Scrap Beat: JanFeb 2010

January/February 2010

Congressional Record Goes green
The U.S. Congress will now print the Congressional Record on 100-percent recycled paper as part of its "Green the Capitol" initiative, which began in 2007. The U.S. Government Printing Office prints 4,130 copies of the Congressional Record each day—that's down more than 75 percent from 1995 due to its availability on the Internet, according to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who announced the move.

Curbside Recycling Widely Available
About 229 million U.S. residents, or 74 percent of the total population, have access to some form of curbside recycling at home, according to an American Beverage Association (Washington, D.C.) survey of local recycling officials nationwide. The report, prepared by the environmental firm R.W. Beck, also finds that up to 95 million more Americans could participate if all municipalities that provide curbside trash pickup also collected recyclables and if "subscription charges" for recycling were eliminated. Visit www.ameribev.org.

PET Recycling Hits New High
The PET recycling rate reached 27 percent in 2008—the highest in more than 10 years and an increase of 9.8 percent over the 2007 rate, according to the National Association for PET Container Resources (Sonoma, Calif.), the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (Washington, D.C.), and the PET Resin Association (New York). The groups' 2008 Report on Postconsumer PET Container Recycling Activity reveals that the United States collected more than 1.45 billion pounds of PET bottles in 2008, the highest volume recorded to date, while use of PET declined 5.6 percent, the first drop in nearly 30 years. The report also details the end uses for a record 915 million pounds of recycled PET. Visit www.napcor.com, www.plasticsrecycling.org, or www.petresin.org.

Event Collects 14 Tons of Glass
Glass container manufacturers collected more than 14 tons of glass bottles for recycling during Recycle Glass Week, according to the Glass Packaging Institute (Alexandria, Va.). Two events, in Colorado and Indiana, have led to the creation of permanent collection sites for glass containers, GPI says. Visit www.gpi.org/recycle-glass-week.

Airline and Airports Boost Recycling
Continental Airlines (Houston) has collected more than 4 million pounds of mixed recyclables from its terminal operations via its "EcoSkies" recycling bins at its Houston Bush Intercontinental, NewYork/Newark Liberty, and Cleveland Hopkins airport hubs—an 800-percent year-on-year increase, it says. As of mid-November 2009, Continental had more than doubled its in-flight and flight kitchen recycling efforts compared with the previous year by recovering more than 1,500 tons of plastic and aluminum and more than 30,000 tons of corrugated, it adds. Visit www.continental.com.

Taking a different approach, the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has hired Waste Pro (Longwood, Fla.) to remove and sort recyclables from the airport's waste stream. Airport patrons are in a rush and might not have time to select the right bin for recycling, the companies note, thus they are providing a single bin for both waste and recyclables. The program should reduce the volume of material the airport sends to landfills by 50 percent after one year and by 70 percent after two years, Waste Pro says. Visit www.wasteprousa.com.

IP Shuts Down Three Mills
International Paper (Memphis, Tenn.) has closed its paper mill and associated operations in Franklin, Va., and its containerboard mills in Pineville, La., and Albany, Ore. The company also has permanently shut down the previously idled No. 3 machine at its Valliant, Okla., containerboard mill. The Valliant mill's other two machines will continue to operate. These efforts will reduce the company's North American paper and paperboard capacity by 2.1 million tons, it says. Visit www.ipaper.com.

Effort Promotes Bag Recycling
California has kicked off its "Got Your Bags" campaign, which promotes reusable bags and plastic bag recycling, with the support of Keep California Beautiful (Sacramento, Calif.) and the Progressive Bag Affiliates of the American Chemistry Council (Arlington, Va.). The state requires grocery stores and pharmacies with more than 10,000 square feet of retail space to provide recycling bins for plastic shopping bags. Visit www.keepcaliforniabeautiful.org.

GPX International Tire Restructures
GPX International Tire Corp. (Malden, Mass.) is reorganizing under Chapter 11 of the U. S. Bankruptcy Code, splitting into three businesses to facilitate the company's sale. Alliance Tire Corp. (Hadera, Israel) will acquire GPX's U.S. operations; a separate team of investors has purchased Dynamic Tire Corp., the company's Canadian subsidiary. GPX also plans to sell its solid tire business as well as its Gorham, Maine; Red Lion, Pa.; and Hebei, China, manufacturing facilities. The company will continue to manufacture and distribute tires and serve customers during the Chapter 11 proceedings, it says. Visit www.gpxtire.com.

