10 Things You Need to Know for the Waste & Recycling Industry Today (November 3, 2014)

David Bodamer, Executive Director, Content & User Engagement

November 3, 2014

4 Min Read
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  1. Oakland Waste Management Workers Back On The Job After Weeklong Strike “Waste Management recycling workers are returning to work Friday after a weeklong strike left a mountain of recycling piling up outside a San Leandro facility. Workers started their strike on Oct. 26, setting up picket lines in front of the recycling sorting center at 2615 Davis St. in San Leandro and at the company’s Alameda County headquarters at 172 98th Ave. in Oakland.” (CBS San Francisco)



  2. Coca-Cola closing its recycling division “Coca-Cola Co. is shutting down its recycling division, instead expressing a desire to work with outside suppliers for recyclables, including PET, to put back into new packaging. ‘We are restructuring how we procure recyclable materials and will focus on developing our sources of supply,’ Coca-Cola spokeswoman Sheree Robinson said Oct. 30.” (Plastics News)



  3. Louisiana officials permanently halt transportation of Ebola waste to landfill “Texas and Louisiana officials announced that the burned belongings of a Dallas man who died from Ebola will never make its way to the state. Last month it was revealed that six truckloads of Thomas Eric Duncan's property were being sent to a hazardous waste landfill 20 minutes southwest of Lake Charles.” (WDSU News)



  4. Pittsfield Township to switch to weekly recycling collection under new $7.5 million rubbish contract “Under a new five-year contract with Republic Services, Pittsfield Township residents will now have its recycling picked up weekly instead of bi-weekly. The approximately $7.5 million contract was recently approved by the Pittsfield Township Board of Trustees and will include an increase of 96 cents per household from $17.02 to $17.98. That includes trash, recycling and compost collection.” (MLive.com)



  5. Fire Boats Called to Houston Recycling Plant Fire “Phillip Danahey was driving back to his Heights-area home from a gun shop he had been visiting east of Houston when he saw a tower of smoke rising into an otherwise cloudless sky. Danahey, 37, peeled off I-10, following the smoke to a recycling plant just off Braes Bayou, where firefighters spent the better part of Saturday afternoon battling a colossal industrial blaze.” (Firehouse.com)



  6. Study shows opportunities to expand state's recycling abound “In 2013, Nebraskans spent $33.5 million to dispose of 885,275 tons of recyclable waste material in landfills across the state. That waste would have been worth $86.5 million if the materials had been recycled instead. Not only would Nebraskans have earned $86.5 million, but also it would have created new jobs. For every 10,000 tons of waste that’s recycled, it takes 10 people to recycle that material, compared to one person to dispose of it.” (The Grand Island Independent)



  7. Rumpke gets Clark County recycling contract “Waste & Recycling to pick up its recycling. The contract saves the county from using county solid waste equipment and an employee to pick up recycling material at three locations and drop off the items in Fairborn, then drive the bins back to its three locations, said Chuck Bauer, director of the Clark County Utilities Department and Solid Waste.” (Springfield News-Sun)



  8. Tackling food waste: More measures needed, say experts “While companies like Sakae Holdings are at the forefront of efforts to reduce food waste, it is an issue that continues to plague Singapore as well as countries across the world. About one-third of all food is wasted, from the moment it is produced to the time it is consumed. According to the United Nations, that is enough to feed two billion people. If it is not recycled, food waste ends up in landfills where it produces methane - a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.” (Channel NewsAsia)



  9. Waste and recycling company moves from Newark to Teaneck “Action Environmental Services, a waste and recycling company, has moved its headquarters from Newark to Glenpointe in Teaneck, real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield announced Thursday. Action Environmental signed a lease for 13,700 square feet at the Class A office complex owned by Hackensack-based Alfred Sanzari Enterprises, Cushman & Wakefield said in a news release.” (NJBiz.com)



  10. Industrial accident at recycling plant leads to worker’s death “Hutchinson police say a worker at a recycling company has died after being struck by a piece of machinery. Officers say the death of 29-year-old Joshua Tacy of Hutchinson is being treated as an industrial accident. The employee of MidWest Iron & Metal was taken by an ambulance to a Hutchinson hospital with trauma injuries from which he later died. Police say Tacy was struck by machinery used to load metal into train cars.” (Kansas First News)



 

About the Author

David Bodamer

Executive Director, Content & User Engagement, Waste360

David Bodamer is Executive Director of Content & User Engagement for Waste360 and NREI. Bodamer joined Waste360 in January 2014. He has been with NREI since September 2011 and has been covering the commercial real estate sector since 1999 for Retail Traffic, Commercial Property News and Shopping Centers Today. He also previously worked for Civil Engineering magazine. His writings on real estate have also appeared in REP. and the Wall Street Journal’s online real estate news site. He has won multiple awards from the National Association of Real Estate Editors and is a past finalist for a Jesse H. Neal Award. 

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