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The View from SPC: A renewed focus on valuable materials

This article originally appeared in the February 2016 issue of Resource Recycling
The How2Recycle Label Program is undertaking a new initiative in 2016: ReStart the Cycle. ReStart the Cycle’s aim is to increase recycling of valuable materials, helping How2Recycle achieve its goal of increasing the quantity and quality of recycled materials.

Increasing recycling of valuable materials supports our vision of the circular economy. ReStart the Cycle will build strong recycling economies, help materials recovery facilities (MRFs) receive the materials that support their economic viability and stability, and provide more recycled content that packaging manufacturers and brands crave.

Broadening packaging sustainability

First, a little background about the labeling program. The Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s How2Recycle Label is a standardized system that clearly communicates recycling instructions to the public. How2Recycle is a project of GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a membership-based group that brings together business, educational institutions and government agencies to collectively broaden the understanding of packaging sustainability and develop meaningful improvements for packaging solutions.

The program’s ReStart the Cycle effort intentionally uses the “valuable materials” language. Recycling both retains the environmental investment in packaging and is an economic activity. In choosing “valuable materials,” we hope to communicate that packaging is a resource as well as a transporter of product. We must think about recycling as an end-of-use strategy and a sourcing strategy.How2Recycle

So what are valuable materials? Our primary targets are high-value plastics, paper and metals. Examples include PET and HDPE bottles, PP containers, paperboard packaging, newspapers and magazines, and metal cans. There is a lot of room for growth in recycling these materials.

Tossed in the trash

At the Resource Recycling Conference in Indianapolis this past September, Scott Mouw and Rob Taylor of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality presented data from a selection of North Carolina communities. Their findings show just how much potential there is for increased diversion if residents can be informed more effectively.

The households from those North Carolina communities averaged 458 pounds of recyclables thrown in the trash per year. The same households averaged 392 pounds of materials recycled per year. Mouw and Taylor compared this to six communities across the U.S. The households in these six cities averaged 438 pounds of recyclables thrown in the trash per year, and 433 pounds of recyclables in the recycling stream per year.

Mouw and Taylor also broke their data down by commodity, showing opportunities for different materials. Similarly, Sustainable Packaging Coalition member Sego Jackson of Seattle Public Utilities suggested that we as an industry “help get the MRFs the materials they need.”

How2Recycle will do its part through ReStart the Cycle. The strategy relies on the following foundations:

  • Promote the use of How2Recycle on high-value materials. This will continue to reinforce the message to the public that they should recycle these materials. How2Recycle also provides strategic special messaging, such as information telling consumers to keep caps on bottles.
  • Create How2Recycle-specific marketing materials and recycling information for the public. The content will focus on both what should be recycled and why. Our new How2Recycle website, underway in the first quarter of 2016, will harness this content.
  • Partner with other organizations to integrate efforts. How2Recycle is calling for partners and will be reaching out to other organizations working to increase recycling across the country. We welcome ideas and are looking for areas to create synergies between initiatives. There is a lot of great work happening in the recycling field that How2Recycle wants to harness, elevate and complement.

The How2Recycle team looks forward to launching the ReStart the Cycle campaign. If you are interested in partnering with us on this effort, please contact Danielle Peacock at danielle.peacock@greenblue.org

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Ways to avoid food waste over Thanksgiving

In the United States, 40 percent of food goes to waste. Thanksgiving is a celebration of family, football, and most of all, food. While we prepare for the feast, it’s also important to  consider the amount of food wasted on this particular holiday. Natural Resources Defense Council’s Staff Scientist Dana Gunders explains, “During the holidays, people are often confronted with more food than they can eat, meaning food gets wasted.” Fortunately, there are many ways that you can limit the amount of food wasted at your house on Thursday.
There are many good reasons to avoid wasting food. Besides the wasted money on food that goes straight to the trash,  The EPA elegantly explains all the great things that reducing food waste does for the environment:

