Solid Waste in the News

News Archive:

2012: Jan-Mar 2011: Jan-Mar | Apr-Jun | Jul-Sep | Oct-Dec 2010: Jan-Mar | Apr-Jun | Jul-Sep | Oct-Dec 2009: Jan-Mar | Apr-Jun | Jul-Sep | Oct-Dec 2008: Oct-Dec

Clips (January to March 2012):

• Curbside Composting Added to a Major City: Is It Yours? (Governing, February 1)
  San Francisco may have been the first major U.S. city to mandate composting, but it is no longer the only one. Curbside composting has experienced unprecedented growth over the last three years. There are now more than 90 cities with such programs, according to Bruce Walker, solid waste and recycling program manager for the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability in Portland, Ore. Portland launched its curbside composting program in October, joining the likes of Boulder, Colo.; Salem, Ore.; and Seattle, among other cities.
• R.I. landfill to shoot seagulls, use fireworks, and other measures to scare gulls away (Providence Journal, February 1)
  The board that governs Rhode Island's Central Landfill has authorized a program that aims to reduce the seagull population 50 percent by shooting gulls and by harassing the birds with pyrotechnics, propane cannons and using "effigies."
• Mayor Addresses Trash Hauling (Oakdale Patch, January 31)
  Oakdale residents needn’t brace for a fight over trash hauling anytime soon like the one that played out in Maplewood last year. Mayor Carmen Sarrack and city council members said they’d prefer not to consider going to a single hauler in the city, at a workshop meeting Tuesday, Jan. 24, at Oakdale City Hall.
• So Much For Flow Control. For Now, At Least, as Federal Judge Dumps Waste Control Ordinance (Dallas Observer, January 31)
  It's been a couple of weeks since lawyers hired by the city and the National Solid Waste Management Association squared off in U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor's over the flow control ordinance that would have dumped all the city's solid waste at the McCommas Bluff Landfill. I say "would have" because, for now, flow control's not happening: This morning O'Connor ruled in favor of the solid-waste haulers, who've long argued that the city's attempt to fill its coffers using the ordinance is the very definition of "anti-free enterprise."
• Companies try to recycle all waste, send nothing to landfill (USA Today, January 30)
  What was a nascent zero-landfill movement a few years ago in Corporate America is mushrooming into a common strategy to save money and boost environmental credibility. Every month, a wider array of companies reports zero or near-zero landfill status, following automakers such as Subaru that have led the way.
• Site of city's new park is a dump, literally  (Montreal Gazette, January 29)
  A steady stream of recycling and city garbage trucks enter and leave the Complexe environnementale de St. Michel every day. But trucks full of leaves, old newspapers, metal cans, plastic jugs and glass bottles aren't the only vehicles making the trip to the 157-hectare complex near Papineau Ave. and Jarry St.
• Waste-by-rail may be delayed  (Whittier Daily News, January 28)
  For more than two decades, local trash engineers have been planning for the day when the Puente Hills Landfill near Hacienda Heights would close, and thousands of tons of municipal garbage would ride the rails to Imperial County. But the $450 million trash train, also known as waste-by-rail, is being derailed by a sluggish economy. The dream of San Gabriel Valley cities seeing all their stinking garbage leave the Valley for a landfill in the middle of nowhere is likely to be postponed, officials at the county Sanitation Districts said last week.
• New Trash Trucks Bring Better Efficiency, Less Odor (San Diego Reader, January 27)
  National disposal company Waste Management has announced San Diego will be among the first markets in the country for a roll out its new fleet of Rotopress trash collection units. The new trash trucks, a combination of natural-gas-powered semi trucks attached to trash trailers...The trailers are making their United States debut after being used with success for decades in Europe. An internal corkscrew compacts trash and binds liquid and solid waste, reducing odor as well as corrosion damage to the unit, providing an extended lifespan. The system is also lighter than current onboard trash compactors, allowing the vehicles to carry up to 14 tons of waste.
• Some Trenton Residents Call Foul on Smell Coming from Riverview Landfill (Trenton Patch, January 27)
  On Tuesday, Trenton Patch posted a question on Facebook asking residents if they've smelled an unpleasant odor coming off the Riverview Land Preserve recently, and we received over 20 responses.
• Legislature wants accountability for recycling (Star Press, January 27)
  A Senate committee on Thursday amended a bill that could have sent to the landfill old tires, paint cans, bottles of weed killer, fluorescent light bulbs, computers and oil filters that people now drop off at recycling centers in Muncie, Anderson and Marion...But as amended on Thursday, the bill would require the districts to continue to operate while transferring their authority to impose property taxes to county councils.
