Solid Waste in the News

News Archive:

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

Clips (Jan. to Mar. 2010):

• Lack of recycling and water usage are greatest 'green guilts' (CNN, March 11)
  What causes the greatest amount of "green guilt" across the globe? Not recycling enough was the number one response in 9 out of 15 countries surveyed, followed by wasting water.

• Convention Center’s recycling rate among nation’s best (Las Vegas Sun, March 10)
  More than half of the discarded materials from the Las Vegas Convention Center and Cashman Center were recycled in 2009, but the recycling rate of those facilities' building partners helped push the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's green record to among the best in the country among meeting facilities.

• Is trash fee waste mismanagement? (Philadelphia Daily News, March 9)
  If government is providing this service, it has an obligation to provide it in the most efficient way possible," said Leonard Gilroy, director of government reform for the Reason Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit conservative policy group. Gilroy said cities that have privatized trash services saw savings of 20 to 40 percent.

• Organic activists protest San Francisco compost (Washington Times, March 8)
  San Francisco wears its environmental consciousness like a green badge of honor… A city department even gives away "high-quality, nutrient-rich, organic biosolids compost" to all takers. But a public interest and environmental advocacy group says the city's free compost, used by community, backyard and school gardens, is processed sewage sludge — the product of anything flushed, poured or dumped into the wastewater system.

• Spychips hidden in 2.5 million dustbins (London Daily Mail, March 5)
  The growing threat of a stealth tax on the rubbish we throw away was exposed by startling figures yesterday. More than 2.5million homes now have wheelie bins fitted with microchips to weigh their contents. This is an increase of nearly two-thirds in just a year. The bins, which can be electronically identified and weighed, are designed for 'pay-as-you-throw' rubbish tax schemes.

• Proposed city trash fee raises concerns (Philadelphia Inquirer, March 5)
  In Los Angeles, trash pickup costs $436 a year. In Lower Merion, the annual price starts at $254 for a single container. And in many cities, including Philadelphia, it's free, or, more accurately, included in what residents pay in taxes. That could change July 1 if Mayor Nutter can persuade City Council to impose a $300 yearly garbage fee...

• Kootenai Electric will mine landfill for power (Spokane Spokesman-Review, March 5)
  For the first time in its 72-year history, the largest electric cooperative in Idaho is planning to generate its own renewable energy. Hayden-based Kootenai Electric Cooperative will do so through an agreement with Kootenai County to burn the methane gas generated by the Fighting Creek landfill to produce power.

• New baling program keeps old clothes out of landfill (Bend KTVZ, March 4)
  What do you think goes into our landfill? Garbage, food waste? You may be shocked to learn:40,000 pounds of clothing gets dumped there every month - and that's only what can't be sold or given away atthe thrift store operated by the Bend Community Center. Multiply that by all our other thrift and discount stores, and the impact is huge. But now, a program that's the first of its kind in Bend is turning that around.

• Report: Airline recycling in 'sorry state' (CNN, March 3)
  

  Items that he would normally separate for recycling at his home and office are often dumped into a single bag on planes. So copious amounts of empty soda cans, plastic bottles and cups, as well as discarded newspapers -- all of which could be salvaged -- probably end up as garbage.

• Try walking in Canton garbage collectors’ shoes (Canton Repository, March 3)
  "Four hours of hell." That’s how Service Director Warren Price bluntly describes the time he worked on the back of a city garbage truck and picked up trash to get a firsthand view of the job. "An hour into the route," he said, "I picked up a paper bag, the bottom of the bag dropped out and some sort of animal feces dropped out of it and trickled down my left leg and landed on my foot."

• Wildlife free to roam at former Leesburg landfill (Orlando Sentinel, March 2)
  To the untrained eye, it's a grassy hill teeming with wildlife. But underneath it all is junk — decades of garbage that tell a tale of the city's history. Since the former Leesburg landfill closed 1991, local officials have been working to upkeep the 92-acre site. Today, an average passer-by wouldn't know the site holds trash dating back to the early 1970s. It simply looks like a grassy knoll

• PR Campaign Draws Strength From the Grassroots (ASAE News, March 1)
  "The remarkable thing about our industry is that when trash is collected on schedule and streets are clean and there are no threats to public health, no one thinks about us," says Bruce Parker, president and CEO of EIA. "We want to educate key audiences that the industry is using innovation to reduce its carbon footprint through recycling, creating renewable energy from landfill gas, and conserving natural resources. We are part of the solution, not the problem."