  • Saves resources – Wasted food wastes the water, gasoline, energy, labor, pesticides, land, and fertilizers used to make the food. When we throw food in the trash, we’re throwing away much more than food.
  • Reduces methane from landfills – When food goes to the landfill, it’s similar to tying food in a plastic bag. The nutrients in the food never return to the soil. The wasted food rots and produces methane gas. Methane is a strong greenhouse gas with more than 21 times the global warming potential compared to carbon dioxide.
  • Returns nutrients to the soil – If you can’t prevent, reduce, or donate wasted food, you can compost. By sending food scraps to a composting facility instead of to a landfill or composting at home, you’re helping make healthy soils. Adding compost to gardens, highway construction sites, and poor soils makes great things happen. Properly composted organics (wasted food and yard waste) improve soil health and structure, improve water retention, support more native plants, and reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides.

So as part of showing thanks to our American food bounty, consider the following strategies to help you avoid wasting it this year on Thanksgiving.

Ways to reduce food waste while planning your Thanksgiving meal


While you don’t have to get get too stressed out, it can be helpful to plan your menu more thoughtfully.

  • Coordinate recipes with friends and family so you don’t end up with 3 green bean casseroles (unless if you want 3 green bean casseroles!). Setting up a shared Google Doc is a great way to simultaneously plan the meal with the friends and family you’re sharing the day with.
  • Prepare less by cutting recipes in half. If you can’t have Thanksgiving without sweet potato casserole, but like me also “need” to make at least five other traditional side dishes, consider making a half recipe for one or all dishes, instead of full recipes. Tips for halving recipes can be found here and here.
  • Only buy the ingredients you need for your recipes. Buying in bulk is only really efficient when you actually need something in bulk. It’s hard to resist a two pound bag of pecans in the heat of the moment at Costco, so maybe remember ahead of time that you can get nuts by the scoop from your smaller grocery store.
  • Avoid impulse purchases; I don’t really need a pre-baked apple pie from the bakery section when I know we already have pecan and pumpkin pies in the works!
  • Understand measurement conversions for your recipes before you go to the store. If you need 10 cups of flour for all your dinner roll and pie crust recipes, remember that bags of all purpose flour are sold by the pound. So if you plan ahead by understanding any relevant measurement conversions, you can avoid buying two bags of flour “just in case.”
  • food-vegetables-meal-kitchenConsider selecting vegan or vegetarian recipes. Avoiding actual food wastage is only one part of a sustainable food system; in order to support global food security for the future, societal shifts in dietary preferences are important to consider. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) anticipates that “food production must increase by 70 percent by 2050 to feed an expected global population of 9.1 billion people with increasingly meat-dependent diets.” That’s because “animal products require 4 to 40 times the calories to produce than they provide in nutrition when eaten, mainly due to the crops they consume.” This creamy no bake pumpkin pie could be a great way to experiment if you’ve never made something vegan for Thanksgiving.
  • Save a turkey! Instead of eating a turkey as the main course, consider adopting one from Farm Sanctuary! The Natural Resources Defense Council estimated in 2013 that $277 million worth of turkey ended up in the trash after Thanksgiving. The resources wasted from all that turkey is “equivalent to the amount of water needed to supply New York City for 100 days and greenhouse gases equal to 800,000 car trips from San Francisco to New York.”

 

