MassRecycle Annual Event & Recycling Awards
MassRecycle is pleased to announce the recipients of the
2006 Recycling Awards presented at its Annual Event Ceremony on October
25 at
the DCU Center
in Worcester.
Jessica Wozniak and Ann Dorfman
presented the following awards:
- Small
Municipal Recycling Award: Town of Marshfield
Department of Public Works. The town has taken bold steps in the
past two
years to improve its municipal waste program and is getting results. Trash tonnage from June 2006 was 10.0% lower
than in June of 2005 and paper recovery increased by 12.3%. Deborah Sullivan, Recycling Coordinator and
Robert Griffin, Solid Waste Advisory Committee member accepted the
award.
- Large
Municipal Recycling Award: Southeast Regional Recycling Partnership
(SERRP). SERRP is comprised of
municipal
representatives from Foxborough, Mansfield,
North Attleborough, Plainville
and Wrentham. One of its many
accomplishments
is the Regional Reuse and Recycling Guide, distributed through
collaboration with The Sun Chronicle.
Barbara Riha of Foxborough, Laura Coffey of
North Attleborough, Debbie Revelle of Plainville,
and Maureen Osolnik of Wrentham accepted the award.
- Recycling
Business Award: Save That Stuff, Inc (STS) of Boston. In
addition to recycling commingled cans and
bottles, mixed paper, scrap
metal, electronics and organics, STS is starting a pilot program to
recycle wallboard. They
conduct waste audits of their clients’ facilities to evaluate waste
composition,
current collection systems, equipment, and storage areas, with an eye
towards
optimizing recycling and waste reduction. Adam Mitchell and Erik Levy
accepted
this award.
- Institutional
Recycling Award: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The Museum has been recycling for over ten
years! The award was given as a result
of the Museum’s work to expand their
recycling program to food services.Manager of
Food Services accepted the award. They even recycle their exhibit
materials. They participate in many energy saving programs by
replacing older mechanical equipment, or taking recommendations from
their utility company. Peter Major, the General Manager of Food Services
accepted the award.
- The last award presented was for Recycler
of the Year, given to William Walsh, the Recycling
Coordinator for the Town of Blackstone. Bill started the Blackstone Valley Regional
Recycling Center
from donations to provide incentives to local communities to recycle
more. He negotiated with many communities
to use
the Center, including a composting agreement with the City of
Woonsocket, Rhode
Island, which provides additional funding for the Center.
He is establishing an Advisory Committee to
be comprised of a representative of each enterprise that is
participating
member, to collectively address additional recycling needs in their
communities.
Sponsors of the Event included Allied
Waste Services, American Plastics
Council, Conigliaro Industries, Covanta Energy, MA
Operational Services Division, and Waste
Management Recycle America.
MA Municipal Recycler's Workshop ~ A Huge Success!
A standing room only crowd converged on Worcester State College on
January 11 to attend the Massachusetts Municipal Recycler's Workshop.
Speakers ranging from MassDEP employees to local Recycling Coordinators
shared strategies and techniques to increase the amount of material
recycled in communities across the state, whether the community
supports curbside recycling, pay-as-you-throw, or another method, and
to get the word out to citizens about the benefits of recycling.
Discussion and networking among attendees was lively throughout the
day, and in fact, the only negative comment heard was that the planners
didn’t schedule enough time for casual conversation. During breaks,
attendees were welcome to visit several Reuse/Swap Shop exhibits.
Tessa David, Executive Director of the North Central Regional Solid
Waste Cooperative, said “while I had heard Cambridge’s ‘If it Rips,
Recycle it’ and Newton’s ‘If you can Rip it, Recycle it,’ I really
connected with the need for the slogans after hearing Randi Mail,
Cambridge’s Recycling Director, Courtney Forrester, Newton’s Solid
Waste Manager, Claire Sullivan, South Shore Recycling Cooperative’s
Executive Director and Tina Klein, MassDEP Household Hazardous Waste
Program Manager, talk about how much more of this basic recyclable
paper, there still is to be recycled. I was thrilled to have had the
opportunity to hear and meet Ann McGovern after hearing several of my
communities rave about what a great composting presenter she is.”
Daniel Harty, Material Separation Coordinator for Covanta, opined, “the
meeting gave me many new ideas on how to ‘spread the word’ including
Welcome Wagons, notices at town meetings, and other publicity outlets.”