• Trash puzzle confronts Summit County officials  (Breckinridge Summit Daily, January 26)
  A proposed policy requiring trash collected in Summit County to be disposed of locally may boost the landfill's falling revenues, but it won't solve the bigger problem: the facility's unsustainable financial dependence on garbage.
• Trying On Shades of Brown to Scream Green (Wall Street Journal, January 25)
  Brown paper products are becoming an obvious way for consumers to show that they care about the environment. They assume the products are made with recycled materials or didn't involve whitening chemicals.
• A Kindness Mission for Garbage Collectors  (Huffington Post, January 24)
  What do you think the most thankless job in America is? I had my own idea but decided to take an informal poll among friends, family, and of course Facebook. It turns out, garbage collectors won by a landslide. I can't say I was surprised. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, we create an additional one million tons of waste, which is a whopping 25% more that our collectors have to pick up and haul away.
• Public employees union says Dallas waste control ordinance endangers workers (Dallas Morning News, January 24)
  The city of Dallas' push to implement a new waste control ordinance has brought heat from many quarters, including the waste hauling industry and leaders of Paul Quinn College.  Add the local public employees union to that list.  The North Texas Association of Public Employees has filed an amicus brief in the lawsuit attempting to prevent the city's "flow control" ordinance from taking effect.
• Hidalgo County prepares to privatize trash collection(Edinburgh Monitor, January 24)
  Hidalgo County commissioners will begin soliciting bids this spring to privatize rural trash collection, a process projected to save the county up to $6 million annually. Hidalgo County administrators are initiating preparations to receive bids from waste management companies in an effort to have a contract in place by April. Hidalgo County has steadily moved toward privatization of trash collection, eyeing the savings from closing collection stations and revenues collected from a franchise fee.
• City OKs garbage rate increase (Sonoma News, January 24)
  In the sometimes-murky world of refuse hauling, Sonoma has managed to retain what is increasingly becoming a municipal anomaly – a local garbage company. Sonoma Garbage Company (SGC), owned by the Curotto family, remains an independent, locally-owned refuse hauler with rates for both residential and commercial hauling that are among the cheapest in the county. But during the Jan. 18 Sonoma City Council meeting, it became clear that even the Curottos are not immune to rate-increase anxiety, a condition that broke out among council members during consideration of proposed rate increases for both residential and commercial customers.
• Denver residents should pay for trash pickup, task force says (Denver Post, January 24)
  Denver residents would pay for trash pickup, see fees and fines rise with inflation and could be asked to approve a tax hike for city services if recommendations from a year-long financial task force are adopted.
• Trash company's experiment turning restaurant leftovers into a saleable product (Riverside Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, January 21)
  Those rib bones you left on your plate at Lucille's Barbecue may be a treat for your dog but they're also good for your garden. The Southern-style restaurant at Victoria Gardens, along with seven other eateries in the city, are part of a Burrtec Waste pilot program that takes restaurant food waste and turns it into rich, compost soil.
• Cleaning Up the Old West the Modern Way (New York Times, January 21)
  It is fair to say that well before the Earp brothers shot three cowboys in a lot behind the O.K. Corral, this city had a trash problem. Mule and horse droppings were everywhere. The stench of leather being tanned, charcoal burning and ore being dug out of the earth burned the nostrils. Garbage piled high in the muddy streets... And still, more than 130 years later, the city continues to wrestle with its refuse.
• Annapolis restaurant eliminates garbage (The Annapolis Capital, January 21)
  There's no such thing as taking out the trash at Harry Browne's. The restaurant has shifted operations so that the staff only knows of two bins - recycling and composting. The recycling - cardboard, glass, plastic - goes out weekly with the city's collection. The rest - fish bones, leftover vegetables, potato skins - is sent to a Harford County company for composting. Veterans Composting then turns the trash into garden soil which can be sold to farmers, gardeners and landscapers.
• The Garbage-Men Trash Their Instruments (But Not Like You’d Think) (Wired, January 20)
  Though they’ve appeared everywhere from PBS to America’s Got Talent, I didn’t actually discover Sarasota’s unique teenage quintet The Garbage-Men until this video landed in my inbox. By performing classic rock staples on homemade instruments composed of repurposed materials like cereal boxes, these high schoolers promote recycling and support charitable organizations across their native Gulf Coast and beyond.
• Garbage Truck Crushes Man (Lexington WKYT-TV, January 19)
  Late Thursday afternoon, outside the Truitt Brothers plant in Laurel County, just north of London, a man working on his garbage truck ended up being crushed to death inside it. 27 NEWSFIRST did talk with one of the owners of the Truitt Brothers plant in East Bernstadt. David Truitt feels terrible this happened at the plant, and is sending his deepest condolences to Shawn Fields's family.
