Solid Waste

rss feed

  1. How to Put On a Zero-Waste Event

    What does it take to put on a net-zero-waste event? The short answer, according to Carl Niemann, is 100 percent buy-in from all participants. In other words, it’s all about educating event staff, vendors and spectators, while providing them with the tools they need to execute a zero-waste event. Niemann, manager of public sector solutions at Waste Management, Inc., said his company has developed a set of best practices based on projects that include the world’s most attended golf tournament. The 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open – one of the oldest and largest golf tournaments on the PGA Tour, hosted more than half a million spectators without using a single trash can.

  2. L.A. County Ushers in Waste-to-Energy Conversion

    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. And they have lots of garbage to work with – about 8.7 million tons a year.

  3. Waste Glass Finds New Life as Alternate Aggregate

    AUSTIN, Texas -- Civil engineers in the city of Austin’s public works department have been experimenting with viable uses for waste glass – as in the kind many assume gets recycled into new bottles. For the most part, though, waste glass fails to meet the stringent criteria – clean and sorted by color – that manufactures require for making new bottles and jars. While some glass cullet fetches as much as $60 per ton, unsorted glass co-mingled with other waste is virtually worthless to manufacturers of new glass. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be removed from the waste stream to serve a useful purpose as an aggregate substitute in a variety of practical applications.

  4. Banning Plastic Bags: Does It Really Work?

    ANAHEIM, Calif. -- A California bill to ban single-use plastic bags died on the last day of legislative session (August 31) without coming to a vote. But that didn’t faze the 50 or so cities and counties in the state that had already passed local restrictions. Santa Monica and Sunnyvale are among the latest cities to ban single-use carryout plastic bags, although their approaches are slightly different.

  5. Sioux Falls Landfill Plays Leading Role in Sustainability

    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. A driving force behind sustainability in southeastern South Dakota, the fee-based landfill generates about $10 million in revenue annually, money not only used to operate the facility, but to fund other sustainability and recycling programs that serve some 240,000 people in the city and five surrounding counties.

  6. Deconstruction: City Takes Crash Course in C&D Waste Recycling

    DUBUQUE, Iowa - If you needed to tear down 44 vacant homes in an historic district, get the job out for bid, hire the contractors, and divert more than 80 percent of the demolition materials from your landfill - all within three month's time - how would you do it? Chuck Goddard and Kyle Fitzgerald might answer: One board at a time.

  7. Package Recycling Myths Slow Progress in U.S.

    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. Birmingham's objective was to hail a recyclable product new in the industry: cartons. These include gabled cartons like milk cartons, which must be refrigerated, and aseptic cartons like those that contain chicken broth, meant to be stacked and stored in a cabinet and refrigerated after opening. He said both types of packaging once contained wax, making them poor candidates for recycling. Today, wax has been replaced by polyethylene, which does not interfere with recycling. The aseptic carton additionally includes many layers of aluminum to block out light - the principle cause of spoilage.

  8. Zero-Waste Plan Calls for Mandatory Recycling

    How can municipal waste management leaders transition their communities away from landfills and incinerators to make way for a zero-waste society? Eric Lombardi has a 10-year plan. But, the Boulder, Colo. recycling advocate said market forces alone won't build the green infrastructure necessary to close the loop on waste.

  9. Drive-Thru Centers Make Recycling, Reusing Convenient

    The same drive-thru service concept that has forever changed banking, eating and other necessities of modern life has found a new application that might just change the way people reuse and recycle unneeded materials. A Canadian municipal region has partnered with Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity to bring drive-thru service to its solid waste management plan. The Region of York, which includes Toronto in Ontario, has built two Community Environmental Centres (CEC) with more planned. CECs are waste management facilities that provide residents with convenient locations to drop off a variety of materials. While York's CECs aren't the first of their kind, region officials say they plan to establish a network of the centers to provide better service and greater convenience for residents to dispose of unwanted, yet reusable or recyclable items that are not managed at the curb.

  10. The Path to Zero Waste

    The path to zero waste doesn't end at a landfill. So, while many municipalities across the country have diverted up to 70 percent of the waste they generate, how they plan to make the other 30 percent disappear can take them down a long and sometimes bumpy road. "That's where conversion technologies come in," said Salud Carbajal, First District supervisor for Santa Barbara County, Calif., "to help you get on your path to zero waste. To do this," he said, "we must explore alternatives to landfilling."

  11. Fueling the Fleet with Landfill Biogas

    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. A good example is Dane County, Wisconsin's latest energy project - the BioCNG alternative vehicle fuel system. Up and running since March, the system is successfully converting landfill gas (LFG) from the Rodefield Landfill near Madison, Wis. to power compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles in the county's fleet.

  12. The Trouble with Glass: Dubuque Stops Curbside Collection of Bottles

    Is the curb-side collection and recycling of glass bottles really cost-effective? Is it sustainable? Is it even a net benefit for the environment? A growing number of recyclers and public officials are answering those questions no, no and no. "The bottom line is that collecting glass food and beverage containers in our local curbside recycling program is no longer a sustainable practice," said Paul Schultz, resource management coordinator for the city of Dubuque, Iowa. "In terms of Dubuque's sustainability model, it is a very poor economic investment with costs greatly exceeding benefits and offsets. It has very low net environmental benefits, if any," he said.

  13. Don’t Mind the Smell…

    Since the mid-to-late 80s, governments like yours have been partnering with their local utility companies to capitalize on the contents of their landfills. No, they're not selling garbage. They are harvesting methane - or more accurately, landfill gas (LFG) - a common greenhouse gas that is known more for its foul odor and environmentally damaging effects than its potential as a source of revenue. With the rapid onset of the sustainability movement and wider availability of methane extraction technology, the practice of methane capture is more popular than ever before. In 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized 456 operational landfill-to-gas projects in the United States. In the two years since, that number has grown to nearly 700.

  14. No Such Thing as 'Waste'

    For municipalities, a recycling program might be the first and least complicated step toward creating a sustainability plan to reduce waste and protect the environment. The programs can divert materials away from landfills, create a revenue stream that off-sets waste removal program costs, and provide an avenue for residents to actively participate in a local sustainability initiative. However, there are key items to watch during the initial setup and long-term operation of a program. Most municipalities start a recycling program to meet a mandate, according to Mick Barry, Vice President of Commodity Trading of Greenstar North America, a recycling services firm. The mandate usually comes from the state government, but residents can also create the mandate by pushing for a recycling program.
Popular

Online Poll

How prepared is your community for a major disaster?

Total Votes: 20

Loading…

© Copyright 2013, Sustainable City Network, Inc., Dubuque, IA. Powered by BLOX Content Management System from TownNews.com. [Terms of Use | Privacy Policy]