Recycling Scraps
May 2, 2011

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NMRC Awards Nearly Half a Million Dollars to Fund Rural Recycling Collection Points or "Spokes"

2011 Recipients include Cibola County, Village of Cimarron, City of Deming, Village of Maxwell,
Otero County, San Miguel County & Town of Springer

Example of a Potential "Spoke" Collection Container

Recycling is spreading across the State of New Mexico, thanks to $461,905 in grant funds from the New Mexico Recycling Coalition geared to create 25 rural recycling collection points across the Land of Enchantment.  Funding is from a Department of Energy grant received by NMRC as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (“stimulus funds”) being spent to support recycling through the hub and spoke model – a solid waste management system with a centralized processing facility (hub) providing services to smaller surrounding communities (spokes).

The seven awardees will receive funding for recycling spoke collection trailers or roll-off containers, and technical assistance provided by NMRC. Grantees have agreed to provide long-term operational and financial commitment to ensure project sustainability.  

NMRC Executive Director English Bird emphasizes, “Recycling is a critical environmental quality of life issue that should be available to all New Mexico residents, whether they live in urban or rural areas. Recycling in a low population area is a whole different ball game, and we want to do everything we can to support all New Mexico residents who are passionate about conserving resources and recycling.”
 
NMRC’s overall project will 1) launch a statewide recycled materials marketing cooperative, 2) strategically  place recycling equipment infrastructure using the “hub and spoke” model, and 3) educate and assist targeted communities regarding the use of solid waste rates (known as Pay-As-You-Throw) to help incentivize source reduction and waste diversion activities.

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June 9th Recycling Training - Hub & Spoke Recycling: The Next Generation

Please join NMRC for a FREE recycling training on June 9th from 9am to 4pm at the UNM Science & Technology Park Rotunda in Albuquerque. The training will focus on Pay -As-You-Throw, NMRC's Rural Recycling Resources (R3) Cooperative and rural recycling. Following the meeting R3 Co-op existing and potential members will meet for one hour to discuss details of being members of the Co-op.

Afternoon sessions will include "Getting Quality Material From the Public", "Setting Up Household Hazardous Waste Collection" and "Launching a ReUse Collection Program".

$50 travel stipends are available for 75 eligible rural communities on a first-come-first-served basis. Find out if your community is eligible, learn more and register at http://www.recyclenewmexico.com/recyclingtraining2011.htm

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Help NMRC Celebrate Its 20th Anniversary - NMRC Coming of Age

* June 9, 2011 * Dinner * Stories from the Past 20 Years * Recycling Awards *

The New Mexico Recycling Coalition (NMRC) is celebrating its 20th anniversary!  NMRC will mark this milestone at O’Niell’s Pub in Albuquerque (4310 Central SE in Nob Hill) on June 9th (6 pm to 9 pm) during an evening filled with good food, old and new friends, memories from the past 20 years and a cash bar.  

The past 20 years has seen: membership grow from less than 50 to over 260 municipalities, tribes, businesses, state and federal government entities, non-profits and individuals; creation of November’s NM Recycling Awareness Month; support of NM’s Solid Waste Act; securing of federal funding to promote and develop rural recycling; outreach throughout the state to provide technical recycling assistance; the staff grow from zero to four employees; the development of the NM Recycling Conference and more! 

Help mark these and other accomplishments by attending the celebration event!

Registration required and the cost is $35 per person. Register

Click here to learn about sponsorship opportunities. Sponsors can register directly on the main registration page more

Recycler of the Year, Community Recycler of the Year and Business Recycler of the Year Awards will be given out at the celebration. Nominate someone today by clicking on the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R6GNNFY  

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NMSU Takes 5th Place in National RecycleMania Contest - Congratulations!

Mr. Recyclemaniac Created by NMSU Recycling Team

NMSU has done it again - placed within the top five out of over 250 schools participating in the RecycleMania contest. Art Lucero has been leading the way and directing the NMSU recycling program for the past 5 years. It all begain when college administrators signed on to the College President's Commitment to the Environment. That agreement committed NMSU to participating in the RecycleMania competition. Once Lucero received approval to launch the program, NMSU received $55,000 from the legislature to fund recycling equipment upgrades in order to process the materials.

NMSU purchased a #1 plastic shredder and an aluminum can densifier. The densifier is able to take 800 aluminum cans and compress it into a 12" x 10" block that weighs 20 pounds. NMSU currently collects about 70,000 plastic #1 bottles per month and Lucero figures it takes 30 bottles to make 1 pound of marketable material. These two pieces of equipment addressed the lack of storage space at the NMSU recycling facility. The start-up money also purchased 300 desk-side blue bins and 400 Brute Containers on Wheels to collect paper throughout campus. The NMSU Las Cruces campus is a city in its own right with 30,000 students, staff and faculty using the facility at any one time. NMSU also uses ClearStreams, Clear Maxes and compartmentalized janitorial carts to collect recyclables. Through the direct sale of recyclable materials and hauling of material in their NMSU-owned semi-truck trailers to a market in El Paso, NMSU is able to generate about $35,000 in revenues. With the past four years placing in the top 5 RecycleMania competition, NMSU is ready to expand recycling collection to its family-housing and dormitories by going out to bid for this service.

