Nine Stories from Around the Waste Industry for Feb. 10

Kansas Recycling Up To About 34 Percent. “The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says the state's recycling rate has risen from about 18 percent in 2005 to 34 percent in 2013. The agency says the numbers reflect the percent of waste that ends up in recycling facilities instead of landfills.” (WIBW.com)

Bill Urges Overhaul Of CRRA To Focus On Recycling Rather Than Burning Trash For Energy. “Legislation proposed Friday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy would overhaul the troubled Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority into a leaner agency concerned more with recycling the state's trash than with burning it for energy. As the budget for the quasi-public agency faces multimillion-dollar deficits in the next three years, task force reports and panel findings have streamed in during the past two years, leading to piles of recommendations and the bill offered Friday.” (The Courant)

Progressive Waste to handle all trash services in Frisco. “The Frisco City Council unanimously approved switching to Progressive Waste Solutions for all of its trash and recycling services. Progressive has been picking up the city’s commercial waste, while Community Waste Disposal has been handling residential pickup since 2004. A third company, Champion, has handled commercial construction debris services. The city requested proposals last year and then asked Progressive and Community Waste to provide their best and final pricing to handle all the waste.” (Dallas Morning News)

Jamaica to vote on bottle recycling. “Enough signatures have been collected to add a special item on the Town Meeting warning pertaining to legislation on bottle recycling. The article will ask: "Shall the town of Jamaica vote to urge the General Assembly of Vermont to pass legislation to expand the Bottle Bill to cover additional beverages to increase recycling and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to authorize the state to begin collecting unclaimed deposits currently going to the beverage industry, to be used to help fund recycling and other important state programs?"” (Bennington Banner)

Food waste ban: Concern raised over cost. “Brendan Ryan has $2.50 to spend on lunch for each of the 8,200 students in the Framingham school district. Droughts and other adverse farming conditions across the country have made fruits and vegetables more expensive and making meals more difficult. So the possibility of an added cost from the state’s new food waste ban was not welcome news to the director of Framingham Public Schools Food Services.” (The Metro West Daily News)

Landfill is closing; where will Fall River garbage go? “There is a mounting garbage problem at the Fall River landfill. The dump will be full by October and must be closed. Right now there is no firm plan to handle the city's trash, but the Mayor promises one soon. "There'll be no interruption in solid waste disposal. If you put your trash out on a Monday night; on a Tuesday morning it's going to be picked up. There's going to be a seamless transition," said Fall River Mayor Will Flanagan.” (ABC6.com)

Incinerator plan to be considered in Bristol Township. “The Zoning Hearing Board has rescheduled its regularly planned meeting this month. It is set to consider a proposal for a hazardous waste incinerator.” (Philly.com)

City looking to expand automated waste collection. “Solid Waste Manager Laura Liegois reviewed the roll out of the city's pilot program of automated waste collection in the city. Currently, 850 households are using the new 65-gallon waste bins that are designed to be picked up and emptied by an automated system. Part of the more than $200,000 in increased requested costs for the 2014-2015 fiscal year will be to purchase another automated refuse truck and 3,000 containers to expand this program.” (Muscatine Journal)

Solid waste district to consider actions to further separate from recycling nonprofit. “A resolution slated to be introduced at Monday’s board meeting of the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District is intended to separate the district from the nonprofit corporation that runs recycling programs. It includes a provision calling for unionized employees of the district who provide recycling services to be fired March 1, so that they can be rehired by the nonprofit. It also would separate office space and transfer assets and contracts.” (Athensohiotoday.com)