News-Record.com

First, the good news: More businesses are relying upon recycled waste as a feedstock for the manufacture of their products.

The bad news: Because of this, the recycling industry is a lot more vulnerable to economic recessions. You've probably heard or read by now that many recyclers all over the country are suffering because of the drop in demand for recycled glass, metals and other materials. And the same economic downtown that causes people to buy less stuff -- and thus send less of it to the landfill -- is also hurting the state's chances of reaching its recycling goals.

The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources set a goal last year of recovering 2 million tons of recyclable materials per year by 2012. The amount recovered in 2007-08 was 1.26 million tons, compared to 1.35 million tons the year before, according to a report. Scott Mouw, recycling program director with the Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance, attributed much of that to a drought-caused reduction in the collection of yard waste.

But he expects recycling rates could again be lower during the 2008-09 year, which wraps up in June.

Still, Mouw and others expect that recycling rates to increase over the long term.

"One of the reasons we set the goal was that we saw that over time more things would become divertible from the waste stream and we believe organics is one of those sectors," Mouw said.

Yard waste is already heavily diverted so environmentalists and the recycling industry have set their eyes on the undertapped market of food composting. Gary Bilbro, executive director of the Carolina Recycling Association, said he expects the state could more easily reach its 2 million ton goal if the use of large scale food composting expanded. Bilbro said since he started backyard composting the number of garbage bags he and his wife fill each week has decreased from three to one.

The Carolina Recycling Association works to educate the public about the benefits of recycling as well as lobby the General Assembly for policies favorable to the recycling industry. (The association's current battle is trying to relax current composting regulations.) Bilbro aims to increase its membership from the approximate 450 throughout North Carolina and South Carolina into the thousands.

"The future is not in disposal," he told me this week. "The future is not in mega-landfills. The future is in zero waste."

A new $2 per ton state tax on landfilled waste is also helping to encourage recycling and Bilbro hopes that over time local governments will charge residents per garbage bag as a way to further encourage recycling. A number of New Hampshire communities in fact have "pay-as-you-throw" programs. This, along with modern technology, could make recycling more profitable for facilities as they find a secondary market for even more materials, Bilbro said.

Update: A comparison of per capita disposal and recycling rates.

Also, I just received a county ranking of the per capita recycling rates (in pounds) for 2007-08. It turns out Guilford's ranks 11th, outranking both Wake and Mecklenburg as well as other Triad counties. However, I'm not sure yet why these numbers don't match those listed in the October press release.

Update: I've been told that the newer numbers don't include the yard waste totals in order to provide apples to apples comparisons between the counties.

Check out this video of an art project that students at the Canterbury School in Greensboro worked on for Earth Day with artist in residence, Bryant Holsenbeck. The video was done by former student and now UNCG graduate student Jessica Fuller.

Recycled Rainforest from Jessica Fuller on Vimeo.

Rep. Lucy Allen filed a bill on Monday requiring the development of best management practices for composting facilities. Background here.

Check out the latest episode of Turning Point, based on "Cradle to Cradle" architect William McDonough's visit to UNC Chapel Hill last week. (Read some background on this design philosophy from a previous post.)

More than 800 people attended his lecture and book signing, the largest crowd in the history of the 41-year- Fred T. Foard Jr. Memorial Lecture series.

McDonough has designed the Greenbridge mixed-use development in downtown Chapel Hill, which will offer 98 condos, a retail area, green roofs, solar panels, rainwater runoff systems and a community learning center to teach sustainable living practices. (Interestingly, one of the development partners, Tim Toben, is the son of Carolyn Toben, co-founder of the Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World in Whitsett.)

Some McDonough quotes from his presentation last Wednesday:

"The question at this point in history that we're looking at is what is our intention as a human species? We clearly are now the dominant one."

"What we're looking for is 100 percent fabulous where things can be environmentally intelligent, economically intelligent and socially fair."

"The environment wants to be nurtured. It wants to be fecund. It wants to be generated and regenerated."

"Efficiency isn't necessarily beautiful. The idea of being effective is more interesting to us."

"The question is are we doing the right thing? Then we can go about doing it the right way."

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Update (April 9): Eco-cities are not having much success in China, including one of McDonough's projects, according to this article.

Just found this out: Three lawmakers, including Guilford County Rep. Pricey Harrison, introduced this week House and Senate bills to ban plastic bags. More here.

... this time about reducing fast food waste. Check it out:

More North Carolinians are expressing interest in "zero waste" events that reduce the amount of trash going to the landfill, and they are setting up recycling and composting bins at festivals, parties and so on.