There were a great many lessons learned: Claire Sullivan spoke about
the costs of producing new paper and offered a convincing and
fact-filled formula to learn the economic and environmental benefits of
recycling paper. Tina Klein described North Andover’s efforts to
publicize waste ban enforcement. Three types of communication were
used: a doorknob hanger, a phone call, and a visit by a well rehearsed
chaperoned youngster. Statistics proved that citizens, not
surprisingly, paid the most attention to the child! Ann McGovern,
MassDEP, and Franciso Moris, City of Lawrence, spoke enthusiastically
about the Green Team and other school programs that get students of all
ages hooked on recycling.
Based on the success of this workshop, MassRecycle plans to present a
similar workshop every year! MassRecycle gratefully acknowledges those
who sponsor this event: Jorgel Binders, Recycle America Alliance,
Abitibi Consolidated, FCR Recycling/Casella Waste, Covanta and Save
That Stuff.
Container Recycling Alliance Tour
By Angie
Sottile-Fowler, Recycling Coordinator, Town of Framingham
I was among a group gathered at the
CRA Facility on November 14 to learn about the processing of discarded
glass into a marketable material that is used as feedstock in
Massachusetts’ glass manufacturing. The tour, organized by MassRecycle
and MassDEP, began with an introduction to the CRA Facility, owned and
operated by Waste Management.
Glass recycling can be “bottle to bottle” but this facility provides a
crushed glass product that is used in a variety of applications
including remanufacturing into glass bottles. The market is good for
glass right now; even green colored has a positive value! The high
price of energy is an incentive for manufacturers to use increased
amounts of recovered materials in place of virgin materials. We
were given a little bit of recycling trivia: in amber glass, 85-90% can
be recycled content. Generally, glass is produced with over 50% glass
aggregate. The recycled materials replace raw materials, thus saving
sand, soda and ash; a true energy savings.
CRA sorts the glass to meet the specific requirements of a glass buyer.
There are specific recipes for each different glass. CRA is diligent in
blending colors as necessary to provide a consistent end product to
clients. In addition, by operating the single color stream they
can meet the specifications of higher market value materials. More
efficient sorting and processing of the materials is better in terms of
the economics for the processor, CRA.
Glass processors are looking for more glass from curbside or drop-off
programs. Although most contamination is taken out along the processing
line, it still can be an issue. Ceramics, Pyrex, mirrors, light
bulbs and window glass are a very real problem even in very small
quantities. A small piece of ceramic in a batch of glass can
cause the whole batch to be discarded.
Other contamination materials are sorted out as much as possible and
recycled to avoid as much waste as possible. Plastic by volume is the
largest contaminant. Steel and aluminum are also found in the
contamination stream. Altogether the plant experiences < 5% residue
and lately has been able to process a good quality glass with as little
as 2% residue.
There are two lines of separation at CRA, the straight color sort and
the 3-mix sort. Straight color sorts flint, amber and green as
individual colors and are marketed as a pure color. The 3-mix
sort requires additional processing.
The economics of disposal and recovery for municipalities is promoting
increased glass recycling. Curbside recycling is usually a 3-mix
stream, while a drop-off collection may provide a single color
collection. There is a definite increase in recovery and contamination
with a single stream collection. This is causing an increase in the
3-mix stream which will add time and cost to the sorting processes,
thereby passing the costs from the processor to the
municipality.
Annual Event & Recycling Awards 2005
MassRecycle is pleased to
announce
the recipients of the 2005 Recycling Awards presented at MassRecycle’s
Annual Event
Ceremony on November 2 at the DCU
Center in Worcester.
Awards were presented to individuals and groups who have made
outstanding contributions
to recycling in the state. Green Ribbon Friends were also recognized
for their
contributions. Special thanks were given to Marcia Deegler of MA
Operational Services Division (OSD) for her contributions towards the
Awards
Ceremony. Sponsors of the event included Abitibi Consolidated, Allied
Waste
Services, American Plastics Council, Interstate Refrigerant Recovery,
Recycle America Alliance,
and Save That Stuff.