Law Promotes Recycling, Energy Recovery
Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons plans to propose legislation that pushes the waste industry to increase recycling and invest in energy recovery technology. The law would include incentives and abatements to encourage businesses to locate in Nevada and use recycled materials. Gibbons says his goal is to divert at least 75 percent of the material that currently ends up in Nevada landfills into recycling or energy recovery.

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Upstate Shredding (Owego, N.Y.) has acquired Matlow Co. (Solvay, N.Y.), a ferrous and nonferrous scrap processing facility in a suburb of Syracuse, N.Y. Upstate plans to use the site to feed its megashredder in Owego. A renovation of the facility will add new buildings, a fully paved yard, a new stormwater treatment system, and landscaping. New equipment will include three Sennebogen cranes, two mobile shears, and a Harris HRB baler as well as high-speed conveyors and container loading systems. Upstate will operate the facility seven days a week under the Ben Weitsman & Son name. Steve Green, Upstate's executive vice president, will manage the operation, and Peter Matlow will join the management team. Visit www.upstateshredding.com.
• LKQ Corp. (Chicago) has acquired Greenleaf Auto Recyclers (Dumfries, Va.), an automotive parts recycling business, from Schnitzer Steel Industries (Portland, Ore.). Greenleaf has 17 locations in Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Nevada. LKQ says it plans to eliminate 11 of the Greenleaf sites by merging their operations with existing LKQ wholesale recycling facilities. In the deal, Schnitzer acquired four of LKQ's self-service used auto parts operations and certain assets from two other LKQ self-serve facilities. LKQ plans to sell two more self-serve facilities in Dallas to Schnitzer this month. Visit www.lkqcorp.com or www.schnitzersteel.com.
• Sims Metal Management (New York) has acquired the remaining interest in Port Albany Ventures (Bethlehem, N.Y.), a mixed-use bulk material stevedoring operation on the Hudson River. The 28-acre dock facility was previously a 50-50 endeavor between a Sims Metal Management subsidiary and Donjon Marine Co. (Hillside, N.J.). Visit www.simsmm.com.
• Konecranes (Springfield, Ohio) has acquired Machine Tool Solutions Unlimited (Cincinnati), whose services include machine tool rebuilding, control retrofits, preventive maintenance, calibration, and repair. The acquisition allows Kone­cranes to expand its MTS offerings to North, Central, and South America, the company says. Visit www.konecranes.com.
• The Watermill Group (Lexington, Mass.) has purchased the Alsip, Ill., paper mill of the Madison Paper Co. from Myllykoski Group of Finland, renaming it FutureMark Paper Co. The facility reportedly is the only U.S. mill able to produce up to 100-percent recycled coated paper for magazines and catalogs. Visit www.watermill.com or www.futuremarkpaper.com.
• Lanair Products (Janesville, Wis.) has acquired Lenan Corp. (Janesville, Wis.), a niche manufacturer of waste oil heaters and related equipment. Visit www.lanair.com.

Openings and Expansions

• Tube City IMS (Glassport, Pa.) has opened its first representative trading office in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Kenny Hung, chief representative, will head the office. Visit www.tubecityims.com.
• ORPET (Portland, Ore.) plans to build a PET bottle recycling facility near St. Helens, Ore. ORPET, a partnership between private investors and the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (Portland, Ore.), the predominant administrator of Oregon's bottle bill, expects to begin operations this year. OBRC manages more than 95 percent of the recyclable containers collected through the law. The facility will convert millions of PET bottles each year into materials it will market domestically for manufacturing, construction, and packaging. Visit www.orbc.com.
• RecycleBank (New York) has expanded its services to several locations. GBUSA (Indian Trail, N.C.) will implement the program in Union County, N.C., and Sun City, S.C. The city of Houston also has joined with RecycleBank with support from Alcoa and Texas Instruments to implement the program. The city of Atlanta has partnered with Coca-Cola Recycling (Atlanta) and Rehrig Pacific (Los Angeles), a container company and service provider, to launch a 10,000-household pilot RecycleBank recycling program. And Hartford, Conn., has expanded its RecycleBank program to nearly 25,000 households. Visit www.recyclebank.com.

