From Las Cruces Sun-News

Recycling has just become a bit easier. At a set of recycling bins near Sam's Club in Las Cruces, officials on Tuesday debuted so-called "single-stream" recycling. "It's called single-stream, which means you don't have to separate them out and put different recyclables in different bins," said Suzanne Michaels, spokeswoman for the South Central Solid Waste Authority. Also, the city-county group has expanded the list of materials its accepts and added new drop-off locations in the county.

Deb Bale said she moved to Las Cruces about a year ago from Boulder, Colo., where recycling was routine. She said she was surprised to find the practice wasn't nearly as prominent here. Bale said she believes the new effort will encourage people to recycle who haven't done so before. Plus, it will make recycling easier for newcomers moving to the area from places that were more recycling-friendly. "It will help us by getting participation from the community," she said. Bale noted that residents in the past had to separate newspaper from glossy inserts, but now the two can go into the same container. The single-stream bins will be in Las Cruces, 13 schools and eight trash drop-off stations in the county, according to the solid waste authority.

Michaels said Las Cruces and Dona Ana County already are generating about 50 tons of recyclables per week. She said the new effort is a step toward curbside recycling, which could debut this fall. The waste authority also takes glossy paper, magazines, catalogues and colored bottles, such as detergent bottles - materials that weren't accepted previously.
Michaels and Bale said the fact more types of recyclables will be accepted is a plus.
But Bale said there are still rules to be followed. For instance, only No. 1 and 2 plastics are accepted, among the plastics. Michaels also said glass can't be recycled.

You can register for the 2010 EPA Resource Conservation Challenge Web Academy Solid Waste Management and Recycling Education Series on the web at:

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/rcc/web-academy/index.htm

March 18: Green Casinos/Venue Sustainability Practices

April 15:  Rural Recycling - Bridging the Gaps

May 20:  Social Marketing - Changing Behavior in Your Community

June 17:  Multi-Family Dwellings Recycling

July 15:  Recycling & Market Development of Unique Materials

August 19:  Food Waste/Organics Reduction & Recycling

September 16:  Greening University Campuses

October 21:  Sustainable Materials Management                                    

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Rocky Mountain Region Takes Hit In Paper Markets 

The U.S. paper recycling market is increasingly becoming regionally based. An assessment of the market in the Mountain West for old corrugated containers (OCC) provides a telling, and saddening, example, say recycling analysts. In recent years, regional paper packers could avail themselves of healthy domestic demand to the north (Missoula, Montana) and south (Snowflake, Arizona). Exporters tapped the market, though, as did large mills in the Pacific Northwest, New Mexico and Texas.

Now, with the halting of the recycled paperboard machine in Arizona and the shutdown of the Montana mill, the remaining buyers to the west and south, including exporters, have pushed prices down sharply. At the same time, some mills in the Pacific Northwest, such as the International Paper mill near Albany, Oregon, have also been shuttered. Thus, for generators of bales in the Rocky Mountain Region, prices being offered today by mills are often considerably below those in other regions of the country, and below those paid a few years ago, when regional demand was stronger.

Source: Resource Recycling

Keep America Beautiful and Coca-Cola Present Bin Grants

The Coca-Cola Company and Keep America Beautiful, Inc. (KAB) have announced the Coca-Cola/KAB Recycling Bin Grant Program, an effort designed to promote and support community recycling. Grant recipients receive both donated recycling bins and expertise on how to set up recycling programs from Keep America Beautiful. The grant program is part of a $60 million investment by The Coca-Cola Company in recycling initiatives in the U.S.

The spring 2010 grant cycle opens today, Monday, Feb. 1. Interested parties may visit http://bingrant.org and submit an online grant application through March 12, 2010.  Eligible grant recipients include government agencies, civic organizations, schools and nonprofit groups. Successful applicants will be notified on or before April 22.

Since its inception in the fall of 2007, the Bin Grant program has placed more than 5,700 recycling bins in 150 communities in 48 states and the District of Columbia.  Recipients have included municipalities, colleges, Native American tribes, and community- based NGOs.  

The 7UP/RC Bottling division of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) joined NMRC in December of 2009.  DPS is one of the largest beverage companies in the Americas, manufacturing, marketing and distributing more than 50 brands of carbonated drinks, juices and other beverages.  DPS promotes recycling and energy efficiency through the following efforts:

• DPS employee-driven initiatives are promoting awareness and best practices in paper, plastic and electronic equipment recycling at the company’s Plano headquarters, field offices and production and distribution facilities.
• In 2008, the Plano headquarters office recycled nearly 240 tons of paper, exceeding its 2007 total by 25%. Recycling and conservation efforts saved 4,000 trees; 876,900 pounds of lumber; nearly 2,600 barrels of oil; 971,700 kilowatt hours of energy; 3.1 million gallons of water; and 711 cubic yards of landfill space.
• As of 2010, DPS is tracking waste in all of its manufacturing facilities and will set long-term reduction goals based on the data compiled.
• Our containers are 100% recyclable. More than half of the aluminum we use in our cans is post-consumer. In addition, PET bottles contain an average of 5% to 10% post-consumer material.
• DPS is continuing to expand recycling of solid waste throughout its manufacturing and distribution facilities.
• In Mexico, our Peñafiel brand is a major participant in ECOCE, a nationwide public awareness and education initiative led by the food and beverage industry to promote container and package recycling.
• Locally / Albuquerque: DPS has installed its own baler to process recycled plastic, shipping air bags, cardboard and paper. They also installed energy efficient lighting that turn off via motion sensors when not in use.

