Dear Sarah,
I have been shopping online quite a bit. I receive goods in plastic bags with [the enclosed] label. How do I recycle them? — Pat A.
ANSWER:
Pat included a piece of the plastic shipping bag for me to evaluate. The language on the sample reads, “In our effort to help save the environment, we are using fewer cardboard boxes and have packed your order with pride in a recyclable bag.” Next to this language is a chasing arrows triangle with the number 4 inside, and the letters “LDPE” below the triangle.
The good news is, this particular shipping bag is allowed in the grocery bag take-back recycling program called ReStore. ReStore recycling bins are located at large supermarkets, pharmacies and big-box stores. (Plastic bags are not allowed in curbside bins and carts, or in transfer station household recycling drop-off containers.)
Normally when talking about how to know if something is recyclable in Rhode Island, we say to disregard the numbers and the triangle.
In this case, because the item doesn’t fit the plastics rule of thumb (a container that holds fewer than 5 gallons), it needs more explanation. The plastic film rule of thumb has been that the film be: clean and dry; clear or somewhat see-through; and stretchable (at least a little).
In conversations last week with our plastic film customer Trex, they’ve let us know that all colors are now OK to include in ReStore collection bins, so we’ll be making that change to our Frequently Asked Questions on our websites.
If these criteria are met, the film can be recycled in the plastic bag recycling container at grocery, pharmacy or big-box stores.
Not all films have a triangle or number printed on them, which is why we developed the general rule of thumb that doesn’t mention them. But, if you are so inclined and have a desire for specificity, here’s the skinny: Numbers on plastics are resin identification codes (RIC) that manufacturers use to show the main blend of the material. So, “#2” is the RIC for high-density polyethylene (HDPE). A “#4” is the code for low-density polyethylene (LDPE).
Plastic film may not have anything printed on it, in which case use the film rule of thumb to guide your decisions. But if it does, here’s what to look for: “LDPE,” “HDPE,” “PE” or “Polyethylene.” If you see those abbreviations or the numbers 2 or 4, the film is recyclable at the market.
By Sarah Kite-Reeves
Special to The Journal Posted Jul. 25, 2015 @ 12:01 am
Mike Biddle: Why plastic is still ‘the last frontier’ of recycling
The former CEO discusses his frustration with the recycling movement, his hatred of waste and how the US can grow jobs
Source: The Guardian
Written by: Marc Gunther
www.theguardian.com
Wednesday 26 February 2014
Mike Biddle has stepped down as MBA Polymers CEO. Photograph: MBA Polymers MBA Polymers /Guardian
This month, Mike Biddle, the founder and longtime CEO of a pioneering plastics-recycling company called MBA Polymers, stepped down as an executive at the firm, ending more than two decades of unrelenting effort to reduce plastic waste.
Biddle’s story is one of great success, as well as ongoing frustration. He sat down with me last week at the 2014 GreenBiz Forum in Phoenix to talk about MBA Polymers, the potential of the so-called circular economy, and why, despite all we know, the vast majority of plastics discarded in the US still wind up in incinerators, landfills or, worse, the ocean.
Plastics, he says, remains “the last frontier of recycling.”
Biddle, who is 58 and has a PhD in chemical engineering from Case Western and an MBA from Stanford, left a good job at Dow Chemical in 1992 in the hope of solving the difficult puzzle of plastics recycling. During the next seven years, he attracted about $7m in grants and loans from the state of California, the Environmental Protection Agency and a plastics industry trade group.
The money enabled him to develop a set of technologies needed to make high-quality plastic pellets – which can be used to make new products – from big, messy and mixed post-consumer waste streams, particularly electronic waste and junked automobiles. He calls it “above-ground mining.” (MBA Polymers doesn’t bother with PET plastics, the type used to make soda bottles, leaving that particular waste stream to the beverage industry.)
MBA Polymers turns hard-to-recycle post-consumer plastics – such as those found in electronic waste and junked automobiles – into high-quality pellets like these, which are, in turn, used to make new products. Photograph: MBA Polymers
Since raising its first round of venture capital in 1999, MBA Polymers has attracted more than $150m from investors. Its latest round was a Series H. Now, the company, headquartered in Richmond, California, operates recycling plants in China, Austria and in the former coal-mining town of Worksop in the UK, which together process more than 300m pounds of plastic waste per year. It also won a 2013 Katerva Award for the materials and resources category, announced today.
The company has proven that the economics of plastics recycling can work, so long as there is an adequate supply of waste to be reprocessed. And closing the loop on plastics also delivers big environmental benefits. Recycling plastics not only keeps waste out of landfills and oceans, but also reduces the need for petroleum-based feedstocks, requires 80% less energy than making plastic from oil and dramatically reduces carbon emissions.
Of all this, Biddle is justly proud. He considers himself an environmentalist, as well as an entrepreneur. “I absolutely hate waste,” he says.