MassRecycle presented the
Small
Municipal Recycling Award to Wrentham’s Recycling Committee. The
committee is comprised of committed and talented volunteers that lead
many town
recycling efforts. It implemented a successful and hard-fought-for PAYT
program
in July 2004. After one year, results indicate a 33% decrease in trash
and a
20% increase in recycling. The program has so far saved the town $133K in
avoided
tip fees. In 2003, the Committee joined four neighboring towns to form
the
Southeast Regional Recycling Partnership (SERRP), which
implemented
the Five Star Bin & Win Program, a six-month residential
recycling incentive
program. As part of SERRP, the Committee helped develop a recycling program
to serve businesses of all sizes in the five town region and worked to
establish a regional HHW collection for residents. For more
information, contact
Alan Phipps, Recycling Committee Chair, at 508-876-1124.
The City of Gloucester
received the
Large Municipal Recycling Award. This north shore city of 30,273
residents views recycling as a technique to curb trash bills and to
conserve
resources. Gloucester
stands out for its extensive number of items accepted, high citizen
participation rate, eagerness to share ideas with other towns, use and
promotion
of recycled products, and enthusiastic support from local officials.
The
recycling program is not only a prime example of financially smart
solid waste management;
it is also a brilliant example of partnerships and community
involvement. The city’s
tireless recycling coordinator,
Sue Mitchell, refuses to be
singled out for her contributions, with great pride she always credits
her
enthusiastic fellow citizens and volunteers.
For more information,
contact Sue Mitchell at 978-281-9785.
MassRecycle presented
this
year’s Recycling Manufacturer of the Year Award to Todd Truesdale,
founder and president of Recycled Paper Printing Inc. (RPP) in Boston.
Since the mid-1980s, RPP has been a tenacious and highly effective
advocate for
recycled-content products and environmentally preferable printing
practices. RPP
has traded exclusively in recycled papers since day one. They are also
a
national leader in the promotion of chlorine-free papers, have
developed an
expertise in soy inks, and frequently offer advice on contract writing
to state
and local governments when they write or rewrite their procurement
documents.
RPP has been a pioneer in spreading the message that doing the right
thing is
easy and cost-effective for businesses. From selling boxes of recycled
xerographic paper out of a home-office over 20 years ago to running a
dynamic thriving
enterprise, RPP has worked tirelessly to evolve into a multifaceted
printing
and mailing corporation. For more information, contact Todd Truesdale
at
617-737-9911.
The Massachusetts State
Lottery
developed a creative and effective way to reduce lottery ticket litter
and
waste through the “Instant Re-Play” program, thus receiving the
Institutional
Recycling Award this year. The program gives adults the opportunity to
collect 25 non-winning Massachusetts Lottery tickets and redeem them
for a free
$1.00 instant ticket. The Lottery has demonstrated a real commitment to
reduce
the impact of lottery tickets on the environment, both through the
Instant
Re-Play program and its use of recycled content in its tickets. Since
August 2004,
the Massachusetts Lottery has held nine recycling events that resulted
in the
collection of over 81 tons of instant tickets. The Massachusetts State
Lottery
is the only lottery in the country that redeems instant tickets for the
sole
purpose of recycling. For more information, contact David O’Reilly at
781-849-5594.
The last award presented
was
for Recycler of the Year, which was given to Jan Ameen, the
Executive Director of the Franklin County Solid Waste Management
District (FCSWMD)
in Greenfield.
Jan became the Director of the FCSWMD six years ago and brought the
District
into financial health while expanding many programs. Jan has helped
make the
District a well managed and leader among solid waste management
districts in New England. Jan has
also made great contributions to the
Springfield MRF Advisory Board as a representative for the past eight
years.
While she has not been an officer of the Board, she has been a
consistent and
valuable contributor of her time and talents. Her common sense and
professional
experience bring depth and strength to the decisions made by the Board.
Most importantly,
under her tireless leadership as the previous MassRecycle President,
Jan grew
the organization to be financially healthy and now able to lead and
contribute
to recycling efforts in the Commonwealth. This year’s Recycler of the
Year
Award was presented in memory of Nancy Daday, who greatly contributed
to
the City of Attleboro’s
recycling program before she passed away this July.
ReStore Home Improvement Tour
As
part of the DEP/ MassRecycle tours, “Where
Do Your Materials Go?” about twenty guests toured Fitchburg’s Recycle America
Enterprises
(RAE), an asphalt roofing shingle recycler on September 22. Tour
participants learned that RAE, a recent startup, accepts roofing
shingles and processes
them into cold patch for use in roadways, driveways, parking lots and
access
roads. RAE sorts and recycles other roofing materials such as nails,
flashing,
wood, and plastic wrap. RAE is sourcing material from roofers, and
demolition
and construction contractors, while at the same time seeking end-users
for its
product. Interested parties can learn
more about RAE at www.recycle-america.com or by calling 978-342-2200.