• Ernst: Harnessing power from a landfill's decay (Sarasota Herald Tribune, February 27)
  Talk about recycling. This will make curbside collection of newspapers and aluminum cans look downright primitive. Charlotte and Sarasota counties are poised to create electricity from banana peels -- rotting banana peels. Rotting everything, actually. Last Monday, Charlotte County broke ground on a project to convert methane gas from its Zemel Road landfill into electricity for sale to a utility.

• Trash power? U.S. communities use landfills to produce energy (USA Today, February 25)
  More communities in the United States are turning trash into power. Nationwide, the number of landfill gas projects, which convert methane gas from rotting garbage into power, jumped from 399 in 2005 to 519 last year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

• Muskegon area continues program to safely dispose of unused or expired medications (Rapid Growth Media, February 25)
  Due to an overwhelming response from its first collection, organizers of the Muskegon Area Medical Disposal Program are busy preparing for its next drop-off event April 17 where residents can safely get rid of unused or expired medications.

• Nantucket mines landfill to deal with shrinking space (Plastics News, February 22)
  The community that once landfilled nearly everything now recycles and reuses nearly everything. Willette estimates the city is diverting the equivalent of 104-106 percentof its waste stream from the landfill. “The first question people ask is how are you diverting more than what’s coming in,” he said. “We’re actively engaged in a landfill mining operation, and we’re actively engaged in reclaiming the material that’s been buried in the landfill over the last 50 years.”

• Making fuel from food waste (Boston Globe, February 21)
  A hungry young company in Waltham is eyeing that half-eaten bagel on your plate, that grapefruit rind, and those first few pancakes that didn’t come out quite right. Harvest Power Inc. looks at leftover food from homes, restaurants, and supermarkets as an underutilized resource.

• Cities in Dallas-Fort Worth area urge patience as cleanup of tree debris from record storm continues (Dallas Morning News, February 20)
  Cities across North Texas are buried under millions of pounds of tree limbs that fell after North Texas’ biggest snowfall ever, and they’re working overtime to get rid of them. At the Bachman Transfer Station in Dallas, a perpetual line of trucks overflows with the green casualties of winter.

• Governments work to return trash, recycling (Frederick News Post, February 19)
  The crippling snowstorms of the past two weeks have disrupted trash and recycling services for residents of unplowed or underplowed streets that are impassible to large collection trucks. Snow has also stalled recycling pickup in some areas of the county.

• Super Bowl plus Mardi Gras equals unprecedented amount of garbage (New Orleans Times Picayune, February 18)
  While Mardi Gras revelers slept off an unprecedented monthlong streak of partying, crews from SDT Waste and Debris Services on Wednesday cleared beads, plastic cups and beer cans from the streets of the French Quarter. For city garbage contractors, it was the last big haul of a Carnival intensified by a string of Saints-related celebrations. The hometown football team’s Super Bowl victory generated a historic amount of collective jubilation — and a historic amount of trash.

• Boise Green Living: Green Garbage Trucks (Boise KIVI, February 18)
  Garbage collection is a dirty job. But it's now being done in a cleaner way, thanks to new Allied Waste trash trucks…By the end of the year, 40 such trucks will be roaming the Treasure Valley. They run on compressed natural gas, or CNG.

• D.C. DPW Crews Begin to Remove Trash Left During Storms (Washington WJLA, February 17)
  A smelly mess is finally being cleaned up in the District. Trash pickup has started up again, as the city digs out from last week's storms. It's an issue that's really piling up in the District. "It's quite disgusting,"fretted D.C. resident Elizabeth Ganshert. "I just try not to look at it."

• Recycling trash to create energy and save money (California Independent Voter Network, February 16)
  In 2007, California produced 2.1% of its total electricity from biomass power plants. While this is just a small percentage of total power, it is unique in that the power generated is from what often would be dumped in landfills. In a very real sense, this power is created from our own garbage and leftovers. So, it’s a double win.

• Shaw plant in Central achieves zero waste to landfill status (Anderson Independent Mail, February 15)
  Three Shaw Industries plants, including a carpet fiber extrusion operation in Central, are now sending all their trash to be reused or recycled, rather than dumped in a landfill. Two Shaw carpet manufacturing plants in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., join the Upstate plant in achieving “zero waste to landfill” status by addressing the problem of disposing of unwanted carpet materials, according to company officials.