Ways to reduce food waste while cooking your Thanksgiving meal

food-vegetables-chef-kitchen

  • Rethink how you peel and trim fruit and vegetables. It’s a tradition of French cooking to cut away the ‘unsightly’ bits of foods, such as trimming off the knob at the top of a beet or getting rid of the tops of green onions. However, this is often just a matter of aesthetics; you don’t actually have to peel everything. For example, it’s okay to leave the skins on root vegetables such as as carrots, beets, and potatoes. But you’ll likely still need to peel or trim thick squash and pumpkins, because they probably won’t soften enough during cooking. Changing these practices can decrease the amount of food that goes in the bin.
  • Keep an eye on your food while it’s cooking and set timers; this way, the food is less likely to burn and thus less likely to get thrown out.
  • Use up ingredients you may already have in your refrigerator before buying more. Sometimes, I forget I have a bag of celery buried in my vegetable crisper. If I buy more to make stuffing, I’ll be sure to use up the older bag first.
  • If you are using ingredients you already have on hand, remember that expiration dates on labels don’t always relate to food safety. They often are the food producer’s suggestions for peak quality. If food smells, looks and tastes okay, it probably is.
  • Freeze vegetable and meat scrapsto make homemade stock or broth at a later date.
  • If you can’t make use of scraps,compost them. The EPA has a great home composting reference here to set up a compost pile in your backyard. It’s easier than you think! Some communities also have composting facilities so you can put compostables in a bin at home to be picked up, or you can drop off your food scraps at a specific location.

 

Ways to avoid food waste in the dining room

food-salad-healthy-vegetables

  • Perhaps the best way to avoid food waste is to serve smaller portions. If you start with less food on your plate, you can always go back for seconds. This way, you can avoid throwing out the food left behind on your plate when you’re done. Michael Pollan says, “Most of us eat what’s put in front of us, ignoring signals of satiety; the only possible outcomes are either overeating or food waste…  So if you’re serving yourself, take no more than you know you can finish; err on the side of serving yourself too little, since you can always go back for seconds.”

 
Reducing your food waste after the great meal is over

  • Get creative with leftovers so that you’re more likely to eat them. You may appreciate recipes for a Thanksgiving burrito, waffles made of stuffing, David Chang’s mashed potato spring rolls and sweet potato and cornbread hash.
  • If you don’t want to eat all your leftovers right away, try freezing them so you can have them anytime you want later on.
  • Maybe give your animal companion a special treat instead of her or his usual meal (be cautious: in addition to chocolate, dogs don’t digest onions and garlic well, and grapes are poisonous).
  • Donate shelf stable food items you don’t end up using. Food banks covet holiday-related canned food like cranberry sauce.
  • Compost your leftovers if they spoil, or if you can’t stand the sight of them any longer (most leftovers should stay fresh until Sunday or Monday).

 
Honor the food that feeds your family on this holiday about gratitude. We’re so fortunate to be able to avoid waste in the first place!
Happy Thanksgiving

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EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management goals align with SPC’s goals

Screen Shot 2015-11-18 at 4.40.02 PMThe EPA has just released their new Sustainable Materials Management Program (SMM) Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2017 -2022. We think it’s a great plan and look forward to working with EPA to achieve their goals.
There are three main strategic priorities. They are:
1.)   The built environment — conserve materials and develop community resiliency to climate change through improvements to construction, maintenance, and end-of-life management of our nation’s roads, buildings, and infrastructure
2.)   Sustainable food management —focus on reducing food loss and waste
3.)   Sustainable packaging —increase the quantity and quality of materials recovered from municipal solid waste and develop critically important collection and processing infrastructure. (provide link or attach document here)
SPC’s food waste and sustainable packaging priorities link very closely with EPA’s.
In the food waste category, EPA’s Action Area 1 is:
Develop an infrastructure to support alternatives to landfill disposal of wasted food.
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The SPC has been presenting recently on food and packaging waste composting strategies. We believe that composting packaging and food together will allow more effective collection of waste in food service situations and provide a next life option for products like single serve coffee pods. We believe that SPC’s role is to insure that as we develop organic infrastructure to capture food waste, we must insure that packaging is included. Current trends indicate that composting infrastructure will continue to grow while packaging will be excluded .This could limit the effectiveness of capturing food waste and reaching the landfill diversion goals.
How2RecycleLogo(R)SmallContamination by non-compostable packaging is a valid concern for composters. The SPC’s consumer facing How2Compost Label will be a great tool to help fight contamination and provide important composting education. SPC is working with BPI and member companies to develop the How2Compost label, an offshoot of the successful How2Recycle Label.
We recently completed a project in Charlotte, NC funded by EPA Region 4 where the goals of the project were two-fold: 1) to promote food and packaging waste (F&PW) recovery, and 2) to generate a list of lessons learned and fundamental guidance to stimulate much broader and more extensive organics and packaging composting programs nationwide.
This final report forms the framework for scaling up composting for a variety of sectors through lessons learned, best practices, and accessible guidance.
In the sustainable packaging arena, EPA’s Action Area 1 is about: Convening and partnerships: infrastructure.
One of the ideas that came out of the wrap up session at SPC Advance 2015 was Sego Jackson’s (City of Seattle) suggestion to help the MRFs get the materials they want and need. This conversation came shortly after the New York Times article “Reign of Recycling” ignited a flurry of conversations about our recycling infrastructure. Scott Mouw (North Carolina DENR) recently shared information at a Resource Recycling Conference that showed that even in established recycling markets we still aren’t getting the materials that are available for collection. From the total of what is available in specific markets for PET, Mixed Paper, and HDPE, more is going in the waste stream than is being recycled. These are easy materials to collect and recycle with established markets.
Accordingly, the How2Recycle team will be developing a campaign for “getting the MRFs what they want and need”. The idea is that we try and get brands to put the How2Recycle label on what we think are “obvious” desired materials including PET bottles, cereal boxes, laundry detergent bottles, soup cans, etc.
We are looking forward to working with our members and EPA to meet their goals in sustainable food management and sustainable packaging.
 