Newark America & Recycle America Enterprises (RAE)
Tour
By
Claire Sullivan, Executive Director, SSRC
On September 22, I was one of the first
26 lucky registrants who got to tour NewarkAmerica, the Newark Group’s
state-of-the-art Fitchburg
paper-to-paper mill which opened in 2002. MassRecycle’s Jess Wozniak
and
DEP’s Steve Long arranged the visit to this ultrahigh tech facility, as
part of the DEP/ MassRecycle tour series “Where Do Your Materials Go?”
General
Manager, Dana Pelletier gave the group a presentation, including a
virtual tour, explaining that the mill’s sole product is the high
quality NewEx
Graphic Board, manufactured from 100% recycled paper. The
fully automated manufacturing line consumes 400 tons per day of mixed
residential paper (newspaper, magazines, and cardboard) brokered by
North
Shore Recycled Fibers, and sourced mostly from municipal recycling
programs. The purchase of equipment that sorts out cardboard and
removes paper
clips, staples, and other contaminants was supported with a MA DEP
Recycling Industries
Reimbursement Credit grant in 2001.
The facility’s 123 employees oversee the
creation of 90,000 tons/year of a laminated product that becomes covers
for loose
leaf binders, school yearbooks, game boards, and puzzles. The material
actually
makes its way into some best selling books!
To minimize the impact on the local
water and sewer treatment facilities, NewarkAmerica recycles three
million
gallons/ day of the process water. It
also sends 40 tons/day of non-metal residuals such as clay to
Massachusetts Natural
Fertilizer in Westminster,
a commercial-scale composting facility.
Newark’s
Massachusetts based paper mills, also located in Haverhill
and Natick,
consume 70-80% of the Commonwealth’s residential
mixed paper. With the Fitchburg
facility at 65%
capacity, Newark
is hungry for our waste paper. After seeing an enormous roll of
near-finished product
that started as a 20 yard dumpster full of waste paper, I know that I’d
rather
see it go into a book cover than a landfill!
SWANA's Annual Solid Waste Conference & Trade Show
The Massachusetts Chapter
of
SWANA (Solid Waste Association of North America) would like to
cordially thank attendees,
speakers & exhibitors for participating in this year’s solid waste
conference held at the Cape Codder Resort in Hyannis. This year’s multiday
conference with
featured partners MA DEP, MassRecycle and the Construction Materials
Recycling Association,
attracted over 150 attendees. Highlights included multiple technical
sessions covering
topics such as landfill operations, unwanted medications, waste bans,
and
gypsum wallboard recycling. “Plastic Recycling: Beyond the MRF” and
“Solid
Waste & Recycling Contract Development” were the most talked about
sessions! Attendees learned about end markets on all plastics, #1-7.
And during
the contracting session, attendees learned how to write bids and
contracts.
Keynote speaker Ed Kunce, Deputy Commissioner of DEP, provided an
excellent overview
of the proposed changes to the Solid Waste Master Plan.
Other highlights of the
conference included a barbecue dinner on a beautiful summer’s night and
a faux
casino event attended by over 60 participants with donated gift cards
to
Staples, Circuit
City,
Home Depot and exhibitor apparel. Planning
for next year’s event is already underway.
The planning committee is
currently reviewing feedback to continue making this event successful
year
after year. Please take time to provide us your thoughts and
suggestions on
location, presentation topics and other criteria, which are important
in
enabling you to participate.
MassRecycle's Annual Event & Recycling Awards
MassRecycle is pleased to
announce the recipients of the 2004 Recycling Awards presented at
MassRecycle’s Annual Event and Recycling Awards Ceremony on October 26
at the Worcester Centrum. Awards were presented to
individuals and groups throughout the state who have made outstanding
contributions to recycling in the Commonwealth. Green
Ribbon Friends (our business sponsors) were also recognized for their
contributions with a MassRecycle plaque. A special thanks was given to
Marcia Deegler of MA Operational Services Division (OSD) for her
office’s contributions towards the Awards Ceremony. Sponsors
of the event included: American Plastics Council, BFI, Canal Project
Management Corp., Conigliaro Industries, FCR Auburn Material Recovery,
and J.P. Routhier & Sons. Attendees networked
in the Junior Ballroom while enjoying the food and cash bar.
