10 Things You Need to Know For the Waste & Recycling Industry Today (April 23, 2014)

Michigan gets serious about keeping money and jobs out of the landfill through recycling “Along with trash, Michigan has buried dollars and jobs in landfills for years. That's despite a target set in 2007 in the State's solid waste policy to achieve a 50 percent recycling rate in Michigan and 24 years of implementing Michigan's bottle deposit law. While the bottle bill has driven a 97 percent recycle rate for beverage containers in Michigan, those containers account for only a fraction of the tons of recyclable materials thrown away by Michiganders every year. ‘There is so much latent potential in Michigan's recycling industry,’ says Mike Csapo, general manager of the Resource Recycling and Recovery Authority of Southwest Oakland County.” (ModelDMedia.com)

Landfill’s Methane to Power Toyota’s Production “A windows-down drive through the landfill off Double Culvert Road treats visitors to the slight odor of methane that wafts out of galvanized steel vents. But sometime next spring, those vents will be shut off, and methane generated by rotting solid waste will instead be piped to a small complex of generators, where the gas will be burned to generate electricity. From there, the electricity will be transmitted to Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, where it will help power the production of 10,000 vehicles, including Camrys, Avalons, Venzas and, starting in the fall of 2015, the Lexus ES350.” (BusinessLexington)

Ontario touts tire recycling efforts on Earth Day “Ontario Tire Stewardship is touting efforts that have resulted in the recycling of 60 million tires since it launched the Ontario Used Tires Program in September 2009.” (RubberNews.com)

Refuse Derived Fuel: Is It Time for Standards? Ferdinand Kleppmann, president of the Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants; Dr Dominic Hogg, chairman and founder of environmental consultancy, Eunomia research & Consulting; Chris Oldfield, managing director of waste shredding specialist UNTHA UK; and Gavin Williams director for Recycling & IRM at Biffa all offered their perspective on that question (Waste Management World)

City report says San Diegans need to recycle more “San Diego residents are not recycling enough of their refuse, according to a report released Tuesday by the city's Environmental Services Department. The report said the city's overall recycling rate -- the amount of yard waste, plastic, bottles and newspaper that's separated from other trash -- was 68 percent between Jan. 1 and March 15.” (10News.com)

Providence Ranked Worst in State for Recycling “Data released by the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) shows that for 2013, Providence had the lowest recycling rates in the state of Rhode Island. In information provided by the RIRRC entitled ‘How's My City or Town Doing?,’ numbers show that furthermore recycling has gone down in Providence between 2011 and 2013, which includes the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) rate, the mandatory recycling rate, and the rate of overall material diversion from the landfill.” (GoLocalProv.com)

County stops accepting batteries for recycling from company “Marion County has temporarily stopped accepting batteries for recycling from Salem’s Batteries Plus Bulbs, in response to a Statesman Journal investigation into the company’s practices. The report, which ran Sunday, found that the franchise group for years had been funneling batteries from its nine other Oregon and Southwest Washington locations through its Salem store, to be recycled as if they came from Marion County residents.” (Statesman Journal)

Largest landfill power plant in N. AL opens in DeKalb Co. “The largest landfill power generation plant in North Alabama is now complete and online in DeKalb County. A ribbon-cutting was held Tuesday at the DeKalb County Landfill. The plant is capable of producing five megawatts of energy, enough to power about 3,000 homes, and it is fueled by your household garbage. Methane gas is produced from the garbage in the landfill, and is typically burned off. Instead, the gas is collected and used to burn in large engines, which turn turbines to create electricity that is in turn sold back to TVA.” (WAFF.com)

Haulers Might Be Able to Get Waiver from Mandatory Recycling “Waste haulers starting next year will be required to pick up mandated recyclables under the state’s universal recycling overhaul, but lawmakers are now offering them a waiver. The House Natural Resources and Energy Committee last week unanimously passed a bill waiving the requirement that haulers pick up recyclables in addition to trash if their solid waste districts meet state per capita recycling rate standards.” (VTDigger.org)

Tri-County Recycling Center to expand “The Outagamie Tri-County Recycling Center is expanding and officials say it could save money in Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago counties. Business is good for the Tri-County Recycling Center. ‘We processed over 82,000 ton of single stream recyclables in 2013,’ said Tri-County Recycling Center’s Solid Waste Director Brian Van Straten. More recycling means less waste in the landfill. And starting this fall the recycling center is expanding. Van Straten says a $1.8 million upgrade will add new equipment and allow more items to be recycled.” (Fox11online.com)