Plastic Building Blocks

Plastic Building Blocks: Researchers from IBM Corp. and Stanford University today will announce a testing program for a recycling technology that could make it much easier for beverage makers to reuse plastic, thereby greatly reducing the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills, the Associated Press reports:

"The innovation is a new family of catalysts that can reduce polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic to its basic building blocks, while retaining its original properties and making it ´ridiculously economical´ to build it back up again, said Bob Allen, senior manager of chemistry and functional materials for IBM´s Almaden research center in Silicon Valley."

This is one of the major keys to duplicating nature's cycles.  Our non-compostable wastes need to be economically broken down into its simplest compounds or elements which can then be used to make new products over and over again.  If renewable clean energy is used for these processes, then we truly can realize the vision of a sustainable planet.  

Increasing Costs of HHW Programs

As this story illustrates, the cost for managing household hazardous waste is skyrocketing as more products are banned from the landfill and as homeowners become more educated and try to responsibly dispose of waste.

County in California now supports product stewardship

March 8 -- Nevada County, Calif., now supports product stewardship.

The county´s board of supervisors has adopted a resolution supporting the concept of product stewardship, also known as extended producer responsibility.

The move comes as the county said it has seen a 1,600% increase in its costs to manage household hazardous wastes during the last nine years.

"If we only concern ourselves with the disposal of a product, we miss significant opportunities to reduce the overall cost to manage these products by designing them more efficiently in the first place," said Mark Miller, director of the county Department of Sanitation. "All stakeholders in the product chain need to share in the responsibility, whether it´s public education, acting as a collection venue, or the consumers returning the product for recycling at convenient collection locations."

"Product stewardship calls for producers to share in the responsibility for managing their products and packaging by incentivizing them to design more durable, less toxic and repairable products," the county said.

Nevada County and 80 other California cities and counties support "producer responsibility," according to the California Product Stewardship Counci

Ohio Recycling Goals Plan

Ohio sets waste reduction, recycling goals

March 5 – New waste reduction and recycling goals have been set for all of Ohio’s 52 solid waste management districts.

"I challenge all of Ohio’s residents, communities and businesses to increase recycling efforts so our state can become a leader in practices that reduce our reliance on landfills when managing solid waste," said Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Chris Korleski.

The plan, developed by Ohio EPA and the state Solid Waste Management Advisory Council, focuses on improving community-based recycling programs. Another segment of the plan has the state EPA streamlining rules to permit and operate waste-to-energy facilities and looking for new ways to capture landfill methane.

Current state goals set a statewide recycling goal of 50%; state EPA reports state the highest rate achieved was 45% in 2002.

The new plan is available by contacting the Division of Solid and Infectious Waste Management at 614-644-2621.

Reuseable Packaging

Reusable Packaging group backs product stewardship

March 5 – The Reusable Packaging Association is officially supporting product stewardship, also known as extended producer responsibility, the group said.

"The RPA is embracing this important issue because our goal is to promote the value and expansion of reusable materials as preferred packaging solutions across supply chains, private or public," said Tim Debus, chairman of RPA’s Industry Development Committee.

Product stewardship, as defined by the U.S. EPA, is a product-centered approach to environmental protection, the RPA said.

The RPA calls itself a "collaborative effort between manufacturers, poolers, distributors, retailers and educators to promote the environmental, safety, and economic benefits of reusable packaging."

"Also known as extended product responsibility (EPR), product stewardship calls on those in the product life cycleùmanufacturers, retailers, users, and disposersùto share responsibility for reducing the environmental impacts of products," according to the EPA.

Recycling Used Carpet

Flooring networks partner to increase carpet recycling

March 1 -- Two flooring business networks are collaborating to increase the recycling of used carpet removed from homes and businesses.

ReSource Commercial Flooring Network members are now part of the Carpet America Recovery Effort´s Aligned Dealer program.

"ReSource dealers are a welcome addition to CARE´s Aligned Dealers Program," said CARE Executive Director Georgina Sikorski. Since its inception in 2002 as a joint industry-government effort, CARE has helped divert more than 1.3 billion pounds of post-consumer carpet from landfills and has led efforts to find and market new products that can be made from post-consumer carpet.

"ReSource has consistently supported CARE as a corporate member, and we are pleased that our members have chosen to support CARE individually as well," said ReSource Vice President Ken Daniels. "Partnering with CARE on the membership as well as the corporate level further demonstrates ReSource´s comprehensive commitment to environmental sustainability," he added. Resource also collects carpet for reclamation or recycling.