MassRecycle presented its first award to the Town of Blackstone’s Board of Health for the Small Municipal Recycling
Award. William Walsh, Chairman of the Board
of Health accepted this award. Despite the
successfulness of a curbside recycling program, the Board of Health
took the initiative to design, construct, and operate a Recycling Center at the site of their former landfill.
This initiative began out of a realization that the
town was limited by the types of materials collected at the curb and
that only the single family residential sector was served by the
curbside program. Many businesses, condos, and
apartments needed an outlet for their recyclables, as well. The Recycling Center opened in July 2003 and accepts an
impressive range of materials. The Recycling Center has drop off containers for scrap metal,
paper, yard waste, motor oil, mercury containing items, propane tanks,
CRTs and tires. The “Shredding Room” allows
residents to protect themselves from identity fraud by shredding
their documents and also ensuring that the shredded materials are
collected for recycling. There are two swap shops,
a general one and one specifically for furniture. Light residential
construction debris is also accepted. There is a strong community
involvement at the new center. For example, there
is a area for various community groups to do fundraising or to promote
their cause.
The Town of Eastham received the Large Municipal
Recycling Award, also for its Recycling Center efforts. Robert Chesney, chairman of the
Recycling Committee during the Center’s planning process, accepted this
award. The waste reduction options offered at the
current Town Recycling and Transfer Station (R&TS) are the result
of a well-developed plan, well-informed residents and a team that
included town officials, R&TS staff, and a group of enthusiastic
volunteers known as the Eastham Recycling Committee (ERC). The
town is a coastal resort community straddling the arm of Cape Cod. As a result of an increased summer
population, increased summer traffic and transportation issues, the
town realized recycling was critical to trash reduction and cost
avoidance. The Committee concluded that a
redesign of the R&TS was in order. The new and
improved R&TS opened in July 2003. The layout
and excellent signage leads the user to the right area. Traffic
flow is smooth; cars are not in conflict with pedestrians. Compactors
sit on a paved area in a well-designed arrangement that reduces walking
and carrying distances.
MassRecycle presented
this year’s Recycling Business Award to Mark Wanamaker
for Wanamaker Hardware, Inc.’s community recycling efforts.
Mark Wanamaker is concerned about the environment
and is convinced that recycling saves his Arlington-based business
money. His company purchased a cardboard baler,
which has dramatically decreased his amount of trash and increased his
business’ floor space. He collaborates with other
local businesses on their cardboard recycling efforts as well.
Mark is also dedicated to the removal of hazardous
waste from the environment. He has posted
information about local HHW collections in the store. Button
and rechargeable batteries, spent fluorescent bulbs, and
mercury-containing thermometers, thermostats and switches are collected
in the store. The store does not sell thermometers
and thermostats that contain mercury. Brown paper
yard waste bags are stocked year round. They also
carry recycling containers and MA DEP labels for collection containers.
The Lowell Folk
Festival is a great model for public event recycling, thus
receiving the Institutional Recycling Award this year.
Two people accepted this award for their major
contributions: Patrick Scanlon, President, Scanlon Associates, and Ted
Davis, Facility Manager, Lowell National Historical Park Service. For
the past 18 years, during a July weekend, 200,000+ folk music
enthusiasts descend on the downtown streets of Lowell to enjoy a three-day folk festival.
The program just completed its fifth year of
operation and has been extremely successful. The
program has collected and sorted for recycling over 115,000 beverage
containers. It has also collected and sorted
for composting the food and paper waste from over
120,000 meals. Local youth organizations have
received over $10,500 through program sponsorships and money earned
through the redemption of deposit beverage containers. The program has
also been a valuable training experience for numerous recycling
coordinators and local recycling committee members. In
fact, a Pennsylvania DEP employee assisted at this year’s festival.
The program is coordinated by Scanlon Associates in
partnership with the Lowell National Historical Park Service, Lowell
Folk Festival Foundation and the City of Lowell’s Department of Public Works and
Recycling Program.
