maine law creates a manufacturer-funded system for removing and disposing of mercury-added components, such as switches in convenience lighting found in trunks, before vehicles are crushed or shredded for recycling.