October 29, 2007

New Mexico Almost At 10% Recycling Rate

According to the newly released "2007 New Mexico Solid Waste Annual Report" published by the New Mexico Environment Department: Solid Waste Bureau, 9.74% of the municipal waste stream was recycled (191,601 tons). The report tracks data collected for the period of January-December 2006.

Counties were ranked by their recycling rate and we send out a gigantic congratulations to the following counties:

Lincoln County: 59% recycling rate

Los Alamos County: 22.9%

Torrance County: 17.7%

Chaves County: 17.4%

Bernalillo County: 15.6%

The report is chock full of interesting recycling and solid waste facts. The report also calculates greenhouse gas emissions avoided through recycling. Using New Mexico recycling totals and the EPA's WARM calculator, we recycled enough material to see the equivalent of 101,657 passenger cars removed from the roads in a year.

The report will be posted soon at www.nmenv.state.nm.us/swb/index.htm

NMRC Board Retreat

All members are welcome to join the NMRC board retreat, scheduled Friday, November 30th starting at 1:00 PM at Sevilleta Wildlife Refuge (north of Socorro) and ending Saturday, December 1 in the afternoon. Please email English Bird at english@recyclenewmexico.com to RSVP for the retreat.

Mark Your Calendars: New Mexico Recycling Conference on June 3-4, 2008

Soilutions and Whole Foods Team Up to Start Food Scrap Composting

A load of food waste and waxed cardboard delivered by the City of Albuquerque to Soilutions.

Recycling Can Be a Risky Business!

By Butch Tongate, Bureau Chief, NMED Occupational Health and Safety Bureau

Almost everyone is aware of the economic and environmental benefits of recycling, but many people – sometimes including the operators themselves – are not aware of the potential risks involved in the operation of a recycling facility.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, refuse and recyclable material collectors have the fifth highest workplace fatality rate among all industries.  In 2006, the industry experienced 41.8 deaths per 100,000 employees.  (By comparison, the rate for electrical power line repairers and installers was 34.9.)

Given the nature of the solid waste/recycling business, the high rate of injuries and fatalities is not that surprising.  First of all, curbside collection operations are inherently dangerous due to their proximity to public traffic.  We all know how inattentive many drivers can be and the number of traffic-related deaths among solid waste and recycling collection workers confirms that.  In addition, the collection trucks themselves often present safety hazards.  Hydraulic rams have caused numerous deaths and serious injuries, including one in New Mexico in the past year.

A recycling center can also be a dangerous place to work.  In addition to the frequent vehicular traffic, the variety of machinery used to process materials can present numerous hazards.  Balers are very unforgiving if operated improperly.  Conveyor belts, forklifts, steer skid loaders, tire cutters and derimmers, and glass crushers are just a few of the potentially hazardous machines often found in recycling centers.  Then there are all the hazards associated with electricity, slips, trips, falls, hazardous materials, noise, and ergonomic issues.  It’s no wonder recycling is one of the most hazardous industries in the country!

In an effort to proactively address the health and safety risks of the industry, the Occupational Health and Safety Bureau (also known as New Mexico OSHA) has initiated a Local Emphasis Program for the Solid Waste industry for fiscal year 2008.  As part of the LEP, we will be conducting a minimum of 15 compliance inspections in the industry, including collection operations, landfills, transfer stations, and recycling facilities.  The unannounced inspections will occur in both the public and private sectors over the next year. 

New Mexico OSHA’s consultation program will also participate in the solid waste LEP.  Employers who need assistance in assessing the health and safety risks of their operations can request that a NM OSHA consultant visit their workplace to conduct a review of their health and safety program and do a walk-through of the facility.  If any hazards are identified, the employer is given an opportunity to correct them and no enforcement action is taken.  If, however, an employer refuses to correct the hazards in a timely manner, the matter will be referred to the OSHA compliance program.  Employers who want to learn more about the no-cost consultation program can contact Ray Singer, Consultation Program Manager, NM OSHA, at 505-476-8720 or ray.singer@state.nm.us.

