Solid Waste in the News

News Archive:

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

Clips (July to Sept. 2010):

• Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills find that less waste leads to higher rates (San Jose Mercury News, September 1)
  For many people today, recycling habits are ingrained. An aluminum soda can, a plastic water bottle, a piece of paper -- it feels wrong to throw them into a trash can. And few would disagree those habits are good, that disposing less waste and conserving more are laudable goals. But even recycling efforts have a downside. In cities locked into long-term contracts with waste companies that rely on refuse to survive, residents and businesses are finding that less waste can lead to higher rates.

• Recycling food waste is no big deal (Everett Herald, September 1)
  This not-so-greenie has a confession: I haven't yet put a single food scrap in my yard waste bin. It's been nearly a year since Rubatino Refuse Removal, the garbage company serving Everett and parts of Mukilteo, let customers know it would accept food waste along with grass clippings and raked-up leaves.

• Garbage-to-biofuel plant launched in Edmonton (Canadian Broadcasting Company, August 31)
  Edmonton broke ground at its landfill Tuesday morning for a plant that will convert household garbage to biofuel. The project is the first of its kind in the world, the city says. The $80-million plant will be built, owned and operated by Enerkem, a company based in Montreal. "With Enerkem's help, 90 per cent of the city's waste will be saved from landfills," he said.

• Citizens being surveyed on how much organic waste we produce (Madison Cap Times, August 31)
  Not wanting to put the (garbage) cart before the horse, the city of Madison will survey residentson how much organic waste is generated inhouseholds, as part of a plan to use the waste to produce electricity. Organic waste is being looked at as a separate collection in Madison, possibly by using a third cart -- households already have carts for trash and recyclables. The aim is to divert an estimated 14,000 tons of household organics a year from the landfill and into a digester. The digester would then produce methane gas, which would be sold for electrical production or used as fuel in garbage trucks.

• Wauconda mulls solo contract for business garbage hauling (Arlington Heights Daily Herald, August 31)
  Peggy Maecenas, executive director of the Illinois chapter of the National Solid Waste Management Association, made the case for multiple haulers, saying they can provide more individualized service for each business. "It would be as if a business owner were told he could only use one overnight carrier”…Maecenas added the village could also look forward to fielding all the complaints businesses have with the service, if the village goes with one hauler.

• Want Your Garbage Picked Up? There’s a Robot for That (Wall Street Journal, August 31)
  Who knows what the future may hold? The robot’s designers estimate the price for a DustCart at $19,000 to $25,000 and have said the cost of operating the system would be similar to regular garbage and recycling pick-up service. But they don’t yet know when the robot might be available for sale. Dario has previously estimated there might be a market for as many as 100,000 such robots. “I think we learned a lot,” he says of the Peccioli study, “and are quite optimistic.”

• "Southern Fried Fuel" to Power SC Garbage Truck (Spartanburg WSPA, August 30)
  Even though it may seem like just about everything in the South can be deep-fried, you probably never thought of this one: Southern fried fuel. The City of Columbia kicked off its "Southern Fried Fuel" environmental initiative Monday, in which used cooking oil will be recycled into biodiesel fuel that will power a city garbage truck. City residents are being asked to bring their used cooking oil to the city Public Works facility at 2910 Colonial Drive. Midlands Biofuels will pick up the used oil weekly and convert it.

• Closing landfills won't end costs for County (Arizona Republic, August 29)
  It's the end of a long and smelly era for Maricopa County. With no fanfare and nary a peep from public officials, private contractors are burying the county's last garbage dump near Hawes and Riggs roads in Queen Creek. The work marks the end of nearly 50 years of landfill operations by the county, but instead of saving taxpayer dollars, the county supervisors' decision in the mid-1990s to exit the business is actually costing money.

• Waste haulers, cities offer special collection services (Ventura County Star, August 28)
  Until the 1950s, disposal of waste was often a community affair in Ventura County. Neighbors hauled each other’s discards or met up at local dumps, sometimes returning home with more material scavenged than discarded. Remaining waste was usually burned at the end of the day. Now, efficient haulers serve our affluent society, picking up garbage from uniform carts placed neatly at our curbs.

• Bound Brook opts for private trash pickups (Bridgewater Courier News, August 26)
  The Borough Council Tuesday adopted an ordinance on first reading allowing the town's residential garbage to be collected by a private hauler, New Vernon-based Peter Rubinetti Private Disposal. Mayor Carey Pilato said while the municipal Department of Public Works has collected garbage in the borough "for as long as I've been here, 41 years," the switch to a private collector will save taxpayers $990,000 over the three years of the contract with Rubinetti.

• DEA pushes nationwide medication disposal event (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration)
  On September 25, 2010, DEA will coordinate a collaborative effort with state and local law enforcement agencies to remove potentially dangerous controlled substances from our nation’s medicine cabinets. Collection activities will take place from 10:00 a.m. through 2:00 p.m. at sites established throughout the country. The National Take-Back Day provides an opportunity for the public to surrender expired, unwanted, or unused pharmaceutical controlled substances and other medications for destruction.

• Gulf waste heads to landfills, some with problems (Associate Press, August 25)
  ...EPA Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus, who oversees the agency's waste management plans, said the landfills can handle the oily waste properly. "The landfills ... have the system in place, the kind of liner, the kind of monitoring systems to manage this so that there are not environmental impacts," Stanislaus said in an interview. "If there are any issues of concern, we will revisit.

• Fatalities decline among solid waste, recycling workers (Waste & Recycling News, Aug. 25)
  Fatal injuries among solid waste and recycling workers "declined substantially" last year compared to 2008, according to the National Solid Wastes Management Association. The trade group, citing recently released statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, said the fatality rate for solid waste collection workers -- including both refuse and recyclable material collectors -- totaled 19 in 2009, a decrease of 39% from the 31 fatalities registered in 2008.

• WASTE INDUSTRY FATALITIES DOWN SUBSTANTIALLY IN 2009 (Waste Age, Aug. 25)
  Fatalities among solid waste collection workers declined markedly in 2009 when compared with 2008, according to statistics recently released by the U.S. Department of Labor. In its "Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries," the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says there were 31 fatalities among solid waste collection workers (the bureau includes both refuse and recyclable collectors in that category) in 2009. The number represents a 39 percent decrease from the year before, when 19 fatalities among collection workers occurred, according to BLS.