But Biddle is disappointed that he has been unable to take the company further. He estimates that as much as 500bn pounds of plastics are thrown away every year, only a tiny fraction of which is captured by MBA Polymers.
He’s especially frustrated that the company isn’t operating in the US, the country that educated him and provided the seed money for his research. MBA Polymers employs about 300 people, and all but a handful of engineers work overseas. “I’d like to create jobs here,” he says. Biddle himself had been commuting to the UK.
Why can’t the company gain traction in the US? Building plants to reprocess plastics is expensive, and MBA Polymers cannot be sure it will get a large enough – and secure enough – supply of US plastic waste to justify the capital cost.
One way to secure a more predictable supply of e-waste would be to place some of the burden of collecting it on manufacturers. That’s what the EU has done. Its “extended producer responsibility” laws, which require electronics to be collected and recycled, have created a robust collection system for used cell phones, tablets, computers and other e-waste. “They primed the pump with policy,” Biddle says.
Besides that, Biddle would like to see the US follow other countries and require that e-waste exports to poor countries be handled responsibly. MBA Polymers cannot compete, he says, with cheap and irresponsible recyclers in places like China, Vietnam and West Africa.
“People, for as little as a dollar a day, dig through our stuff and extract what they can and leave behind what they can’t, which is mostly the plastics,” he says. “A lot of that winds up in rivers and oceans. … We need care about how we unmake our stuff as much as we do about it’s made.”
US recyclers, he says, could be required to audit the processing of the waste that they export. Today, “there’s no downstream accountability,” he says.
Biddle has testified in favor the regulation of e-waste exports before Congress. The stance didn’t come easily to him because, he told me, he’s believes in limited government and free markets. “But I can’t compete if the rules aren’t fair,” he says.
MBA Polymers may get a big assist from China, which last year announced a crackdown on hazardous waste imports called Operation Green Fence. “They’re trying clamp down as they should,” Biddle says, “but enforcement is not what it should be.”
Biddle isn’t giving up. Even though he has left MBA Polymers, he expects to keep working on recycling policy – despite his libertarian instincts. He plans to encourage businesses with access to waste streams, such as auto shredders, to recognize their value. And he has taken on a new job as president of Waste Free Oceans America, a new subsidiary of a global non-profit called Waste Free Oceans.
MBA Polymers turns hard-to-recycle post-consumer plastics – such as those found in electronic waste and junked automobiles – into high-quality pellets like these, which are, in turn, used to make new products. Photograph: MBA Polymers MBA Polymers
We’ve all heard it, many of us even practice this mantra. But did you know that these three words are a part of a well thought out waste disposal hierarchy?
Most effective
Reducing is by far the most effective way to cut waste, and therefore it is at the top of the hierarchy. If you reduce the amount of what you consume, you help conserve precious resources and limit the waste you create.
That means doing more with less and putting real thought into what you need versus what you want. Start with something simple like walking to work or school instead of driving or installing an inexpensive water displacement system in your toilets to reduce water usage.
Reuse is pretty self-explanatory. Before you recycle, think about how you can use an item over again, or perhaps several times — think water bottles, plastic food containers, etc. The more we can reuse items, or purchase items meant to be reused like cloth grocery bags and rechargeable batteries, the less reprocessing of these materials will need to occur.
There is also the notion of re-purposing to consider as well. While reusing means to use an item over again in its original form, re-purposing takes an item used for one purpose and uses it another way like turning a pickle jar into a vase for flowers, for example.
Then comes recycling
Recycling takes time and energy to process materials, which is why it’s not at the top of the hierarchy. But that is not to say that recycling isn’t good. So keep filling up those bins you have at home and at work.
If you have an item that had been truly used and needs to be disposed of, find out if it can be recycled. Remember recycling also means buying products that are made from recycled materials, using them to their fullest extent and then returning them to be recycled again.
And the hierarchy goes even deeper.
If you really want to help conserve our natural resources, consider other steps in the hierarchy like composting. Composting is Nature’s way of recycling.
At the bottom of the list are additional steps including waste-to-energy and land disposal, however those steps are usually conducted by a municipality or county.
Written by Mark Walter Business Development Manager
Rare earth metals are important components in green energy products such as wind turbines and eco-cars. But the scarcity of these metals is worrying the EU.
The demand for metals such as neodymium (Nd) and dysprosium (Dy) is increasing much faster than production. These metals are used in technologies such as the generators that store power in wind turbines, and the electric motors that propel electric and hybrid cars. But they are also used in everyday products like computers and mobile phones.
Rare earth metals do occur in the earth’s crust, but not in sufficiently high concentrations. This is why only one country – China – has so far been supplying the entire world with these elements. However, in recent years, China has begun to restrict its export of these materials.
