North Dakota Names Landfill After Obama “The state of North Dakota has named a new publicly-owned landfill after President Barack Obama. In an overwhelming 35-10 vote, the state Senate advanced a bill naming a 650-acre site currently under construction after the nation’s 44th president. Governor Jack Dalrymple is expected to sign the measure into law Tuesday.” (The Daily Currant)

DEP Official: Radiation Levels in Fracking Waste Safe “State lawmakers were updated Monday morning on a study the Department of Environmental Protection began earlier this year. That study focuses on the level of radioactive material in drill cuttings from horizontal fracking sites. The West Virginia DEP has teamed up with West Virginia University to test 15 sites for levels of radioactivity in drilling waste. The test sites included Wetzel County’s landfill, an Ohio water treatment plant, and multiple drilling sites in counties in North Central West Virginia.” (WVPublic.org)

Young Americans may not be as committed to recycling “According to conventional wisdom, millennials are more environmentally conscious than older generations. However, their attitude toward recycling suggest they may not be as ‘green’ as we thought, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington. A November online survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults by Harris Poll on behalf of ISRI found that younger American adults ages 18-34 are significantly less likely to say they always recycle than older generations (33 percent versus 48 percent of those aged 35 or older).” (Recycling Today)

One's landfill waste is a solar developer’s treasure “Municipalities across the country are increasingly installing solar on their capped landfills and/or the buffer zones adjacent to active landfills, resulting in energy costs savings, local job creation and improved sustainability. Landfill sites are ideal for solar development because they are typically close to a grid interconnection point, are built on land that has already been cleared and generally can’t be used for commercial development otherwise. More than 6,000 landfills in the United States were capped from 1988 to 2009, and many are still sitting idle, demonstrating the potential for solar development.” (American City & County)

Landfill expansion could further pollute Niagara Falls, critics claim “A new plan to expand a landfill, owned by CWM Chemical Services LLC in Youngstown, N.Y. has been approved by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and is currently under development. It will change the way wastewater is treated. It will also alter drainage patterns that discharge into the Niagara River, which flows directly into Niagara Falls.” (Great Lakes Echo)

Curbside recycling finally starting in Detroit “Last February, a joyous cry rang out across the city of Detroit. Curbside recycling was coming to our fair city. Finally! Conversations ensued about what would happen to Recycle Here, the nonprofit drop-off recycling facility that has handled Detroit’s pizza boxes, Pepsi bottles, Styrofoam, magazines and more for the past seven years.” (Crain’s Detroit Business)

Thought for food, as Philly Council considers composting scraps “Once upon a time in Philadelphia, people put a garbage bucket of food scraps on the curb that was picked up to feed pigs in South Jersey. City council is thinking of reviving the practice, with a twist. A new resolution calls for hearings about starting curbside collection of food waste that would be used for composting.” (NewsWorks)

County hopes to avoid pitfalls when turning Puente Hills Landfill into regional park “Last week, the county Board of Supervisors made the first move toward turning the shuttered Puente Hills Landfill near the intersection of the 605 and 60 freeways into a regional park of about 600 acres by accepting $814,000 from the county Sanitation Districts, the former operators of the landfill.” (Los Angeles Daily News)

SDSU revamps campus recycling scheme “In an effort to make recycling easier on campus, the recycling department is pairing up trash and recycling bins around campus. ‘It has been shown, proven and highly suggested by the county that all trash bins are matched up with recycling bins,’ nursing junior and Enviro-Business Society ‘E3’ Vice President Faina Margulis said.” (The Daily Aztec)

Recycling company files lawsuit against former employee who allegedly violated contract “Totall Metal Recycling has filed suit against one of its former employees, alleging she violated numerous contracts after she left employment with the company. In its complaint, Totall, of Granite City, alleges it hired defendant Lynn Fix to serve as freight broker on its behalf on Oct. 31, 2005. On March 14, 2014, Fix submitted her resignation, according to the complaint filed Oct. 22 in Madison County Circuit Court.” (The Madison-St. Clair Record)