• US landfill tipping fees reach new record, despite economic downturn (Solid Waste and Recycling Magazine, August 24)
  As reported by the U.S.-based Waste Business Journal (http://www.wastebusinessjournal.com), the average price to bury a ton of municipal solid waste (MSW) in U.S. landfills has reached a record high of $43.99, an increase of six per cent since 2009, even amid the economic downturn. Meanwhile, landfill volumes, while down 4.8 per cent since last year, are starting to come back. Last year's volumes were down over 12 per cent year-over-year from the same period in 2008. The strongest gains were in the northeast, where prices were up over eight per cent, the west (10 per cent), and the Pacific states, in which prices rose by an average of seven per cent year-over-year.

• Trucks detouring in Finger Lakes (Syracuse Post-Standard, August 24)
  …Task force members also suggested eight potential sites in the region for new truck inspection stations to help authorities keep track of truck activity and enforce existing rules limiting long rigs from a handful of area highways. Truckers may use the roads only if they are making local deliveries, there is no other route available or they have a special hardship waiver. The state is wrapping up talks with Seneca Meadows landfill owners and working with other landfills in the region to add a provision to their contracts with truckers that would keep them off the rural routes.

• Sale of landfill a profitable move for Petersburg (Petersburg News-Progress, August 23)
  It's been just over a year since the city officially got out of the landfill business and sold the site and operations to Container First Services. The landfill - now known as the Tri-Cities Regional Disposal and Recycling Center - has changed a lot in the last 12 months and more changes are on the way, including more money for the city. "Everyone goes across the scale now," said Rob Guidry, CEO of CFS, which purchased the landfill from the city in July 2009. "This is where the money is generated."

• Investor buys Ore. landfill for valuable mulch (Portland KGW, August 23)
  An Oregon investor is turning an old landfill near Silverton into a source of valuable organic wood mulch. Bob Hedal says the old Johnson Lumber Co. site was piled high and deep with aged organic wood material with nutrient-rich mulch -- the product of years of idle composting.

• High-tech carts will tell on Cleveland residents who don't recycle ... and they face $100 fine (Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 20)
  It would be a stretch to say that Big Brother will hang out in Clevelanders' trash cans, but the city plans to sort through curbside trash to make sure residents are recycling -- and fine them $100 if they don't. The move is part of a high-tech collection system the city will roll out next year with new trash and recycling carts embedded with radio frequency identification chips and bar codes.

• Campbell County looks to reduce cobalt in landfill (Lynchburg News and Advance, August 20)
  A year-old state regulation tightening the amount of cobalt allowable in groundwater has prompted Campbell County to find ways to reduce cobalt levels at the county landfill off Livestock Road. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) made the change in 2009. Until then Campbell County had been in compliance with earlier standards.

• Recycle that salad (Chico News Review, August 19)
  Reaching the Associated Students of Chico State University’s stated goal of zero waste by 2015 will take a concentrated effort. Success depends not only on the cooperation of students, faculty and administration, but also on an army of red worms and billions upon billions of microorganisms. “We’re at 65 or 70 percent [of zero waste] now, and the new compost should move us to about 85 percent,” said Eli Goodsell, Recycling Operations coordinator for A.S. Recycling and the man largely responsible for orchestrating this cooperation.

• New Chatham County ordinance targets construction & demolition debris (Chatham Journal, August 19)
  A recently adopted Construction and Demolition (C&D) Recycling Ordinance aims to reduce the amount of C&D debris headed to North Carolina landfills from Chatham County. The ordinance applies to any C&D projects 1,000 square feet or greater within the county’s unincorporated areas. Projects include construction, demolition, deconstruction, repairs, remodels, additions, or any other related activity requiring a building permit.

• ODOR SOURCE FOUND (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, August 19)
  …The landfill had been accepting waste from a coal-fired power plant in Alexandria. The coal ash had been treated with a sodium sulfate that's typically not a problem by itself, LaFratta said. But when it mixes with other waste--and moisture--the compound breaks down quickly, causing sulfur to do the same. When the elements team up with hydrogen, the smelly hydrogen sulfide gas is produced.

• Nashvillians who produce a lot of trash will pay more (Nashville Tennessean, August 18)
  Nashville's most prolific trash producers have four years to change their habits or start paying for their excessive waste, the Metro Council decided Tuesday. The council overwhelmingly approved changes to the city's solid waste code, highlighted by a new "pay as you throw" plan. The measure will charge a fee to residents in the Urban Services District — the area that pays higher taxes and gets more city services, including curbside trash and recycling pickup — if they use more than one 96-gallon garbage container each week.

• Garbage gallery: At Recology, turning trash into treasure (San Francisco Weekly, August 18)
  Every four months, a new group of artists takes up "residence" at the company's main dump by Highway 101, close to Candlestick Park. There, sculptors, painters, collagists, photographers, filmmakers, and composers sift through what Recology euphemistically calls "the waste stream." It sounds worse than it is. The artists are limited to items, bags, and boxes city residents have brought to the site, and when it comes to paints, Recology inspectors have already ensured that donations meet safety standards. The everyday trash and recycling from San Francisco homes never ends up in the artists' work — but what does is often astounding.

• Perkasie receives bids on outsourcing trash collection (Yardley Montgomery News, August 18)
  In June, council approved a trash bid outline in order to begin exploring options for replacing the borough’s system.Waste Management, J.P. Mascaro, and Republic Services Inc. (BFI) placed bids.

• Breaking news: County supervisors approve garbage contracts (Ukiah Daily Journal, August 18)
  After about three hours of heated debate Tuesday, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to approve a package of contracts that will hand over operation of five county solid waste transfer stations to Solid Waste of Willits.

• Garbage collection, recycling rise under new Gwinnett trash plan (Atlanta Journal Constitution, August 18)
  Gwinnett County saw a jump in the amount of trash and recycled materials it collected in the first month of its mandatory new garbage plan, county officials said Tuesday. And while the county also received thousands of complaints and questions about the new plan in its first weeks, the volume of calls has dropped substantially.