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Japan's Ultimate Sustainable City

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2010/1/19/lifefocus/5466433&sec=lifefocus

The people of Kitakyushu are working together to create a recycling-oriented community that produces no waste. The name Kitakyushu is somewhat legendary in green circles. Once a highly-polluted industrial city in Japan, it cleaned itself up, thanks to the combined efforts of citizens, industries and government, and in 1990, received the Global 500 Award from the United Nations Environment Programme.

Kitakyushu is now a model city for sustainable development and environmental improvement – it was named such in 2006 by Time magazine – and visitors the world over flock there to learn how it turned from grey to green. More eco-friendly: Japan’s first commercial wind power generation can be found in Kitakyushu. Ten wind turbines line the city’s coast, each with the capacity to generate 1,500kW of wind power.

Today, Kitakyushu is known for its advanced recycling industries. In 1997, the city became a part of Japan’s eco-town project, which aims to create a “zero-emission system” where no waste would be produced. This is realised through waste recycling industries. There are now 26 eco-towns in Japan, of which Kitakyushu is the most notable.

“We aim to establish a resource circulating city,” says Taihei Shibata of the city’s environment bureau. “The idea of eco-town is to look at recycling as a viable industry, not just to handle waste disposal. So, it has two benefits ... economy and waste management.”

In Kitakyushu, its 26 recycling industries are grouped at the Hibiki Recycling Area. The city has the most extensive range of recycling industries in Japan. There are factories recycling everything: tin foil into aluminium briquette; polystyrene into insulating material and construction aggregate; cooking oil and fats into animal feed, paint and biodiesel; medical waste into collection vessels, solid and concrete materials; paper into livestock litter and toilet rolls; and PET into raw material for new plastic products and polyester fibres. Some factories retrieve useful materials from discarded home appliances, office equipment and even pachinko machines. In the automobile recycling zone, seven car scrapping companies got together to achieve more efficient recycling of old vehicles, the first such attempt in Japan.

In Japan, the people are required by law to pay recycling and disposal fees for some of their discards – between ¥10,000 (RM380) and ¥20,000 (RM760) for unwanted cars and ¥2,600 (RM98) for a 16-inch TV. To reduce waste, almost every part of a scrapped car is recycled in this factory in Kitakyushu. Kitakyushu also boasts Japan’s first fluorescent tube recycling plant.
It extracts glass, metal and mercury from unwanted lights, which can be hazardous if indiscriminately dumped, and reuse them to make new lights, glass products, paving materials, automotive wheels and building materials. About 35,000 fluorescent tubes are processed each day.

In one innovative reuse of waste, wood salvaged from construction sites and dismantled buildings are pulverised and processed with plastic scraps to form a hardy building material. The material has the texture of natural wood but the strength of plastic, and can be recycled countless times without deterioration in quality. Ecowood Co produces over 5,000 tonnes of this “wood” annually, making it the largest salvaged wood production facility in Japan. Reusing scrap lumber helps prevent deforestation.

The city’s 17 research facilities conduct research and development on advanced waste disposal and recycling technologies, such as to turn food waste into polylactic acid to make biodegradable plastic. Shibata explains the merits of clustering the recycling industries: “The plants supply each other with resources. Wastes are not always 100% recyclable. Those which cannot be recycled in one factory will be sent to another for treatment. By concentrating the factories together, we can increase recycling efficiency and make sure all wastes are treated.
And having a designated area for recycling industries will also overcome objections from citizens who often protest to having such factories near them.”

Since its establishment in 1997 until May 2009, ¥61bil has been invested in Kitakyushu, with the bulk of it coming from the private sector (¥43.1bil) and the balance from the federal and city governments. The recycling activities in Kitakyushu shave 150,000 tonnes of CO2 from the
16 million tonnes discharged in Kitakyushu annually. The city’s emissions have dropped more than 3% from 1990 levels, with marked declines from industries. Emissions from households, businesses and transportation, however, are on the rise. To counter this trend, the city has set itself an ambitious target – it intends to halve its CO2 emissions in 2050, from 2005 levels.

To do this, it is encouraging use of public transport, car-sharing, energy-efficient housing, renewable energy, and expanding greenery. The idea is to create a next generation that is low-carbon,” says Hiroyuki Kajihara, manager of the environmental policy division in the Kitakyushu Environmental Bureau. “So we will promote a lifestyle that eliminates waste and have measures to create a pollution-free environment.” Kitakyushu boasts of Japan’s first commercial wind power generation. Each of the 10 turbines lining the coast has a capacity of 1,500kW, and the electricity is sold to Kyushu Electric Power. Some elementary schools and apartment blocks are also powered by solar energy systems, as part of the move towards a low-carbon society.

The city rewards green consumers. Eco-points are given to acknowledge environment-friendly practices, such as when one rejects plastic bags at stores. The eco-points, either in the form of stickers or reward points recorded in a credit card-like Eco-Card, can be redeemed for discount coupons, eco-friendly products or donated to non-profits. The funds for this will be covered by the retail industry. Some 120 eco-friendly products and services have also been identified, through the issuance of Eco-Premium label. Kitakyushu’s green endeavours earned it the “model eco-town” award in 2008.