Bay State Going Green and Streamlining Waste Stream Big changes that will have a serious impact on the waste stream are coming to Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) Sustainable Materials Recovery Program (SMRP), recently awarded $3.2 million. The MassDEP SMRP grant money aims to minimize trash carted off to landfills, increase recycling, […]
Dayton’s Two-Strike Recycling Rule Works to Decrease Wishcycling. Could Simplifying Recycling Work Instead? Recycling seems easy enough, but that is just not always the case. Sometimes it’s very easy to identify if an item can be recycled, but other times it can be hard to make the call. Trying to recycle non-recyclable items has a […]
How to Help Tenants and the Planet Multi-family dwellings, like apartments, condos, and townhomes typically have very low recycling rates. The inability to recycle means residents toss recyclable items in the trash because that is their only option. This places a burden on the local waste stream, contributes to landfills reaching capacity much quicker, and […]
Stay Safe While Protecting Others and the Planet Efforts to flatten the curve and slow the spread of COVID-19 have led to an increase in the use of protective face masks and gloves. The use of such protective gear increased when the Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued advice to wear face masks in […]
Why It Pays to Read the Labels When Recycling Wishcycling is the act of tossing an item in a recycling bin when you’re really not sure if it can be recycled. This seems harmless enough, but it can actually have some pretty serious consequences if you guess wrong. This behavior is incredibly normal and wishcycling […]
Ditch Wishcycling to Improve Recycling Efforts Recycling is a great way to streamline the waste stream and make the most of the existing materials while conserving resources. However, the process of recycling is only effective when materials that can, in fact, be recycled are tossed into the proper bin. When items that cannot be recycled […]
How Far Is the Bag Ban Movement Likely to Reach? To date, eight states have been banned single-use plastic bags. This is an amazing accomplishment! Banning single-use plastic bags takes a lot of work, primarily because there is a lot of resistance. The plastic manufacturing industry works hard to prevent bans from happening, and there […]
Efforts Intended to Take on Massive Environmental Problem The Chinese government is taking steps to ban single-use plastic bags in response to the huge environmental impact of single-use plastics. This is exciting news because if a country as large as China can eliminate single-use plastic bags this action will have a global impact and hopefully […]
Outreach Helps People Understand How to Recycle Earlier, we wrote about proposed legislation that could tremendously help the recycling industry. The inspiration for these posts came from our friends at SWANA. Essentially, both pieces of legislation would provide financial resources to state and local governments with the intent to improve outreach around recycling. We are […]
Big Changes Potentially Coming to the Recycling Industry Recently introduced legislation could make a huge difference in recycling rates throughout the U.S. Two pieces of legislation are calling for increased funding and outreach to improve and expand recycling efforts. If passed, these laws could have a major impact on the waste management industry and the […]