The last award presented
was for Recycler of the Year, which was given to Morgan
Harriman, the Solid Waste Coordinator for the Town of Franklin. Morgan has been working as the Solid
Waste Coordinator for two years. She manages the
town’s curbside trash and recycling contract, oversees the drop off
center and is involved extensively with the Central Massachusetts
Resource Recovery Committee (CMRRC) in an effort to renegotiate a
favorable long-term disposal contract with Wheelabrator, Millbury (a
waste to energy facility). As Program co-Chair for
the Massachusetts Chapter of SWANA, Morgan is more notably recognized
for coordinating the Chapter’s statewide municipal solid waste
conference entitled “Let’s Talk Trash.” The
conference provides a forum for both private and public sector solid
waste officials to converge at one site for networking and
collaborating. Morgan is also creative and
innovative; she coordinated the town’s first ever rain barrel sale in
an effort to promote water conservation.
Congratulations to our
Awardees. The Awards Ceremony is held once a year
after the Buy Recycled and Environmentally Preferable Product (EPP)
Vendor Fair. We solicit nominations beginning in August.
Watch for announcements on our Events
webpage and/or listserve.
Recyclers Celebrate Awards
MassRecycle is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2003 Recycling
Awards presented at MassRecycle's Annual Event and Awards Ceremony on
October 8 at the Worcester Centrum.
Awards were presented to individuals and groups throughout the state
who have made outstanding contributions to recycling in the
Commonwealth. In an era of tight municipal budgets, the exemplary
contributions of these organizations and individuals toward waste
reduction efforts are especially important. This year,
MassRecycle's Award Committee received many worthy nominations and was
encouraged to see so many people still deeply committed to recycling
and waste reduction.
The Town of Cohasset was this year's recipient of the Municipal
Recycling Award for a Small Municipality. Accepting this award was
Merle Brown, Cohasset Selectman and Chairman of the South Shore
Recycling Cooperative. Cohasset reduced its residential trash
generation by 33% and increased the recycling rate proportionately.
This increase is attributed to the town adopting a Pay-As-You-Throw
program in 2002. Their Recycling Transfer Facility is open to both
residents and businesses. Cohasset also requires private haulers to
provide recycling service. The town carries out an ongoing thermometer
swap. The schools have performed chemical cleanouts and all municipal
buildings recycle.
The City of Beverly was the recipient of the Municipal Recycling Award
for a Large Municipality. Mary Rodrick, Chair of the Beverly Solid
Waste Management Committee, accepted this award. Over the past year,
two intertwined groups, the Solid Waste Management Committee and the
Beverly Solid Waste and Recycling Stakeholders have effectively reached
out to the general population, municipal offices, vendors, schools,
condos, the housing authority, and businesses. The Solid Waste
Management Committee improved contracts in order to recycle all plastic
containers (1-7), and to allow easier recycling of cardboard. They
improved school recycling through meetings with principals and
students. They assisted in the improvement of business recycling
through surveys and follow-up work. Both committees are now involved in
an educational campaign with the condo associations and public housing
units.
MassRecycle presented this year's Recycling Business Award to EOMS
Recycling, with Mary Farrell accepting. EOMS is a medium size recycling
hauler, collecting about 6,000 tons per year from over 1000 businesses
and municipalities in eastern Massachusetts. The primary
materials they collect for recycling are paper and cardboard, but the
company also recycles bottles and cans, computers, printers, copier
cartridges, and fluorescent bulbs. EOMS won the collection bid for the
South Shore Business Recycling Partnership, which was funded through a
grant awarded to the South Shore Recycling Cooperative (SSRC) by MA
DEP.
The recycling program at Phillips Academy was chosen for the
Institutional Recycling Award. Phillips Academy is a coeducational,
independent boarding high school located in Andover, Massachusetts.
Many years ago, they worked with WasteCap to add cardboard to their
mixed paper recycling - thus enabling the tonnage of mixed paper to
double over five years. The Academy also negotiated with Pepsi to
collect bottles and cans each week, thus doubling the amount of cans
and bottles recycled. After collaborating with the Town of
Andover, the town-contracted hauler began collecting plastic, glass and
other materials from the Academy two years ago. Early in 2002, the
Academy began collecting food waste from the dining hall. The student
Eco Action group has sponsored activities for America Recycles Day and
Earth Day, as well as various activities to promote the food waste
program.