• A Fuel That Doesn’t Go to Waste (National Geographic Daily News, August 17)
  In a dry, windy canyon not far from San Francisco, landfill operator Waste Management and German gas refiner Linde are using technology typically found at massive natural gas fields to turn trash into liquid natural gas. The natural gas is then trucked to dedicated filling stations where it fuels specially converted garbage trucks, eliminating the need for diesel fuel and keeping tens of thousands of tons of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere each year.

• Indians Make U.S. Take Out the Trash (Wall Street Journal, August 17)
  Washington's Yakama Indian tribe has a bone to pick with the federal government over a plan to import thousands of tons of Hawaiian garbage to its ancestral hunting grounds…Last month, the Confederated Tribes of the Yakama Nation, based here in southern Washington and the largest tribe in the region, sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture to block the shipment of municipal waste from Honolulu to a private landfill by the Columbia River.

• Composting proposals sought in Amherst (Buffalo News, August 17)
  The Amherst Town Board is looking to privatize its compost facility. The board voted Monday to seek proposals from private entities interested in taking over the operation. Supervisor Barry Weinstein and Council Member Guy Marlette said the facility now loses more than $300,000 a year, though it protects the town from high landfill costs since all town landscaping wastes are recycled as compost.

• A land full of choices (Torrance Daily Breeze, August 16)
  Nearly 30 years after the Palos Verdes Landfill stopped accepting household trash and hazardous waste, the site is carpeted in a lush, green expanse of trees, shrubs and grass. On Saturday, it was dotted with joggers as part of The Hills Are Alive annual race, and it's regularly populated by local equestrians and dog-walkers who traverse its trails. Some would say the 173-acre site has rebounded from decades as a dump.

• NSWMA Comments on GHG Reporting and Blood-Borne Pathogen Rules (Waste Age, August 16)
  The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) recently submitted comments regarding proposed rules by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

• Several councilors say constituents don’t support curbside recycling (Laramie Boomerang, August 14)
  Several Laramie city councilors said their constituents don’t like the city’s proposed curbside recycling plan, which, if approved by the council, will be mandatory for city residents who receive automated garbage collection. “I received an e-mail from one of the constituents in my ward, and they were concerned with the increases in fees — the $1.66 — in addition to the increases in fees that have been generated to do with solid waste canisters” used for automated garbage collection, Councilor Scott Mullner said at a public hearing on the program this week.  “They were not, let’s say, terribly supportive of the recycling program as it sits, or the solid waste (program),” he said.

• CU-Boulder to boost recycling efforts (Boulder Daily Camera, August 13)
  This fall as University of Colorado students make their way across campus, they will have some more options on where to throw their trash. Throughout the semester, some of the campus' 409 outdoor trash cans will be reused to make room for more recycling bins. While the outdoor trash stations will be reduced by about 30 percent by December, the remaining 290 stations will include a trash can and at least one recycling bin.

• Hennepin organic recycling program grows 100-fold since rollout (Minneapolis Finance & Commerce, August 11)
  More than 25 percent of the garbage discarded in Hennepin County consists of organic material - food, paper napkins and plates - and the county wants to remove as much of that material as possible from the waste stream. The county wants to boost the amount or organic recyclable material - adding to such conventional recycled materials as glass, metal, cardboard and plastics.

• City Approves $18.5 Million Trash Investment (El Paso KVIA, August 11)
  It took two years, but the City of El Paso finally decided trash from commercial businesses will end up at an El Paso landfill. It's part of the city's 'flow control' plan to haul all commercial waste to landfills in El Paso County.

• States weigh bans on plastic grocery bags (Stateline.org, August 9)
  Since San Francisco enacted the nation’s first ban on plastic grocery bags in 2007, dozens of cities have followed with their own bans, regulations or taxes on the lightweight bags, which have a way of blowing into tree branches and waterways.At least 24 states have considered similar legislation, but so far, the movement has stalled in the statehouses. That may be about to change.

• Advanced Disposal Produces Gopher Tortoise Relocation Movie (Business Wire, August 9)
  Advanced Disposal is looking to make a certain colony of gopher tortoises famous in an effort to bring awareness to the federally-protected species. The environmental services company today released its documentary-style film “Relocating the Gopher Tortoise at Turkey Trot Landfill.” The film takes viewers through the unique process of relocating a colony of gopher tortoises and teaches them why this keystone species is such an important part of the south uplands ecosystem.

• City: Would less trash service lead to less trash, or more smells? (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 9)
  If your garbage was collected less often, say every other week, would you reduce the amount of trash you produce - or simply buy a bigger can? That's one question the city wants to answer in a possible pilot program to study the effects of service reduction. In advancing its "zero waste" goals, Seattle Public Utilities is considering a six-month experiment on roughly 800 of its 150,000 customers.

• Fuel Saving Garbage Trucks are on a Roll (Scientific American, August 8)
  Two heavy-duty manufacturing powerhouses, Peterbilt and Eaton Corporation, have teamed up to give garbage trucks a fuel saving green twist. This spring, Peterbilt announced its new Model 320 Hybrid which uses Eaton’s new hydraulic hybrid system to achieve up to 30% in fuel conservation, along with a consequent reduction in emissions and greatly reduced maintenance costs, too. Now four of the sustainable behemoths are set for their first run in Michigan, in the green-minded city of Anne Arbor.

• Trash fees could fund fun fields (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 8)
  While providing for more mundane municipal work in Waukesha and Racine counties, garbage may one day help build the "Central Park of Franklin" and a regional sports facility. At least that's what Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor envisions as possibilities, if more trucks are allowed to dump their loads at the massive landfill on S. 124th St…Some of the money for the mayor's big ideas would come from fees generated by an expansion of the Metro Recycling and Disposal Facility, which serves 1.7 million residents in some 50 communities across southeast Wisconsin.