• Winter Olympic medals made from recycled e-waste (Scientific American, February 12)
  When Olympic champions are crowned at this year's winter games in Vancouver, these elite athletes will be taking home more than just gold, silver or bronze medals—they will be playing a role in Canada's efforts to reduce electronic waste. That's because each medal was made with a tiny bit of the more than 140,000 tons of e-waste that otherwise would have been sent to Canadian landfills.

• Trash goes to greener pastures (San Diego Union Tribune, February 12)
  City tests waste for compatibility as compost. San Diego recycling specialists dug through a steaming pile of kitchen trimmings and shredded greenery yesterday morning at the Miramar Landfill, searching for answers. Specifically, they were testing whether serving ware and utensils marketed as compostable really do break down quickly enough for the city to include them in a food-waste program, along with partly eaten burgers and trimmings from about half a dozen industrial-sized kitchens.

• Garbage To Gas (Fox News, February 10)
  As they rumble throughout the Bay Area, hundreds of garbage trucks are running on L-N-G: Liquid Natural Gas -- fuel produced at the dump. Every landfill produces methane gas, and while it's been used to produce electricity for years, new technology is paving the way to use methane to produce gas for vehicles.

• Survey: More people looking for help on recycling (CNET.com February 9)
  Do you know where or how to recycle that old TV or computer? If not, you're not alone. Around 12 percent more people used the Web site Earth911.com last year than in 2008 to find out how to recycle their used items, according to a report (PDF) released Monday by Earth911.com.

• Rural residents find that complying with the landfill bottle ban takes some work (Winston-Salem Journal, February 9)
  On Oct. 1, North Carolina became one of the first states in the Southeast to ban plastic bottles in landfills. The ban, passed by the General Assembly in 2005, was designed to reduce energy consumption, lower greenhouse-gas emissions, and give economic incentives to businesses that process the bottles into other materials. But the ban presents a challenge for some, especially those who live in rural or unincorporated areas.

• Recycling push puts Berkeley's budget in dumps (San Francisco Chronicle, February 9)
  Berkeley's $144 million budget is in the trash can - literally. In a $10 million deficit announced last week, the single biggest factor - $4 million - was a decline in its refuse revenues. The city says, in part, that it's a victim of its own success. Residents pride themselves on aggressively recycling and composting, so they're switching to smaller, cheaper trash cans - the only collection for which the city charges.

• Out-of-state garbage finds home in Ohio (Akron Beacon Journal, February 7)
  Ohio continues to be a dumping ground for out-of-state garbage. In 2008, Ohio's 41 landfills accepted 21.9 million tons of trash, of which 3.4 million tons (or 15.7 percent) came from other states. The garbage coming from out of state is equal to the volume of garbage that Akron would produce in 55 years. The worst offender for shipping trash to Ohio is New York. In 2008, it sent 1.1 million tons to Ohio, or 31.9 percent of the waste coming into the state. New Jersey was close behind at No. 2 with 852,300 tons, or 24.7 percent of the flow. In all, Ohio got shipments from 20 states in 2008.

• City of Portland plans food recycling, scaling back trash pickup (Portland KGW, February 5)
  The City of Portland could be coming to the dinner table. The city estimates it could reduce about 30 percent of what's trucked to area landfills by having people recycle table scraps at the curb. The scraps are considered a missed opportunitybecause they can be converted into compost. That's something farms can use.

• City installs anti-explosive Olympic garbage rings (Vancouver Courier, February 3)
  The garbage hoops complete with clear plastic bags recently installed near Olympic venues had a trial run during last summer's Celebration of Light fireworks festival…Williams said the system is designed to be as easy as possible…the bags were introduced in response to a request from the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit to remove metal garbage cans near Olympic venues.

• Key West hears zero-waste plan (Key West Keynoter, February 3)
  You said it, Kermit -- it's not easy being green. Just ask the folks in Key West. The 25,000 or so residents of the island can't crack a 10 percent residential recycling rate. Yet on Jan. 26, residents packed the City Commission chambers and applauded the vision of a zero-waste community.