Every employer should strive to make the workplace as safe and healthful as possible.  New Mexico OSHA can help!  Give us a call.

http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/Ohsb_Website/OHSB_Home.htm

Albuquerque Launching Project to Test Interest in Recycling

By Dan McKay
Journal Staff Writer, October 25
    Albuquerque plans to distribute about 4,000 blue recycling bins to residents next month as part of a pilot project.
    Mayor Martin Chávez said city executives hope to learn how to get more people to participate in recycling. Less than 3 percent of the city's "waste stream" is recycled, he said.
    The project, expected to start in mid-November, will target two areas, though city officials wouldn't say where yet.
    The Solid Waste Department will notify residents that they can get one of the bins if they're interested. The bins are about two-thirds the size of a regular trash bin, and they have wheels like the regular bins.
    "We want to see how people adapt to it," Chávez told a news conference Wednesday.
    The pilot project will cost about $200,000. To take the bins citywide, the department would need about $2.5 million, said Leonard Garcia, the city's director of solid waste.
    Eventually, the mayor said, he would like every house to have three bins— a black one for regular trash, a blue one for recycling and a green one for yard clippings.
    Now, people can put out recycling materials on their regular trash days, but the city doesn't provide separate bins. Most people just put the recycling in its own bag on the curb, apart from the trash bin.
    The pilot project was announced Wednesday as part of a monthlong campaign to promote recycling.
    The airport is getting new silver bins— they look like regular trash cans— for recycling. There also will be an advertising campaign, including billboards, and other efforts.
    The goal is to save room in the city landfill and cut greenhouse gases. Recycling saves energy, advocates say. Recycling one aluminum can, for example, saves enough energy to power a television for three hours, and a 3-foot stack of newspaper saves one tree, said English Bird of the New Mexico Recycling Coalition.
    Dresses and other clothing made out of recycled material will be on display at the airport.
 

Waste Audits Available from NMSU WERC Team

Since its establishment in 1999, the WERC/IEE Technical Resource Center in Albuquerque has been funded by grants from EPA’s Pollution Prevention (P2) Program to provide small business, industry, communities, and tribes in all parts of New Mexico with on-site technical assistance on pollution prevention and energy efficiency issues. A statewide network has been established to share information and promote pollution prevention and the related cost-savings that can result from P2 activities. Over the six years of the program, it has accumulated numerous resources and conducted site visits at more than 170 businesses, communities, government facilities, and tribal programs. In addition, numerous presentations are made on WERC’s services to village and tribal councils, public works departments, chambers of commerce, volunteer agencies, professional and business associations, and academic institutions across New Mexico.

For example, in 2005-06, WERC/IEE provided on-site technical assistance and training on issues of pollution prevention and energy efficiency to over 20 industries, businesses, municipalities, and tribes in New Mexico. Specific training sessions and workshops focused on the healthcare and spray-painting industries as well as NM state offices. WERC/IEE assisted businesses in identifying opportunities for cost-savings through pollution prevention; the resources of the NM Recycling Coalition are often utilized to help companies and facilities locate recycling opportunities in their communities or to learn more about initiating recycling in their businesses.

WERC has been participating on the New Mexico Mercury Reduction Task Force at meetings since May 2006. Environmental results of the P2 program are measured and reported annually. The following are calculated estimates from activities for FY 06: 9,500 pounds of Hazardous and Regulated Medical Waste (includes approx. 5 pounds of mercury) diverted; $26,500 dollars saved; 90,000 gallons of water conserved; 180,000 BTUs conserved; 52 participants in P2 training; and 51 students enrolled in WERC/NMSU 300 (Intro to Pollution Prevention).

Green Zia Program: WERC/IEE’s cooperative work with the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED’s) Green Zia Environmental Excellence Program helped participants report the following in 2006: 50,000,000 gallons of liquid waste reduced; 2,825,00 metric tons of carbon dioxide reduced; $26,800 in annual costs savings; 75,000 lbs of solid waste reduced; and 32,000 BTUs of energy conserved.