• It's garbage day, there's an app for that (Kelowna News, January 19)
  Need a reminder in the morning to take out the trash? There's now an app for that! The Regional Waste Reduction Office has launched a free mobile phone and tablet application for recycling andgarbage, called My-waste. Waste Reduction Facilitator Rae Stewart says downloading the My-waste app is free and easy.
• Taking out the Super Bowl's trash (Indianapolis WTHR-TV, January 19)
  Downtown Indianapolis is preparing for the fast approaching February 5th Super Bowl. Signs are going up, streets are being closed, and businesses are preparing for the tens of thousands of fans to descend on the city. One of the most important companies to Indy's Super Bowl success  though, lies off of a gravel road on the outskirts of Zionsville. Republic Waste Services is the company tasked with handling the trash for Super Bowl week. With the NFL experience, downtown concerts and of course, tailgating, the garbage is certain to pile up quickly.
• Tucson picked by feds for study of 5 landfills (Flagstaff Daily Sun, January 18)
  The federal government has picked Tucson to take part in a test of the feasibility of putting renewable energy projects on its landfills. The Arizona Daily Star reports that Tucson is one of 26 cities across the country selected to work with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the project.
• County disposes of recycling duties (Navarre Press, January 18)
  Santa Rosa County will no longer be handling the recycling program after voting to contract out the service during a Jan. 19 regular board meeting. The board of commissioners agreed to transfer the recycling program to West Florida Recycling.
• Conference keynote: landfills will become a thing of the past (Biomass Magazine, January 17)
  Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes made by the biomass industry is not following the lead of the natural gas industry to come up with an industry title that sounds more environmentally friendly, according to Sierra Energy CEO Mike Hart.
• City Salutes Trash Worker Who Returned Cash (Clovis KCRA-TV, January 17)
  A California trash collector is being honored for returning $1,000 in cash and checks he found on his San Joaquin Valley route. The Clovis City Council is presenting a proclamation Tuesday night to Martin Dominguez, who works for Allied Waste Services.
• Fort Hood aims to stop sending waste to landfills (Austin Statesman American, January 15)
  The goal is as ambitious as it is daunting: The minicity that is Fort Hood is seeking to eliminate the nearly 20,000 tons of waste it sends annually to landfills by 2020. And do so without receiving any outside funding. To put that goal into some perspective, consider: The City of Austin, itself one of the nation's most aggressive municipalities when it comes to recycling and reducing waste, hopes to reach a similar goal by 2030, a full decade later.
• Landfills, power plant among five top greenhouse-gas emitters (Asheville Mountain Express, January 15)
  Want to know how much carbon dioxide your local power plant or landfill emit? A new EPA tool maps the info for the highest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, including five sources near Asheville. The new interactive map lets users zoom in on major pollution sources almost anywhere in the United States. Near Asheville, there are five — the Progress Energy power plant in Arden, two Buncombe County landfills, the Henderson County landfill and the Blue Ridge Paper Plant in Canton.
• Vancouver restaurant reduces garbage by 98 per cent (Vancouver Metro, January 13)
  A Kitsilano restaurant and bakery has cooked up a recipe to eliminate organic waste and virtually all its garbage. After replacing their industrial-sized dumpster, which had to be emptied four times a week with a composting machine, last August, Trafalgars Bistro and Sweet Obsession Cakes and Pastries have eliminated 100 per cent of their organic waste. Both businesses now share a small, residential-sized garbage cart that is emptied biweekly.
• New York Plans Bigger Recycling Effort (New York Times, January 12)
  The Bloomberg administration has set a goal of doubling the amount of garbage it diverts from landfills over the next five years. The plan, which is expected to be announced at 1 p.m. by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in his State of the City address on the campus of Morris High School in the Bronx, seems to reflect a deeper commitment to programs that encourage the reuse and prevention of waste, including the city’s long-neglected residential recycling program.
• Older NJ buses and garbage trucks fixed to cut down smoke and soot (Asbury Park Press, January 11)
  A state Department of Environmental Protection program to retrofit 760 older NJ Transit diesel buses has been completed to reduce diesel emissions and soot, which brings them on compliance with Gov. Chris Christie’s Executive Order 60. Officials from the DEP and NJ Transit announced completion of the $6.2 million program Wednesday designed to reduce emissions and the various diseases caused by the exhaust fumes. Additionally, about 1,200 diesel garbage trucks have been retrofitted under the program.
• Solid Wastes Industry Announces New Policy on Product Stewardship (MFR Tech, January 11)
  The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) today announced a new policy on product stewardship, expressing the recycling and solid waste industry's position that product stewardship may increase the safe management of some products, in particular those with toxic constituents such as mercury. Product stewardship laws require manufacturers to be responsible for end-of-life management of their products.
