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

Water

Recession in recycling

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(MN) Minneapolis Star Tribune – Battered by falling prices for recycled commodities, one of the Twin Cities’ best-known recycling firms is asking the cities it serves to renegotiate recycling contracts to help the company survive. Officials with Eureka Recycling, one of the largest nonprofit recyclers in the country, say the business is not in immediate danger. Tim Brownell, Eureka’s co-president, said the changes are meant to prepare the company for the future. 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

Recreation

Dredged silt from Lake Macatawa will be used as soil to help build parks in Ottawa County

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(MI) Grand Rapids Press – Reclaimed soil from the bottom of Lake Macatawa will be heaped on dry land this summer to help build parks in four area townships. As much as 200,000 cubic yards of dried lake silt will be distributed by the Holland Board of Public Works and the Army Corps of Engineers to build or improve parks in Fillmore, Laketown, Park and Zeeland townships. Since 1997, the Corps deposited the dredgings in a 48-acre containment facility at Waverly Avenue and Lakewood Boulevard. The facility now is full of nutrient-rich black dirt that will be hauled to the four townships and three other sites. More

Echo

New York State Ordered to Delay Deposits on Water Bottles

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(NY) The New York Times -A federal judge has blocked state officials from implementing an expansion of the state’s recycling laws that would include a deposit on water bottles, a delay that could cost the state tens of millions of dollars that it was counting on to balance its budget this year. In an order issued late last week, Judge Thomas P. Griesa of United States District Court in Manhattan ordered state officials to wait until next April 1 before requiring retailers to collect a 5-cent deposit on bottled water. More

Waste

Mural represents Carman-Ainsworth school’s growing interest in recycling

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(MI) Flint Journal – A little paint, creativity and a “garbage tree” are going a long way toward making the Flint area a more beautiful place. Students at Carman-Ainsworth’s Academic Acceleration Academy incorporated those elements into a mural to promote recycling in Flint. Their effort so impressed a grant committee that they received money from a fund usually reserved for outdoor projects. The students received $500 from the Ruth Mott Foundation, said Laura Hammond, educational specialist at AAA. More

Echo

Suing to Stop Bottled Water From Getting a Deposit Fee

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(NY) The New York Times – A coalition of bottled water companies filed suit on Tuesday to block an expanded bottle deposit law scheduled to take effect next month, arguing that the law, which imposes a deposit fee on bottled water sold in New York State, is unconstitutional. The new law requires distributors to collect a 5-cent deposit per bottle of water, which can in turn be redeemed by consumers, provisions designed to encourage New Yorkers to recycle the billions of water bottles now thrown away each year. But companies that bottle water must affix a new universal product code label to bottles sold in New York. More