Strategy #8 of the Grays Harbor 2020 visioning effort recommends improving recycling to 75% county-wide by 2020. Grays Harbor County provides for recycling of municipal solids wastes, including paper, cardboard, bottles, metal, and plastics.
Local governmental agencies are chartered by the state to provide certain services. Nationally, using a public-private partnership is a very common model for creating and maintaining a sustainable recycling program (read successful and profitable). Both state, regional and local governments find it effective to support these partnerships with funding and legislation when needed. The state of Oregon reports estimated energy savings from recycling is 28 trillion BTUs. This is equivalent to 227 million gallons of gasoline. The Oregon legislature passed the first bottle bill in the country in 1971. Because of the law 85% of beer and soft drink containers are recycled in Oregon. Many retailers provide bottle collection stations.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection provides grants, up to $150,000, to recycling companies for the purchase of equipment and for overcoming barriers to increasing the use of recyclables. The state of Iowa supported a multi-agency program to investigate opportunities to recycle used carpet. Used carpet amounted to 2% of Iowa solid wastes. In 2005 the governor of Pennsylvania reported that recycling is not only about job creation and economic development, but it diverts valuable recyclables from landfills. In 2004 the state of Wisconsin passed legislation creating a $173 million energy public benefits program, including $14 million for development of renewable energy markets. The portfolio was created without industry-wide restructuring of electric utilities. According to a survey conducted by the state of North Carolina in 2004 approximately 14,000 people are employed in recycling throughout the state.
The Sacramento Regional Solid Waste Authority (SWA) has partnered with private contractors to design a green waste facility. An Ohio EPA study proved over 38% of all MSW going to the Franklin County Landfill was paper and cardboard. The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio gave grants to four paper recyclers to encourage more businesses to recycle paper and cardboard.
In Philadelphia you can receive bankable recycling credits for buying green power and use them for discounts at neighborhood convenience stores, restaurants, pharmacies, and grocery stores. Philadelphia projects recyclers will increase the rate of recycling from 6% to 40% in just a few short years.
Innovative commercial business and industry recycling programs demonstrate how local conditions and entrepreneurs have shaped the recycling industry. A St. Paul, Minnesota firm is converting recycled pallets into planters and park benches. A retired Marine from North Carolina studied to become an Arborist, and then started a business. He soon realized how much wood waste his business was generating from storm damage and land clearing operations. So he started a second business. That wood waste (biomass) is ground up and used for fuel for boilers instead of going to a landfill.
Consumers in King County, WA generate 40,000 tons of glass bottles annually, half of which are recycled. New York State’s bottle bill resulted in 8 million beer and soda containers getting recycled in 2005. That resulted in a for water bottles and non-deposit containers.
At ADVAC Elastomers, a Milwaukie, Wisconsin company, the rubber in used tires is reused as tread, mats, bumpers, gaskets, electrical components, seals, hose, belting, and shingles. A two and a half inch thick layer of ground up rubber is being used for mulch in a rooftop garden in Toledo, Ohio. Startech Environmental Corporation and Future Fuels, Inc. have joined forces to produce ethanol from discarded tires, corn stalks, wood wastes, and residential and industrial wastes.
Chattanooga Recycled Fiber operates 13 recycled fiber collection and processing plants. The company processes ninety-percent industrial waste and ten percent residential waste. Recycling of used, corrugated cardboard is so universally successful there is a worldwide shortage of this source of fiber.
Corn based credit cards are replacing petroleum based cards. The Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) examines company formulations and verifies biodegradable products pass ASTM standards. Almost two dozen bags, films, and food serviceware have been certified. A gel produced from aloe vera can be used to prolong the quality and safety of fresh produce replacing conventional synthetic preservatives.
ReStore, Springfield, Mass., saved 7,400 customers $470,000 by reselling deconstruction materials in 2005. Sarasota Architectural Salvage, Sarasota, Florida, has converted a 30-year old, 10,000 square foot warehouse into a recyclable business for building materials.
Discarded coffee bean bags are being remanufactured into shopping tote bags.
Laws in California, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and New York require recycling of discarded electronic equipment, including.
Recycling success stories in other communities are endless. Sometimes they are large-scale projects, most of the time they are small. Frequently they are a pet project of someone with a vision and a strong desire to champion a cause. Sometimes recycling occurred out of necessity. Most recycling operations resulted in the creation of new jobs and more sustainable businesses.
What’s in your dumpster?
Recycling has gone through many changes over the years. At first the idea was slow to catch on, mainly because it was to complicated. Paper had to be separated from plastic. Some plastic was recycled while other types of plastic were not. Glass bottles are but glass windows are not. The recycle containers were open to the weather and got all nasty.
As technology changed at the recycle center changes came to the curb back home.
We now have new roll bins that are huge! You can put all recyclable items in the bin! No sorting. You can cram as much into the bins as you can. The Collectors have machines to do the lifting!
At the recycle center in some cities there is a huge machine that sorts all the recycle items back out automatically.
They use pulse electromagnets, jets of air and shaker boxes to sort out each type!
My favorite big recycle sorting machine is a huge grinder. Think of it as a paper shredder out of a monster garage on steroids! This baby takes and grinds up any thing! You can drop a whole car into it’s counter spinning cutting disks. If the machine jams (and it does often) the machine spins the disks in the opposite direction and hardly hick ups!
The result is a uniform size ground up particles the then can pass through the sorting machine more efficiently!
Who says Recycling isn’t fun!