Electronics Roundup

• Sims Recycling Solutions (West Chicago, Ill.) has purchased Technorecycle Büromaschinen Verwertung (Frankfurt, Germany), an electronics takeback, secure data destruction, and refurbishment and recycling company. It is SRS' second operation in Germany. Visit www.simsrecycling.com.
• ECycle Solutions (Airdrie, Alberta) has opened an 80,000-square-foot electronics recycling facility in Québec. The company received $750,000 from Canada Economic Development for Québec Regions for equipment for the facility. Visit www.ecyclesolutions.com.
• EcoATM (San Diego) installed its first automated eCycling station Sept. 21, 2009, at the Nebraska Furniture Mart in Omaha. The buy-back and payment system electronically and/or visually inspects used electronics, assesses a value, and provides the user with a trade-up coupon, gift card, or the option to make a charitable contribution. It accepts any used mobile phone and eventually will support other consumer electronics, regardless of their condition. EcoATM sells the electronics into the secondary use market or to recyclers or it returns them to manufacturers for trade-in programs. The company expects to launch more eCycling stations in San Diego, Boston, Dallas, and Seattle. In December, ecoATM received a Most Innovative New Product award, which recognizes regional innovation, from CONNECT, a San Diego nonprofit devoted to the commercial development of regional research discoveries. In November, the company won Coinstar's Next Big Idea contest and received a $10,000 prize. Visit www.ecoatm.com.
• An electronics producer responsibility law in Wisconsin took effect Jan. 1. Manufacturers of video display devices, computers, and printers sold to Wisconsin households must collect and properly recycle electronic devices, including computers, televisions, printers, and fax machines. Beginning Sept. 1, the law will ban landfilling and incinerating certain electronic devices. Wisconsin is the 20th state to pass legislation mandating statewide electronics recycling.
• Global Electric Electronic Processing (Barrie, Ontario) won three awards for excellence in recycling at the 2009 Recycling Council of Ontario's Waste Minimization Awards ceremony. Visit www.geepinc.com.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Washington, D.C.) has selected the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Co. (Minneapolis) as the winner of the National TV Recycling Challenge for responsibly recycling about 3 million pounds of televisions between January and August 2009 and meeting other challenge criteria. Visit www.epa.gov/plugin.
• The Basel Action Network (Seattle) has designated eLoop (Murrysville, Pa.) an e-Steward pledged electronics recycler. The pledge commits the company to becoming certified through a third-party accredited certification program BAN plans to launch in March. Visit www.eloopllc.com or www.e-stewards.org.
• Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America (Irvine, Calif.) has joined the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Co.'s (Minneapolis) national recycling initiative. Effective immediately, consumers can recycle all MDEA televisions at no charge through MRM drop-off locations nationwide. Visit www.mrmrecycling.com.
• Seventy-six percent of the 1,000 consumers surveyed for the study Electronics Recycling and E-Waste Issues believe recycling is the most appropriate way to handle used, damaged, or obsolete electronics, according to Pike Research (Boulder, Colo.), which conducted the study. Of those 1,000 consumers, 37 percent believe electronics recycling should be free and another 35 percent want electronics collected and processed as part of curbside recycling programs. Only 14 percent feel consumers should bear the cost, while 10 percent support having the manufacturer pay. Visit www.pikeresearch.com.
• Apple (Cupertino, Calif.) and Sony Ericsson (London) are among seven companies leading the electronics industry's move away from bromine and chlorine in their products, according to ChemSec (Göteborg, Sweden) and Clean Production Action (Medford, Mass.). According to their report Greening Consumer Electronics, these companies have engineered manufacturing solutions that negate the need for most or all uses of brominated and chlorinated chemicals, substances that cause health and environmental concerns. The other five companies the report profiles are Seagate (Scotts Valley, Calif.), DSM Engineering Plastics (Heerlen, Netherlands), Nan Ya (Livingston, N.J.), Indium (Clinton, N.Y.), and Silicon Storage Technology (Sunnyvale, Calif.). Visit www.cleanproduction.org or www.chemsec.org.
• LG Electronics (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.) and Waste Management Recycle America (Houston) have created a "convenient, cost-effective opportunity" for hotels to recycle televisions and computer monitors as well as the packaging from new purchases of LG flat-panel HDTVs and computer monitors. Visit www.lgcommercial.com or www.wm.com.

