Waste

Daley aide, aldermen clash over delay of blue-cart recycling program

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – Mayor Richard Daley’s top budget aide tried Wednesday to convince the City Council that the wheels aren’t falling off the city’s blue-cart recycling program, even as he acknowledged there would be no major expansion of the program to most of the city for at least another year. There’s no new funding for blue carts in Daley’s proposed 2010 spending plan that freezes the Streets and Sanitation budget. As a result, some households will likely see their recycling picked up less frequently, city Budget Director Eugene Munin said on the first day of budget hearings. More

Waste

Nudging Recycling From Less Waste to None

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(NY) The New York Times – Across the nation, an antigarbage strategy known as “zero waste” is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, taking hold in school cafeterias, national parks, restaurants, stadiums and corporations. The movement is simple in concept if not always in execution: Produce less waste. Shun polystyrene foam containers or any other packaging that is not biodegradable. Recycle or compost whatever you can. More

Waste

Wyoming to incinerate unused medicines

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(MI) Grand Rapids Press – There is a new prescription for all those unused pills in the medicine cabinet: Incineration. Wyoming this fall plans to launch a medicine collection program in partnership with about 25 pharmacies in the city. The effort aims to get excess drugs beyond the reach of children and other unauthorized users without flushing them into the sewer system and, ultimately, into area drinking water. “The main thing is just getting rid of it,” said City Councilman Jack Poll, a pharmacist. “There are just a ton of prescription drugs sitting in people’s homes and, obviously, the easiest thing to do is dump them in the trash or flush them down the toilet.” More

Waste

Green glass glut grows worrisome

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By Hyonhee Shin
Oct. 17, 2009
LANSING, Mich. — After a fine dinner with a glass of wine or beer, where do the green bottles go? The answer is troubling for many environmentally conscious consumers. Michigan has a long record of recycling, and glass is one of the most recycled materials, but not green glass.

Waste

Ann Arbor considers $3.5 million upgrade to recycling system

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(MI) AnnArbor.com – Ann Arbor residents might not have to sort their recyclables in the future – and they might even get rewarded for recycling – if the City Council ultimately passes a proposal reviewed Monday evening. In a special work session, council members were presented with a $3.5 million plan that would convert Ann Arbor’s Materials Recovery Facility into what’s referred to as a single-stream operation. More

Waste

Garbage-to-ethanol plant would change town

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(IN) The Post-Tribune – Yellowed photos and a school yearbook tell the story of a rural town of 300 people whose lives may never be the same again if a $285 million, first-of-its-kind garbage-to-ethanol plant becomes a reality. The vast majority of Schneider’s populace hopes it will. Businesses come and go, struggle to stay alive in and around this burg that hugs the Kankakee River and, while most residents work outside of town, many are unemployed, they say. More

Waste

Michigan Tailgate Tries for Zero Waste

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(MI) The Ann Arbor Chronicle – At a pre-game tailgate hosted by the UM Alumni Association, a team of  Student Sustainability Initiative SSI) volunteers came up at least three coffee creamer containers shy of their goal: a “zero waste” tailgate. Those three coffee creamer containers came from Edward J. Vander Velde — from the 50th reunion class of 1959 — who kidded the volunteers who were staffing one of the waste stations inside Oosterbaan Fieldhouse, saying, “We’re still short of perfect!” More

Waste

Ann Arbor City Council to consider single-stream recycling system

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(MI) AnnArbor.com – A proposal to convert Ann Arbor’s recycling facility so residents wouldn’t have to sort their recycled papers from their plastics is being sent over to the City Council next week. The specifics of the proposal won’t be available until council members get their first look at the Oct. 12 work session. The proposal could be considered at a council meeting as soon as Nov. 5.

Waste

Schools promote waste-free lunches

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – In the lunchroom at Stowe Elementary School in Duluth, Minn., forlorn piles of half-eaten sandwiches and bruised bananas are transformed from trash to treasure. Instead of tossing their uneaten school lunch scraps in the garbage bin, Stowe students donate their leftover fruits and vegetables to the school’s worm compost. Items that aren’t as compost-friendly, such as breads and potatoes, are donated to area farmers, who feed the free and tasty slop to their pigs. “Knowing it won’t all be going into a landfill feels good,” said 10-year-old Bradley MacDougall. More

Waste

Ann Arbor to revisit plastic shopping bag ban

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(MI) AnnArbor.com – A plastic shopping bag ban for the city’s largest retailers will be back before the Ann Arbor City Council tonight. If passed, the ordinance would bar retailers that have gross annual sales of more than $1 million from providing plastic bags. The ordinance doesn’t apply to the small plastic bags often available for produce at grocery stores. More