NEW YORK, New York --  Following an acquisition, a new company promises to serve as a strategic platform focused on the recovery of waste and community resources, help communities generate revenue and transform refuse into value-added recycled products.

The average operational life of a wastewater treatment (WWT) facility is estimated at somewhere between 20-25 years. And because most of America's WWT facilities date back to the early seventies, municipalities have spent the better part of the past two decades upgrading and, in some cases, replacing aging facilities.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Oregon has met a long-sought goal to recover at least 50 percent of the solid waste generated within the state. Results of the 2010 Oregon Material Recovery and Waste Generation Rates Report, released by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, show the state had a 50.0 percent material recovery rate in 2010. That's a 1.7 percent increase over 2009's 48.3 percent rate. For many years, Oregon targeted the year 2009 in which to meet a goal of 50 percent recovery.

Recipient: Treasury, New Jersey Department of

EDMONTON, Alta. -- Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel and Chief Financial Officer Lorna Rosen announced that the city will internationally market the waste management expertise of the city and its partners, through a corporation wholly owned by the city. Waste RE-Solutions Edmonton is the name of the corporation for conducting this marketing effort.

PITTSFIELD -- Covanta Pittsfield LLC, a subsidiary of Covanta Holding Corporation, an owner/operator of large-scale Energy-from-Waste and renewable energy projects, formally announced its plans to work with Crane & Co. to convert the currency company's stored paper-making waste fibers into clean, renewable energy.

How can municipal waste management leaders transition their communities away from landfills and incinerators to make way for a zero-waste society?

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. -- As America's largest landfill prepares to shut down next year, Los Angeles County begins to write a new chapter in U.S. waste disposal history - ushering in the age of waste-to-energy conversion.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolinians threw away less per capita in 2010-2011 than at any time in nearly 20 years, according to the state's latest report and analysis of solid waste management.

RICHMOND, Va. -- The Virgina Department of Environmental Quality has issued its annual report on recycling by Virginia localities, and it shows that the Commonwealth recycled 43.5 percent of its municipal and other solid wastes in 2011.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Green Energy Renewable Solutions, Inc. announced that it has signed a long term contract with Disposal Specialties, LLC of Birmingham, Mich., that will guarantee up to 1,000 tons per day of construction and demolition waste for recycling operations at its Highland Park, Mich., facility.

DOVER, Del. -– Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has issued a solid waste resource recovery permit for the first private materials recovery facility in Delaware. The MRF operated by Blue River Resources LLC will sort and separate recyclables, then market the materials to commodity buyers or recycling processors. Blue River Resources, located on a former brownfields site, is the newest of several recycling entities in an area of south Wilmington and across the state that have parlayed Delaware’s universal recycling law, which went into effect last year, into a business opportunity.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Expanding recycling efforts in North Carolina contributed to last year’s historic drop in its per capita disposal rate, and state environmental officials recognized Catawba County for its leadership in recycling, as shown in the state’s annual rankings of county per capita recycling rates.

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Americans are throwing away 40 percent of food in the U.S., the equivalent of $165 billion in uneaten food each year, according to a new analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council. In a time of drought and skyrocketing food prices, NRDC outlines opportunities to reduce wasted food and money on the farm, in the grocery store and at home.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Republic Services of Southern Nevada has begun large-scale construction work under oversight by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at Sunrise Landfill, a 440-acre closed municipal solid waste landfill, located three miles outside of Las Vegas city limits in Clark County.

If there was an Oscar competition for the best landfills in America, surely the Sioux Falls Regional Sanitary Landfill (SFRSL) would be among the contenders.

For the Sonoma County Water Agency, the decision to work with chicken poop was kind of a no brainer. The agency had first considered cow manure for its purposes, but when it learned that, pound for pound, chicken waste contains more energy potential than the typical cow patty, the conclusion was a fairly simple one.

If there are myths behind recyclable containers and the markets available for them, they were cleared up for an audience of solid waste and recycling professionals last week. Speaking at the annual Iowa Recycling & Solid Waste Management Conference in Dubuque Oct. 5 were presenters Jim Birmingham, recycling coordinator for the Carton Council based in Milwaukee, Wis., and Susan V. Collins, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute in Culver City, Calif.

With gasoline and diesel pump prices hovering around $4 a gallon, obviously everyone is looking for cheaper alternatives. And, like they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

Recipient: Orange, County of

Recipient: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

The following competitive grants are available to municipal and/or non-profit applicants, among others:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- America is thinking too small when it comes to energy efficiency, while also making the mistake of "crowding out" economically beneficial investments in energy efficiency by focusing on riskier and more expensive bids to develop new energy sources, according to a major new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

On an afternoon in May, a group tours a Wisconsin farm, learning about producing biofuel from soybeans, canola and sorghum. At a pasture walk near Giard, Iowa, individuals learn about rotational grazing, pasture improvements, subdivisions, and watering systems over rough and rolling terrain. In Dubuque, Iowa, the Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management conference covers adjusting ration starch concentration, corn snaplage and shredlage, pricing homegrown and purchased forages, recycled manure solids for bedding, economics of robotic milking and evaluating farm feeding programs.