New Ventures

• Beginning Jan. 1, Colorado Tire Recycling (Hudson, Colo.) will supply tire chips to Novo Energies Corp. (New York), which will convert them into fuel and fuel additives. CTR will provide a minimum of 6,000 tons of tire chips for the first year of the contract and a minimum of 12,000 tons a year thereafter, with an option to increase the supply. Novo plans to construct its first tire-to-fuel plant in the Denver area and expects to have it operational during the second quarter of 2010. Visit www.coloradotirereycling.com.
• Dart Container Corp. (Mason, Mich.) has opened postconsumer No. 6 foam recycling drop-off sites in North Aurora, Ill., Horse Cave, Ky., and Tumwater, Wash. The public sites accept foam food ser­vice containers, including cups, plates, take-out containers, and egg cartons, as well as shaped or molded foam packaging. G&R Reclamation, which serves Horse Cave, and Thurston County Solid Waste, which serves Tumwater, will pick up the foam, which Dart compacts and sells to manufacturers of products such as baseboards and moldings. In other Dart news, Aflac (Columbus, Ga.) and Maryville Academy (Des Plaines, Ill.) have partnered with the company to recycle foam as part of their food-service operations through Dart's "Cups Are Recyclable" program. The organizations are leasing foam densifiers to compact foam food containers and trays for recycling. Dart picks up the densified foam products once a month at no charge to the CARE program participant. Visit www.dart.biz.
• Smurfit-Stone Container Corp.'s (Creve Coeur, Mo.) recycling division has partnered with Waste Services (Burlington, Ontario) to operate the firm's materials recycling facility in Hialeah, Fla. Smurfit-Stone also operates Waste Services' Taft and Sanford MRFs near Orlando, Fla. Visit www.wasteservicesinc.com.
• Harsco Corp. (Camp Hill, Pa.) has announced 10-year agreements between Harsco Minerals and two Austrian stainless and specialty steel producers to recycle their metal-making slags. Harsco will process existing stockpiles and future slag outputs for Bohler Edelstahl (Kapfenberg, Austria) and Breitenfeld Edelstahl (Mitterdorf, Austria) in collaboration with Scholz Recycling (Essingen, Germany) to reclaim the metals and generate reusable aggregates. The agreements automatically renew for successive five-year periods. In other company news, Harsco has signed a multiyear $50 million environmental services contract to handle the metal recovery and on-site removal of an estimated 3 million cubic yards of slag materials at the former Gulf States Steel facility in Gadsden, Ala., which filed for bankruptcy in 1999. The company's global Harsco Metals division also received a 10-year contract valued at more than $100 million to provide on-site services to the Lucchini Piombino steel works in Italy. Visit www.harsco.com.
• California consumers can use "Think Green From Home" kits from Waste Management (Houston) to recycle dry-cell batteries. Cities across the state provide their residents with the kit, which comes with a prepaid return shipping label and a recycling box to store used alkaline (AAA, AA, C, D, 9-volt and 6-volt), button cell, and rechargeable batteries. Visit www.wm.com or www.thinkgreen.com.
• Owens Corning (Toledo, Ohio) has launched a nationwide asphalt shingle recycling program for roofing contractors. Heritage Environmental Services (Indianapolis) will provide drop-off centers for the materials and will recycle the shingle tear-offs. Visit www.owenscorning.com or www.heritage-enviro.com.
• The U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (Washington, D.C.) has begun to recycle obsolete vessels from the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay, Calif. MARAD has awarded a $2.1 million contract to All Star Metals (Brownsville, Texas) to recycle the Earlham Victory and the Pan American Victory, two World War II-era cargo ships.
• The Center for Ecological Technology (Pittsfield, Mass.) has received $17,000 from the EPA's Resource Conservation Challenge to demonstrate the reuse of construction and demolition debris. CET plans to use the funds to expand its ReStore Home Improvement Center in Springfield, Mass. The center helps reclaim C&D materials and market them for reuse. Visit www.cetonline.org.
• Kimberly-Clark Corp. (Dallas) has joined forces with TerraCycle (Trenton, N.J.) to encourage consumers to recycle the packaging from Scott or Huggies brands of diapers. Consumers can form "brigades" to collect the packaging, then for each piece of packaging a brigade participant collects, the companies will give 2 cents to the nonprofit group the brigade selects. TerraCycle will turn the packaging into new products. Visit www.kimberly-clark.com or www.terracycle.net.