 

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Let’s Celebrate: America Recycles Day

America Recycles Day
It’s that special time of year again. To me, America Recycles Day represents our annual celebration of progress collectively achieved by the recycling community, and also an important call-to-action to both the recycling community and the general public reminding us that a lot of work remains before we can pop the champagne and declare victory on the recycling front.
How2RecycleLogo(R)SmallThe SPC has worked with our members and our partners in the recycling community to generate a wealth of knowledge and action to enhance recycling. This past year we spearheaded an unprecedented collaboration of industry and NGO stakeholders to kick-off a huge study on consumer access to recycling programs. We continue to  keep  our ears on the ground  and ask  the right questions to understand the nuances of packaging design choices and their impacts on the recycling process. We’ve helped a number of companies understand the recyclability of their packaging and the opportunities for improvement. And our How2Recycle Label Program  has created a link between that industry knowledge and consumer actions by appearing on hundreds of packages in stores across America. We can feel good about the SPC’s collective action to advance recycling, and it’s good to have a day where we recognize that.
Still, America Recycles Day makes me pause and wonder why we don’t have celebratory holidays for all the other sustainable packaging initiatives. Where is the “America Responsible Fiber Sourcing Day”? Or “America Packaging With Less Cumulative Energy Consumption Day”? Or the sure-to-be-popular “Phthalate Elimination Day”? Just because we don’t celebrate the other aspects of sustainable packaging doesn’t make them any less important. While we may work on recycling every day, there are a host of issues that deserve our attention and a host of other victories that deserve celebration. So please accept the SPC’s wishes for a happy America Recycles Day, and don’t forget that the party for America Makes Packaging More Sustainable Day never ends.

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SPC Advance: Charlotte Compost tour

Composting at Earth Farms Organics is growing as more local businesses and institutions recycle their food waste. Mr. Lanier expects to see an organics ban in North Carolina within 10 years.

On Day 3 of SPC Advance, Anne Bedarf and Ryan Cooper lead a tour of Earth Farms Organics Composting Operation.

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Circular Economy Technology and Innovation at SPC Advance

Representatives from Kimberly-Clark, MHG, Recycling Partnership, Braskem, and Printpack gathered on stage the last day of SPC Advance to discuss advancement of the circular economy through technologies and innovations. Braskem presented in conjunction with Printpack about their collaborations on bioplastic. Mikel Knight and Joe Jankowski presented the environmental benefits of bioplastics, including the lower carbon footprint than typical plastics and the recyclability. Ben Jarrett discussed Kimberly Clark’s use of wheat-straw (a wheat by-product) and bamboo as a feedstock for some of their paper products such as a line of toilet paper. Jarrett encouraged attendees to explore the LCAs comparing the associated impacts of the different feed stocks. For example the use of virgin and recycled fibers versus the use of bamboo fiber, or wheat-straw fiber
The last speaker on the panel was Keefe Harrison, Executive Director of the Recycling Partnership. Recycling might not a new technology or innovation, however, recycled material as a feedstock is a key element in advancing the circular economy. As Keefe Harrison stated:

“recycling is about developing feed stocks.”