The results of the latest RecycleMania 2011 Grand Champion Competition are below:

1) California State University - San Marcos
2 )Antioch University Seattle
3) Stetson University
4) Loyola Marymount University
5) New Mexico State University - Main Campus

Taken together, 2011 participating RecycleMania colleges recycled or composted an impressive 91 million pounds of material. It goes without saying that every school is a winner in their efforts to rally their campuses to reduce waste and conserve resources.

For more information about the NMSU Aggies recycling program, please contact Art Lucero at E-mail artl@nmsu.edu Phone: (575) 932-9748 http://www.nmsu.edu/aggierecycling

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Santa Fe New Mexican Launches Recyclo Comic Book

From Inland Press - When the Santa FeNew Mexican learned that the average American city recycles some 32 percent of its waste while Santa Fe recycles just 10 percent, the paper decided to take action. It created a comic book character, Recyclo, to encourage teens and preteens to recycle more. Who says newspapers can’t have fun? But with great fun comes great responsibility—to paraphrase a quote from Spiderman.

Enter Recyclo, the green-caped crusader, champion of recycling and the hero of an original comic book developed and distributed by the Santa Fe (N.M.) New Mexican, a 23,000-circulation daily.

“We’re a creative bunch,” said Ginny Sohn, associate publisher of the New Mexican. “We like to do new things. There’s always something new happening here.”

Recyclo, the brainchild of Marketing Manager David DelMauro and Dale Deforest, a graphic artist at the paper, was created to encourage young readers in Santa Fe to recycle. The comic book is just one part of the “Save a Ton” campaign, a partnership between the city and the Santa Fe New Mexican designed to double Santa Fe County’s recyclable tonnage by motivating local businesses and residents to recycle more.

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Coca-Cola Bin Grant Winners Announced - NM Home to 4 Winners!

Clear-Stream Recycling Containers (above) will be used by Recycle Cibola! to collect aluminum and plastic beverage containers in schools

Recycling programs in 70 towns and cities throughout the country will receive a significant boost to their local efforts as Keep America Beautiful (KAB) and The Coca-Cola Company announce the recipients of the spring 2011 Recycling Bin Grant program. This includes four communities in New Mexico: Recycle Cibola! in Grants, Keep Tularosa Beautiful, Keep Las Cruces Beautiful and the University of New Mexico PPD Recycling in Albuquerque.

Chosen from nearly 800 applications submitted, the 70 grant recipients include community groups, local governments, colleges and nonprofit organizations across the country. Grants were awarded to applicants in 31 states including nine colleges and universities, 25 municipalities and other local government entities, 10 primary and secondary schools, 26 nonprofit organizations, and additional community groups and Native American tribes.

Recipients were chosen by KAB based on a number of criteria, including where bins are likely to have the most impact on recovering beverage containers from the waste stream, ability of recipients to sustain their program in the future, and intention to support collection programs with recycling education and promotion. The Bin Grant program is sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company and is designed to promote and support community recycling in the U.S.

“The entire recycling process begins when a consumer chooses to put their empty beverage container in a recycle bin instead of the trash,” said Gary Wygant, vice president, Coca-Cola Recycling LLC. “Through our work with KAB to provide bins to community-based organizations, we can help raise recycling rates by making recycling more accessible to more consumers.”

“Recycling on-the-go in public spaces is an important link to raising awareness of recycling overall, and to raising recovery rates for all materials,” said Matthew M. McKenna, president and CEO, Keep America Beautiful, Inc. “We’re thrilled that, through the support of Coca-Cola Recycling, we’re able to bring more recycling options to more communities that need them.”

The Bin Grant Program provides recycling bins directly to recipients and leverages the purchasing power and recycling expertise of KAB. Since its inception in the fall of 2007, the Bin Grant program has placed more than 20,000 recycling bins in 380 communities in 48 states and the District of Columbia.  A full list of the spring 2011 Bin Grant recipients is below. Further information about the grant program is available at http://bingrant.org/.

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Farmington Elementary Student Wins National Creative Energy Award

Heather Ebhard Receiving Igniting Creative Energy Award

From the Farmington Daily Times — Heather Eberhard, 11, didn't expect to attract much attention when she entered the Igniting Creative Energy Challenge. She created a video featuring a cast of puppets made of plastic bottles. The plot involves the puppets persuading one of their friends of the virtues of recycling.

"I'm really excited and surprised," Heather said after being plucked from an assembly at Northeast Elementary School, where she's a fifth-grader, to be feted by the mayor and others as a national contest winner.

