August 2017 Newsletter

Advancing Waste Reduction and Recycling in the Carolinas Since 1989

Special Thanks to Our 2017 Sponsors!

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CRA 28th Annual Conference Call for Papers

March 19-22, 2018 at Harrah's Cherokee Resort and Casino

CRA welcomes presentation abstracts for the 2018 Conference, covering all recycling disciplines and topics from both the public and private sectors. Papers that highlight success stories as well as innovative programs, methods, and technologies to advance material recovery or waste reduction, are preferred. Papers that propose hands on activities or product/technology demonstrations will also be considered.

NEW:
This call for papers includes proposals that provide demonstrations and hands-on tutorials to incorporate into portions of our conference program, including workshops and exhibit hall activities. We are looking for: activities that you can teach attendees with a waste reduction, reuse or recycling focus such as reuse crafts or recycling education activities; a product or piece of equipment whose operation you can demonstrate to conference attendees; a technology or tool whose use and functions can be shown to attendees interactively.

Abstracts are encouraged in the following major topic areas, but not limited to:
Education and Outreach, Collegiate & School Recycling, Multi-Family & Commercial Recycling, Public Area Recycling, Special Wastes & Electronics, Organics, Household Hazardous Waste, Construction & Demolition Recycling, and Waste Reduction.

Save the Date!

Lunch, Learn, & Network - Atlas Organics Compost Facility

Table to Farm: Composting in SC

Food accounts for 21.6% (38.4 million tons) of the nation's landfill waste according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), representing a tremendous resource loss. The Carolinas alone produce approximately 1.5+ million tons of food waste annually. Fortunately, there are some shining examples in the Carolinas showing the way forward to reduce food loss and use food as a resource. In fact, the state of South Carolina has adopted the national goal set by the USDA and EPA to cut wasted food 50% by 2030.

Join us for a Lunch, Learn, & Network at the Atlas Organics Compost Facility at Twin Chimneys Landfill in Greenville County, SC to hear how Greenville County and Atlas Organics are working towards reducing food waste and cycling it back into a valuable soil amendment to promote sustainable agriculture and landscaping. The presentations will be followed by a tour of the Atlas Compost Facility and a networking lunch.

CRA Members Recognized with National Awards

Tori Carle (Operation Bedroll) and Samantha Yager (City of Columbia) Receive Bill Heenan Emerging Leader Awards

The National Recycling Coalition honored their recycling awards recipients at the 2017 Resource Recycling Conference in Minneapolis. The awards program is designed to honor and recognize outstanding individuals, programs, and organizations around the country for their achievements. Award recipients also serve as a model and learning resource for NRC members. CRA Member's Tori Carle and Samantha Yager were individually recognized for their outstanding work and leadership with the Bill Heenan Emerging Leader Award.

Samantha Yager began her municipal government service as an intern in 2011 and in the past year, she was promoted to Solid Waste Assistant Superintendent and is now leading recycling education and operations for the City of Columbia. Samantha managed the $2.2 million carts conversion. It was her job to formulate a budget, delivery plan, educational plan, and to oversee the entire project. In the end, she produced a $250,000 budget savings, delivered 34,000 carts in 13 days and recorded a 60 percent increase in recovered materials. Samantha's efforts extend much further than the curbside program. She has added new recycling cans in Columbia's hospitality districts and will bring recycling to Columbia's more than 60 parks. She has put recycling in Columbia's only professional sports team stadium. She has tripled program results that have been stagnant since 2007. Samantha has a bright future in solid waste and has the work ethic and eagerness to help improve the industry.

Tori Carle, Waste Reduction Supervisor for the City of Greensboro, NC discovered the concept of turning unwanted shopping bags into plastic bag yarn - called plarn - that could be crocheted into a blanket-like mat. This craft project turned into a much bigger idea for Greensboro's citizens experiencing homelessness: use the plarn to create bed rolls that could be used as sleeping surfaces for people who sleep outside and need a barrier to keep from losing body heat to the ground. The bed rolls are better than traditional blankets because the plastic is waterproof, easy to clean, and doesn't attract bugs like cloth. Each bedroll takes upward of 700 plastic bags and 60-100 hours to complete. She called the project Operation Bed Roll: Conserve, Crochet, Care. In 2016, over 3,000 residents participated, 211 bed rolls we created, and an estimated 147,700 plastic bags were kept out of landfills. An additional 60 bed rolls* have been donated in 2017 as the project continues.

