I  enjoy composting. I enjoy its physicality as I turn my compost pile. In the fall, when my leaves, grass, coffee grounds, and banana and orange peels have turned into compost, I eagerly spread it on my garden. Then in the spring, I marvel at the...

We Americans don’t make garbage like we used to. But we still make a lot; probably more than 250 million tons in 2011 and twice as much if construction and demolition debris and non-hazardous industrial waste are included. Private and public...

Taking out the trash is a learned behavior. Until the late 1800s, most Americans simply threw their garbage out of a window onto the back yard or the street. Pigs and other animals ate the food waste. The rest of the trash was ground into the mud...

For most of my professional career I have worked in the solid waste and recycling arena. I started at EPA’s Resource Recovery Division, moved to the glass industry after the voyage of the garbage barge, and have spent the last two decades working...

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For yet another year, state and federal legislators showed little interest in solid waste and recycling issues. Their indifference was probably caused by a belief that they have more pressing problems to resolve, such as budgets, and that other...

In early October, the city of San Francisco issued a press release proclaiming it had reached 80 percent landfill diversion. The city also claimed it set recycling and compost rate records that are “the highest of any city in North America.” San...

“Supply it and we will buy it,” or so we are told by companies eager to buy recyclables such as used aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles and printed and packaging paper. These companies insist their appetite for recyclable raw materials is...

“The tail is wagging the dog.” ...

Almost 60 years ago, a New Jersey newspaper publisher was using a blender to mix newspapers and water in a sink. He was looking for a way to separate ink from the newspaper’s fibers. After further research at a university, Garden State Paper, the...