Pupils from the school applied for the contest, which is sponsored by Johnson Controls, a major corporation based in Milwaukee. Heather is one of four national winners chosen from among 14,000 entrants.

She will travel to Washington, D.C., in mid-June to share her project at the United States Energy Efficiency Forum. She also was awarded a video camera and other prizes. Heather said she looks forward to visiting the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

"We're very proud of her," said her mother, Tina, who attended the assembly along with her husband and Heather's father, Eric. Tina said awareness about recycling could help reduce waste of plastic bottles at public parks. "The plastic bottles are either tossed on the ground or tossed in the trash can, so she just had this idea and followed it through," she said.

Farmington is also the home of the 2011 New Mexico state winner. Kaylin McLiverty, a third-grader at Esperanza Elementary School, took home the state honor. Northeast Principal Joe Parks encouraged his students' interest in science. "We live in a world where the people who understand and enjoy science are absolutely going to shape our future," he told the assembly.

Scott Griffith, a Johnson Controls official, called Heather's project "very impressive." He noted Farmington is surrounded by new energy projects and research into untapped ways of developing energy.

Heather met with Mayor Tommy Roberts and City Manager Rob Mayes in an effort to get recycling receptacles installed at the soccer complex on Fairgrounds Road and possibly elsewhere in town. "Heather was exceptional in convincing me and Mr. Mayes that her idea was a good idea," said Roberts, who told students that he is a fellow Northeast Elementary Viking. "Don't ever be embarrassed about your ideas. Explore them and let people know them."

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Resource Recycling Conference

August 17-18, 2011 at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis, Indiana

NMRC's English Bird will be presenting on Hub & Spoke Recycling at the conference. Click here for more information. Building off the fascinating sneak peek at last year's Lightning Round, come hear English Bird present on how rural recycling will flourish in New Mexico with the help of federal stimulus money. Learn about the hub-and-spoke recycling model design, implementation and equipment used to maximize efficiencies, optimize staff time, streamline transportation and bring positive cash flow into smaller communities. Rachel Perry, Executive Director of Cooperative Teamwork & Recycling Assistance (CTRA), expands on the rural recycling theme with a presentation on how CTRA has crafted tailor-fit programs for Texas communities plagued by limited resources and geographic location obstacles.

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Sign Up Now for the 2011 Recycling and Composting Facility Operator Certification Courses

The NMRC and the New Mexico State Environment Department: Solid Waste Bureau will host two recycling courses and two composting courses in 2011. These courses provide an in-depth look at the science, safety, administration and operations of both recycling and composting operations.

Recycling Facility Operators Certification Courses

May 17-19, Ruidoso register

Held at Eastern NM University with a tour of Greentree Recycling Center.

 

*December 6-8, Santa Fe register   Held at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center with a tour of the Buckman Road Recycling and Transfer Station

 

Compost Facility Operators Certification Courses

April 12-14, Ruidoso register  

Held at Eastern NM University with a tour of BioGrind facility.

 

*October 4-6, Albuquerque register  

Held at the Fire Academy with a tour of Soilutions & the Soil Amendment Facility.

*Please note that the December & October certification classes are tentative awaiting final budget approval on July 1. Please still sign up for the classes and we will follow up with you asap.

Our maximum class size is 35 studetns so please remember to register as early as possible to be assured a seat in the course.

Learn more and sign up today at http://www.recyclenewmexico.com/cert_classes.htm

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Leftovers Reborn as Compost at Sandia National Lab

At Sandia's largest cafeteria, a leftover burrito will be sent off to eventually help some backyard garden bloom. When someone leaves a bit of lunch behind at Thunderbird Café, employees send it out for composting.

The composting program began in March 2010 as a pilot to divert food preparation waste and leftovers from the regular waste stream that is sent to Rio Rancho’s landfill to a local business that recycles food waste into usable (and sell-able) compost.

Except for a few initial burps, the program has been a success. “We had problems at first with getting noncompostables separated, but it’s gotten better over time,” said Steven Lassiter, the café supervisor.

The composting program won Sandia’s 2011 Environmental Management Systems (EMS) Excellence Award for the Risk Mitigation/Environmental Protection category.

“During the six-month pilot last year, the café diverted more than 15,000 pounds of wet food waste from going into the landfill,” said Sandia/New Mexico’s recycling coordinator Sam McCord. “Thanks to the cafeteria staff’s successful adoption of the composting process and the great results, the program has been fully adopted this year,” McCord said.

Sandia soon will divert more than one-third of Thunderbird Café’s routine waste into the composting program, he said. Sandia uses revenue from recycling paper and other waste materials to pay for the composting project. One goal is to reduce the cost of refuse disposal at the cafeteria.

McCord also expects the program to expand into other food-service facilities at the Labs, such as the Tech Area 4 cafeteria, where bins are set up for diners to sort their biodegradable materials for composting. Because the Tech Area 4 cafeteria is smaller and requires less variety in its food packaging, it soon will begin using special compostable plates and utensils, McCord said.