• No more landfills for Montreal's organic waste (Montreal Gazette, February 3)
  Garbage collection in the Montreal region is about to undergo a revolution. Instead of trucking trash out of sight to off-island landfills, municipalities are working on large-scale organic waste collection, a plan that will turn kitchen scraps and yard waste into biofuel to heat buildings, fuel buses, trucks and cars, and fertilize gardens and farms…The question now is where the facilities will be built.

• City privatizes Baden composting facility (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 3)
  The City of St. Louis has signed a three-year agreement with St. Louis Composting Inc. to operate city’s 10-acre composting facility in the Baden neighborhood…“Privatization just made sense,” said Forestry Commissioner Greg Hayes. “Antiquated equipment made our operation inefficient. It saved the city from having to invest a significant sum in new, specialized machinery.”

• Ekokook concept kitchen's mantra: waste not, want not (Engadget.com, February 2)
  If, like us, you've spent a fair amount of time in a kitchen cooking up a storm, then you're probably aware of one of the major drawbacks of major home-cooking... it generates a ton of waste. That's right -- up to 85 or 90 percent of a family's trash can be generated within the vicinity of the kitchen. Faltazi's concept kitchen should be interesting for just that reason -- Ekokook is designed to generate essentially zero waste.

• Solid waste disposal in NC reaches historic low (Asheville Citizen Times, February 2)
  A state report finds that people disposed of less solid waste in North Carolina landfills last year than any previous year in nearly two decades, due largely to the economic recession. Solid waste was disposed of at a rate of 1.07 tons per capita in 2008-09 – a sharp decline from the previous year and the lowest disposal rate since 1995-96, according to the North Carolina Solid Waste Management Annual Report.

• City of Charleston Cashing in on Its Trash (Charleston WSAZ, February 2)
  The city of Charleston is finding out there's treasure in trash. It's already cashing in on a project to produce energy from the city's landfill and received its first check Monday. It was in the amount of $4,000, but they expect to collect nearly $150,000 each year.

• Experiment with recycling rewards begins (Philadelphia Inquirer, February 1)
  Today, Philadelphia begins its latest experiment in trying to goose the household recycling rate toward 25 percent. An awards-based program run by RecycleBank, a national company started by Germantown Academy graduate Ron Gonen, is debuting in North Philadelphia. It will expand to the rest of the city month by month.

• Glendale landfill turns trash into electricity for 750 homes (Phoenix ABC15, January 28)
  Glendale Municipal Landfill will be turning trash into electricity to power hundred of homes. Starting January 30, Glendale will flip the switch on a new power plant that will turn methane gas from the landfill into electricity. City leaders estimate the plant will be able to power about 750 homes.

• Clear garbage bag bylaw now in effect (Toronto Post, January 28)
  In an effort to promote and encourage environmental stewardship, and extend the landfill site life, the Municipality of West Grey has implemented a new garbage bag program. To make garbage visible, all garbage must be bagged in clear or transparent (ie. colour-tinted) garbage bags with a 40-pound limit.

• Appeals court rules against garbage district (Akron Beacon-Journal, January 28)
  The Canton-based 5th District Court of Appeals has ruled against the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Solid Waste Management District and its restriction on garbage shipments from other Ohio counties that recycle less… The National Solid Wastes Management Association, a trade group based in Washington, D.C., filed the suit challenging the rule on behalf of three landfills: Countywide and American in Stark County and Kimble in Tuscarawas County.

• Officials debate commercial garbage contract (Chicago Triblocal, January 28)
  Leaders at the National Solid Waste Management Association, which represents private sector waste haulers, allege an exclusive contract will eliminate business owners' right to choose contractors and negotiate pricing. "They’re stuck," said Peggy Macenas, executive director of the NSWMA. "A business owner operating in Lincolnshire is smart enough to handle their own contracts. I don’t understand why the village has to get in the middle of that."

• Renewable power is an expensive proposition for Seattle (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 25)
  Seattle City Light's announcement Thursday of a 20-year arrangement to buy electricity produced in Oregon from landfill gas was the latest part of a rush to buy energy that comes from a replenishable source…"It will be a very cost-effective way of doing it," Carrasco said of the landfill-energy purchase. Even if the city steps up recycling and reduces the amount of garbage it sends to Oregon, it will still get electricity from the landfill for 20 years.

