Municipal Recycling

The city of Memphis, Tenn., along with International Paper, FCR of Tennessee and Friends of City Beautiful, has started a recycling program called "All Aboard" to target old corrugated containers (OCC) and paperboard packaging.

In August, Residents receiving solid waste and recycling services provided by city of Memphis Solid Waste Management and its contractors, Allied Waste and Southern Disposal, received "All Aboard" notices that provide information about how to identify and prepare cardboard for recycling on their collection carts.

"With the addition of cardboard, almost all paper types are now acceptable for recycling at curbside and potentially significant landfill savings and revenue are possible," says Memphis Recycling Administrator Andy Ashford. Acceptable items include paper cups, flattened corrugated moving boxes, cereal boxes, beverage cartons, shoe boxes, newspaper, magazines, mail, office paper and phone books.

International Paper approached city officials last year about adding OCC to the recycling program and, after months of discussions and testing, was able to bring together the parties needed to make OCC recycling possible in Memphis.

FCR, which processes the city’s recyclables, amended its contract to add cardboard, while Friends of City Beautiful assists the department of Solid Waste Management with promotion and education.

The Seattle City Council has approved a zero-waste strategy to increase recycling, reduce waste and upgrade the city’s transfer stations.

The plan is the result of more than 18 months of work led by Council Member Richard Conlin, chair of the Environment, Emergency Management and Utilities (EEMU) Committee, on how to improve recycling, reduce waste and avoid building a third transfer station in the Georgetown neighborhood.

The zero-waste strategy’s main components include:

• Plans to increase the recycling of construction and demolition debris;

• The implementation of a new program in 2009 that will provide all single-
family residences with food waste pickup for composting;

• The renovation of two existing transfer stations for improved recycling;

• By December 2007, Seattle Public Utilities will recommend whether to ban or discourage through taxation non-compostable plastic shopping bags and polystyrene food containers;

• A $100,000 annual Waste Reduction/Recycling Matching Fund for community recycling initiatives; and

• A cap on the amount of material Seattle will send to landfills—440,000 tons per year, which equals the amount of material disposed of in 2006.

More information is available at www.seattle.gov.  

Recycling coordinators have a new educational tool that is available for free through the Curbside Value Partnership (CVP).

The "Recycling Communicators Toolbox," an education toolkit available online and on CD-ROM, was launched during the 2007 National Recycling Coalition Annual Congress and Exposition in Denver.

According to the CVP, the kit features "tried and true strategies for maximizing education dollars." The CVP has worked with more than 40 communities and says it has found increased education leads to increased participation in curbside recycling programs.

The toolkit is free to interested communities, thanks to CVP sponsors Alcoa, Anheuser-Busch Recycling, ARCO, Ball Corp., Novelis and Rexam. Communities can navigate across various subjects, including best practices and research findings; the need for education; how to use public relations; the importance of branding; using social marketing techniques; leveraging the Web; reaching diverse audiences; and measuring success. Worksheets are also included to encourage users to get "hands-on" with the toolkit’s contents. Additionally, dozens of resources and tools are provided to jump start activities.

Steve Thompson, CVP program director, says, "We know time and money are an issue when it comes to education, so we created an easy-to-use toolkit to take some of the guess work out of it."

The toolkit and an audio "Webinar" to better educate communities on the toolkit is available through the CVP Web site at www.RecycleCurbside.org.

Alpine Waste & Recycling, based in Commerce City, Colo., has opened its first single-stream recycling plant in Denver.

With the opening of the new facility, the city and county of Denver now have two recycling facilities that provide single-stream processing of recyclables.

The 31,000-square-foot plant will service residents of the city and county of Denver. The facility cost approximately $5.5 million to construct and includes a single-stream system from Machinex, Plessisville, Quebec, Canada, and a two-ram baler manufactured by Harris Press and Shear of Peachtree City, Ga.

The MRF also will accept recyclables from other haulers in the Denver area under the Altogether Recycling program that Alpine has devised. According to Alpine, this program is the first opportunity for third-party waste haulers to get a competing price on single-stream services.

The Alpine plant currently has capacity to process 10,000 tons of recyclables, including glass, plastic, aluminum, steel and virtually all types of paper, per month, with expansion options.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is providing nearly $4.2 million in grants to support county and municipal recycling programs, Commissioner Lisa Jackson says.

DEP recycling grant awards are based on the recycling performance of each county or municipality during calendar year 2005.

In 2005, New Jersey generated 21.5 million tons of solid waste, 10.1 million tons of which were sent for disposal. New Jersey recycled 11.4 million tons of materials, including municipally generated material as well as commercial scrap, such as iron, concrete and wood, for an overall solid waste recycling rate of 53 percent.

Of the total waste stream, 10.5 million tons were categorized as municipal solid waste. More than 3.5 million tons of paper, glass, cans and plastics were recycled, for a 34 percent municipal solid waste recycling rate.

A full list of grant recipients is available at www.nj.gov/dep/dshw/recycling/stat_links/05_payout.pdf.

Mid America Recycling Co. (MAR), Des Moines, Iowa, has started up its newest single-stream material recovery facility (MRF) in Garland, Texas.

The MRF, operating under the name Vista Fibers, measures 150,000 square feet and includes 33 dock doors and two 70-foot truck scales.

The single-stream processing system, built jointly with MAR’s engineering division and Bollegraaf, includes optical sorting technology. Total plant capacity exceeds 10,000 tons per month.

MAR plans to consolidate its two existing commercial recycling operations into the new Garland facility, which will become the permanent home of Vista Fibers-Dallas.

The South Bayside Waste Management Authority (SBWMA), a joint powers authority of 12 member agencies in California’s San Mateo County, has announced the launch of a curbside recycling program for household batteries and cell phones.

Starting Oct. 1, residents in single-family homes of SBWMA member agencies can set out household batteries, both rechargeable and disposable alkaline batteries, in a clear plastic bag on top of their mixed paper recycling bin on collection day. Automotive batteries are not accepted. Cell phones should be wrapped in paper and placed in the bag that contains the batteries.

The SBWMA is looking for original equipment manufacturers and private partners to help support ongoing public education efforts.

More information about SBWMA is available at www.RethinkWaste.org.