We had many outstanding nominations for the last category, the Recycler
of the Year Award. But one organization in particular stood out as an
extraordinary leader committed to recycling and waste reduction. That
organization is the Center for Ecological Technology (CET). CET
works to reduce the toxicity of the waste stream through mercury fever
thermometer exchanges, electronics collections, school cleanouts,
coordination of household hazardous waste collections, and public
education on mercury cleaning products and pesticides. CET
created an On-Farm Composting program to establish a hauling
infrastructure, provide training to farmers and generators, and create
sustainable economic conditions for generators and haulers. This
project has recently allowed CET to assist the City of Northampton and
the Town of Amherst to expand composting opportunities for local
restaurants.
Electronics Workshop
Recycling coordinators and solid waste professionals from
across the state learned about updates in the electronics recycling
field at a MassRecycle sponsored workshop held at E.L. Harvey &
Sons in Westborough. Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) found in computer
monitors and televisions, have been banned from disposal in
Massachusetts since April 2000. Three years later, recycling these
materials and other electronics is still a concern for municipal
coordinators.
Lynn Rubinstein, Executive Director of Northeast Recycling Council
(NERC) reviewed the hazards associated with electronic waste. Jim
McQuade of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
discussed the criteria used by the state to select electronic recycling
vendors; the benefits to ordering services through the state contract;
and how to manage electronics through the state contract. Lynn
Rubinstein spoke again, but on selecting vendors outside the state
contract. She discussed other factors, beside low prices, that should
be examined before municipalities choose vendors. Attendees learned
what questions to ask vendors in order to limit municipal
liability. Terri Goldberg, Deputy Director for the Northeast
Waste Management Officials’ Association (NEWMOA), spoke about product
stewardship, specifically the National Electronics Product Stewardship
Initiative (NEPSI). Attendees learned what is currently happening with
the state and national effort to return electronics to the original
manufacturer. Attendees also viewed a video presentation of the
film Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia by Basel Action
Network.
ElectroniCycle Tour
On Wednesday, August 13, MassRecycle sponsored a tour
of
ElectroniCycle in Gardner. Nearly 20 people attended to see first-hand
how electronics are recycled. Dick Peloquin, President of
ElectroniCycle, conducted the tour and answered questions.
As we all know, the markets just aren’t what they used
to be. The
only demand for the plastic found in TVs and computers (HIPS plastic)
is in China where they use it to mix with virgin plastic. At
ElectroniCycle, 600-1,000 pound bales of plastic are generated daily,
filling up a truck in 4-10 days. Glass, aluminum and copper are sold to
manufacturers in the U.S., but only the latter two make a profit. The
market also differs depending on the age of certain items. Computers
ten years and older are rarely repaired and are instead dismantled into
recyclable pieces.
As consumers make the move to recycle more of their
electronics, the
criteria for repair will become stricter, with only newer models being
repaired for reuse.
When asked about the new flat screen TVs on the market,
Mr. Peloquin
answered that ElectroniCycle is prepared to handle them. However, it
will be up to the consumer to keep these TVs out of the waste stream.
The new projection TVs contain mercury lamps that must be removed and
dismantled. Also, the measuring system to determine fees will have to
change. These TVs are much lighter than older models but still require
the same amount of work to dismantle.
The tour began on the receiving floor, where trucks come
from as far
away as New Jersey to drop off loads. Electronics come to
ElectroniCycle in many forms. Some trucks bring items wrapped in
shrinkwrap, some are held together by wire, others come loose in large
cardboard boxes (an additional $0.03 per pound). They all end up on the
sorting floor where they are divided into three categories: sellable
items, items for repair, and items for dismantling. There is a wall of
repair books on nearly every make and model of TV and computer that are
used to repair the newer items. But most electronics end up in the
dismantling category where they are taken apart and sorted into boxes.
Nuts, screws, circuit boards, cords, glass, metal, wires, magnets,
batteries, CRTs, and other pieces are separated by employees who
dismantle and sort entire computers and TVs. From here, the pieces are
baled and stacked.
Everything that comes into ElectroniCycle is recycled,
except for
wood and floor sweepings (mostly dust and dirt). The items that are not
dismantled such as stereos, video equipment, and VCRs are all sold to
U.S. buyers, mostly in Massachusetts. Older items, whose market has
expired, are archived for a while before eventually being dismantled.
ElectroniCycle has also just begun collecting lamps and batteries. The
mercury bulbs are separated and shipped to a company in North Carolina.
The tour provided an interesting look at electronics
recycling.
MassRecycle would like to thank Dick and Debbie Peloquin and
ElectroniCycle for this great tour!
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