Waste Management and Publix team up to Compost in South Florida

Garbage titan Waste Management  (WM) is teaming up with grocery store titan Publix to compost Publix's waste at a facility in Okeechobee County next to Waste Management's humongous landfill.

Waste Management's critics who regulary state that WM is only interested in landfilling and burning waste must be stunned by the announcement.  After all, doesn't WM need to maximize it's other assets so that it can maintain stock price and insure large bonuses for executives?  Has the world been flipped on its head?

Not exactly.

Publix has been seeking a partner for composting of its waste for sometime.  They struck a deal with a Pompano Beach company in 2008.  It failed.  This was a huge threat to WM.  WM controls all privately owned disposal sites in Florida south of Saint Cloud.  Publix is South Florida's largest employer.  It's stores are everywhere.  Thus, diversion of this waste would have a significant impact on stock price and bonuses.

So, here comes the partnership.  What a great example Publix has set. This shows how purchasing decisions can change the world and how a corporation can make a difference in a community by demanding something better. As far as WM, there is never a wrong reason to do the right thing.

Good luck to Waste Management and Publix.  Here's the press release.

Learn more about home backyard composting here.

Trash2Art Reception will be a Zero Waste Event

The 2010 Trash2Art Reception will  be a   

ZERO WASTE EVENT
Reuse/Recycle/Compost

This year's opening reception will be Thursday, May 6, 6-8 PM at ArtServe in Fort Lauderdale.  If you attend, please be mindful of our containers to ensure that we strive towards our goal of producing no waste.

Thanks to our Reception Sponsors for Providing the following Services and Financial support:

 Recycling Services

Recycling Carts

Reusable Glass Ware

Need help planning a zero/low waste event?  Contract Trash to Treasure.  We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to Reduce/Reuse/Recycle.  We use our knowledge of the industry and the markets to find ways to deal with your waste.  We provide comprehensive innovate solutions others can't.  Green your next event with us.

T2T adds Frito Lay Products to TerraCycle collection

Sure your New Year's Resolution was to lose weight by eating less Dorito's.  But who are we fooling?  We are adding Frito-Lay bags to our TerraCycle products.  Click here for a list.

TerraCycle will pay us 2 cents for each bag we collect and turn them into accessories.  Bring them by during our regular hours.

Also, check out the other things Frito-Lay is doing with their Sun Chips bags.  Starting in 2010, Sun Chips will be producing the bags from plant based materials which will degrade overtime when left in the environment. These innovative bags are designed to fully decompose in about 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost bin or pile.

Another good note, Frito-Lay has reduced the material used to make their bags by 10%.

I think I'll go eat some onion free Funyuns.

Trash to Treasure also collects stackable yogurt containers, juice pouches, granola/energy bar wrappers, and cookie wrappers.  For more information click here.

Florida Wants to Increase Recycling or Do They?

The Orlando Sentinel gives us a one-sided report on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) goal of tripling the state's recycling rate to 75%. A preliminary report from DEP shows that it recognizes some of the components necessary for a better program such as:

• Change how people think about waste and recycling by way of education and outreach.
• Enhance who recycles by placing more focus on the commercial and multi-family sectors. • Change the pattern of final waste disposition by decreasing the amount of waste going to landfills.
• Establish sufficient funding sources to assist local governments and keep a reporting system in place.
• Help develop markets to make increased recycling a sustainable process.
• Try innovative concepts such as “Pay As You Throw” and a bottle bill.
• Most importantly, recognize that all of this will take time!

While this is encouraging, nothing is new nor has not been tried before. There is pending legislation the essentially changes the definition of recycling which is found here. FL statues 403.7032 (2) states "However, any solid waste used for the production of renewable energy shall count toward the long-term recycling goal as set forth in this section."

Broward, Dade, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Lee and Bay counties are preparing the "Mission Complete" banners. These counties rely heavily on waste-to-energy facilities to dispose of nonrecycled materials. Four of Florida's top six metro areas would have to take little or no action.

Waste-to-energy is much more desirable than landfilling. Its emissions are highly regulated. The fuel is domestic and never ending. Still, too many materials get disposed of this way when there are markets and uses for them.

A good part of the proposed legislation is that counties would be required to develop plans to compost between 5 and 10% of the counties waste.

The heat and humidity in Florida makes it perfect for composting. Its a travesty that more work has been not done in this area. Backyard composting is especially easy to implement. There is more yard waste in Florida than anyone knows what to do with. What kind of mulch are you buying? What is your local government purchasing and how much are they paying?

Only Plantation in Broward runs a program where yard waste from residents is converted into mulch used by city crews. Residents pay a small fee to dispose and the City saves on mulch purchases. They also provide free mulch to the community.

Here are some our ideas for successful programs:

• Have dedicated recycling/solid waste professionals to implement programs
• Reinvest savings and revenue from recycling programs into new programs and education-like a business would.
• Have containers that are unique and distinguishable from garbage cans
• Make recycling a business practice-it is what you business does for savings, the earth, and PR
• Governments should implement extensive recycled-content programs-strong markets mean strong revenues
• Government should coordinate competitive bids to provide recycling services to business-they already do this through their exclusive garbage collection
• Educate, educated, educate-you know what Coke is all about and they advertise constantly
• Remove the financial incentives for not encouraging business recycling through fees payed based on the volume of garbage collected.
• Implement residential pay-as-you-throw programs.
  

There are many more. If you are looking for more information from our experts, contact us at Trash to Treasure.

TerraCycle has Worm Poop on Sale

Here is a note we received from our partner TerraCycle:

To the TerraCycle community,

This is a letter of thanks.

Over the last year, you have helped TerraCycle accomplish some amazing things – together we have kept more than 20,000,000 drink pouches and 11,000,000 cookie wrappers from landfills. Because of the success of those programs, we have developed new programs to collect and divert more than a dozen waste streams, now including candy wrappers, chip bags, corks, cereal liners and more. More than 30,000 locations have signed up to collect, which means that more than 4 MILLION people are participating in the TerraCycle revolution.

In the next month TerraCycle will launch our new website, and soon we’ll request that you update your profile so that our new upgraded site can serve you better. To thank you for what you have done to date—and to honor the large garden we have so far created together—I’m making an offer to express my gratitude and to help your garden flourish.

For a limited time, I’m pleased to offer you TerraCycle’s first product, our award winning All Purpose Worm Poop Plant Food, the world’s first product made from waste and packaged in waste, at the lowest price we’ve ever made it available:

· $3.50 each if you order 1-4 bottles (a 30% discount!)

· $2.50 each if you order 6 bottles or more (a 50% discount!)

All you have to do is go to a dedicated TerraCycle website, www.shoponlygreen.com and use the special code GROW. As part of my thanks to you, and the students, friends and family who are collecting, feel free to share the website and password with your colleagues, and I’ll keep it open through July. The product stays good for a few years, so feel free to buy as much as you want. May all of our gardens flourish.

Thanks for being part of TerraCycle.

Cheers,
Tom

Tom Szaky,
Founder and CEO
TerraCycle