Keefe places committed communities at the top of a list for “6 aspects of a healthy recycling system approach.”
“Local governments are the means by which recycled materials is captured within American communities,” said Harrison. “Local governments provide access to recycling to their residents. Whether that access is a drop-off location or curbside pick-up. When a government is capturing recyclables then they have a consistent feedstock supply.”
The important role of local governments was echoed throughout the conference. As expressed by several SPC Advance speakers, the variance in recyclable materials across regions, states and counties plays a major recycling challenge. Neighboring counties could accept different materials depending on where they are sending the material. Amy Duquette with HAVI Global Solutions spoke on how in her current position she will sometimes call up governments to discuss whether or not certain materials are accepted in their recycling systems. As a company that produces consumer packaging there is a sense of responsibility to create packaging that is recoverable. However, the recoverability can drastically change depending on the infrastructure, regulations, and access in an area. Cities such as Seattle are leading the way in recycling and composting efforts. Other municipalities can join by providing adequate access to recycling for their residents. The Recycling Partnership works to help municipalities scale up recycling efforts in communities.
Increased recycling rates as well as the use of alternative materials will help lead the U.S. toward a circular economy.

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Pharmaceutical and Biopolymers ILCs launch at SPC Advance

As one of the first working sessions to kick-off SPC Advance, the combined pharmaceutical and biopolymers brainstorming sessions generated a number of innovative ideas and set-up the process for members to engage in the two projects moving forward. There was interesting overlap in these two initiatives as both the pharmaceutical and biopolymer industries are utilizing cutting-edge technologies and present significant opportunities for innovation. We are very excited to now have both of these new ILCs off the ground and running!
Members shared a number of innovative ideas during pharmaceutical packaging brainstorming session with everyone agreeing that there are real sustainability gains to be made in both material sourcing and recovery areas of the value chain. Cold chain packaging was described by members as an example  where there is a need for solid thinking and supply chain collaboration around how to recover and/or reuse materials. The group also  discussed the need for dialogue across the supply chain, new initiatives drugstore companies are exploring, medical/hospital waste needs, and over-the-counter bottle and label recovery. It was an excellent brainstorming session that helped define the focus area (or areas) of the ILC as we move forward.
In the fascinating and emerging world of biopolymers, attendees  heard a number of valuable insights from members, most of all concerning the need for better education in the marketplace. For example, the prevailing (and incorrect) thinking that feedstocks for biopolymers necessarily disrupt what would otherwise be a food supply. Not the case. Biopolymer feedstocks are often residual material that normally gets sent to the landfill. But more than anything else, the discussion was very much focused on the potential that biopolymers present and the exciting opportunity that the SPC member companies have in exploring ways to bring these materials to the mainstream and leverage environmental benefits.
Thank you to Rob Fitzgerald, Director of Sustainable Packaging, The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.; and Owen Schultz, Vice President of Business Development, Earth Renewable for volunteering as co-chairs of the Biopolymers Working Group. Also thank you to Jason Sawicki, Senior Manager Operational Excellence and Packaging, Genentech; and Guy Gagnon of Ecolopharm for volunteering as co-chairs of the the Pharma Packaging Working Group.
Companies signed up to the Pharmaceutical Packaging and Biopolymers Working Group should look for invitations to the first conference calls to be held for each group in early November.
Through strong member support, an informed and science-based approach, supply chain collaborations and continuous outreach, the goal of the Pharmaceutical Packaging and Biopolymers Working Group is to understand the benefits, identify roadblocks and challenges, and develop solutions to bring innovations to market in a meaningful way.
 

