Oklahoma City has announced it will install 23 cigarette waste recycling stations downtown through a partnership between the city’s Office of Sustainability, OKC Beautiful and Downtown OKC Inc.

The cigarette recycling stations will be installed on Project 180 light poles in Bicentennial Park, at city hall, the Oklahoma County Courthouse and Leadership Square. Downtown OKC 
will service and maintain the stations, and all cigarette waste collected will be shipped at no cost to a private company. The excess tobacco and paper will be composted and the filters will be recycled into a reusable high-grade plastic.

“Downtown belongs to everyone,” says Lisa Synar, OKC Beautiful executive director. “It is so important we provide the tools for everyone to do their part to safeguard downtown’s appeal. Through this program, reducing the cigarette waste that collects in our tree wells, streets and sidewalks doesn’t just beautify downtown, it also diverts waste from our landfills.”

OKC Beautiful is one of 42 organizations to receive 2016 grant funding totaling $240,000 through Keep America Beautiful’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program. 

“Storm drains too often end up as litter receptacles,” says T. O. Bowman, the city’s sustainability manager. “The toxic chemicals in cigarette waste can then leach into our waterways. This program partnership with OKC Beautiful and Downtown OKC Inc. will help us ensure Oklahoma City remains beautiful, healthy and sustainable.”

The Herald Dispatch, Huntington, West Virginia, reports that some residents of Cabell County, West Virginia, want to vote in favor of a proposed levy to reinvigorate the solid waste authority’s recycling program.

“The Cabell County Commission should give the citizens of Cabell County the opportunity to decide whether they want countywide recycling,” said Monty Fowler, a resident at the county commission meeting Thursday, July 28, 2016, according to the newspaper. “When I go by the recycling bins anywhere in the county they are full, so people clearly want the opportunity and it’s up to the Cabell County Commission to give us that opportunity to vote on it. If they don’t, then they are not doing their jobs.”

The levy would install a tax rate of 0.6 percent of a cent per $100 assessed valuation on owner-occupied homes, the article says. According to Stephen Zoeller, president of the solid waste authority board, the levy would provide about $300,000 annually to the recycling program.

“Five years ago, we the solid waste authority began this program and the municipalities and the county were very supportive,” The Herald Dispatch quotes Zoeller saying at the meeting. “But times are tough and the municipalities and the county have not been able to fund the program. What we are requesting now would not affect the budget of the county or municipalities but it would require people to pony up some money for this program.”

The county’s drop-off recycling program began in 2011 with eight locations, three of which were put out of commission on June 30 following the loss of funding. Officials began looking for alternatives when Rumpke Recycling increased its rates in 2015, the Dispatch says. 

If passed, the levy would allow the authority to establish a county recycling processing station and would work to restore all eight recycling locations, Zoeller said. 

The Aluminum Association, Arlington, Virginia, has released a research report from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute's (WPI) Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling that confirms an overall recycling rate of 91 percent for automotive aluminum.

The peer-reviewed study, funded by The Aluminum Association, examines how much aluminum used in the domestic light-duty automotive sector is recovered and recycled from vehicles at end of life. The Aluminum Association says the study supports findings from earlier third-party government and auto industry reports that claimed aluminum is the most sustainable choice for the environment.

"We set out to detail exactly how aluminum is separated and recovered at the end of a vehicle's service life, and findings show it is highly recyclable and is recovered and reused at very high rates," says Professor Diran Apelian, founding director of WPI's Metal Processing Institute, the home of the Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling. "With an eye toward reducing the nation's energy consumption, lowering carbon emissions and increasing fuel economy, this study confirms that as aluminum use continues to grow in the automotive sector it also enhances energy security and environmental protections."

The study, "Automotive Aluminum Recycling at End of Life: A Grave-to-Gate Analysis," details a "grave-to-gate" analysis, which spans the moment an automobile becomes obsolete to the moment the aluminum metal units are completely recycled and enter back into life as input material for new applications, including vehicles. Researchers attribute automotive aluminum's high recycling rate to the metal's economic value, citing the "concerted effort to recover this valuable lightweight commodity from end-of-life vehicles."