• Seneca Falls adds wetlands at preserve (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, August 7)
  The opening of the Seneca Meadows Wetlands Preserve attracted big names from local political and environmental circles. But the bobolink, Henslow's sparrow and least bittern are the visitors that show the project's success, said ecologist Steven Apfelbaum. These and other threatened birds have been spotted at this Seneca Falls wetlands preserve, which officially opened Friday morning. Seneca Meadows Inc. devised the project to mitigate the effects of a 2008 expansion of its Seneca Meadows Landfill in Seneca Falls.

• Waste hauler holds job fair in Fort Myers (Ft. Myers News-Press, August 6)
  Cape Coral resident Vincent DiForca said he hoped his 12 years of experience working on garbage trucks for various companies would give him an edge landing a job Thursday. Looking at the line of people waiting to interview for 50 positions with Choice Environmental Services Inc., DiForca said he only hoped his experience kept him in the hunt…Choice Environmental Services Inc. is the new contracted waste and recycling hauler for much of east Lee County, starting Oct. 1. The company was awarded the $8.1 million contract by Lee County commissioners in March.

• Hauler gives city ultimatum or 'we'll sue' (Ridgecrest Daily Independent, August 6)
  Benz Sanitation may not have filed a lawsuit against the City of Ridgecrest yet but the franchise waste hauler has taken the first step in the process that leads to court. As of Wednesday afternoon the hauler put the city on notice that unless it pays an outstanding bill for delinquent accounts of $178,756.71 and repeals a recently approved ordinance that would give residents an option to self haul their own trash and recyclables, Benz will take legal action to “protect its interests.”

• Council raises trash rates (Camarillo Acorn,  August 6)
  Camarillo trash rates will go up 28 cents on Sept. 1. The residential trash bill will rise from $26.78 to $27.06 a month. The City Council approved the rate increase in a 4-1 vote at the July 28 meeting.

• A1 ORGANICS: Compost riles residents (Las Vegas Review-Statesman, August 5)
  Some county officials say the dispute is a classic case of houses being built in an industrial area where fumes and noises from nearby businesses can intrude on homeowners…Wilson noted that composting has been done there since the mid-1990s, and that A1 Organics began its operation there two years ago.”

• Farmington city's waste contract extended (Weber Standard Examiner, August 5)
  City officials have extended the contract with a local waste hauler for another three years, locking in current rates for trash removal. The city council voted unanimously on Tuesday to extend the current terms with Robinson Waste Services Inc., of Layton, to July 2013. Originally approved in 2007, the contract locks in the rate of $3.98 a month for one container for residents, with an additional charge of $1.75 a month for a second container. Robinson also handles the city's recycling program.

• Marshall/Pine garbage bills to go down under joint contract (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 5)
  Marshall and Pine residents will see lower bills for garbage collection under a new joint contract that both communities approved this week. Marshall supervisors hoped the third time would be the charm when they voted Monday to award a $5 million contract for the collection and disposal of residential waste, yard waste and recyclables. The same evening, Pine supervisors voted unanimously to award a $4.9 million contract to the same company, Vogel Disposal Service of Mars, for residential garbage and recycling collection.

• Landfill worries abound in Norridgewock (Waterville Morning Sentinel, August 4)
  Residents had plenty of questions about the biomedical waste being disposed of in their town. From the oversight of waste disposal at Crossroads Landfill, to the history of operations at Pittsfield's biomedical waste treatment facility, a handful of residents interrogated officials Tuesday night about the possibility of the landfill accepting treated biomedical waste for a long-term, indefinite time period.

• King City garbage rates are going up (Beaverton Regal Courier, August 4)
  Mike Leichner, president of Pride Disposal Company, told City Manager Dave Wells in a March 15 letter that the company has seen a "dramatic drop" in its bottom line, both within King City and companywide. "The last increase in rates in King City occurred last year for the increased disposal rates only," Leichner wrote.

• Moving-day weekend keeps Columbia garbage collectors busy (Columbia Missourian, August 3)
  This past weekend, old leases ended and new ones began. On Monday, sofas and desks joined trash bins waiting to be picked up at the curb. “This is the busiest time of year for us, other than the holidays,” said Billy Palmer, who has picked up trash for the city for 38 years.

• Meeteetse struggles with weekly trash trip (Cody Enterprise, August 3)
  Twice a week the town of Meeteetse revs up its lone white Freightliner garbage truck and makes the rounds of dumpsters, gathering household waste from about 250 in-town homes. Until June 30 the truck - with just two high-speed gears for over-the-road hauling purposes - would lumber the two miles to the Meeteetse Landfill to deposit its loads.

• Landfill worth $18-$20 million (Niles Star, August 3)
  It’s been a long wait, but the Southeast Berrien County landfill board finally received an in-depth appraisal of the landfill. The appraisal, completed by Huntington Realty Advisors out of South Bend, revealed the landfill to be worth between $18 million and $20 million. It also stated the landfill has space for three more cells with an estimated life of five to six years on the current cells. The board, which has representatives from each of the five municipalities that own the landfill, voted to sell the landfill in May.

• NYC Garbage Trucks Take QR Codes Mainstream (Advertising Age, August 3)
  In Japan QR codes -- two-dimensional images containing encoded data -- are found on everything from business cards to kumquats. They are soon to be ubiquitous in the West in advertising and marketing, and in New York City garbage trucks are leading the way.

• Where's all that oil spill waste going? Much of it to 'communities of color,' study finds (Mobile Press Register, August 3)
  An analysis by Robert Bullard of the Environmental Justice Resource Center of Clark Atlanta University has made a provocative and, no doubt, controversial finding: that much of the waste generated by the oil spill cleanup efforts is being winding up in common landfills located in majority-black areas.

• Garbage islands threaten Three Gorges Dam (MSNBC, August 2)
  Thousands of tons of garbage washed down by recent torrential rain are threatening to jam the locks of China's massive Three Gorges Dam, and is in places so thick people can stand on it, state media said on Monday. Chen Lei, a senior official at the China Three Gorges Corporation, told the China Daily that more than 3,000 tons of trash was being collected at the dam every day, but there was still not enough manpower to clean it all up.