But people need to keep in mind that they could waste money buying "compostable" cutlery, plates, drink cups and other products. Manufacturers design these products (often derived from corn and other starches) to break down in heat-generating commercial composting facilities, not in the landfill. So using compostable products at weddings, family reunions or even small businesses won't make sense if it ends up in a landfill.

Confusion exists among consumers about products that claim to be recyclable, biodegradable or compostable. I attended a seminar today that sought to address the misunderstandings about "green" products hitting the market. I'll have more information on this later on goGreenTriad.com, but I did want to point out the following:

1. Compostable products are designed to be used in large-scale facilities where a lot of food waste is generated, such as restaurants and cafeterias. These organic wastes need to be taken to a commercial composting facility where the methods used generate enough heat to break down the products in a timely period.

2. Backyard composters will find these products hard to break down, especially the forks and knives, so it makes little sense to buy these products unless the purchaser wants to support the manufacturers as a matter of principle. Residents who want to hold zero waste events, such as weddings, may want to focus more on recycling and scaling back on disposable items that will eventually end up in the landfill. Or they can seek out caterers or other businesses that will send the compost to a municipal or industrial facility.

3. Interested businesses and institutions should look for products that meet national ASTM D6400 or D6868 standards specifications, or that are certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute. These standards guarantee that the products 60 percent biodegrade within 3 months and do not contain any environmentally--harmful byproducts.

Update: Another take here.

Deep Roots Market, a natural foods cooperative, announced that on Sunday it stopped offering plastic bags at the checkout counter as a way to reduce plastic waste and be more environmentally friendly. This fits in with the Deep Roots philosophy and I would be surprised if Harris Teeter or Food Lion took such a step.

Meanwhile, a blog post in the New York Times says the mayor of New York City is proposing a 5-cent fee (or tax, to some) on new plastic bags at the new store register as a potential income stream.

What I found interesting in the post was links to the American Chemistry Council's "plastic bag ban myths." The council maintains that banning plastic bags only increases waste somewhere else, such as through the use of garbage bags or paper bags. It also says plastic bags are made mainly from natural gas, not oil, as some people believe. Still, fossil fuels. Good points to note in the debate that pops up from time to time about how to discourage plastic bag use.

I wonder if the unintended consequences come from people singling out plastic bags use rather than addressing the use of any bag, whether it be paper or plastic. It seems that if a store is going to charge for bags, it should charge for paper and plastic. Of course, I would presume that store owners might worry that people then would buy less, thus cutting into their revenue.

What consequences do you see in charging for or banning plastic bags? Is it a mere symbolic action? Is this a worthy battle to engage in and if so, how would you approach it?

They do if you compost! Check out one of the first videos we will be featuring on goGreenTriad.com, part of a guest series called The EnviroMentals.

I recently posted on Greensboro's efforts to increase recycling rates, particularly among residential customers, while saving the city money. Here are budget (2007-08 and 2008-09) and contract documents I requested from the city regarding the recycling program. You can see from this table that recycling rates among residences are slightly up, while down in the commercial sector.

What more incentive do Greensboro residents need to recycle other than the satisfaction of knowing they can help the city save money and keep reusable items out of the landfill? Um, could it possibly be more money in the residents' pockets too?

It turns out the city's solid waste division is considering an incentive program with RecycleBank that would provide coupons for discounts at local businesses to residents based on the amount they recycle. Division manager Sheldon Smith said today at a Triad Mobile CARE meeting that he hopes to propose a 10,000 home pilot at the next City Council briefing on Oct. 28.

The division has managed to increase the amount of recyclables it processes since Smith took over in 2006. The division renegotiated its contract to bring the tip fees for recycling below the tips fees for the landfill transfer station (from about $62 per ton to $21 per ton for recycling, in comparison to $41 per ton for the transfer station), Smith said.

The division also reworked the recycling truck routes, from once a week pick up for residences to every other week starting in late January. Smith said the recycling volumes did not justify weekly pick up and the new routes and other initiatives saved almost 4,500 miles between Jan. 28 and June, and $1.4 million in the budget. Still, set out rates increased from 35 percent to 55 percent recycling was up 1 percent for the year.

No specific efforts exist yet to promote composting but Smith said he has spoken with county officials to explore grants for such promotion. Smith said he ultimately hopes to increase the amount of recyclables the city collects from about 17,000 tons per year for residential to 24,000 tons while reducing the amount going to the landfill.

What do you think about the RecycleBank idea? Would you recycle more if you could get coupons to your favorite restaurant? What do you think about the city's recycling services in general?

One local legislator wants to require retail stores to recycle their ubiquitous plastic bags.

One way to discourage plastic bag use: charge for them. By the way, I like this idea, which is used at Deep Roots Market in Greensboro: give customers a small discount for bringing their own bags.