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Re-Thinking Acronyms: A Look At EPR In Canada

In October 2009, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) approved a Canada-wide Action Plan for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR is an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of that product’s lifecycle. EPR had visibility on Day 2 of SPC Advance in Charlotte, where an invigorating panel of experts on Canadian EPR discussed the latest developments across Canada and the efforts in one Province to evolve resource recovery under EPR.
Canada is a global leader in EPR, with many of Canada’s 10 provinces and territories already on-board with an established EPR program or working to transition municipally-led programs into full EPR programs. Participating provinces distribute responsibility between industry or municipality in various ways. For example, Manitoba has had an 80/20 shared responsibility between industry and municipality, respectively, since 2010. In 2014, industry producers took on 100% responsibility for packaging and printed paper waste diversion across British Columbia.
At the conference, one of the key quotes from the panel came from Al Metauro, President & CEO of Cascades Recovery, Inc. “Doing the same things and expecting the same outcomes is insanity”, referring to waste management approaches that underperform in meeting the recovery needs of the changing waste stream. Packaging formats have drastically changed in the past 10 years, and often the new packaging formats are difficult to capture with machinery and systems designed for waste streams of the past. In British Columbia, the aim has become re-engineering the recovery system with EPR as a catalyst for progress benefiting industries, municipalities, and consumers.
Successful EPR in British Columbia involves a key partnership between Multi-Material BC (MMBC), the non-profit organization managing the Province’s residential recycling program, and Green by Nature (GBN), the group contracted to manage the entire post-collection system for the Province. Funded entirely by industry, MMBC services 1.24 million homes and multi-family dwellings, operates over 200 recycling depots and drop-off locations, and introduces curbside recycling programs to more and more communities across British Columbia. While MMBC still faces the tough realities confronting material recoverers and recyclers across the world — such as volatile commodity markets and pressure to keep stewardship fees stable -— the transition to industry-led packaging and paper product recovery has proven successful and worthwhile in other ways. People are often uneasy of change, but MMBC has seen nearly 75% of residents stating that the new system either meets or exceeds their expectations, with many believing that it’s improved. High approval ratings and resident satisfaction are reflected in their diversion figures, with about 116,000 tonnes collected within the first 7.5 months of operation in 2014. Notably, this includes expanded polystyrene, which is widely unrecyclable in the United States.
Partnering with MMBC who collects the materials from curbside or drop-off locations, GBN re-engineers the systems and optimizes data to better inform industry partners. By tracking data on recovered materials, GBN is positioned to work with supply chain partners (such as brand owners) to understand if their products are recovered, to identify areas for improvements, and to facilitate productive conversations.
By seizing the opportunity to re-engineer and redesign recovery systems on a Province-wide scale, the collaboration between MMBC and GNB demonstrates the success and potential of EPR to not only recover more, but to transform the way we approach brand owners and packaging companies as invaluable partners rather than wrongdoers at fault. Thus far, the partnership in British Columbia is successful with an 80% diversion rate that exceeded the required Provincial recovery rate by 5% in its first year of operation.
Perhaps what we at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition need to do is expand our alphabet soup acronyms and consider EPR to mean Every Package Recycled.

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Scaling Up Composting in the Charlotte region