In the Thunderbird Café’s dishwashing and prep areas, café staff dispose of any plastic items in the regular trash. They then put food scraps and leftovers from dishes into bins lined with bags made from a compostable plant resin.

As the bags fill, they are deposited in special green bins outdoors. These bins are slightly smaller than the trash bins used by the City of Albuquerque for residential trash pickup, as food waste tends to be heavier. Even the bins themselves are recycled and still bear “Madison, Wisconsin” logos on them, a leftover from where they began life as residential trash bins.

Representatives from food-waste recycler Soilutions pick up the bins twice a week (more if needed). The collected food goes to the Soilutions facility on Albuquerque’s far south side where it begins its metamorphosis. When the bins arrive at Soilutions, all the materials are spread out on absorbent material to remove standing moisture. The materials are then combined in a large pile where workers mix them with drier, ground-up materials such as wood chips and straw.

“Soilutions picks up anything that has been alive,” said Misch Lehrer, Soilutions manager. They accept food waste from many area businesses and organizations, such as Whole Foods Market Inc., the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort &Spa, the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College, Lehrer said. Soilutions also accepts manure and straw from area farms, as well as dead and wilted flowers from local flower shops. Additionally, Soilutions harvests scraps from one-time events like the annual Pork ‘N Brew event in Rio Rancho.

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The Recycling and Economic Benefits of Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT)

Bag-Tags or Stickers are One Option for PAYT programs with Curbside or Drop-Off Services

From Waste Age by Kristin Brown - State and local governments across the nation are seeking to reduce the amount of trash they send to landfills and to increase their recycling. A variable rate — also known as pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) — collection program offers a community an extremely effective way to achieve those goals.

In a PAYT program, residents are charged for the amount of trash they set out for disposal. The idea is to provide residents with an incentive to recycle or reduce they amount of trash they produce. In most communities in the United States, households pay a flat rate for their trash collection, either through their property taxes or fixed, regular fees. Under PAYT programs, residents aren’t charged for what they put in their recycling bins, meaning only landfill-bound material incurs a charge. In PAYT programs, residents are charged for each community-issued bag or container of waste they set out for disposal, and the residents have a variety of bag and container sizes from which to choose. Currently, more than 7,000 local jurisdictions — about 25 percent of the communities in the United States — have PAYT programs.

“Unit-Based Garbage Charges Create Positive Economic and Environmental Impact,” a study released last year by New York-based Green Waste Solutions and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), found that local governments with PAYT programs produce 467 pounds of landfilled trash per capita per year, compared with 918 pounds of landfilled trash per capita per year in non-PAYT communities.

Less trash sent to a landfill means less disposal costs. “While city managers may appreciate the environmental benefits of PAYT, most admit that the main driver is that of saving money and creating good, green jobs,” says Janice Canterbury, PAYT project manager for EPA’s Resource Conservation and Sustainability Division.

Beyond local communities, PAYT has garnered serious attention at the state level and has been adopted in many other countries in recent years.

A History of Success

• Fort Worth, Texas, cut its landfill disposal costs by more than $7 million after adopting PAYT, and in one year the city also earned $540,000 from the sale of recycled materials.
• The recycling rate in San Jose, Calif., spiked from 28 percent to 43 percent in the first year of the city’s PAYT program, and the rate rose to 55 percent by 1998.
• Dover, N.H., reduced its annual waste management costs from $1.2 million to $878,000 after adopting PAYT.
• Worcester, Mass., decreased its annual waste management expenses by $1.2 million after adopting PAYT in 1993 and increased its recycling rate from 3 percent to 36 percent. “The politics of the bag fee in Worcester were tough at the outset,” says Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray, who was mayor of Worcester when the PAYT program was implemented. “But we were able to build some consensus on the issue because we talked about it in the larger context of what services people value from their government, what they really cost to provide, and how we had to change if we were going to be able to deliver those services over the long term.”

“I think everyone has a role to play as an environmental steward, and by moving to a pay-per-bag model in Worcester it helped people focus not only on the true cost of waste disposal, but also how we use resources across the board, from what we produce to what we buy and, ultimately, to what we dispose of,” Murray adds. “The system has been a great success for Worcester, both fiscally and environmentally.

At the State Level

Over the years, PAYT has garnered serious attention at the state level. In fact, four states — Iowa, Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin — currently require PAYT programs for some or all residents. Minnesota and Washington require all communities in the state to implement PAYT, while Iowa and Wisconsin require communities not diverting at least 25 percent of their solid waste to adopt the system.

Iowa became a PAYT leader in the late 1980s when it passed legislation requiring counties and cities to reduce their landfilled solid waste by 50 percent. PAYT was enjoying increasing success in waste reduction across the United States at the time, and it became clear to Iowa officials that the method offered a powerful tool in its effort to reach its ambitious goal. Therefore, in 1994, the Iowa General Assembly mandated that all communities implement a PAYT program if they were unable to meet a 25 percent reduction in landfilled solid waste.