Awards and Milestones

• Alcoa North American Rolled Products Scrap Purchasing (Knoxville, Tenn.) named its top 10 scrap suppliers, which it determines using measures that include safety, quality, volume, and delivery. The 2009 winners are American Iron and Metal (Montréal), Atlas Metal and Iron Corp. (Denver), Commercial Metals Co. (Dallas), M. Lipsitz and Co. (Waco, Texas), Metal Conversions (Mansfield, Ohio), Omnisource/Omnisource Southeast Corp. (Fort Wayne, Ind., and Lyman, S.C.), Service Aluminum Corp. (Baltimore), Shapiro Sales (St. Louis), Smelter Service Corp. (Mount Pleasant, Tenn.), and State Metal Industries (Camden, N.J.). Visit www.alcoa.com.
• In October, SA Recycling (Terminal Island, Calif.) marked its 365th day without an injury or accident at its Port of Long Beach facility. Visit www.sarecycling.com.
• Acme Refining Scrap Iron & Metal (Chicago) has upgraded its ISO certification from ISO 9001:2000 to ISO 9001:2008. Visit www.acmescrap.com.
• Freedom Metals (Louisville, Ky.) has received a "Fast Fifty" award from Business First of Louisville for its rapid growth. The company estimates it grew between 75 percent and 90 percent in 2009. This is the company's sixth consecutive year as one of the fastest growing companies in the state. Inc. also recognized the company as one of the 5,000 fastest growing companies in the nation for the third consecutive year. Visit www.freedommetals.com.
• A-1 Specialized Services & Supplies (Croydon, Pa.) has received ISO certification for OHSAS 18001-2007. The company already holds ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications for quality and environmental management. Visit www.a-1specialized.com.
• Appliance Recycling Centers of America (Minneapolis) and the Ameren Illinois Utilities (St. Louis) report recycling 10,000 refrigerators and freezers through their "Act On Energy Recycling" program. The program encourages consumers to recycle pre-1993 refrigerators and freezers by providing free pickup and a $35 payment per unit. Visit www.arcainc.com or www.actonenergy.com.
• Pull-A-Part's (Atlanta) Indianapolis facility became the first auto salvage yard to be inducted into the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's Clean Yard program at the gold level, the company says. Visit www.pullapart.com.
• Keep America Beautiful (Stamford, Conn.) has presented Novelis (Atlanta) with its 2009 Vision for America award for the corporation's leadership in environmental issues, employee volunteerism, and efforts to promote recycling worldwide. Visit www.kab.org or www.novelis.com.
• Eriez (Erie, Pa.) was named a finalist in the material handling systems category of Plant Engineering's 2009 Product of the Year competition for its EcoTowerSort total metal recovery system. The magazine will name the winners this month. Visit www.eriez.com.
• Cincinnati has received the first Cans for Cash: American Recycler Video Award and will receive $5,000 for its recycling efforts, the U.S. Conference of Mayors (Washington, D.C.), Novelis (Atlanta), and Keep America Beautiful (Stamford, Conn.) announced. To compete, cities created short, Web-based films promoting aluminum can recycling. Visit www.cans4cash.com.
• ESCO Corp. (Portland, Ore.) has received an excellence in training award from the Portland Business Journal. Visit www.escocorp.com.

New Equipment Installations

• SA Recycling (Anaheim, Calif.) has constructed one of the largest commercial solar installations in Southern California to power its facility, the company says. The solar installation, which covers 70,000 square feet, should generate more than 708,000 kWh for the company annually, reducing its reliance on the power grid and freeing up electricity for other users, it says. Visit www.sarecycling.com.
• Yaffe Cos. (Muskogee, Okla.) has purchased a Wendt Corp. 80-by-115 shredder for its Fort Smith, Ark., facility. Visit www.wendtcorp.com.
• Magnum D'Or Resources has installed a large turnkey shredding and chipping system at its Hudson, Colo., site in preparation for accepting car, truck, and large industrial tires for processing. Visit www.magnumresources.net.
• Deacero (Monterrey, Mexico) is installing a shredder downstream system from U.S. Shredder and Castings Group (Trussville, Ala.) at its facility in Mexicali, Mexico. The state-of-the-art system follows a 120-inch shredder. To minimize dust, the ferrous separation is performed without an air unit, using special conveyors and magnetic drums. The nonferrous separation uses trommels, screens, eddy currents, a DSRP unit, and air sensors to remove up to 99 percent of all nonferrous metals from the shredder fluff, not including some insulated cable, U.S. Shredder says. Visit www.usshredder.com.
• Waste Management of Orange County has opened a $1.7 million sorting line at its Irvine, Calif., processing and transfer facility that can handle both commercial recycling loads and municipal solid waste. The line uses TiTech infrared optical sorters, specialized OCC screens, and drum feeders, and it can process 15 tons of material an hour. The company expects the line to divert 30,000 tons of recyclables from landfills. Visit www.wmorangecounty.com.
• Eriez (Erie, Pa.) has purchased a robotic welder designed to improve efficiency, maintain accuracy, and more quickly and economically meet production volumes at its manufacturing plant. The robotic welder will handle standardized tasks, complementing the work of the welding staff, the company says. Visit www.eriez.com.