By Ryan Cooper, LEED GA, Project Associate of the SPC. 138x138xRyan-Cooper-headshot-e1436541175621.jpg.pagespeed.ic.Uv-2bWd7Xv
With funding from U.S. EPA Region 4, Mecklenburg County, the University of North Carolina, Charlotte (UNCC) IDEAS Center, and in-kind contributions from Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) member dues, nonprofits GreenBlue and Elemental Impact, in cooperation with UNCC and composter Earth Farms Organics, are Scaling Up Composting in the Charlotte Region. The SPC is providing the initial funding for food waste generators to separate kitchen scraps and other organic materials from their trash. GreenBlue’s SPC recently recruited the Carolina Panthers franchise as a participant in this exciting program!test 01 (1)
The project aims to identify best practices for diversion of food waste from the landfill. The SPC will also provide local governments and businesses with a deeper understanding of the challenges and solutions associated with organics recycling. Data will be collected and analyzed for the weight and composition of the organic material, as well as the financial implications of participating in food waste collection.
Earth Farms Organics provides technical assistance, hauling services, and composting capacity for interested parties to recycle their organic residuals. Earth Farms’ proven success had already attracted many key stakeholders in the region, with names like Dole, Nestle, and Lance. Mecklenburg County also started a food waste collection pilot in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system, which has 164 schools and 144,000 students. In addition to the Panthers, the SPC has made it possible for the YMCA, Carolina Place Mall, and the Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) to start composting. The SPC also successfully recruited the Food Lion grocery store chain, with 100 locations in Mecklenburg County alone.
With help from Rick Lombardo at Natur-Tec and Sarah Martell at Innovia Films, the SPC gathered current curricula related to sustainable materials management and composting, as well as completed a composting lesson plan, for Nicolette Torres’ 6th Grade Environmental Science Class at Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy. The SPC is also working on coordinating waste diversion at Metrolina as a three-bin package (compost, recycling, and landfill trash).
At Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC), the SPC provided funding to start food waste diversion at the Harris campus and purchase compostable liners. The SPC also coordinated donation by Rubbermaid for “slim jim” bins.
Working with Earth Farms Organics, the SPC provided compost bins for attendees and food vendors at the South End Hops Festival. GreenBlue is working with Mecklenburg County to enhance their support for recycling and composting at larger, and especially smaller, events around the city. The SPC is also collaborating with Mecklenburg County and CMS to gain an understanding of their innovative program and where improvements can be made.
Tyler Gilkerson, a geology student at UNCC, was welcomed to this project in April of 2015. Tyler immediately perceived this project as an opportunity to make a positive impact on his hometown’s environment and community. As the son of a geologist and grandson of a farmer, Tyler grew up learning the importance of responsible waste management and fostering healthy soils. Prior to UNCC, Tyler attended Guilford College, where he became an integral part of his institution’s on-campus, organic production farm and food waste diversion program. Upon graduating in 2012, Agromatters, LLC, formed by Tyler and his father, was awarded a contract to co-manage the Guilford Farm and a small Type III composting operation. With hopes of applying this sustainable, “closed-loop” concept to a municipal scale, they began operating a large Type I composting facility in Cabarrus County. Tyler has since decided to postpone his business pursuits and focus on his formal education. Tyler ultimately aims to apply the lessons he has learned during this project to a career involving pollution prevention and remediation of essential natural resources.
Tyler has been using the Re-TRAC Connect program to analyze the weight data of participants’ food waste. Waste characterizations by Gilkerson had begun at participating CMS schools before the school year ended, examining the volume, density, and rate of contamination in the food scraps. The most exciting waste characterization so far might have been at the Bank of America Stadium after the CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer match.
Information about the grant program was featured in the May issue of BioCycle magazine, the industry journal for composting. The SPC is currently working with the YMCA on bringing in additional campuses as well as adding front-of-house composting collection.
Anne Bedarf, Program Manager at the SPC, is the principal investigator of the grant. However, with Anne out on maternity leave, Ryan Cooper, LEED GA, Project Associate with the SPC, has taken the helm. Ryan has extensive experience in using compost for organic farming and horticulture, started a small Type III compost facility at the Penland School of Crafts in western North Carolina, and worked with the City of Asheville, NC, to develop a feasibility study for curbside residential food waste collection. His thesis reviewed organics recycling programs in municipalities throughout Europe and North America. He writes regularly for BioCycle magazine.
Challenges for food waste generators include space, labor, cost, and logistics such as ramps on loading docks that facilitate the removal of rolling food waste carts. New management can also step in and put an end to existing waste diversion programs. Difficulty with implementing front-of-house compostable packaging solutions include concerns about the difficulty of replacing currently used food service ware, contamination, and cost. Many times, it seems that an unseen bureaucracy can stop a potential participant from joining the program.
However, the recent site visit and operations tour of IKEA, a program participant, was an impressive example of the success that businesses and institutions can achieve by diverting their food waste. Outreach via calls and email to address problems, providing resources to disprove perceived issues, trials with compostable materials, and persistence in communications and value proposition can overcome the common challenges.
GreenBlue strategic ally Elemental Impact,5LM07VQt a national non-profit based in Atlanta, recently visited Charlotte for a series of follow-up meetings with shopping malls, stadiums, a conference facility, and other key stakeholders. SPC Project Associate, Ryan Cooper attended these meetings, organized by Ei Founder Holly Elmore, on recycling refinement, including food waste collection for compost. “The recent Elemental Impact trip to Charlotte was incredibly successful” said Cooper.
The EPA Region 4 grant team is now planning for the SPC Advance session detailing the results of this project in Charlotte on October 8, 2015. In addition to adding more participants to this successful program, Ryan Cooper will be busy compiling the final report for the EPA, his presentation for SPC Advance, and a BioCycle article detailing the results of the project.
Ryan has extensive experience in using compost for organic farming and horticulture, has started a small Type III compost facility at the Penland School of Crafts in western North Carolina, and has worked with the City of Asheville, NC, to develop a feasibility study for curbside residential food waste collection. His thesis reviewed organics recycling programs in municipalities throughout Europe and North America. He also writes regularly for BioCycle magazine.
 