By 2006, nearly 60 percent of Iowa’s residents were participating in a PAYT program. In Cedar Rapids, a city of 120,000 residents, the average household now disposes less than 40 pounds per week, about 38 percent less than the national average. The entire city diverts nearly 9,000 tons of waste per year. The same success also has occurred in Monticello, where the average residence recycles 761 pounds per year.

A variety of PAYT-related assistance is provided in other states as well. Some states provide grants to cities implementing PAYT programs, while others fund workshops and educational opportunities to provide encouragement and guidance to local leaders considering such a program. For example, in Massachusetts, which is home to 130 PAYT programs and a 47 percent statewide recycling rate, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) funds a team of seven regional municipal assistance coordinators (MACs).

They provide technical waste reduction assistance to cities and towns throughout the state. MACs help implement local pilot projects and coordinate regional waste management approaches to improve cost effectiveness and accessibility of services. “Whether it’s evaluating the potential impacts of PAYT on solid waste budgets, educating elected officials, preparing outreach materials for public forums or working through roll-out logistics, MACs provide key assistance that paves the way for new programs,” says Brooke Nash of DEP’s Municipal Waste Reduction Program. In addition to the hands-on assistance, DEP distributes PAYT start-up funds to help new programs with education outreach, initial bag purchases and other related costs.

Finally, a growing number of states have incorporated PAYT in their State Master Plans or Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plans. In 2008, the Florida legislature established a goal of a statewide recycling rate of 75 percent by 2020 (the state’s recycling rate is currently 28 percent). Last year the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) released a plan to turn this goal into reality.

Based on extensive research and contributions from stakeholders, the state’s 75 Percent Recycling Goal Report identifies PAYT as a strategy for reaching the goal. The report cites a 2006 Skumatz Economic Research Associates analysis showing that PAYT programs increase recycling by approximately 50 percent without increasing costs for the majority of implementing communities. The analysis also says PAYT is the most effective action cities can take to increase recycling and diversion in the residential sector.

Some Florida communities already have experience with PAYT. In Gainesville, the city’s PAYT program netted an 18 percent decrease in the amount of waste collected and a 25 percent increase in recyclables recovered. It also saved the city more than $186,000 in disposal costs. Furthermore, Sarasota County’s PAYT program has yielded an overall recycling rate of 41 percent, the highest in the state.

In South Carolina, the Recycling Market Development Advisory Council (RMDAC), which is an advisory group to the governor, is urging local communities to adopt PAYT. “South Carolina’s recycling industry supports 37,440 jobs with an economic impact of $6.5 billion and is growing at a 12 percent annual rate,” says Gerry Fishbeck, chairman of RMDAC. “We have no other industry sector currently growing at this pace, and in order to continue, we need to change residential behavior.”

Growing Around the Globe

Taking their cue from success stories in the United States, countries around the world also are adopting PAYT. A large percentage of Europe’s citizens now have access to a PAYT program. In fact, in many nations, PAYT is the law. Countries like Denmark, France, Italy and the Netherlands have passed national legislation that not only requires PAYT but also gives guidance on how to design the program and develop rates. Germany and Belgium go a step further, with specific regulation on how localities are to handle waste management and basic principles for the application of charges.

From small towns in America’s heartland to European countries, PAYT is enabling communities to reduce their waste stream and slash disposal costs. 

Kristen Brown is a managing partner of Green Waste Solutions.

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Recycling Gets Its Own Stamp

The U.S. Postal Service launched a new line of stamps exhorting customers to "go green" and put the proverbial stamp on sustainability. If you feel as if there's not much one person can do to make a positive impact on the environment—just take a look at these Go Green (Forever®) stamps. They illustrate simple things we each can do every day. With only a few small changes to the way we live.

Out of milk? Walk or bike to the store. Repair that drippy faucet—the noise was driving you crazy, anyway. Switch to energy-efficient light bulbs. Put on a sweater instead of turning up the thermostat. Sun dry your sheets—they'll smell wonderful! Is it enough to make a difference? Absolutely. Recycling just one aluminum can reduces waste—and saves enough energy to run a computer for three hours. Multiply that by 10—or 200—cans. Simple insulation like caulking or weatherstripping pays for itself with reduced utility bills within one year. Properly inflating your car tires improves gas mileage by as much as three percent. You're not just saving the environment, you're saving—period. Suddenly small steps seem pretty big.

Go Green, a pane of 16 stamps, is the Postal Service's social awareness issue for 2011. These Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.

Stamps may be seen and purchased at by clicking here. NMRC just purchased these stamps and they're great!

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Governor Martinez Signs Prescription Drug Recycling Bill

From NM Business Weekly - Gov. Susana Martinez on April 7 signed a bill that will allow people who don’t use up their prescription drugs to return them to doctors who could give them free-of-charge to patients who can’t afford them. Martinez signed SB37, her office said in a news release.

