The city of Chicago has announced that it will be shifting to a blue cart recycling program as the main method for collecting recyclables. The city says it expects to have the new program implemented by 2011.
"Beginning in June we will expand our blue cart recycling program to an additional 92,000 households by the end of 2008, doubling the number of participating households," Streets & Sanitation Commissioner Michael Picardi says. "We will continue on an accelerated expansion plan, bringing the program to approximately 140,000 homes each year until the end of 2011, when the blue cart will be in place in all of the 600,000 homes serviced by Streets & Sanitation," he adds.
The 96-gallon carts will replace the city’s long-time blue-bag collection method.
Chicago’s move toward the blue cart program began in April of 2005 with a field test of 700 homes on the far southwest side of the city.
The state of Illinois pledged $8 million dollars in 2006 to assist with the purchase of recycling carts.
Greenstar North America Invests in Single-Stream ProcessingGreenstar North America, based in Houston, and its parent company NTR, have announced plans to invest $300 million to further develop its single-stream recycling capabilities and its use of solar and wind energy.
"These announcements support NTR’s strategy and our commitment to continued investment in renewable energy and recycling businesses with strong future growth potential," Jim Barry, group chief executive of NTR plc, says. "We are excited to be involved at this early stage in taking these businesses forward to the next level."
Currently, Greenstar has 500,000 tons of single-stream processing capacity, with announced expansions bringing its capacity to more than 1 million tons per year by the end of 2008.
"We believe that single-stream recycling technology is critical to the future of the recycling industry," Steve Ragiel, CEO, Greenstar North America, says. "The process decreases the cost of collection and increases the convenience of recycling by placing all materials into one bin. However, due to the upfront investment required, only 30 percent of all recyclables in the U.S. are currently processed through single stream. Those markets who have converted have seen recycling rates increase dramatically."
Ragiel continues, "We are working to introduce both residential and commercial single-stream processing across all our facilities, which will be an important component of our service offering to our local municipal and collection company customers."
Greenstar provides single-stream services across Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and surrounding areas. The company is adding new facilities and upgrading its equipment with technology currently employed in its European operations.
Greenstar’s parent company NTR, based in Dublin, Ireland, is an international developer and operator in renewable energy and sustainable waste management.
Single-Stream MRF Opens in Newark, N.J.Newark, N.J., is the site of a new regional single-stream material recovery facility (MRF) that Houston-based Waste Management is calling the largest single stream facility in New Jersey.
Waste Management and its subsidiary Waste Management Recycle America (WMRA) have invested more than $4 million at the St. Charles Street MRF to install advanced single-stream sorting technology, including magnets, screens and optical scanners, that separates mixed paper, glass, plastic and metal recyclables.
Single-stream recycling is proven to increase participation in recycling programs by up to 30 percent, according to a press release from Waste Management, and helps make the process of recycling more efficient and cost effective for businesses and municipalities.
The 110,000-square-foot WMRA Newark facility supports residential and commercial recycling in municipalities and counties throughout New Jersey. It has the capacity to process up to 11,000 tons of materials per month.
Waste Management Recycle America has more than 30 single-stream recycling facilities currently operating across the U.S., with plans to open or begin construction on six additional single-stream MRFs this year.
Waste Management currently manages 8 million tons of recyclables; by 2020 the company plans to capture enough of the increasing volumes to process more than 20 million tons.
Metro Waste Opens New Material Recovery FacilityMetro Waste Paper Recovery Inc., based in Toronto, has begun construction on a new 80,000-square-foot materials recovery facility (MRF) near Vancouver, British Columbia. The facility can accept multi-stream flows or commingled materials. The MRF cost nearly $5 million.
Metro says it expects the plant, being built in Burnaby, British Columbia, to be operational by the middle of the summer. It replaces Metro Waste’s smaller MRF in Surrey, British Columbia.
"This new facility marks a significant step forward in how we offer recycling services in the Lower Mainland to all sectors, including commercial, industrial, printing and municipal customers," says Al Metauro, CEO of Metro Waste Paper Recovery. "We’ll be able to better meet the new standards set in the industry, offering more sustainable programs and achieving higher yields of recyclable materials. Ultimately, this all leads to reductions in waste management costs for our customers."
According to Metro, the new MRF will also allow for increased growth in all sectors, ensuring the ability to continue to support municipal programs, and specifically, municipalities wanting to implement zero waste initiatives.
The MRF will have a processing capacity of 200,000 metric tons per year and will feature updated processing equipment.
"We’ll now be able to offer our customers even more flexibility in how materials are collected, including the commingling of recyclables, greatly reducing the amount of pickups required to remove recyclables at a site," says Brandon Rogers, Metro Waste’s operations manager for the Lower Mainland. "This equates directly to a reduction in our carbon footprint as the service provider."
A new automated optical sorting system will scan and segregate materials at a rate of 160 feet per square per second.
Disc screens will also be installed on the fiber line to separate old corrugated cardboard containers (OCC) from other types of paper fiber as well as non-fiber containers and residue.
"This specialized equipment is ideal for the commingled, single-stream collection we’ll be implementing, as it will decrease the amount of human labor required for separating the materials. The result is a noticeably substantial increase in consistency and accuracy, producing a much higher grade of the final separated materials," says Rogers.
Curbside Value Partnership Benefits from Coca-Cola SponsorshipCoca-Cola Recycling LLC has signed on as a sponsor of the Curbside Value Partnership (CVP).
Coca-Cola Recycling was founded by Atlanta-baed Coca-Cola Enterprises to recover and recycle beverage packaging materials in North America.
The Curbside Value Partnership is a program funded by members of the Aluminum Association and Can Manufacturer’s Institute that seeks to engage communities, haulers, material recovery facilities (MRFs) and other stakeholders to identify solutions to improving curbside recycling programs through education.
Coca-Cola Recycling’s sponsorship begins by focusing on statewide recycling efforts in the state of Georgia, a current Curbside Value Partnership partner and headquarters to Coca-Cola Recycling and the global Coca-Cola system.
"The company is a natural fit for CVP as they, too, are interested in increasing recycling awareness but also value the importance of measuring the actual impact of that increased awareness," Steve Thompson, director of the Curbside Value Partnership, says.
Coca-Cola Recycling works to develop cost-efficient solutions to reclaim used beverage containers and will establish centralized recycling centers at major Coca-Cola Enterprises facilities throughout North America.
"When Coca-Cola Recycling was launched last year, our goal was to help the Coca-Cola system to recycle and reuse all of the beverage container packaging it uses in North America," John Burgess, president and CEO of Coca-Cola Recycling, says. "Partnering with the Curbside Value Partnership will not only allow us to move closer to that goal, but will increase the amount of valuable recycled materials available for use in the beverage market."
More information on how other companies and industry organizations can join the Curbside Value Partnership is available at www.recyclecurbside.org.
Explore the June 2008 Issue
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