• Sorrento garbage rates to rise $1 per month (Baton Rouge Advocate, August 1)
  Sorrento residents and some businesses in neighborhood areas can expect a $1 increase in their garbage bills starting this month, city and trash service officials said. The Town Council approved the nearly 5.9 percent increase last month for Sorrento’s 408 customers, boosting monthly bills from $17 to $18 dollars, officials said.

• Waste not, want not? Palo Alto seeks to overhaul obsolete waste-management model (Mountain View Voice, July 31)
  The loss of funds and the state mandate has led to a vigorous debate among council members over the past month about how to maintain the reserve and how to reform the city's waste-management system to make it financially viable. Now, the city's waste-collection model is on the cusp of a complete overhaul. Residents and businesses will likely see their refuse rates increase in October and, at the same time, see reduced services and higher fees at the city-owned landfill in the Baylands.

• Oil spill waste raises concerns in the gulf (Los Angeles Times, July 30)
  Officials in one Mississippi area, however, raised concerns about the magnitude and safety of the oil spill waste being buried nearby. On Thursday, Harrison County officials blocked it from being dumped in their community — potentially opening the door for others in the region to do the same.

• Del Monte Commits to Cut Waste 75% by 2016 (Environmental Leader, July 30)
  Del Monte has worked to lower the amount of solid waste (per ton of finished product) going to landfill from its operations, and has committed to a 75 percent reduction.

• Washington County garbage rates going up Aug. 1 (Portland Oregonian, July 30)
  Garbage and recycling rates for customers in unincorporated Washington County will increase Aug. 1 by amounts less than previously proposed. Washington County leaders this week approved hikes of 2.8 percent for residential customers, 5 percent for commercial and 11.8 percent for drop-box users.

• Garbage contractor increases rates (Shreveport Times, July 30)
  Wards Waste Services, the contracted garbage service provider for the city of Natchitoches, is increasing its rates effective Sunday, according to a news release. Residential and apartment rates will increase from $18.95 to $21.21 and commercial rates will increase from $46.20 to $51.15.

• Council Moves to Increase Recycling  (Gotham Gazette, July 30)
  With many city residents still dumping all their trash in the garbage can, the City Council yesterday passed 11 bills to spur recycling in the city, including a measure that would let New Yorkers put all rigid plastic containers -- even yogurt cups -- in the blue bin.

• Spokane Judge Halts Hawaii Garbage Shipments To Washington  (OPB News, July 30)
  Friday was the day that Hawaii was to begin shipping trash to a landfill in Washington. But a federal judge in Spokane has put a stop to that. Judge Edward Shea issued a temporary restraining order after an emergency hearing. He said the garbage shipments from Hawaii are a significant risk to the Northwest environment.

• What does zero waste mean for the Bay State?  (Boston Globe, July 30)
  It’s a laudable vision for Massachusetts: Work toward a “zero waste” future that maximizes recycling, minimizes waste and reduces consumption. Such a garbage goal for the next decade is now being vetted in a draft solid waste master plan that was released early this month by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The third public hearing on the plan will be held tonight in Wilmington and two others will be held in September for the public to comment on the document.

• New trash deal saves city money  (Fort Wayne News Sentinel, July 30)
  The advisory board that developed a new approach to deciding who gets Fort Wayne's trash business recommended a contract that will make recycling easier for city residents without increasing their bills – while saving the city $300,000 or more in the first year.

• City Approves 'Pay As You Throw' Trash Rates  (Manhattan Beach Patch, July 30)
  In 2006, Manhattan Beach residents each threw away an average of 769 pounds of trash—about the weight of a cow. Residents who slim down their refuse may see lower trash bills, the city announced last week. The City Council approved a "pay as you throw" system tentatively set to take effect May 1, 2011. The new pay structure will replace the flat monthly rate currently applied to single-family homes and set new prices for trash bins.

• Garbage privatization effort moves forward  (Ukiah Daily Journal, July 30)
  In two narrow votes Tuesday, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors opted to hold its ground against the Fort Bragg City Council's opposition to a key element of the county's effort to privatize its six solid waste transfer stations.

• Friday vote on garbage incineration will affect Metro Vancouver  (Vancouver Province, July 29)
  Residents of Metro Vancouver will find their wallets — and perhaps the air they breathe — affected for decades by a region-wide vote on a new garbage-disposal plan Friday. Metro’s Sewerage and Drainage Board is being asked to approve a $470-million waste-to-energy incinerator, which a staff report says would pay for itself and generate $20 million over 35 years. Metro planners say air pollution would increase by less than one per cent, and that shipping garbage to the expanded Cache Creek landfill would cost $1.5 billion over the same time period.

• SF Facing Sticky Trash Dilemma (San Francisco KTVU, July 28)
  In a few weeks, San Franciscans will likely be asked to make an important decision regarding a smelly issue that will affect every person and business in the city: what do with its garbage. The trash is very valuable and the fight over who will get it is – like so many things in the City by the Bay – bitter, emotional and political

• City’s compost passes tests (San Francisco Chronicle, July 28)
  Sewage-based compost given out by San Francisco is laced with contaminants such as heavy metals, which exist in comparable levels in commercially available soil amendments, The City found.

• Mayor vetoes garbage trucks purchase (Hot Springs Star, July 27)
  I believe when the council did not get firm bids from private garbage contractors to haul municipal garbage for the city they have not acted in the best interests of the citizens,” the Mayor’s letter states.” De Vries adds that before the city takes on the purchase of trucks and the collecting and hauling of municipal garbage, “we must be assured we can accomplish the tax at a competitive price…”

• The Politics of Garbage Desperate Budgets Prompt Cuts in Trash Pickups (Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2010)
  Of all the recent cuts to local budgets, one in particular is raising a stink: cutbacks in garbage collection. In Livingston, N.J., residents now have to haul their trash to the curb themselves. A budget crisis in Yonkers led to a switch to once-a-week from twice-a-week trash pickups; after resident protests, it was switched back again. Even New York City is weighing charging for collection, an idea that has some city residents trashing City Hall.