• From dump to destination in Sullivan County? (Middletown Times Record, January 24)
  One man's trash is another man's "fantastic" retail and recreation area, say Sullivan County officials who have visions of rock climbing and a Bass Pro Shop at the closed landfill and newly acquired Apollo Plaza site, right next to it.

• Composting brings green to city coffers (Rapid City Journal, January 24)
  By Rapid City sold nearly 5,100 tons of compost made from residents' yard waste in 2009, raising more than $60,000 toward landfill operations. That's up almost 1,000 tons over 2008, when the city sold 4,122 tons of compost for $58,806, according to recently released city figures.

• Recycling auditors help Ithaca-area businesses cut waste (Ithaca Journal, January 22)
  As part of his department’s ReBusiness Initiative, Riley has gone into dozens of area businesses to assess their waste disposal methods and recommend changes that could help save the environment – and a few dollars.

• Waste Management exec first ‘Undercover Boss’ in series kicking off on Super Bowl Sunday (Houston Business Journal, January 22)
  O’Donnell, president and chief operating officer at Houston-based trash hauler Waste Management Inc., recently cleaned out portable toilets, struggled to pick up landfill trash on the side of a hill and emptied garbage cans, among other tasks. And all on camera, to boot.

• Private trash service studied (Springfield Republican, January 22)
  City officials are thinking of getting out of the trash business and plan to seek proposals from private waste collection companies to determine if it will be economically feasibility to privatize trash collection. Mayor Daniel M. Knapik is expected to advertise for proposals shortly in an effort that may save the city as much as $1.3 million in municipal vehicle replacement and possibly reduce the current $85 annual fee residents are charged for household waste removal operations.

• City needs to find creative alternatives (Corpus Christi Caller, January 22)
  Councilman Kevin Kieschnick suggested that the city consider outsourcing some services…Privatization might be the route to consider for solid waste. Many cities throughout the nation require residents to hire their own trash hauling services, which compete to offer the best price.

• Let private interests handle refuse and power (Gaston Gazette, January 22)
  Want to reduce cost? Get out of the electricity and the waste collection business. These are two services that should never be operated by a municipality because of unusual circumstances of higher operating cost and the lack of competition.

• Methane from landfills to light up Seattle (Seattle Times, January 22)
  Seattle's latest renewable-energy source is methane — landfill gas created as garbage decomposes. And the energy it produces costs half as much as wind power. Seattle ships its trash — about 400,000 tons a year — by rail to a Waste Management-owned landfill in Arlington, Ore. As part of a contract reached last year, Waste Management agreed to begin turning the landfill's methane into energy and sell it to Seattle.

• Garbage power: Seattle touts renewable energy source  (SeattlePI.com, January 21)
  Seattle has begun getting electricity from its own garbage and will soon get more. Last October the city began receiving an average of 5.7 megawatts of power from generators in Eastern Oregon that are fueled by methane gas produced by a regional garbage landfill.

• Injury-free milestone set for DeKalb waste haulers  (Daily Chronicle, January 21)
  The hazards that Paul Jackowiak faces while driving a waste-hauling truck are much different from the hazards Dale Hartje faces as a mechanic. But both men, along with all other employees of DeKalb County's Waste Management, have avoided hazards in the workplace for three straight years. The milestone was marked Wednesday with a luncheon and awards presentation.

• Separating treasure, trash  (Ventura County Star, January 21)
  It is a dirty job and, yes, someone has to do it. As the sun sets, dozens of workers at Gold Coast Recycling stand at sorting lines, facing a fast-moving, never-ending river of every imaginable castoff that Ventura County residents produce.

• No more sorting: Brookline residents could see single-stream recyling by this summer (Wicked Local Brookline, January 21)
  Your days of sorting discarded paper from empty bottles and cans could be near their end. Starting this July, Brookline residents could be free to dump all their recyclables — aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastics, cardboard or paper — into a single bin that can be wheeled to the curb for pickup.

• In Reese, you can put all your recyclables into one big bin  (The Bay City Times, January 21)
  Reese is upgrading to single-stream recycling. Beginning Feb. 1, Republic Services will move from a manual to an automatic collection program in Reese, with separate 95-gallon containers for solid waste and recyclables.

