10 Things You Need to Know For the Waste & Recycling Industry Today (April 9, 2014)

Lancaster County landfill performance about as good as it gets “Having a landfill in your midst probably isn’t high on anyone’s list of quality-of-life attractions.  But wouldn’t you want one operated as well as it can be? Lancaster County does. The county’s Frey Farm Landfill in Manor Township is the only regulated landfill of 21 in Pennsylvania’s southcentral region not to have been written up for a single violation in the last 21 years.” (LancasterOnline)

Brewers Fight Proposed Regulation That Would End Grain Recycling Initiatives “he Mile High city brews more beer than any other American city, and the state of Colorado boasts over 140 microbreweries. So it probably won’t surprise beer lovers here in the ‘Napa of beer’ that many brewers are using their drinks as forces for environmental and economic good, donating their spent grains — barley, hops, wheat and other grains that have been soaked in water during the beer-brewing process — to farmers who can use them to feed their livestock, instead of throwing them away. Oskar Blues, a Longmont-based brewery, runs the Hops and Heifers program. In a process it calls ‘Farm to Cup,’ the brewery grows hops on its own farm, uses the hops for brewing, feeds its cattle with the spent grains, and then uses the meat from these cows in burgers sold at its restaurant.” (NationSwell.com)

Alberta’s rat free status in question after discovery in Medicine Hat “Rats! They’re back in southeastern Alberta. The City of Medicine Hat says that several rats have been spotted in its landfill. The rats were spotted after a report came in about a single rat found in a farm yard south of Highway 41A. The city, along with Cypress County and Alberta Agriculture are working together to investigate. In August 2012, an 80-metre-long rats’ nest was found in the landfill and residents called in sightings, resulting in at least 100 Norway rats being killed by city staff. It took six hours for 21 workers and two excavators to dismantle the nest. Since then, the landfill has been continuously monitored and the city credits that for discovering the new cases. The city says additional bait stations have been put out to poison rats, and staff are checking sites daily.” (GlobalNews)

Palm Beach County Solid Waste Authority considers taking trash from other counties “Wednesday morning the Palm Beach County Solid Waste Authority could move forward with a plan to enter the business of taking trash from other counties. The trash would be burned at a new incinerator being built on North Jog Road. The incinerator is slated to open in 2015.” (WPTV.com)

Tire recycling startup proposes $28 million investment, 128 first-phase jobs for Mobile “A Nevada-based startup plans to invest more than $28 million in Mobile to construct what its founders deem a first-of-its-kind recycling operation for discarded tires. Alliance International Group LLC petitioned, and received, a 10-year tax abatement from the city of Mobile’s Industrial Development Board Tuesday for the project expected to create 128 jobs in its first phase with average annual salaries of about $47,000, or an annual payroll of roughly $5.6 million.” (AL.com)

Why it's so important to define "solid waste" “Did you know that chemical companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and the industrial waste industry are exempt from a law requiring companies handling hazardous waste to protect public health and the environment? The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) was enacted in 1976, but in 2008 the Bush Administration exempted these companies handling the most dangerous substances from complying. This new rule was called ‘The Definition of Solid Waste’ (DSW). (TreeHugger.com)

Beyond ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ to a World Without Waste “As the field of environmental sustainability matures, so does its core concepts, goals and operating principals. For example, ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ has served as a guiding principle of sustainability work over the last several decades. While the three Rs remain an important theme, the conversation is beginning to shift. The very concept of ‘waste’ is being called into question. An emerging realization that waste is a wholly human construct is being echoed across the globe. In nature, there is no waste. Every organism, molecule and particle provides an environmental service during and after its life, and this concept can be emulated by humans to create a society in which there is also no waste.” (EcoWatch)

Trash & treasure: Hong Kong cops scour landfill for $3.7mn painting “Police in Hong Kong are searching through a landfill site after cleaners allegedly tossed a multi-million dollar painting in the trash. The ink-wash painting ‘Snowy Mountain’ had been auctioned off the day before for US$3.7 million. The painting, by Chinese artist Cui Ruzhou, was reported missing to the police on Tuesday amid reports it had been thrown out by cleaners in Hong Kong’s Grand Hyatt Hotel. Police, trawling through CCTV camera history, later discovered footage of a security guard kicking a package containing the valuable piece of artwork towards a pile of rubbish.” (RT.com)

Oakland Man Conspired in Recycling Fraud: CalRecycle “An Oakland man is headed to jail for recycling fraud, according to CalRecycle, the state department charged with improving conservation through recycling and waste management. Mario Morales Nolasco ran afoul of the law by importing empty bottles and cans from Washington state and fraudulently redeeming them in California, according to Mark Oldfield, spokesman for CalRecycle.” (NBCBayArea)

Putnam commissioners consider second landfill lawsuit “Putnam County commissioners are considering another lawsuit to get MCHM-contaminated wastewater mixed with sawdust out of a Hurricane landfill. Commission President Steve Andes said commissioners would meet Wednesday with County Attorney Jennifer Scragg Karr and lawyers who have done environmental remediation work at the federal level. Karr said at Tuesday’s commission meeting that the county has been communicating with Waste Management, which owns the Disposal Services landfill in Putnam County, about the logistics of removing the contaminated material. But she said the landfill’s counsel has told her that the state Department of Environmental Protection, which allowed the material to be deposited there in the first place, won’t allow it to be removed.” (WVGazette.com)