The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation announced that 18 waste reduction grants totaling $2,273,955 and 26 recycling equipment grants totaling $518,458 have been awarded for a wide range of projects across the state.

The state awarded 18 waste reduction grants totaling $2,273,955 to promote waste reduction through education, volume source reduction, recycling, reuse, composting and diversion from Class 1 landfills. Each recipient is required to match the state grant on a sliding scale basis, and additional local matching funds going toward these projects total almost $1.5 million.

The state awarded 26 recycling equipment grants totaling $518,458 to facilitate waste reduction in Tennessee. Recycling equipment grants will be used to purchase equipment for new recycling programs, improve and expand the operation of an existing site or prepare recyclable materials for transport and marketing. Each recipient is required to match the state grant on a sliding scale basis, and additional local matching funds going toward these projects total $281,892.

Waste reduction and recycling grants are awarded to counties, cities, non-profit recycling organizations and solid waste authorities across the state to help the state reach or exceed the goals set forth in the Solid Waste Management Act of 1991.

Waste Reduction and Recycling Equipment grants were authorized by the Solid Waste Management Act of 1991 and are supported from the Tennessee Solid Waste Management Fund that is administered by the Department of Environment and Conservation.

The Tennessee Solid Waste Management Fund receives its revenues from a state surcharge on each ton of solid waste disposed in landfills and from a fee on new tires sold in the state. More information about the recycling equipment and waste reduction grants may be found online at: www.tennessee.gov/environment/swm/grants.

Two U.S. Senators, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jim Talent (R-Mo.), have introduced legislation that would give consumers and industry tax incentives to safely dispose of old or outdated personal or office electronics, which contain a number of hazardous toxins including lead, mercury and cadmium.

The Electronic Waste Recycling and Promotion and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 would provide incentives to create the first-ever nationwide electronic waste recycling infrastructure, making it more convenient and cost-effective for American consumers to recycle computers, computer monitors, laptop computers and televisions. The proposed legislation also directs the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of various e-waste recycling programs to recommend a national program.

“Growing mountains of e-waste are clogging our nation’s landfills and posing great risks to Americans’ health and to our natural environment,” said Wyden. “As technology improves and folks get newer and faster computers, they need a safe and easy way to get rid of their old machines. This legislation gives consumers, recyclers, retailers and manufacturers alike incentives to recycle old computers responsibly.”

“Americans don’t want to throw their electronic scraps out with the garbage, but without a recycling infrastructure, sometimes the only alternative is stockpiling them in their homes,” said Talent. “We want to provide an incentive for people to recycle electronic waste and create an infrastructure that makes the process as convenient and cost-effective as possible. This is a common sense idea that will help protect our land, air and water from toxins such as lead, mercury and other hazardous materials contained in electronics.”

The recycling bill calls for the following steps:

• Establish an $8 per unit tax credit for companies that recycle at least 5,000 display screens or computer system units per year.

• Establish a $15 tax credit for consumers who recycle their old computers and TVs, provided they use qualified recyclers.

• Prohibit the disposal of any electronic equipment containing a display screen greater than four inches or any computer system unit in a municipal solid waste landfill, beginning three years after the bill is passed. This provision is contingent upon the EPA Administrator finding that a majority of U.S. households have reasonable access to e-waste recycling.

• Modify the EPA’s Universal Waste Rule to classify display screens and system units as “universal wastes” to allow for easier collection, processing, transportation and recycling.

• Require federal executive agencies to ensure that every display screen or system unit procured by the government is recovered and recycled.

• Direct the EPA Administrator to study and make recommendations to Congress on the feasibility of establishing a nationwide recycling program that would preempt any state plan, within one year.

Several groups that have expressed support for the issues in the bill are the following: the National Recycling Coalition, the Environmental Technology Council, the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition, Waste Management Corp., Hewlett Packard Corp. and Intel Corp.

The bill is expected to be referred to the Senate Finance committee.

An award-winning metal-recycling program at a landfill in Gloucester County, NJ, has been shut down while county and state officials haggle over who's responsible for obtaining a permit for the operation.

Meanwhile, hundreds of tons of potentially recyclable soup cans, metal hangers and utensils are being dumped into the crowded landfill.

"The authority wants to encourage recycling in any way possible," said Joe McGovern, an attorney for the Gloucester County Improvement Authority, which operates the 54-acre landfill. "I think everyone's in agreement that it's a good operation."

On Feb. 7, county officials halted the privately run recycling program, the first of its kind in New Jersey, after learning it had operated for more than three years without the required state permit. The deficiency was discovered during a routine inspection of the Gloucester County Solid Waste Complex by the state Department of Environmental Protection, a spokesman said.

One week later, the state cited the authority for failure to obtain the permit. The taxpayer-funded authority, which is a semiautonomous county agency, could face a fine of $25,000 for every day the recycling program operated without a permit.

The private company running the operation was responsible for seeking the permit, and the authority later this week plans to appeal its violation notice to the DEP, said McGovern, an attorney with the law firm Parker McKay in Marlton.

"This operation was never part of the landfill," he said.

In 2001, the state granted a one-year permit to Innovative Recovery Products LLC of Camden to run a metal-recycling operation at the landfill. Later that year, the program won an award for "forward thinking" from the New Jersey Association of Environmental Authorities.

The company uses a mobile magnetic machine placed on top of the landfill to pull metal items from incinerated ash that is trucked there. The salvaged metal is then sold to steel makers.

As much as 20 percent of the 300,000 tons of incinerated trash trucked to the landfill annually is recycled using the system, company officials said.

Innovative Recovery Products agreed to share any profits from the operation with the authority.

The improvement authority was listed on the initial permit application only as the operator of the host facility, McGovern said.

The permit was granted so the operation could be used for research and demonstration, said Fred Mumford, a spokesman for the DEP.

After that permit expired in January 2002, Innovative Recovery Products filed a preliminary application for a permanent recycling operation at the landfill. That application was denied because state regulations require that such operations be conducted inside a building to contain nuisances such as dust, noise and odors.

The company did not respond to a subsequent letter regarding the permit process, according to the violation notice.

"My client had followed up with the DEP after that letter was issued, and it was my client's impression there was going to be some discussion over the future permitting of the facility and we could continue operating while that was worked out," said the company's attorney, Bruce S. Katcher of Cherry Hill. "We are cooperating with the authority in working this out."

But the program continued to operate until last month.

Katcher said he doesn't believe the recycling program falls under state guidelines requiring that it operate in an enclosed facility.

Mumford said his agency is setting up a meeting with the improvement authority to try to resolve the permit dispute. No date has been set.

"We're looking for the authority to properly (obtain a) permit (for) that activity at the landfill," said Mumford. "As soon as that happens, the recycling operations can begin again."

Cohen Brothers Inc., Middletown, Ohio, has purchased the former Staker Alloys Inc. in nearby Springfield, Ohio.

According to Cohen Brothers president Ken Cohen, the Springfield location will continue to operate under the Staker Alloys name and former principal Ron Staker will remain involved with the business.

The facility collects and processes both ferrous and nonferrous scrap, handling a combination of industrially generated and obsolete materials.

Machinery at the Staker location includes a shear, a baler, several cranes and a fleet of trucks and roll-off trailers.

“This makes our 10th location within the Cohen Brothers network,” says Ken Cohen, who notes that Springfield lies within the Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati zone served by the company. 'It links our Columbus, Dayton and Middletown operations,” says Cohen.