Forecasts show that as early as next year, these metals will be hard to come by.
Clean Material
This explains why the recycling of rare earth metals from scrap is fast becoming an important research topic. Seven major European research institutes (Fraunhofer, CEA, TNO, VTT, SINTEF, Tecnalia and SP) have joined forces to invest in a joint programme (Value from Waste) aimed at tackling this important issue.
“The aim is to extract valuable materials from the waste streams. The challenges lie in the fact that the material must be sufficiently clean in order to be recycled, and we have to be sure that it is not contaminated by other harmful materials”, explains Odd Løvhaugen of SINTEF ICT.
Researchers are therefore focusing much of their work on finding out which products could contain pollutants, which methods are best for analysing and measuring the content of the polluted materials, and when such products can be expected to be found in waste.
They are also evaluating extraction methods, techniques to recycle nanoparticles in the treatment process, and how the constituents of ash can be analysed after incineration.
Technology from the aluminium and smelting industry
SINTEF is coordinating this major EU programme, which is using two groups of material technologies in the race to find good analytical and extraction methods. The approach chosen by the researchers involves a technology well-known from the aluminium and smelting industry.
In the search for sources of recycling material, many people have been considering permanent magnets. This is the most significant product to contain rare earth metals – measured both in terms of value and volume.
Discarded magnets
On the basis of tests, SINTEF researchers believe that the electrolysis technology used in aluminium plants can be used to recycle magnetic alloys from discarded magnets and scrap material from magnet manufacturers. It will take some time before there are enough scrap eco-cars to be able to recycle their motors, which is why they are turning to the magnet manufacturers for the magnetic alloys.
However, the process is still slow, and there is a lot of work still to be done before the researchers will know whether they will be able to achieve their goal. If they are successful, they will have found a method that is much simpler than alternative processes based on the use of strong acids.
Solutions needed
Several other problems must also be solved for the stages before the electrolysis process. Among other things, we need collection and disassembly methods for used magnets, and the magnets themselves must also be demagnetised locally, since the long-distance transport of intact permanent magnets is prohibited.
“Other challenges include finding methods that can identify and characterise nanoparticles in gases, water and solid materials”, says Odd Løvhaugen. “And we must create a toolbox of methods to evaluate the behaviour of nanoparticles in waste treatment processes”.
Submitted Feb 18, 2014 http://phys.org/news/2014-02-urgent-recycle-rare-metals.html
Clewiston’s Public Works director calls on residents to recycle
CLEWISTON — “We come up with every excuse in the book not to do something,” said Clewiston’s Public Works Director Sean Scheffler.
That statement rings true for many things — exercising, eating healthy, finishing the home improvements that were started last year and never completed. But besides those resolution-worthy “somethings,” Scheffler hopes the residents of Hendry County will take on recycling as their next “to do.”
The city of Clewiston has been working hard to make recycling as easy as possible for residents. Though curb-side pickup is a thing of the future for residents within the city limits, the city of Clewiston offers two recycling centers on E. Esperanza Avenue and S. Olympia Street.The city has also introduced “single-stream recycling,” meaning residents no longer have to sort through their recycling; glass bottles, aluminum cans, cardboard, paper and plastic can all be thrown in the same bin, both at home and at the recycling centers. Though many of the city’s recycling bins say “plastics only” or “cardboard only” they are all mixed recycling bins. The same applies to the glass recycling bins: residents can choose to sort the glass by color and put it in the separate bin, or put it together in the mixed recycling bin.
Scheffler also explained that residents do not need to worry whether, for example, a plastic container has a recycling symbol on the bottom, or whether that symbol carries a number 1, 2 or 6. It can all be recycled, said Scheffler, no matter the number and no matter the symbol.
Though efforts to make recycling simpler and more convenient for city residents have been made, Scheffler said a change in attitude and habit is necessary to make recycling part of everyone’s daily routine.
“Recycling is something parents need to do so small children see it as a way of life,” said Scheffler. “We need to start developing a thought process in our children.”
Scheffler gave the example of seat belts in cars and trucks. When he was in elementary school, Scheffler said there were no seat belts in cars; and when every car finally came equipped with seat belts, it was not mandatory to wear them, therefore, people often did not. After years of pushing to mandate the use of seat belts and a change in the attitude of drivers and passengers, it is second nature to “click it” when they get in the car.
Scheffler believes recycling will work the same way.
“We can reduce by 80 percent the amount of solid waste sent to our landfills by recycling,” said Scheffler.
Scheffler also offered suggestions to make recycling easier for families. Batteries, for example, are abundant in everyone’s home and are usually thrown out without another thought. Scheffler suggests keeping a sturdy bucket underneath the kitchen sink or near the washing machine (or any place that is convenient for the family) and putting the batteries in the bucket when they die. Once the bucket becomes full, simply call the county to set up a time to bring the batteries to the household recycling center.