Under the old law, any unused prescription medications returned to doctors had to be destroyed.

Supporters of the bill said it would help cancer patients and others with chronic diseases whose medications are expensive. Albuquerque oncologist Dr. Barbara McAneny, co-founder of the New Mexico Cancer Center, said that hundreds of thousands of dollars of medications get destroyed every year in New Mexico.

One five-pill bottle of chemotherapy medication that McAneny had returned by a patient cost $5,000, she said.

Medications are returned for a variety of reasons. Sometimes drug regimens are changed before a patient uses up a supply of a previously prescribed drug. Those changes could be the result of ineffective drugs, a worsening patient condition or severe side effects, McAneny said.

The New Mexico Board of Pharmacy supported the bill, which was sponsored by state Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque. The board will have to write regulations describing how drugs can be returned and re-distributed.

The Environmental Improvement Board is hosting a public hearing to confirm certain aspects on this bill. More info on this hearing can be found at http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/swb/

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NASA's Climate Kids' Web Resources for Educators

NASA's Climate Kids offer three websites targeted towards elementary school and middle school students. Please visit Climate Kids at climate.nasa.gov/kids where they answer the "big questions" about global climate change using 4-6th grade level language, simple and colorful illustrations, humor, interactivity and games. This kid-friendly site demystifies some of the most important sciene issues of our time. Other NASA websites for students include spaceplace.nasa.gov for elementary school aged children and scijinks.gov for middle schoolers.

Currently, Climate Kids is able to provide a limited number of mini-bookmarks, temporary tattoos and Save the Frogs and Butterflies! game to help support educational endeavors. For more information and to place requests, please contact Laura Lincoln at Laura.K.Lincoln@jpl.nasa.gov

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Hotel Soap Recycling Project Announced

From the USA Today -  Ever wonder what happens to leftover soap and shampoo at hotels? Most are thrown away. About 1 million partly used bars of soap are tossed out daily by U.S. hotels, according to Clean the World Foundation, a non-profit organization that recycles used soap for distribution to developing nations and homeless shelters. But recycling organizations such as Clean the World, based in Orlando, and Global Soap Project, based in Atlanta, are starting to get more attention from large hotel companies.

Clean the World said last week that it reached an agreement with Starwood Hotels to recycle soap, shampoo and lotion. They estimate about 1.6 million pounds of soap may be recycled each year because Starwood has about 176,000 rooms in North America. Starwood runs Westin, Sheraton and other hotel chains.

Clean the World has had collection deals with about 1,000 individual hotels, including about 100 Marriotts and 80 Hiltons. Some properties run by Carlson, Wyndham, Hyatt and Joie de Vivre Hotels also donate to the organization. But the Starwood partnership is its first corporatewide agreement with a large hotel company.

Clean the World charges hotels 65 cents a room to clean and redistribute soap and shampoo bottles. Its business has been growing so fast that it's creating a for-profit operation to raise money. The foundation will retain its non-profit status and continue to distribute reprocessed soap. But its for-profit Clean the World Global arm will sell its services to hotels. "It will allow us to get the capital we need to open local (recycling) centers. We really need that capital to grow," says Shawn Seipler, founder of Clean the World.

Since its founding two years ago, Clean the World says it has distributed more than 8 million bars of soap in the U.S. and more than 40 countries, including Haiti, Japan, Zimbabwe, Uganda, India and Mexico. It estimates its efforts have diverted about 550 tons of waste from polluting landfills in the U.S. and Canada. Each day, 9,000 children die from diseases that can be prevented by washing with soap, the organization says.

Seipler and co-founder Paul Till were corporate salesmen before quitting their jobs to embrace the cause. "I was staying at hotels four nights a week," Seipler says. "I started asking, 'What's going on with soap and bottles?' " They started collecting soap from 80 Orlando hotels and have since built recycling centers in Orlando, Las Vegas, Vancouver and Toronto.

Clean the World provides bins for housekeeping staff to deposit soap, shampoo and lotion bottles. The bottles are taken to a recycling plant, where soap is sterilized and reformed into 2-ounce bars. Its non-profit partners, including World Vision, Floating Doctors, The Salvation Army and St. Jude's Ranch for Children in Nevada, distribute reprocessed soap bars and cleaned shampoo bottles. Last year, its soap bars were distributed widely throughout Haiti by Orlando-based Cap Haitien Health Network after the earthquake.

Ken Kaylor, general manager at the Wyndham Garden in Boca Raton, Fla., says its recycling project with Clean the World struck home for many of its housekeepers, who are from Haiti. "By donating these items, we have also saved money for waste removal," he says.

Global Soap Project, a non-profit founded by Uganda-native Derreck Kayongo, is smaller than Clean the World, but its website says it sends cleaned soap to refugee camps and communities affected by poverty around the world. It received 115 pounds of soap late last year from the Wingate by Wyndham hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz. Five hotels in Minneapolis managed by Carlson, including the Country Inn & Suites Mall of America, have also signed on with Global Soap.

