Collection corner

Trash TV

With 8.4 million residents, New York City generates a lot of waste. In a Feb. 26, 2015, episode of “Morgan Spurlock Inside Man,” an insider investigation TV series in its third season, the show’s namesake follows garbage to its final resting place. He notes how much waste is collected daily (11,000 tons in New York City) and makes observations after his shift with the New York Department of Sanitation, once the waste is dumped on a Waste Management (WM) transfer station lot, that “Lots of stuff that could have been recycled” is contained in the large piles.

The 60-minute episode, titled “United States of Trash,” provides viewers with an up-close-and-personal view of what happens after they place their waste and recyclables in their respective collection bins. He also visits a Pennsylvania landfill; explores the nation’s increasing e-waste problem; stops by the Sims Municipal Recycling material recovery facility in Sunset Park, Brooklyn; and talks with a woman who is dedicated to living a zero-waste lifestyle.

“Morgan Spurlock Inside Man”airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST on CNN.

Polling paint

Viewers have voted, and the winner of PaintCare’s online video contest—and $10,000 prize—is NANOShorts Entertainment, whose video helped to spread the message that consumers should buy the right amount of paint, use it up and recycle the rest.

NANOShorts’ video shows a man attempting to throw away his old paint at the curbside, which turned into a comedic misunderstanding between the individual and his disagreeing neighbors. Video blog comedy sketch groups SlapTV and Recycled Babies also submitted videos supporting the recycling of old paint. The voting process ran from Feb. 16 to March 2, 2015.

PaintCare is a nonprofit organization established by the American Coatings Association, a trade association for paint manufacturers based in Washington, to implement paint stewardship programs on behalf of the paint manufacturers in states that have passed paint stewardship laws. A paint recycling program exists in California, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont. In 2015, PaintCare is planning programs for Colorado and Maine.

Did you Know?
PaintCare sends latex paints to recycling companies that reprocess them into new paints in standard pretinted colors.
 

Recycle rush

For the sixth year in a row, Gershow Recycling opened its Medford, New York, scrap metal processing facility to 15 local high school robotics teams participating in the School-Business Partnerships of Long Island’s upcoming Long Island Regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.

The 2015 robotics challenge is Recycle Rush, in which robots score points by stacking totes on scoring platforms, capping those stacks with recycling containers and properly disposing of pool noodles, representing litter, the company says.

The competing schools have six weeks to construct the robot prior to competition.