For more information contact Chris Campbell at 505-843-4251 or chrisc@werc.net

Questions Raised About Technology Behind Gallup Tire Plant

Associated Press, September 26
      GALLUP — A Malaysian company that announced in July it was bringing a unique tire recycling factory to Gallup now says the plant won't be built as quickly as expected.
    Lured by the promise of more than 140 new jobs, Gallup and McKinley County officials pledged $1 million to help build Green Rubber Global's factory. The state Department of Economic Development said it would ask the 2008 Legislature for $3 million more.
    But Green Rubber president Rick Homans, a former state economic development secretary, said after meeting with area officials Friday that the company was changing its original plans.
    "There's certainly some skepticism in the rubber world about this, so we're very careful not to oversell what we can deliver," he said.
    The company's goals remain the same, "but our strategy to get there is shifting," he said.
    City and company officials initially hoped to have the factory operating next July. Homans now says that's probably when the company will break ground.
    If designs for the factory are ready and it gets the expected government money, it could be operating by the end of next year, starting with 20 to 30 workers, he said.
    Skeptics have called into question the patented technology Green Rubber plans to use to recycle tires.
    "A lot of public money has been lost chasing unproven technologies, and realistically (this) is not a proven technology," said Michael Blumenthal, senior technical adviser for the Rubber Manufacturers Association. "If it's possible, that would be phenomenal. But let's wait until they get a couple of clients first."
    Green Rubber Global, a subsidiary of Kuala Lumpur-based Petra Group, unveiled plans in July for the world's first commercially viable, waste-free rubber devulcanizing factory. With the aid of its patented DeLink technology, Petra claims to have invented an economical way of breaking the carbon-sulfur bonds that make tire rubber so durable but difficult to recycle.
    However, before DeLink can break those bonds, other machines must grind the tires into crumb rubber, a fine black powder. Homans said the 140 jobs the company projected assumed that Green Rubber would have a crumbing facility on site to process at least 1 million tires a year.
    The company has adjusted its projections after a closer look at the regional tire market.
    "As we look at the availability of tires, there's nowhere near a million tires that we would be able to get to come here," Homans said.
    The company still plans to bring 140 jobs to Gallup eventually, he said. However, it now intends to get there by attracting other companies to Gallup that can put devulcanized rubber to use by making products that could range from running shoe soles to swimming fins.
    Blumenthal said efforts have failed to reverse the vulcanization process that makes tires strong.
    "It's like pulling tomato juice out of V-8," he said.
    Tire manufacturers have poured millions of dollars into such efforts, said TL & Associates president Terry Leveille, editor and publisher of California Tire Report.
    "The larger question is ... are there markets for the rubber they produce?" he said.
    Homans said Green Rubber is courting companies that might be interested in recycled rubber, although it has no commitments yet.
    Still, Blumenthal said there might be opportunities that didn't exist previously.
    Oil, a key raw material for tires, is much more expensive today, making recycling options potentially viable when once they were considered too costly.
    About 1 billion tires worldwide end up as waste each year, nearly 300 million of them in the United States. Most go into landfills or are burned, practices that are coming under environmental scrutiny.
    Devulcanization, Blumenthal and Leveille say, would open options for using those tires.
 

Recycling Tidbits

Office Depot Launches Electronics Recycling Program

Office Depot has launched the "Tech Recycling Service" at more than 1,100 Office Depot stores. Customers can recycle all types of personal electronics, from digital cameras to computers, by buying the appropriate-sized Tech Recycling Box at Office Depot stores. The boxes sell for $5, $10 and $15 and include all shipping and handling.

Customers take the box home and fill it with used electronic devices, including cords and cables, and return the unsealed box to the store. Office Depot piloted the program in 2006 at some 100 U.S. stores, recycling more than 108,000 pounds of electronic products.

Dell Targets Small Business Electronic Recycling

Dell Inc. is targeting small businesses with a new computer equipment recycling service. U.S. business customers that have fewer than 10 pieces of unwanted electronic equipment can return electronic scrap through a new online process. The cost starts at $25 per item. The service provides sound environmental management of obsolete computer equipment while ensuring data destruction.

More information is available at www.dell.com/smbrecycle.

During the switch from analog TVs to digital TVs, it is anticipated that one TV will be disposed of from 25% of all households in the U.S. alone.  State and local governments, in cooperation with Private E-Waste Recyclers, must prepare an infrastructure to handle this volume.  Simply stated, 1 out of 10 TVs is expected to come into the SOLID WASTE STREAM over the next two years (2008, 2009).

Calendar

**Dec 4-6, Recycling Class, Albuquerque

**Nov 30-Dec 1, NMRC Board Retreat, Sevilleta

**June 3-4, New Mexico Recycling Conference, Albuquerque

If you have questions about any of the above information or have articles for future Recycling Scraps, please e-mail or call me. 

English Bird

Executive Director

New Mexico Recycling Coalition

PO Box 24364, Santa Fe, NM 87502

english@recyclenewmexico.com

(505) 983-4470

Fax (505) 466-6266