Some hotels prefer to work through local charities. The Doubletree by Hilton Orlando at Sea-World changed its toiletry brand and is donating unused items this week to the Central Florida Homeless Students, including 38 cases of body lotion and 15 cases of soap.

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New Mexico Makes Top Ten in US Green Building Council's Report

The U.S. Green Building Council announced its list of the top 10 states for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) buildings per capita in 2010, with western states leading the way. Nevada had the most green-built space per person of any state, and New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado were all in the top 10.

The top LEED states per capita, including the District of Columbia:
-District of Columbia: 25.15 sf
-Nevada: 10.92 sf
-New Mexico: 6.35 sf
-New Hampshire: 4.49 sf
-Oregon: 4.07 sf
-South Carolina: 3.19 sf
-Washington: 3.16 sf
-Illinois: 3.09 sf
-Arkansas: 2.9 sf
-Colorado: 2.85 sf
-Minnesota: 2.77 sf

.Read More

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New Member Highlight: El Paso C&D Recycling

El Paso C&D Recycling joined NMRC in late 2010. The company is West Texas/Southern New Mexico's only full scale construction waste recycling facility.  When the company's state of the art facility opened in 2009 as Texas' only such facility it started recycling and processing mixed construction waste.  It currently recycles gypsum, wood, cardboard, metals, plastics, concrete (with or without rebar), and asphalt shingles. 

El Paso C&D Recycling is continuing to expand the list of materials it can recycle and recently added asphalt shingles to it's list. The company is working on adding other materials soon to be announced.  Materials can be received either comingled or site separated.  El Paso C&D Recycling is also a full service hauling and container company which you may recognize by their neon green "GreenPaso.com" containers.   Its personnel are LEED and green building trained and provide free consulting for customers; waste management plans and LEED credits. 

El Paso C&D Recycling provides general construction waste hauling, or if needed can provided detailed load reports and breakdowns of materials received and recycled by weights and volume.  Materials recycled are also processed or bundled and available for purchase such as certified mulch products, paving materials, base coarse, fill material, cardboard, plastics, and metals.  To find out more please visit www.GreenPaso.com  or call 915-859-2890.

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Recycle Runway Unveils Environmental Steward-ess

Recycle Runway is a project created by artist and educator Nancy Judd. Judd creates couture fashion from trash as an innovative way to provide education about conservation. Judd notes that she has wanted to create a vintage flight attendant uniform using airline garbage for many years, so this commission from Delta Air Lines was a dream come true!

The uniform, hat and purse are sewn from worn-out leather seat covers from Delta planes. The cape is made from replaced safety cards, Sky Magazines, old plane tickets, and pretzel wrappers all cut into strips and sewn onto worn pillow cases. The cape was then lined with a discarded Delta blanket.
Read more…

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Standardized Labels for Recycling Bins Available

Recycling Bin Signs for Schools, Businesses, Organizations, Households available at www.recycleacrossamerica.org

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Recycling Brochure Available Online

Download NMRC's new Recycling Brochure with general information on how and why to recycle in New Mexico at Recycling Brochure

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Supply and demand for OCC continues to be steady. There is no change in the price for the month of May. Price for ONP went down $5 to $10 per Ton. The mill in Snowflake, AZ will not take all the available tons this month due to their need to reduce inventories. Demand for SOP is very strong. Expect price to go up $5 to $15 per Ton. No big changes on the price for plastics No 1 & No 2 and LDPE/Shrink Wrap.

Please note that the following prices reflect what recyclers in our region are paying for recyclable materials. Prices may differ due to presentation, transportation costs, or the amounts of materials being picked-up or delivered. The higher price usually applies to full or partial loads of baled material which require no further processing or reloading. These prices are good for the month of May.

* Only accepting 100 pounds plus of PET #1

Please note that this is a sample of what is being offered in New Mexico for certain commodities. Purchase prices for OCC and Paper are subject to change based on market fluctuations as reflected in the Southwest Region of the Official Board Markets’ Yellow Sheet. Prices vary according to presentation and quantity. These prices are for partial loads. Full truckloads of any of the materials would be paid at a greater price depending on the pick-up location and destination of the material.

Other resources:

http://www.amm.com/recman/recdata/reccomp.htm for national average commodity prices

http://www.wastenews.com/secondaryfiber/  

http://www.packaging-online.com/

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Recycling Scraps Sponsored By Dex

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Welcome to New Members 2011

Sean Gillespie, GreenPaso Services; Gordon West, Santa Clara Woodworks; Brian Gutierrez, Mr. G's Recycling; Joe McFarlin, EnviroEd, Inc; David Thomas, Rocking V Waterservices Corp; Jo Fanelli, Atlas Pumping Co., Inc.

