Municipal Recycling

Employees at Waste Management Inc. headquarters in Houston are now recycling using single-stream collection methods.

According to a Waste Management news release, throughout its Houston headquarters, employees can now put paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, glass bottles and aluminum cans into a single recycling bin.

"I believe we are the first downtown corporation to start single-stream recycling and I am proud that our Houston headquarters is taking such a significant step," says Waste Management CEO David Steiner.

WM leases office space in First City Tower, and the entire building is now collecting recyclables using the single-stream method. The company leases additional office space in One City Centre that is also using the single-stream collection method. First City Tower generates roughly 5,000 pounds of paper per week along with aluminum cans and plastic bottles.

With its first single-stream recycling plant having opened in the late 1990s, Waste Management bills itself as the first major solid waste company to focus on single-stream recycling.

Waste Management and its WM Recycle America (WMRA) subsidiary operate 27 single-stream recycling facilities across the United States. The company has plans to open or to build six additional single-stream material recovery facilities before the end of 2007.

The city of San Diego, Calif., has released a draft proposal on a comprehensive recycling program that requires participation by all single-family-home residents and small businesses receiving recycling collection services.

The proposal, released in late August, is now being discussed and debated, with the city seeking comments from the general public.

The city of San Diego Environmental Services Department, Waste Reduction and Disposal Division, prepared the document.

It proposes that starting Jan. 1, 2008, residents and small businesses on recycling collection routes must participate in the city’s curbside recycling program.

Residents who are not serviced by the city’s collection program will still need to participate in a recycling program, either through the city’s contracted waste hauler or a third party capable of collecting the recyclables.

The draft proposal includes a number of exemptions, including multi-family residential facilities, commercial facilities, city buildings and mixed use facilities that generate less than 4 cubic yards of solid waste per week.

The full report is available online through the city of San Diego’s Web site at www.sandiego.gov.

New York’s 18th Annual Recycling Conference, sponsored by NYSAR3 (New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling) will be held in mid-November at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The event, co-sponsored by NYSDEC (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation), will start with a compost training workshop Nov. 14 and 15 followed by the Recycling Conference on Nov. 15 and 16.

More information, including a detailed agenda and forms for registration and lodging, can be found at the NYSAR3 Web site at www.nysar3.org.

A recycling company and a recycled plastics consumer have received a combined $127,000 in funding from the Illinois Recycling Grant Program.

LaSalle Recycling Inc., LaSalle, Ill., and Kreider Services Inc., Dixon, Ill., received the grants, which are designed to increase recycling opportunities in the state.

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity administer the grants, which come as a part of Opportunity Returns, a program designed to create jobs and spur growth across the region.

"By encouraging more recycling, communities across the region are improving both our environment and our economy," says Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. "These grants will go a long way in expanding the recycling industry in LaSalle and Lee counties so it is even easier for more people to become a part of this important process. By supporting these kinds of innovative programs that are recycling everything from cans to computers, we are lessening the demand on our landfills and creating more jobs for our working families," he adds.

Kreider Services has been awarded a $29,000 recycling grant to expand its existing recycling efforts. The company says it intends to add new accounts, seek additional volumes of plastic from existing customers and provide employment for up to 10 individuals with developmental disabilities as a result of the funding.

Kreider says it expects the grant to help divert an additional 109 tons of recyclables per year.

LaSalle Recycling Inc., which also operates under the name G.W. Recycling, has been awarded two recycling grants totaling $98,000 for the expansion of existing collection and processing efforts.

A $60,000 grant will be used to purchase a recycling collection vehicle, which will expand existing residential and commercial recycling collections. Grant funds will help with promotional and educational efforts as well as with the development of a recycling drop-off site at the company’s processing facility.

LaSalle’s second recycling grant, totaling $38,000, will be used to expand the its processing capabilities through the purchase of a baler.

The two projects are expected to help LaSalle Recycling process an additional 1,000 tons of recyclable commodities annually.

A "green" industrial park known as The Columbus Transformation Center is being developed by the Shelly Co. of Thornville, Ohio, to the east of the site of the former Columbus, Ohio, waste-to-energy facility (WTEF).

The park will host a new manufacturing plant for Rastra Inc. and a major capital investment and expansion by Kurtz Brothers on the site. Both companies plan to break ground in the fall of 2007 for their new facilities.

Rastra will manufacture polystyrene-concrete building materials, which could divert up to 87,000 cubic yards of polystyrene annually from the Franklin County Landfill operated by the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO).

Rastra, based in Columbus, hopes to create 45 to 50 new jobs during a three-year period.

Kurtz Brothers, Independence, Ohio, plans to construct an anaerobic digester on the property. That operation will take organic materials such as yard waste and turn it into energy plant feedstock and marketable products. The project is expected to create five to seven new jobs.

The agreement will also expand mining opportunities for a quarrying company that operates a limestone mine on property adjacent to the SWACO site.

SWACO Executive Director Mike Long says the agreement requires Shelly to fill 10 acres of unusable land for development. The deal also will have Shelly pay SWACO mineral rites for rock mined from the property. Those payments—estimated at about $1.5 million—will be used to further retire the City of Columbus’ debt on the WTEF.

Long says, "Our economy is strengthened on several fronts. We are putting unused land back to work for the taxpayers of Central Ohio while at the same time bringing new green jobs to the city."