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Conversation about current challenges in the recycling industry

I’m not usually a talk radio person, but a talk radio show has very much caught my attention recently. Last week, The Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio explored New Challenges to Recycling in the United States. The guests engaged in a conceptual yet pragmatic discussion about how previous policy decisions in recycling are now starting to cause problems, and how different communities could approach these issues going forward. The conversation included some interesting details about the connection between the price of commodities and recycling, such as how the price of oil impacts whether companies choose to manufacture products out of recycled materials.
Another part of the discussion explored how a recent increase in size of curbside recycling bins has resulted in a greater volume of materials being sent to recycling facilities. Unfortunately, an unintended consequence of that increased volume has been an increase in what waste management professionals deem “aspirational recycling,” or consumers indiscriminately throwing miscellaneous materials into their recycling bin, in hopes everything will somehow get recycled.
The problem with that kind of sorting behavior, according to the guests of the show, is that some of those items can cause interruptions and mechanical snags in the recycling process. An example provided was a rubber hose: if its presence wasn’t detected on conveyor belts shortly after reaching the recycling facility, it likely would later become entangled in one of the machines, requiring a temporary shutdown of recycling operations.
The show also looked into how consumers feel and behave around these issues. One call-in listener provided unique anecdotes about her pleasant experience in Sweden, where she sorted her recyclables into sixteen different bins.
As a new Project Associate for GreenBlue working primarily on the How2Recycle program, this show particularly interested me as someone who is eager to interpret the most recent and controversial issues in recycling. These often confusing topics can be difficult for even a well-intentioned recycler and environmentalist like myself to wrap my head around. For example, why do American localities have such vastly different recycling and composting systems?
Consider the following example: I recently relocated to Virginia from Oregon. As a resident of Portland, I had curbside composting in addition to recycling (with glass in a separate bin; or, I could return glass to the grocery store to receive a deposit refund). But as a resident of Albemarle County in the greater Charlottesville, Virginia area, I now don’t have access to a curbside recycling program, even though my not-too-distant neighbors closer to downtown Charlottesville do have curbside recycling—and the instructions for sorting there are different than in Portland.
It’s mind-boggling how different communities seem to recycle in such conflicting ways; the guests of Diane Rehm skillfully explain how and why. What’s fascinating is that those differences between communities, in turn, uncover a great deal about the complexities of culture and economics in the United States. The podcast is not only a solid listen for recycling professionals who want to hear about the contours of current tensions within the industry, but also anyone who is broadly curious about the future of recycling.