New Distributors

• SMS Equipment will now sell Genesis Attachments (Superior, Wis.) equipment from its Acheson, Alberta, western regional office, which has 24 locations. SMS already offers Genesis products in its eastern region. Visit www.genesisattachments.com.
• Recycling Equipment Manufacturing (Spokane, Wash.) has appointed Ohio Baler Co. (Cleveland) its premier distributor in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, New York, and Indiana. Visit www.ohiobaler.com.
• Neff Press (St. Louis) has named PRAB (Kalamazoo, Mich.) the exclusive domestic and international distributor for its metal compaction briquetting line sold under the name Dualpak by Neff. Visit www.prab.com.
• Doosan Infracore America (Suwanee, Ga.) has added Canada's Stone Valley Equipment to its lineup of dealers. With locations in Corner Brook, Grand Falls, and Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, the company will offer the full line of Doosan excavators and wheel loaders to Canadian customers. Visit www.stonevalleyequipment.com.

NatFerrous Is Now NatSteel
NatFerrous (Singapore) has changed its name to NatSteel Recycling. Visit www.natsteelrecycling.com.

Steinert Moves U.S. HQ
Steinert US has relocated its North American headquarters, which includes its parts warehouse and administrative offices, to 1830 Airport Exchange Blvd., Erlanger, KY 41018. The phone number is 800/595-4014 and fax number is 800/511-8714. Visit www.steinertus.com.

Recycled Products Roundup

• Direct Pack (Sun Valley, Calif.) and Global PET (Perris, Calif.) have introduced the "Bottle Box," the country's first food-grade containers made of 100-percent postconsumer PET beverage bottles. Plastic Recycling Corp. of California (Sonoma, Calif.) supplies RPET to Global PET. Visit www.thebottlebox.com.
• Dana Holding Corp. (Maumee, Ohio) is supplying cylinder-head covers made of recycled nylon to Ford Motor Co.'s 3-liter duratec engines used in the 2010 Fusion and Escape vehicles. Dana purchases the high-quality recycled nylon resin from Wellman Engineering Resins (Johnsonville, S.C.), which produces it from used nylon carpets. The company says it's the first automotive product of its kind made from postconsumer recycled nylon. Visit www.dana.com or www.wellmaner.com.
• B Green Innovations (Matawan, N.J.) is making washing machine anti-vibration pads from recycled tires supplied by Reliable Parts (Tukwila, Wash.). Visit www.bgreeninnovations.com.

Michigan State Invests in Recycling
Michigan State University (East Lansing, Mich.) has created an on-campus recycling center that contains both a 24/7 drop-off location for recyclables and a materials recovery facility. Money from the sale of recycled and surplus goods and storage space rental will cover the cost of the $13.3 million, 73,000-square-foot building.

The processing side has three large tipping areas for trucks to dump materials such as corrugated or paper and four smaller doors for inbound and outbound materials such as plastics. Two conveyors direct materials either up the sorting line, where workers hand-sort materials into chutes leading to bunkers of separated materials, or straight to the two-ram baler. The facility has a maximum capacity of 5,500 tons of recyclables a year. MSU currently diverts 1,800 tons of recyclable material from landfills (16 percent of its waste stream), with a goal of 3,200 tons, or 30 percent, by 2015. Visit www.recycle.msu.edu.

Resources

• UltraPure Systems (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) is promoting awareness of plastic water bottle reuse and recycling through it new blog. Visit www.LookfortheDrop.com.
• The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (Rosslyn, Va.) has redesigned its LampRecycle.org Web site, which contains information about recycling mercury-containing lamps. The revamped site includes a feature, operated by Earth911.com, that allows site visitors to find local CFL drop-off locations. Visit www.LampRecycle.org.
• The electronic newsletter Recycling Laws International, published by Raymond Communications (Silver Spring, Md.), covers recycling policy in 38 countries in Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. Visit www.raymond.com.
• The Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (Washington, D.C.) has released a fact sheet—available online—about degradable plastics. It provides answers to questions such as whether all degradable plastics are the same, whether recyclers can process them with standard PET or HDPE, and whether they break down in landfills. Visit www.plasticsrecycling.org.
• The fifth edition of The Environmental Resource Handbook from Grey House Publishing (Amenia, N.Y.) includes more than 6,000 environmental company listings and 171 tables and charts of statistics and rankings. Visit www.greyhouse.com.