News Watch

ISRI SEEKS EXEMPTION FROM EMISSION RULE

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries has appealed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to exempt scrap processing facilities handling traditional recyclable scrap commodities from national emission standards for organic hazardous air pollutants for off-site waste and recovery operations.

Facilities in the scrap recycling industry are unlike those discussed in the proposed rule by virtue of the types of materials handled and the operations used to produce them, according to Robin Weiner, ISRI associate counsel and director of environmental compliance. Scrap recyclers merely change the size, density and shape of the materials, and not their chemical composition, according to Weiner in comments submitted to the EPA.

"Scrap processors do not operate container cleaning operations, wastewater treatment operations, or any other operations from which organic hazardous air pollutants can occur," said Weiner. "In fact, existing EPA regulations and voluntary industry standards eliminate the likelihood that organic materials -- other than incidental amounts -- would ever even enter a scrap processing facility."

However, she said the proposed standards would require facilities falling into the off-site waste and recovery operations source category to comply with them unless they could demonstrate that emission of organic hazardous air pollutants at a facility did not exceed one megagram per year.

The sources of potential emissions at a scrap processing facility are so diffuse as to make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to determine the actual emissions of organic hazardous air pollutants at the facility, said Weiner.

Because markets for secondary materials are difficult to encourage and maintain, unnecessary costs placed on recycling should be avoided, Weiner noted. "This does not amount to decontrol of recycling; rather, it means a level of regulatory control consistent with the actual risks that a particular form of recycling poses to the environment. Blind application of regulatory criteria to broad ranges of recycling activities will not benefit the environment and will actively discourage increased diversion and utilization of secondary materials."

PHILLY ENCOURAGES COMMERCIAL RECYCLING

The Philadelphia Streets Department Recycling Office has announced that 2,000 commercial recycling plans have been filed since the city’s recycling regulations took effect last summer.

"While that figure represents a fraction of those we hope to eventually receive, the good news is that many of the plans filed represent high-volume waste generators such as large apartment complexes, office high rises, universities and hospitals," according to Alfred Dezzi, deputy commissioner of streets, who oversees Philadelphia’s various recycling programs.

The city plans to wait before issuing tickets for noncompliance, notes David Biddle, the city's commercial solid waste coordinator.

"We plan to deploy Streets and Walkways Education and Enforcement Program officers to identify buildings and facilities that are not in compliance and provide them with educational materials and resource information on how to set up a recycling program that will save them money," says Biddle.

To this end, the Streets Department Recycling Office will publish a guide to compliance with commercial recycling regulations this spring.

BANKS PREDICT WORLD GROWTH

The number of banks throughout the world involved in environment-related investment and lending is expected to nearly triple over the next 15 years, according to a global survey on banking and the environment, sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme and Salomon Inc., an investment firm based in New York.

The survey indicates that European banks are ahead of their North American counterparts in pursuing environment-related investment and lending opportunities.

Among the survey’s key findings:

31 percent of respondents said they loan to or invest in environment-related firms today, and 88 percent said they expect to do so within 15 years. Comparing regions, European institutions place the most emphasis today on lending and investment strategies targeted at environment-related firms, followed by Asian institutions;

Nearly half of respondents do not monitor or evaluate environmental risks after funding is committed;

46 percent of respondents, all of which conduct business internationally, do not stay current on environmental policies and practices in other countries;

All respondents predict environmental issues will receive more attention and become increasingly integrated with core business activities over the next 15 years;

Over the next five years, respondents are very likely to add environmental criteria to all procurement decisions, and become more involved in resource reduction, energy conservation and recycling;

Two-thirds of respondents expect government regulatory requirements to become stricter over the next five years; and

Environmental issues presently appear to play little role when it comes to equity financing.

UNEP’s Advisory Group on Commercial Banks and the Environment was scheduled to meet this month to review the survey findings and map out a followup plan in areas that include: ways of coordinating international guidelines; how to provide lenders and investors with information on environment-related risks and opportunities; and development of tools such as environmental audits and impact assessments.

Rising environmental compliance costs, diversion of waste from disposal to recycling and increasing competition among solid waste management firms have slowed the municipal solid waste industry’s growth in recent years, according to research conducted by Find/SVP, an industry research and consulting firm based in New York.

Privatization and consolidation best describe the industry’s current state. With local budgets tightening over the last two decades, governments have increasingly turned to private industry to manage their waste.

Thousands of small, locally-owned waste-collecting and hauling enterprises have been targeted by large management companies trying to increase their market share and profits.

Industry consolidation is expected to "continue at a rapid pace through 1999," according to Find/SVP.

MSW generation grew from 121.9 million tons in 1970 to 214.5 million tons in 1993. Find/SVP forecasts that MSW generation will grow at a rate of 3.2 percent compounded annually between 1994 and 1995, compared with the 2.5 percent rate experienced between 1970 and 1993.

That means that the amount of municipal solid waste generated in the U.S. for the five year period ending in 1999 will be 259.3 million tons.

Not only did municipal solid waste management costs rise from $5 billion in 1970 to $30 billion in 1993, the cost of collecting and disposing of a ton of waste rose nearly three and a half times.

In 1970 it cost approximately $41 per ton to manage a ton of MSW, compared with $140 per ton in 1993, according to the firm.

New regulations are largely responsible for the increase in operators’ costs. These increases have been passed along to cities, municipalities and taxpayers. As regulation drove smaller businesses out of the market, diminished competition led to higher prices for services.

However, with most of the regulatory measures accounted for, and competition increasing among the major players for a waste market that is growing at a relatively slow pace, costs have slowed. This trend will continue for the five year period ending in 1999 as competition increases.

Find/SVP estimates that by 1999, the MSW market will increase to $41.5 billion, with an average ton of waste costing $160 per ton to collect and dispose.

Phoenix, Ariz., is the 100th city to sign up for the Charlotte, N.C.-based National Association for Plastic Container Recovery’s Service Bureau, the association’s most comprehensive and aggressive educational campaign since its development seven years ago.

The Service Bureau, a menu-based educational program of materials promoting PET plastic recycling, provides communities with free radio and television public service announcements, brochures, newspaper ads, editorial support, timeline tips and billboard and bus signs. NAPCOR announced the program in September.

"With our program, cities like Phoenix strengthen the commitment to recycling by growing their PET plastic recycling programs," says Luke Schmidt, NAPCOR president.

CARTON COMPANIES RECYCLE IN NORWAY

Packaging manufacturers TetraPak and Elopak have launched a project in Norway to collect and recycle 60 percent of beverage cartons used by Norwegian consumers by the end of 1996.

Rather than set up its own collection and recycling infrastructure, Norsk Returkartong is set up to enhance the efforts of municipalities, milk and juice producers and recyclers through national and local public education programs.

"Advertising and public relations will be the largest single expense in the startup period," according to Erik Akre, a spokesman for Elopak and chairman of the multi-national Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment. "If the program is going to be successful, we need consumers to participate so we need to encourage them and tell them how to do so."

Following the success of three earlier pilot programs, Norsk Returkartong has already established collection programs in 20 Norwegian municipalities

The initiative has been supported by the Norwegian minister of environment, although no funding has been allocated for the project, according to Akre. However, the Norwegian government has recently imposed new taxes to encourage the recycling of beverage packaging. The taxes will be reduced in direct proportion to the success of the program.