Read the full press release at National Recycling Coalition

Charleston County Awards MRF Contract to Machinex

Ground Broken on New MRF Scheduled to Open Summer 2018

Machinex has been chosen to build a new single-stream system in North Charleston, SC that will be in operation by late summer of 2018. With a capacity of 25 TPH, the 57,000 square-foot facility will receive more than 50,000 tons per year of recyclables from Charleston County curbside collection. For the past two years, the county has been shipping their recyclables to Horry County for processing while they have been planning for this state-of-the-art recycling center.

"We have worked closely in partnership with the county to design a system that handles their needs of today while maintaining flexibility for future changes in the material stream", says Rusty Angel, Machinex Eastern Region Sales Manager. "This MRF will be the largest, most-advanced recycling center in the entire state of South Carolina and Machinex is happy to be a part of that progress."

Read the full press release at Machinex

Republic Services to Aquire ReCommunity

ReCommunity facilities recover ~1.6 million tons of recycled commodities annually

Republic Services Inc. announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Charlotte, NC-based ReCommunity Holdings II Inc., the largest independent recycling processing company in the United States. Republic says ReCommunity's assets and expertise will complement its existing recycling collection and processing operations and will enable the company to meet its customers' growing demand for recycling in multiple markets. The acquisition involves 26 recycling centers in 14 states, primarily in locations where Republic maintains a leading market presence. Combined, these facilities recover approximately 1.6 million tons of recycled commodities annually.

"We believe this transaction will enable us to meet growing customer demand for recycling services, while achieving one of our key sustainability goals," says Don Slager, president and chief executive officer of Republic Services. "Recycling continues to be one of the fastest growing segments of the waste stream, and our focus remains on investing in traditional recycling in select and prioritized markets where customers have demonstrated both a demand and a willingness to pay for recycling."

Read the full press release at Republic Services

National Recycling Coalition Announces Executive Director

Marjie Griek Took On Role on August 30

The National Recycling Coalition (NRC) Board of Directors announced the hiring of Marjie Griek as its executive director. "We are extremely grateful for the astounding pool of professionals that applied for this position, and are very excited to present Marjie in this new role. I'm more than confident that with Marjie's credentials and experience she'll successfully help lead the Coalition toward its next and successful 40 years," NRC President Bob Gedert said in a statement. She is the first executive director for the group since 2009. Griek will begin her position with NRC on August 30 and will be based in Lafayette, Colorado.

Griek is the former executive director of the Colorado Association for Recycling, former chair of the Recycling Organizations of North America, and has consulted both in North America and abroad for many years. Additionally, she served on the NRC Board as Executive Vice President and Treasurer. "I'm excited and honored to have been chosen to fill this prestigious position and look forward to working with our state affiliates, other recycling organizations and government agencies in this transformative time for the recycling industry," Griek said in a statement.

Read the full press release at Waste360

CRA Member Spotlight

Charleston County & Fisher Recycling Partner on Glass Recycling

Fisher Recycling is now the Preferred Provider of curbside glass collection services for Charleston area businesses. A partnership between the locally owned and operated recycling company and Charleston County's Environmental Management department was solidified in August as part of a state-wide mandate to reduce landfill waste. Commercial curbside glass collection through Fisher Recycling is for glass materials only to ensure proper handling and processing. Fisher Recycling is committed to recycling 100% of all glass collected and about 20% of that material will be reused in their locally manufactured GlassEco products.

Fisher Recycling will offer businesses an increased frequency of collections (up to 6 times per week). Businesses will pay for the convenience of curbside glass collection, but recycling helps to offset business expenses that are associated with commercial garbage removal. This will also benefit the County as they work towards building their new MRF slated for Summer 2018 opening. In the meantime, the County will continue trucking recyclables out of county. Commercial glass collection will dramatically reduce the amount of glass being transported.

Read the full press release at Fisher Recycling