• More States Took in Expired Meds in 2009 (New York Times, January 20)
  The program is one of dozens around the country as communities ramp up efforts to clean out America's medicine cabinets by setting up drop-boxes or other disposal methods for people to dump their unused and expired prescription drugs. At least 20 states now have collection programs for unused medications, and several saw record hauls in 2009.

• Mattoon abandons single-hauler plan for trash pickup (Mattoon Journal-Gazette, January 19)
  Residents have overwhelmingly said they don’t want city officials to dictate trash hauling. And that has convinced council members to only offer modest changes in the current requirements for six trash haulers now operating in the city. That eliminates any plans to consider seeking bids for a single-hauler contract or divvying up sections of the city for specific haulers.

• Florida Governor Salutes Waste Industry for Environmental Achievements (PR Web, January 18)
  A proclamation by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist presented this week to Florida’s solid waste companies recognizes the men and women who work in the industry for their numerous achievements in helping to protect the environment, community health and public safety. The proclamation, presented by Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp to the Florida Chapter of the National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) during an NSWMA meeting with key state leaders about legislative issues important to the industry, also applauds the industry’s commitment to technological innovation.

• Phoenix police, waste firm patrol communities (Phoenix Arizona Republic, January 16)
  The rumble and braking of a large green garbage truck. The hollow metallic clank of an empty garbage bin hitting the ground. Rhythmic, familiar sounds in neighborhoods across the city, so much so that they're often ignored. That's what Phoenix police are counting on as dozens of truck drivers work anonymously while collecting garbage and watching the alleys, streets and businesses - a function many Block Watch and neighborhood patrol groups already provide to officers.

• Lincolnshire looking to simplify trash pickup with single company (Chicago Daily Herald, January 15)
  The proposal has been opposed by the Illinois chapter of the National Solid Wastes Management Association, a trade group representing trash haulers. Such a deal will eliminate choice, will limit recycling options and won't save business owners money, a report from the organization states. Peggy Macenas, executive director of the association's Illinois chapter, criticized the proposed deal as a monopoly that would stifle innovation and competition. "Let us compete," she said.

• Points for recycling (Augusta Gazette, January 15)
  Citizens of Douglass seemingly had as many questions about the single stream Recycle Bank program as they did answers after a town hall information sharing Wednesday night… One pound of recyclables nets the customer to 2.5 points. He said the average family of four could easily realize about $20 in coupons for 50 pounds of recyclables (metals, plastic, glass, and paper). Douglass city officials said the cost for this every other week service would be from $2 to $4.

• Report: Trash in Michigan landfills decreasing (Detroit Free Press, January 15)
  The amount of trash in Michigan landfills is shrinking. While that might sound like good news, the numbers are so low that state officials warned today it means there’s not enough revenue to cover landfill inspections to make sure they meet requirements.

• Cold? Turn up the garbage (Seattle King-5 TV, January 13)
  Stand quietly in the inactive areas of King County's sprawling Cedar Hills Regional Landfill and you'll hear it - the constant "hiss" is the sound of money to county waste managers. "Yes. Yes. The County is making money on this right now," said County Solid Waste Director Kevin Kiernan. "We've been in the energy business for a few months now." The hissing comes from an elaborate system of pipes, pumps and wells installed throughout the 900-acre landfill.

• Waste experts doubt counties can meet recycling target of 75 percent (Gainesville Sun, January 12)
  Many area waste experts say that, short of a social overhaul as to how waste is disposed, achieving the 75 percent goal would be difficult at best… Many area waste experts say that, short of a social overhaul as to how waste is disposed, achieving the 75 percent goal would be difficult at best.

• Yolo County's garbage keeps lights on (Woodland Daily Democrat, January 11)
  When someone turns on their lights in Sacramento, the energy pulsing through those wires might have originated from Yolo County's trash. Across the state, local governments and waste management agencies are looking into ways to decrease their environmental impact while producing clean energy.

• Polson to Launch Aggressive Recycling Program (Kalispell Flathead Beacon, January 10)
  A $20,000 federal stimulus grant received by the city of Polson and an additional $20,000 grant expected by Lake County will finance an aggressive recycling program here.

• Army Hopes Trash-To-Diesel Project Can Lower War-Zone Risks, Costs (New York Times, January 8)
  In a bid to reduce the number of dangerous and expensive convoy missions trekking to remote base camps in Iraq and Afghanistan and to dispose of trash at those bases, the Army is backing an industry project aimed at turning solid waste into diesel.

