Seattle Ponders Ways To Reach 60 Percent Recycling
Fourteen years ago, the city of Seattle set an ambitious goal of recycling 60 percent of its waste by 2008. Now, the city is trying to determine what it would take to finish the job. The city's recycling rate now stands at about 40 percent, and city officials acknowledge that the original plan may have been too optimistic. But Seattle is still well ahead of the 30 percent national average, in part because of an enthusiastic population. Reaching 60 percent could mean sending another truck to pick up food scraps, which make up 20 percent of total waste, or offering free curbside service to businesses, which now mostly use optional private recycling services...Read More »
Bush Administration Offers New Wetlands Guidance
The Bush administration has issued new, and controversial, guidance regarding federal authority over the nation's wetlands. The new guidance attempts to clarify the authority of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over isolated, non-navigable wetlands. Federal authority to protect such wetlands from development was called into question by a 2001 Supreme Court decision in a case brought by a developer who was penalized for filling manmade ponds that were providing habitat for migratory birds. Under the latest decision, the EPA and Corps are instructing their field staff not to require permits under the Clean Water Act for the pollution or destruction of wetlands that are located within a single state and are not associated with any navigable waterway, such as a lake or river...Read More »
Tucson MRF Triples City's Recycling Rate
Tucson has tripled its once-poor recycling rate, and credits its MRF for much of the increase. The plant sorts an estimated 250 tons of recyclables a week. The plant was retrofitted last fall for $3 million, and is now working overtime to handle the surge in recycling that accompanied the city's switch to blue barrels. The city of Tucson and Recycle America, which owns and runs the plant, split revenues 50-50 after Recycle America charges the city $11 for each ton delivered to the plant...Read More »
EPA Initiates New Campaign To Recycle E-Waste
The EPA has launched a new campaign to encourage Americans to reuse or recycle their used electronics. The Plug-In To Recycling Campaign, a partnership of Best Buy, AT&T Wireless, Sony, Panasonic, Dell, Sharp, Recycle America, Envirocycle, Inc. and NxtCycle is intended to raise awareness of the value of reusing and recycling electronics, and to provide increased opportunities to do so across the country. The campaign is one of several new EPA efforts under the Agency's Resource Conservation Challenge, which seeks to increase the national recycling rate from 30 to 35 percent and cut the generation of 30 harmful chemicals by 2005...Read More »
New York Restarts Some Recycling Programs
In an effort to resume recycling programs cut last year due to budget constraints, New York City officials have announced that a small New Jersey-based recycling company has agreed to pay the city $5.15 per ton for removing plastic and metal garbage. The program will be less expensive than the recycling programs suspended last year by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and is set to begin in July. City Sanitation Department officials said they hoped to sign a contract in the next two months with the company, Hugo Neu Schnitzer East. The city would save $70 a ton on plastic recycling under the five-year contract, Sanitation officials said, noting that larger bidders wanted the city to pay them for garbage collection...Read More »
Locus Releases New eWaste Software Program
Locus Technologies has announced the release of eWaste, a new hazardous waste and chemicals management software. eWaste is designed for the classification, labeling, packaging, lab packing, storage, manifesting, transporting, disposal, tracking, and reporting on hazardous waste and hazardous chemicals. It automatically assigns EPA and DOT regulatory information to waste chemical products. The program also helps clients determine the chemical compatibility of their waste chemicals, and safely assigns them to containers with compatible items...Read More »
Waste Management Will Form New Recycling Alliance
Waste Management Inc. will form a new recycling unit, which will contribute about $200 million to 2003 revenue and $18 million to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. In a press release Monday, the company said it will own 90% of the new Recycle America Alliance, while the Peltz Group, a privately held Milwaukee-based recycler, will own the remaining stake. Waste Management plans to invest $58 million cash in the recycling unit, which will have about 3,300 employees and 80 recycling plants. The company had 2001 revenue of $11.32 billion, EBITDA of $3.03 billion, and net income of $503 million, or 80 cents a share. New York Stock Exchange-listed shares of Waste Management recently traded at $ 23.77, down 19 cents, or 0.8%, on composite volume of 356,000 shares. Two million shares trade on an average day...Read More »
Weston Wins Major Air Force Services Contract
Weston Solutions, Inc. has been selected by the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence at Brooks AFB, Texas, to share in a $1.1 billion Architecture & Engineering services contract. Under the contract, estimated at $55 million by the government, WESTON will support Air Force efforts in the environmental sector, as well as the service's work to upgrade and modernize the infrastructure at active military installations worldwide. The A&E contract will have an ordering period of five years with two-year extensions. WESTON will provide a variety of services under the contract, including environmental restoration, conservation, planning, compliance and pollution prevention...Read More »
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