• Composting by Bike in NYC May Put the Pedal to the Nettles (Earth911.com, July 26)
  For one group of folks in The Big Apple, the way to improve the city’s recycling may be by bicycling their way there…the project envisions using modified cargo bicycles to gather food scrap waste from city restaurants, containerizing the organic waste, and delivering it to regional farmers when they’re in the city for farmers markets and CSA deliveries.

• Why Can’t Chicago Recycle? (Chicago Reader, July 23)
  Not surprisingly, the National Solid Wastes Management Association called the proposal garbage. Waste haulers—some of whom would lose out under the city's plan—argued that Chicago's thousands of businesses and buildings had unique needs, depending on their location and the type of trash they produced, and simply couldn't be served by a single hauler (or charged a uniform fee) over a broad area.

• Peoria first city to use hybrid garbage and recycling truck (Peoria Times, July 23)
  But, it is a big move for the City of Peoria, which this month became the first city in Arizona to take delivery of a hybrid garbage/recycling truck.

• Talks begin on expansion of regional landfill in Franklin (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 23)
  A committee overseeing a proposed expansion of the Metro Recycling and Disposal Facility, which serves 1.7 million residents in some 50 communities across southeast Wisconsin, held a public hearing Wednesday and began closed-door discussions in connection with what is expected to be a vote on the expansion agreement on Aug. 4.

• State Of Kansas Solid Waste Management Plan 2010 Update (Topeka WIBW, July 23)
  The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has prepared an update to the State of Kansas Solid Waste Management Plan. The plan is updated every five years in cooperation with numerous solid waste stakeholders representing local governments, private businesses and members of the general public.

• No Tax Increase, But Garbage Fee Increases For Lookout Mountain, Ga. (The Chattanoogan, July 23)
  Lookout Mountain, Ga. Mayor Bill Glascock told his City Council members on Thursday that preparing a balanced budget was one of the hardest things he has ever had to do. “I needed $30,000 to make it balanced,” he said. "I did not want to raise taxes, so I looked at raising the garbage fee instead."

• PennDOT Cleanup Nets 12 Million Pounds of Trash (Youngstown WYTV, July 22)
  The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation issued a release stating that more than 186,000 volunteers cleaned nearly 19,500 miles of roads, trails and shorelines in the state during the Great American Cleanup of PA from March 1 to May 31. During the cleanup, PennDOT Secretary Allen D. Biehler said that 12 million pounds of trash was collected.

• It’s On! The Call to Recycle 1 Million Pounds of Batteries (Earth911.com, July 22)
  Yesterday, Call2Recycle officially launched its nationwide campaign to recycle 1 million pounds of batteries by October 1.

• Charging for Garbage Collection Is Still on the Table, Mayor Says (DNAinfo.com, July 22)
  Mayor Michael Bloomberg refuses to rule out a proposal to charge residents for hauling away their trash. "It's in the mix," Bloomberg told reporters while attending a groundbreaking ceremony in Staten Island Wednesday. "I'm not going to rule out anything. There's no sacred cows." The fee is just one of a host of options being considering as the city faces shrinking funds in the coming fiscal year, he said.

• How Green Is My Sneaker? (Wall Street Journal, July 22)
  Are your Nikes greener than your Adidas? There will soon be an answer to this question, if the manufacturers have their way. A group of roughly 100 well-known apparel brands and retailers have developed a software tool to help them measure the environmental impact of their apparel and footwear, from raw material to garbage dump. Ultimately, the companies hope to display an eco-value on a tag or package, much like the Energy Star rating of appliances.

• Funkstown chooses Key Sanitation for trash pick-up (Hagerstown Herald-Mail, July 21)
  The Funkstown Town Council on Tuesday night picked Key Sanitation to handle the town’s trash pickup for the coming year, Town Clerk/Treasurer Brenda Haynes said. Key Sanitation was the lowest bidder for trash service that complied with all of the town’s requirements for trash pickup, Haynes said.  Key Sanitation’s bid was $52,539.61, Haynes said.  Under the service, garbage will be picked up once a week on Thursdays and yard waste will be picked up on Tuesdays, Haynes said.

• How Has BP's Oily Waste Escaped 'Hazardous' Label? (The New York Times, July 21)
  After 92 days of disaster, images of Gulf Coast fishermen laying boom and workers sponging crude from the shore now border on iconic. But the next chapter in recovering from the historic gusher presents a task less often photographed: disposing of all that oil-soaked waste.

• Bill Envisions Solar Farms on Landfills (Montclair Spotlight, July 20)
  For decades, state and local officials have been stumped by what to do with hundreds of old garbage dumps that were never properly closed and now threaten water supplies. Can solar farms provide the answer? There are some who think so.

• Hawaii Garbage Faces New Obstacle En Route to Washington Landfill (Seattle Weekly, July 20)
  Over the weekend, Hawaii news outlets were reporting that the first shipment of Honolulu garbage was likely only weeks away from coming to a Washington state landfill near the Columbia River. Hawaiian Waste Systems, the Seattle-based company that has a contract to ship 150,000 tons of waste from Honolulu to the Roosevelt Regional Landfill (pictured at right), told reporters it believed that final approval from the US Department of Agriculture was imminent. But now there appears to be a new holdup in the approval process that has already dragged on for years and sparked controversy across the Pacific.

• Cost of Recycling Plastic Bags? Up to $60,000/Month (Portland Mercury, July 20)
  So is recycling plastic bags actually a good option for Portland? Stats from local plastics recyclers point to one answer: HELL NO.

• Eye on the environment: Rhymes on recycling outdated (Ventura County Star, July 19)
  Some recycling advocates, such as Californians Against Waste, have called for the caps of plastic bottles to also remain attached, saying this could reduce litter and increase recycling. Plastic bottle lids, however, are often made of different plastic than bottles, with different flow rates and melting temperatures. If plastics do not easily separate during sorting, they can complicate recycling.

• Supervisors approve draconian cuts to transfer stations (Willits News, July 19)
  Supervisors on Tuesday narrowly approved a plan by Department of Transportation Director Howard Dashiell to run the DOT's Division of Solid Waste with no net county cost expenditure. The failure of the Fort Bragg City Council to approve a set of agreements that would have turned over operation of six county-owned transfer stations to privately owned Solid Waste of Willits in exchange for lengthy extensions to SWOW's curbside pickup franchise contracts has left the county caught with its pants down and its shoelaces untied. It now has six transfer stations to operate and manage, but no money to run them.