• Recology driver featured tonight on 'Dirty Jobs' (Marysville Appeal Democrat, January 10)
  Driving a garbage truck is a dirty job, but as the saying goes, someone's got to do it. Laura Deland of Marysville said she chooses to do it with a smile. Her chatty, upbeat nature will be on display across the country tonight, when Deland, and specifically her skill at backing up her trailer of trash at the Ostrom Road landfill five times a day, is the feature of a segment on the popular Discovery Channel show "Dirty Jobs."
• Sanitation worker fatally struck by garbage truck in Newark (Newark Star Ledger, January 9)
  A sanitation worker was run over by a garbage truck while trying to climb on the back of the vehicle in Newark this morning, authorities said. Teeshon Small, 38, of East Orange, was struck and killed by the garbage truck he was working on at 5:43 a.m. near Nye Avenue and Osborne Terrace in Newark’s South Ward, said Katherine Carter, a spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
• Q&A With Jim Harvey of E.L. Harvey & Sons (Worcester Business Journal, January 9)
  Jim Harvey is forward thinking in an evolving industry, yet he can still remember what it was like to haul rubbish back in the 1930s and ‘40s. When we sat down recently, he held up a picture of a trash-hauling vehicle from the ’40s: a wagon drawn by two horses. Today, his family-owned, Westborough-based company — which celebrated its centennial in 2011 — is much more than a trash-hauling firm. It processes waste and recyclables, and spreads the values of recycling to its customers.
• Biomass and Electricity, Part One (New York Times,January 9)
  FlexEnergy, a company in Irvine, Calif., has developed a new way to use gas at low methane concentrations, a process it has been trying out on landfill gas at Fort Benning in Georgia. The landfill produces methane at a concentration of 20 percent, too low for conventional combustion. (The Pentagon is under orders to reduce its carbon footprint.) Later this year FlexEnergy plans to open a commercial-scale system at the Santiago Canyon landfill in Orange County, Calif.
• Thieves Seek Restaurants’ Used Fryer Oil (New York Times, January 8)
  Companies that collect used cooking grease from restaurants across the country have turned to all forms of sleuthing in recent years. Private investigators. Surveillance cameras. Rigged alarms. And still, containers full of used fryer oil are slipping through their fingers. For years, restaurants had to pay companies to haul away the old grease, which was used mostly in animal feed. Some gave it away to local gearheads, who used it to make biodiesel for their converted car engines. But with a demand for biofuel rising, fryer oil now trades on a booming commodities market, commanding around 40 cents per pound, about four times what it sold for 10 years ago.
• About 50 tons of trash cleaned up after Rose Parade (Los Angeles Times, January 8)
  When the Rose Parade floats are gone and spectators head home, what's left behind? About 50 tons of trash, five tons of cardboard and 3,500 beverage containers. A team of 80 workers swept through the parade route Monday night and Tuesday morning, cleaning up debris and scrubbing streets and sidewalks after Pasadena's largest event, which attracted hundreds of thousands of people this year.
• On garbage, neither calm nor collected (Portland Oregonian, January 7)
  Last week, with a day off from her two jobs, Robin Adams at least had something to keep her busy. She was going in quest of the Oregon City dump. It was the Southeast Portland mother's way of dealing with Portland's new every-other-week garbage pickup policy. Living with her three young adult children, she reported, "I'm buried in garbage."
• Landfill gas on the rise (Biomass Magazine, January 5)
  Two landfill gas-to-energy plants have recently begun operating in Virginia and Georgia. One is powering U.S. Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany; the other is selling power to an electric utility. The U.S. Department of Navy’s Albany, Ga., facility is located at the Fleming/Gaissert Road Landfill.
• Toxic releases rose 16 percent in 2010, EPA says (Washington Post, January 5)
  The amount of toxic chemicals released into the environment nationwide in 2010 increased 16 percent over the year before, reversing a downward trend in overall toxic releases since 2006, according to a report released Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency. The spike was driven largely by metal mining, but other sectors — including the chemical industry — also contributed to the rise in emissions, according to the new analysis from the annual federal Toxics Release Inventory...Other releases, such as landfill disposal, increased 18 percent.
• Cleveland to ramp up enforcement of garbage policy (Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 2)
  Cleveland is putting the tools to punish people who violate the city's garbage policies into the hands of Waste Division employees. Workers will be able to quickly address property owners who don't comply with the proper disposal of garbage with just a click of the button. Starting Tuesday, employees will use handheld devices to record infractions. The devices can take pictures that include the time and date. They can also produce a notice for the homeowner.
• Landfill to discontinue starling eradication program (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin,January 2)
  Nevermore is the vow from a city official about a recent starling eradication program that left a couple of Sudbury Landfill neighbors’ yards littered with hundreds of dead birds. “I am not going to use it on my property (Sudbury Landfill) again because of the people,” Sudbury Landfill Supervisor Dennis Rakestraw said.