• Guilford considers expanding garbage collection (Greensboro News-Record, January 7)
  Guilford County government is looking at another year of doing more with less, but residents in unincorporated areas could be getting more out of at least one service. A plan under consideration would offer trash pickup through an outside contractor for less than what unincorporated residents are now paying for private trash service.

• Report Discusses Florida’s Recycling Goals for 2020 (Jacksonville Observer, January 7)
  Floridians should bolster efforts to reach a statewide recycling goal of 75 percent within 10 years, the state’s top environmental regulator proposes in a letter to lawmakers…Potential funding sources include increasing the waste tire fee, raising tipping fees at landfills or requiring a deposit on beverage containers, a “bottle-bill” now in place in nearly a dozen U.S. States.

• Morningstar Selects Mark Miller of Stericycle Inc. as 2009 CEO of the Year (PRNewswire, January 6)
  Morningstar, a leading provider of independent investment research, today named Mark Miller, chairman, president, and CEO of Stericycle Inc. as its 2009 CEO of the Year. Morningstar's annual award recognizes a chief executive who exhibits exemplary corporate stewardship, demonstrates independent thinking, creates lasting value for shareholders, and has put his or her stamp on an industry. Stericycle is a medical waste disposal firm that provides business and consulting services to customers worldwide.

• Waste truck drivers team with police to watch neighborhoods (Phoenix Arizona Republic, January 6)
  …dozens of truck drivers work anonymously watching the alleys, streets and businesses while collecting garbage - a function many Block Watch and neighborhood patrol groups already provide to officers. The new partnership is part of a national neighborhood program called Waste Watch. An alliance of Phoenix police and Waste Management employees who support public safety by reporting fires, broken windows, abandoned cars, suspicious people or criminal activity.

• Environmental work lauded (Abington Journal, January 6)
  Waste Management’s operations in Northeast Pennsylvania – Alliance Landfill in Taylor, Apex Waste Services in Dunmore and the Beach Lake Transfer Station in Wayne County – have been recognized by the Northeast Pennsylvania Environmental Partners and the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) for projects that have improved wildlife habitat, provided environmental education programs for more than 2,000 children, and for their support of roadside and watershed cleanup projects.

• Reducing trash saves company cash (American Public Media Marketplace, January 6)
  Lots of companies are trying to boost their green credentials, but they also want to save money. For a furniture company in Ohio, sending less to the landfill is doing both. Dan Bobkoff reports.

• Trash to gas: Landfill energy projects increasing (San Jose Mercury News, January 5)
  Hundreds of trash trucks across California are rumbling down city streets using clean fuel made from a dirty source: garbage.

• Mobile installs cameras in city-owned vehicles, aiming to cut accidents (Mobile Press-Register, January 5)
  Mobile is trying to cut down on the number of accidents involving city vehicles by video recording the employees who drive them. Officials have installed dashboard cameras that record both the driver and the road in 99 city vehicles, including ambulances, garbage trucks and WAVE buses.

• Making Green From Garbage (Worcester Business Journal, January 4)
  The trash business as it exists today is a relatively young industry. Steve Changaris, the regional manager of the National Solid Waste Management Association, said that up until the 1970s and 1980s, the business was “more horizontal.” “Every town had a dump,” he said. “And you know what the problem with that was — they were all dumps.”

• Rose Parade recycling effort in need of help (Pasadena Star-News, January 4)
  After a parade celebrating the city's collective green thumb, it isn't so easy being green with the 65 tons of trash left behind. Pasadena officials say digging out all the recycleables in a timely manner is almost impossible.

• Another View: S.F. Mayor Newsom was off-base on gasification (Sacramento Bee, January 3)
  Being mayor of San Francisco often means you get your opinions published even when you are off-base. The recent commentary by San Francisco Mayo Gavin Newsom co-authored by Teamster Roberto Morales is a prime example.

• Landfills not getting their fill (Denver Post, January 2)
  Aspen's trash bins may be filling up with the crumpled latte cups and shopping bags of high-rolling holiday revelers, but in a valley north of town, a landfill serves as a non-glitzy reminder that the economy is still in the dumps…At six landfills owned and operated by Waste Management of Colorado — including one of the state's largest, Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site — loads of trash are down 20 to 25 percent.