• Some oil landfill neighbors say lab tests won't change their minds (Biloxi WLOX, July 19)
  Harrison County supervisors may get the answers about whether it's safe for oil waste to go into a local landfill as soon as Monday afternoon. Supervisor Windy Swetman says a Hattiesburg lab is running the tests using samples taken directly from Waste Management's Pecan Grove Landfill on Firetower Road. However, some residents say they don't want oil in their neighborhood no matter what the tests say.

• Disposing Needles Now Regulated By Town (Belmont Patch, July 19)
  As of July 1, Massachusetts has banned all sharps (needles/syringes and lancets) from disposal in the regular trash.Residents can no longer be able to put needles/syringes and lancets in detergent bottles or coffee cans and put them in their regular trash.

• Board of Health Enforces Flow Control Law (Falmouth Cape News, July 19)
  Falmouth Board of Health voted to implement a regulation that has not been enforced in 19 years…

• DANC to study makeup of trash (Watertown Daily Times, July 19)
  The Development Authority of the North Country is checking what makes up the trash going into the authority's landfill and helping the counties in the region comply with state regulations. Each of the three municipalities — Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties — must file a solid waste management plan every 10 years. But this year, when all of the plans are due, the authority will complete and file a single plan for all three.

• Goldsmith: Privatizing Trash Will Save $34M (Voice of San Diego, July 16)
  San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said he will release a legal argument Friday that would clear the way for the city to privatize trash collection, allowing it to recoup the $34 million it loses annually on residential trash collection without directly repealing the city's longstanding ban on trash fees. The city "would essentially get out of the trash hauling business, selling the business as a going concern and leave trash hauling to the private sector," Goldsmith said. "The city would not provide trash services to anybody."

• Education can keep children safe around garbage trucks (Chillicothe Gazette, July 15)
  Curiosity is inborn in every child. During the summer months, in particular, they have more time to be curious about things of which they need to be cautious. That includes garbage trucks making their rounds through neighborhoods across Ross and Pike counties.

• Ombudsman to probe eco fees (Toronto Star, July 15)
  The fees go toward funding the proper disposal of items on which it is now charged, such as aerosols — including asthma inhalers — cleaning products, pharmaceuticals, compact fluorescent light bulbs and thousands of other things that could be hazardous if they end up in landfills or dumped into sewer systems.

• Charleston County to farm out recycling (Charleston Post and Courier, July 14)
  In private hands, Charleston County's recycling operation should make $1 million more each year than it does now, said County Council officials who voted Tuesday night to privatize the facility. Council approved a contract with American Recycling of South Carolina to run the facility in Charleston, and in another waste-related vote agreed to sell the site of the former garbage incinerator in North Charleston to Shipyard Creek Associates for an as-yet undisclosed price.

• Answers From a Garbologist (New York Times, July 14)
  It’s a little-known fact that sanitation workers are at greater risk of on-the-job injury and on-the-job fatality than police officers or fire fighters. The trash itself is the source of some of the danger, but even more hazardous is working in traffic. The most recent such death was just this past January, when a sanitation worker, Frank Justich, was crushed by a tractor-trailer while he worked his route in Queens.

• West Warwick privatizes trash pickup (West Warwick Journal, July 13)
  For the first time in the town’s 97-year history, public-works employees will no longer pick up the garbage. The Town Council has privatized local garbage collection, awarding a three-year contract to Seekonk-based MTG Disposal LLC. The company is set to begin hauling trash next month. The vote was 4 to 1 in favor. The move will save the town up to $400,000 annually, according to Town Manager James Thomas. The town joins several Rhode Island communities in turning over garbage collection to the private sector.

• City refuse fees rise in July (St. Charles Republican, July 13)
  Effective as of the beginning of this month, the city of St. Charles’ refuse fees increased as part of a three-year contract with Veolia Environmental Services signed in May

• Driver sentenced in fatal crash (Johnson County Daily Journal, July 13)
  A Columbus man has been sentenced to nine years in prison after crashing into two garbage truck workers, killing one of them and seriously injuring the other. Steven R. Perkins, 46, pleaded guilty to felony charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death and operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing serious bodily injury.

• New York Compost Facility Burns (Firehouse.com, July 12)
  The state Department of Environmental Conservation will investigate the safety of a Yaphank compost facility after a raging fire early Monday pumped putrid fumes into the surrounding area for several hours. The cause of the Long Island Compost blaze, which took more than a hundred firefighters from 22 departments to bring down, was still under investigation, officials said. Recent dry weather may have helped cause the fire, which began at about 2:40 a.m. and burned an approximately 200-by-400-foot area of compost materials until midday, said Bruce Mazza, second assistant chief of the Brookhaven Fire Department. The materials, which included logs, tree stumps and tree limbs, were piled more than 50 feet high, he said. The DEC will investigate to see if "the size of this pile was excessive" or if other unsafe conditions contributed to the blaze, said Peter Scully, a department spokesman.

• Commercial recycling cycles up (Block Island Times, July 10)
  …McGarry explained that new incentives built into the rate structure have worked to vastly improve commercial recycling even without a recycling ordinance. “It used to be that it cost five cents per pound for recycling and nine cents for trash,” McGarry said. “When we increased the rate to 12 cents for trash that helped immensely. I can’t think of a single business that does not recycle now.”

• NY lags in recycling, but has a plan to make it better (Middletown Times Record-Herald, July 11)
  New Yorkers still use the trash can more often than the recycling bin. That's according to a report that shows the Empire State lags far behind the national rate of recycling, while also falling short of its own goals. On average, the United States recycles about 33 percent of its municipal solid waste, not including construction and demolition debris. New York recycles 20 percent.

• Trooper: Man killed in early morning wreck (Jacksonville News, July 9)
  A Jacksonville man was killed early Thursday morning when the garbage truck he was driving went off the road and into a ditch, authorities say. Mark Plourde, 39, of Pueblo Drive was operating a garbage truck for M&W Hauling when the truck went off the road at U.S. 17 and Kellum Loop Road, according to the N.C. Highway Patrol.