By Melissa Beltz The Clewiston News Updated January 23, 2014
WASHINGTON, Nov. 11, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Keep America Beautiful is encouraging people to give their garbage another life on America Recycles Day, which is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 15.
The average American produces 4.4 pounds of trash in a single day, and yet Americans recycle only 35 percent of this country’s waste. America Recycles Day encourages people to recycle more at home, at work and on the go.
“Through our education programs and collection events taking place in communities across the country, Keep America Beautiful, its affiliate network and partners are raising awareness about what is recyclable and what material can become when recycled and given a new life,” said Brenda Pulley, senior vice president, recycling at Keep America Beautiful.
You can take the “I Recycle” Pledge today at americarecyclesday.org and tell us what you pledge to recycle more. Ten people who make a pledge will win a park bench made from recycled content.
Keep America Beautiful is providing resources and supporting activities to thousands of grassroots events across the country. On Nov. 12, Keep America Beautiful will conduct a “Get Caught Recycling” event on the National Mall and in downtown Washington, D.C., with 80 Mars, Incorporated Associate volunteers. Volunteers will “catch” people using the recycling bins placed on the National Mall and around the Downtown DC Business improvement District and invite those to take the “I Recycle” pledge.
Auburn University students recycled more than 15 tons of cardboard after unpacking their belongings into dormitories during Move-In Mania 2013 at the Alabama campus.
Eighteen trash and recycling stations were set up throughout the four housing areas to make it easier for students to dispose of trash, divert recyclables from landfills, and do their part to conserve resources.
“A simple way for residents to reduce their environmental impact is to recycle,” Virginia Koch, the director of residence life, said in a statement. “This year students really demonstrated their commitment by recycling over 30,000 pounds of cardboard during move-in.”
The National Retail Federation says families are spending an average of $836.83 this year on back-to-college supplies and electronics, clothing and shoes. Many of the items come in cardboard boxes.
In addition to cardboard, Auburn University’s recycling program accepts mixed paper, No. 1 and No. 2 plastic bottles, and aluminum and steel cans.
In all, during Move-In Mania, more than 77 tons of material was collected and 20 percent was recycled.
CORAL SPRINGS — It is easier now to go green in Coral Springs. Effective immediately, residents can now recycle plastic, glass bottles and jars in all colors, tin, and vegetable and soup cans. That’s in addition to the traditional recyclable items of newspapers and inserts, soda cans and corrugated cardboard like clean pizza boxes. In January, residents will get new 65-gallon carts for recyclables.
“Recycling allows us to keep materials such as glass, plastic, aluminum cans, juice cartons and newspaper out of the waste stream and to use these items to produce new products rather than harvest raw materials,” Public Works Director Rich Michaud said in a statement.
For information, call Public Works at 954-344-1165.
SOURCE: By Lisa J. Huriash, Staff Writer Sun Sentinel
Under the city’s new recycling program, about 5,000 carts are being distributed to households to expand recycling capabilities for cardboard, newspapers, paper cartons, plastic bottles, plastic containers, aluminum cans, glass bottles and jars.
City of Fort Pierce Begins Single-Stream Cart Recycling with Grand Opening of Waste Management’s New Facility
Approximately 5,000, 64-gallon blue carts on wheels are currently being delivered to Fort Pierce households to expand recycling capacity and collection at the new facility. The Waste Management Fort Pierce Transfer Station can accept up to 150 tons of municipal solid waste, construction and demolition debris, recyclables and bulk materials for sorting and transfer.
“Our new cart recycling program gives residents expanded capacity to recycle more household items, keeping trash out of our landfills and improving the environment,” said Fort Pierce Mayor Linda Hudson. “The City of Fort Pierce is pleased to mark this expanded recycling program as well as the opening of the new transfer station. Residents currently recycle about 15% of their waste and our goal is to increase that to 45% with the new carts,” added Hudson.
Fort Pierce residents can put all recyclables into the blue carts including cardboard, newspapers, mixed paper, boxboard and paper cartons, plastic bottles and containers, steel and aluminum cans, and glass bottles and jars. Remaining waste will be transported to Waste Management’s Okeechobee Landfill for disposal.
LARGO — Is Big Brother going to be snooping on your garbage?
Probably not, but Largo residents will soon get new recycling bins that will have microchips embedded in them. This will allow the city to keep track of where the bins are and whether they’re being used — or not being used.
That practice has caused controversy in places like Cleveland, where these devices enable officials to issue $100 fines to Clevelanders who don’t recycle enough of their trash.
However, the high-tech recycling carts caused no controversy when they were recently introduced in Tampa and Hillsborough County. There are no fines involved, and officials talk of using the microchips merely as a tool to improve customer service. Continue reading “Largo launches high-tech recycling bins”
By Sarah Kite-Reeves
