Municipal Recycling

CANADIAN COMMUNITY ADDS INTEGRATED WASTE MANAGEMENT FACILITY

The Canadian regional municipality of Peel, which includes Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga in the province of Ontario, has officially opened an Integrated Waste Management Facility in Brampton.

Waste Management of Canada Corp. (WMCC) designed and built the facility at a cost of CDN $35 million, excluding the composting system. The 52,800-square-foot building houses a 26,400-square-foot material recovery facility, a 12,500-square-foot waste transfer station and an organics composting plant that measures nearly 11,000 square feet.

The region of Peel is responsible for the operation of the waste transfer station and the organics composting plant. WMCC has a five-year contract with the region of Peel to operate the MRF.

To coincide with the opening of the facility, the region of Peel has launched a single-stream recycling program.

The Brampton facility, complete with technologically advanced sorting equipment, has the capacity to process 130,000 metric tons of recyclables per year.

DELAWARE COMMUNITY LAUNCHES CURBSIDE RECYCLING

Tri-State Waste Solutions, based in Wilmington, Del., has introduced its new FirstRecycle single-stream curbside recycling program in the Brandywine Hundred area of New Castle County, Del.

"We are proud to offer FirstRecycle to Delaware residents," Tri-State Waste Solutions President Kevin Shegog says. "Only by recycling can we save important natural resources and protect our environment for future generations."

Tri-State Waste Solutions provides residents with 65-gallon containers for their recyclable paper, plastic, aluminum and cardboard. The recyclables are collected weekly.

According to Joe Delmar, a spokesman for Tri-State Waste Solutions, recycled materials are taken to state-run Delaware Solid Waste Authority facilities, which currently do not accept glass. Tri-State hopes that the facilities will be able to handle glass in the next few months, however, at which point it may be added to the curbside recycling program.

"The goal of FirstRecycle is to make recycling as easy as possible," Shegog says. "It is our hope more people will recycle enabling us to alleviate some of the problems facing Delaware’s overburdened landfills."

KENTUCKY RECYCLING BILL BECOMES LAW

Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher has signed Senate Bill 50, bipartisan legislation that promotes and facilitates recycling by establishing a grant program, into law. The bill passed both chambers of the General Assembly without a dissenting vote.

SB 50, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Dan Kelly (R-Springfield), would create grants for recycling and for collection of household hazardous waste. The money would come from a portion of the funding currently directed toward cleaning illegal dumps under the Kentucky Pride program.

"From the beginning, it’s been a priority of our administration to work to achieve a healthy environment, which is indispensable to a healthy economy," Fletcher says. "With this legislation, we take another step toward that goal."

The dump cleanup program was established under House Bill 174 of the 2002 General Assembly. It is funded with proceeds of a $25 million bond issue and a fee of $1.75 per ton of waste disposed of at Kentucky landfills. Under SB 50, counties that successfully clean up illegal dumps are eligible to use funding for recycling and collection of household hazardous waste.

LaJuana S. Wilcher, secretary of the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet (EPPC), says, "This legislation provides an additional incentive for action at the community level."

EPPC’s Division of Waste Management estimates that Kentucky disposes of 566,000 tons of materials with secondary value per year at a cost of $53 million in disposal fees and lost revenue.

May 2006
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