• Recycling efforts must be controlled, landfill agency says (Columbus Dispatch, July 9)
  Franklin County's landfill managers told entrepreneurs and recyclers this morning that they will needthe agency's approval to set up any new recycling operations. Because taxpayers have paid to build and operate the county landfill, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio must make sure any new recycling operation won't ultimately bankrupt the public investment by making it obsolete too quickly…Steve Grossman, a multi-state recycler, said other communities are far morewelcoming to new ideas. He said a business associate once compared SWACO "to an old Soviet agency.

• San Diego May Sell Miramar Landfill (San Diego News6, July 9)
  San Diego is considering — but not committing to — getting out of the landfill business and selling the Miramar Landfill, which the city has operated for the past five decades, Mayor Jerry Sanders said Thursday. The city is seeking proposals from private companies to take over the landfill, with a deadline of Aug. 13.

• Biomass battle heats up Wood-burning power plans defended (Boston Herald, July 9)
  Biomass-plant developers yesterday blasted the Patrick administration’s move to curtail use of wood-burning power plants in Massachusetts, saying the decision was based on a “mischaracterized” state environmental study. “It has the potential of shutting down biomass power plants in New England,” Robert Cleaves, president of the Biomass Power Association, said of state Environmental Secretary Ian Bowles’ move to re-evaluate the state’s overall policy toward wood-burning energy.

• Waste To Wealth Landmark Recycling Bill Now Law (Bonifay Chipley Paper, July 8)
  The most significant recycling legislation in more than a decade became law on July 1st. Co-authored by Representative Michelle Rehwinkel  Vasilinda, HB 7243 sets up the Recycling Business Assistance Center to help build markets for recycled goods and other materials and achieve Florida’s 75% recycling goal by the year 2020. The legislation was the top priority of the Sierra Club and many business organizations.

• New Seattle Ordinance Requiring Food Packaging To Be Compostable Or Recyclable Goes Into Effect (Seattle Medium, July 8)
  The City of Seattle ordinance which requires all food service businesses to stop throwing away single-use food service ware and packaging took effect last Thursday, July 1. Customers can now put napkins, paper bags, wooden coffee stir sticks and many types of take-away containers into new in-store compost collection bins. Hot and cold beverage cups and lids will now go into recycling containers instead the trash.

• Despite objections, cleanup waste moves to Pecan Grove landfill (Biloxi WLOX, July 8)
  First, oil made its way on our beaches, and now, oil is making its way into our landfill. Waste Management is now transporting and disposing of oil spill cleanup waste in the Pecan Grove landfill in Harrison County, over strong objections of County officials. The tar balls, oily sand and other material are scooped up from the beach, bagged and dumped into Waste Management containers.

• Sanford waste removal debate gets dirty (Orlando Fox 35 News, July 8)
  The waste removal company Waste Pro is getting some opposition from businesses in Sanford. Many say the planning and zoning commission's decision to allow Waste Pro to move their Central Florida headquarters to Sanford and house dozens of their vehicles is not a good idea. FOX 35 met up with the Regional Vice President for Waste Pro, Tim Dolan, who says there are a lot of misconceptions out there about their intentions.

• As Mercury Rose, So Did Smell of Trash (New York Times, July 7)
  For the Department of Sanitation, Tuesday was one of the agency’s busiest days of the year. It was a mandatory workday for all sanitation workers. About 240 workers who had been on vacation but who had volunteered to be placed on an emergency call-up list were called in. To pick up as much of Monday’s trash as possible, the agency had 500 more trucks collecting residential garbage than would be normal on a Tuesday, said Peter McKeon, the Sanitation Department’s chief of collection.

• Pierce County study finds much of trash could be recycled (Tacoma News Tribune, July 5)
  We throw away a lot of stuff in Pierce County. And about 60 percent of what goes into our trash and garbage cans is recyclable, according to a new study. The No. 1 offender? Food. Yep, we toss a lot of comestibles that easily could turn into compostables, researchers from R.W. Beck Inc. of Seattle concluded after an 18-month project that included picking piece by piece through tons of trash.

• In a World of Throwaways, Making a Dent in Medical Waste (New York Times, July 5)
  The health care industry has a garbage problem. It’s not just that hospitals, doctors’ offices, clinics and other health facilities generate several billion pounds of garbage each year: buried in that mountain of trash are untold numbers of unused disposable medical devices as well as used but recyclable supplies and equipment, from excess syringes and gauze to surgical instruments. The problem, fueled by a shift toward the use of disposables that made it simple to keep treatment practices sterile, has been an open secret for years, but getting the health care industry to change its habits has not been easy. No organization currently tracks how much medical trash the United States produces — the last known estimate, from the early 1990s, was two million tons a year. Only recently has the industry begun grappling with the amount of waste it generates, and one reason is that financially stressed hospitals are seeking ways to cut costs.

• Public works collection ends (Lewisburg Marshall County Tribune, July 3)
  Lewisburg is approaching a milestone in its service to city residents. Next week, trash collection services will be conducted by Allied Waste, the private hauler with Middle Point Sanitary Landfill north of Murfreesboro. The change comes with the start of the fiscal year and a new budget adopted by the City Council. Announcements about the pending change on Monday have been issued recently, but the decision was made several months ago. As the time grows near for the change, Allied Waste has delivered blue trash carts to homes and businesses. The carts are designed so pneumatic arms can grasp, lift and dump the carts.

• Ada County is turning trash into electricity (Boise Statesman, July 2)
  Hidden Hollow landfill is more than a "dump." It has a renewable energy park, hazardous waste and recycling programs and an open-space conservation program including a three-mile trail system. Now, the Ada County landfill is joining Alaska, the South American nation of Colombia and the Caribbean Grand Cayman island in using a cutting-edge, clean-burning process to incinerate trash and convert it into electricity. This week, Ada County commissioners signed an agreement with Eagle-based Dynamis Energy LLC to design, build and operate a state-of-the-art waste-to-energy plant at the landfill. Construction is expected to start next year and be completed by spring 2012.