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Regional Round Up

Santa Fe - Keep Santa Fe Beautiful collected 31 tons of material during its April 2nd e-waste colletion day. Residents dropped off unused computers, CRT monitors, computer peripherals, electronic equipment, cell phones and televisions

Four Corners Region - Dr. Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots program is accepting applications for the 2011 Annual Regional Youth Leadership Retreat. The Retreat will be held at the beautiful Wind River Ranch in Watrous, New Mexico from Friday, June 3 through Sunday, June 5, 2011. Applications are open to any high school aged youth who reside in the Four Corners Region (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, or Utah). Youth do not need to be a member of the Roots & Shoots program to be considered. If you or someone you know might be interested, please review the 2011 Youth Leadership Retreat application form. Application deadline is Monday, May 16, 2011.

Austin, Texas - Sustainable Highway Construction with Industrial Byproducts Conference, November 1st & 2nd, 2011. More Information at: http://rma.org/scrap_tires/conferences_and_events/industrial_byproducts_conference/

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Grants, Loans and Jobs

State Loans

NMED Constructions Programs Bureau offers low-interest loans for solid waste projects: http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/cpb/rip.html

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Recycling Tidbits

Initiative Aims to Recycle 1 Billion Pounds of E-waste a Year
A new national initiative has a goal of increasing U.S. e-waste recycling to one billion pounds of electronics annually, according to the plan organized by the Consumer Electronics Association.   More»

Starbucks Makes Progress on Plan to Recycle Cups
Starbucks Coffee Co., in a new Global Responsibility Report, says the company is on track to reach a goal of finding ways to recycling its cups.   More»

Survey Finds Consumers Like Recycled Materials
From Resource Recycling - The American Chemistry Council has released the results of a survey on the inclinations of consumers to purchase items made from recycled materials. More>>

Dell, Goodwill Recycle 95 Million Pounds of e-waste in FY'11
Dell, through its partnership with Goodwill Industries in the U.S. and Canada, recycled 95 million pounds of electronics in fiscal 2011. Globally, 150 million pounds were collected, a 16% increase in the program from the previous year. The partnership kept nearly 35 tons of e-waste out of New Mexico landfills in 2010.   More»

WM Inc. Partners with Firm to Recycle Medical Sharps
Waste Management Inc. and Becton, Dickinson and Co. are launching a new program to recycle medical sharps waste from hospitals and other healthcare facilities.   More»

U.S. Paper & Paperboard Capacity on the Decline
From Resource Recycling - The total paper and paperboard capacity in the U.S. continues to decline, according to the results of a survey from the American Forest & Paper Association. More>>

Earth911 Joins Consortium on Lifecycles of Products
Earth911 has joined the Sustainability Consortium, a group of scientists and engineers working to develop a global database of information on the lifecycle of products.   More»

Microsoft to Use 100% Post-Consumer Recycled Paper
Microsoft Corp. will now only use 100% post-consumer recycled printing paper at the company´s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., and all of its Puget Sound facilities.   More»

Oregon Bottle Bill Headed for Update
From Resource Recycling - Forty years after Oregon passed the nation's first bottle bill, the state legislature is working on a significant overhaul the landmark container deposit return system. More>>

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Calendar

The NMRC board meets 5 times a year and members are always welcome to attend the meetings. We welcome your input and are always looking for new board members for our September election. We have also started offering a call-in option to board meetings. If you wish to attend any of the meetings, please RSVP ahead of time to english@recyclenewmexico.com.

• May 12, 9 AM - 1 PM: NMRC Board Meeting, Los Alamos.

• June 9, 9 AM - 4 PM: Free Recycling Workshop - Hub & Spoke Recycling: The Next Generation, Albuquerque
• June 9, 6 PM - 9PM: NMRC 20th Anniversary Coming of Age Celebration, Albuquerque

• September 14, 9 AM - 1 PM: NMRC Board Meeting, Moriarty.

• November 3-4, 11:30 AM start on the 3rd, ending 1 PM on the 4th: NMRC Board Retreat, Sevilleta.

All these meetings are posted online at www.recyclenewmexico.com/calendar.htm

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2011 Recycling and Composting Facility Operator Certification

Recycling Facility Operators Certification Courses

May 17-19, Ruidoso register

Held at Eastern NM University with a tour of Greentree Recycling Center.

*December 6-8, Santa Fe register   Held at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center with a tour of the Buckman Road Recycling and Transfer Station

Compost Facility Operators Certification Courses

April 12-14, Ruidoso register  

Held at Eastern NM University with a tour of BioGrind facility.

*October 4-6, Albuquerque register  

Held at the Fire Academy with a tour of Soilutions & the Soil Amendment Facility.

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If you have questions about any of the above information or have articles for future Recycling Scraps, please e-mail or call

English Bird, Executive Director

New Mexico Recycling Coalition

PO Box 24364, Santa Fe, NM 87502

english@recyclenewmexico.com

(505) 983-4470