"Aluminum continues to show its fundamental value as a sustainable solution at every stage of an automobile's life," says Tom Boney, chairman of The Aluminum Association's Aluminum Transportation Group (ATG) and vice president and general manager, Automotive Value Stream, Novelis North America. "As the United States and the rest of the world continue to strive for a more environmentally friendly future, aluminum is a big part of the solution and this new data confirms it."

To view the full study, click here. 

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin and Janet Coit, Rhode Island’s director of the Department of Environmental Management (DEM), have applauded the order by Superior Court Justice Michael Silverstein for appointing a special master to oversee the cleanup of the Rhode Island Recycled Metals (RIRM) scrap metal operation along the waterfront in Providence.

In accordance with the order issued July 27, 2016, Silverstein appointed Attorney Richard Land of the law firm Chace, Ruttenberg & Freedman to immediately take initial measures, such as covering exposed piles of contaminated soil on the site, investigating the site, developing a plan for cleaning-up the site and, if the court approves the plan, implementing the plan. All of this is to be done at the site owner's and the site operator's expense.

According to a news release sent by the office of the Rhode Island Attorney General, in March 2015, Attorney General Kilmartin and Director Coit filed the lawsuit in Superior Court seeking to enforce a 2013 Consent Agreement issued by the Rhode Island DEM requiring the scrap yard to perform certain measures to address hazardous waste on the land and derelict vessels in the river adjacent to the land. That month, state officials obtained a restraining order against the digging up of the shoreline.

As part of that lawsuit, the attorney general and DEM director sought injunctive relief enforcing the Consent Agreement and requiring remediation of the affected site.

In December 2015, after a near-toppling of a barge-mounted crane that could have damaged a critical pipe carrying drinking water to East Providence, the state requested the appointment of a court officer to take over the site. Although the barge was temporarily righted by RIRM, the state pressed ahead with its request. Justice Silverstein agreed with the state and appointed the special master.

"The operators of this facility have had more than ample opportunity to clean up this site, yet have chosen to flagrantly violate DEM's Consent Agreement and the orders of the court for remediation of the site, polluting our bay, and putting navigation of our channel at risk," Kilmartin says. "I am pleased with the decision to appoint Richard Land as special master and pledge our commitment to work with him, the court and DEM to clean up this site once and for all."

"We take our job very seriously in enforcing environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act," says Coit. "DEM has put significant resources into resolving this matter and forcing action to get this site cleaned up. RIRM and AARE have failed to comply with the Consent Agreement and orders of the court to remediate the existing violations at the site. The appointment of a special master in this case is a significant step forward, and along with the Attorney General, we look forward to working with the special master to bring this site into compliance and have a comprehensive site assessment completed to determine the extent of contamination -- and ultimately remediate it."

On July 25, 2013, RIRM entered into a Consent Agreement to resolve a Notice of Violation the DEM issued against the company on May 7, 2012, for discharging stormwater to the Providence River without a permit. RIRM agreed to maintain short-term mitigative actions to prevent pollution to the Providence River; complete all construction of storm water controls by Sept. 30, 2014, in accordance with the permits as required by the Agreement; and complete the removal of all derelict vessels from the Providence River and restore the shoreline of the river by Dec. 30, 2014 to its condition prior to the unauthorized activities by RIRM.

Inspections by DEM in October and December 2014 and January and February 2015, and inspections by the U.S. Coast Guard in January 2015 revealed that the companies failed to comply with the mitigative measures, install the storm water controls required by the Agreement, remove the derelict vessels and restore the shoreline and prevent oil spillage to the land and water.

On the waterfront side of the site, there are several dilapidated watercraft, including a decommissioned Russian submarine, a sunken ferry, a sunken tug (now in the channel) and a sunken lobster boat. The tug is an obstruction to navigation.

To read the ruling, click here.