26th April, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I came across this old NPR article today, and even though it’s about a year and a half old and some of the info may be slightly dated, I think overall it’s still very accurate and a great reminder of why we should try to dispose of our electronics properly. Electronic trash that goes to the landfill will largely stay in that landfill, leaking chemicals into the surrounding area, so you would think that taking it to any electronics recycling facility would be a step up. But actually, according to this article, there are a lot of non-reputable recyclers out there that will sell those materials to other countries, where people will sort through it in a non-safe way, for humans or for the environment:
“The dirty little secret is that when you take [your electronic waste] to a recycler, instead of throwing it in a trashcan, about 80 percent of that material, very quickly, finds itself on a container ship going to a country like China, Nigeria, India, Vietnam, Pakistan — where very dirty things happen to it,” says Jim Puckett, the executive director of the Basel Action Network, which works to keep toxic waste out of the environment.
Recyclers can make money from selling scavenged metal from electronic equipment, says Puckett, but the process to retrieve usable metals is typically extremely toxic. Workers who remove the metals often have no protective equipment and breathe in high levels of toxic chemicals, which are then released into the atmosphere. And most of the countries where the processing takes place — China, India, Ghana, Pakistan — do not have regulations in place to protect workers or prevent the primitive recycling operations.
Puckett describes a trip he took, to Guiya, China, in December 2001 as a “cyber-age nightmare.”
“It’s the only part of the world where you’ll go and see thousands of women on any given day that are sitting … basically cooking printed circuit boards,” he says. “As a result, they’re breathing all of the brominated flame retardants and the lead and tin that are being heated up. You smell it in the air. You get headaches as soon as you enter this area. It really is quite sad.”
So how can you tell if a recycler is reputable?
Check to see if your recycler is first looking to see if old equipment can be reused.
“Reuse is always more environmentally sound,” says Puckett. “If you can give that an extra life — an extra couple years — and so refurbishing is really what you want your recycler to do.”
If refurbishment is not an option, reputable recyclers will use mechanical shredding and a high-tech separation device to take out the usable metals, which can then be sent to a smelter.
Check out the whole article here. Goodwill’s recycling program with Dell seems to be reputable and a good place to take your electronics. You can find out more about them here. Cutting down on material things like the latest iPhone, iPad etc., also helps.
16th April, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman has a short article today that says that downtown businesses will soon be able to recycle cardboard, glass, paper products, aluminum, tin and steel cans, and plastic containers. Under the current program, only glass and paper are accepted, so this is a big improvement. There’s no mention of when the new program will go into effect, but it’s expected to NOT raise costs for downtown businesses or the City, which is great.
Check out the whole article here.
16th December, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
ABJ has this article, which states that the Austin City Council Approved a plan to reduce landfill waste by 90% in the next 30 years. It’s the same plan discussed here, and includes some of the following proposals:
• Establishing reuse centers and drop-off facilities throughout the city to recover a variety of recyclable, reusable and repairable materials, including batteries, motor oil, paint and anti-freeze
• Enhancing the Single Stream Recycling Program by accepting additional material types
• Conducting a pilot program to collect yard trimmings, food scraps and compostable paper at the curb, and possibly rolling out a new citywide organics collection program based on the pilot program results
• Developing and operating a new Household Hazardous Waste Facility in North Austin
• Phasing in universal recycling and composting requirements to all waste generators — both residential and commercial — within the city
Check out the ABJ article for more details.
9th May, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I’m a little late with this news, but today on my bus ride in I passed the new “Big Bellies” that were set up along Guadalupe around UT and decided to take some poor quality pictures. The Big Bellies are trash bins that are remarkable because they use solar power to crush the trash inside them, hopefully saving money because city workers will have to empty the trash cans less often. Next to the trash compactors are recycling bins, which are also remarkable as their installation marks the first time recycling is being offered in Austin on a public right-of-way.
You can read more about the Big Bellies here and more about the recycling bins here.
And now you can enjoy some blurry pictures.
21st March, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
ABJ had this article today that stated:
Austin city staff plans to start a study in spring 2013 that could clear the way for a law requiring construction and demolition companies to recycle debris and materiel at job sites.
Staff would then report back to the City Council in fall 2013, according to city records.
The ABJ gets there info from a memo from the Solid Waste Services Director to City Council, which you can find by opening the ABJ article. The memo states:
“[T]he City adopted the Zero Waste Strategic Plan and established the goal of achieving a 90% reduction in the amount of waste sent to landfills by 2040. C&D (construction and demolition)recycling is a key component to achieving the City’s Zero Waste goals. According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) 2008 approximately 20% of the waste going to local landfills consisted of C&D debris. As a result, preliminary analysis from the SWS Master Plan includes recommendations to increase C&D Recycling as means of significantly affecting the City’s diversion rate.
Read more: City study to look at mandating construction site recycling | Austin Business Journal
14th February, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
ABJ had an article today that says that Texas will become the third state with a plastic bag recycling program, which is in conjunction with the national “A bag’s life” program. The article says:
In Texas, the program entails about 1,800 retail drop-off locations. An introduction to the recycling program will be held at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in the agricultural museum at the Texas Capitol, which is on the first floor of the West Wing.
The program uses social media to get the word out about plastic bag recycling, It has a website www.abagslife.com for more details, and a smartphone app helps consumers locate the nearest place to drop off used plastic bags.
Read more about the statewide Texas program: Texas launching plastic bag recycling program | Austin Business Journal
Austin already has many spots you can take your used plastic bags – HEB is my usual choice because I’m there so often. Look for a big bin at the enterance of any major grocery store for plastic bag recycling.
16th August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I’m traveling back from Boston today, and I started thinking about airlines and recycling and how hard it is to recycle sometimes when you’re traveling. I noticed though that today on my first Delta flight, the attendant said the stewards would be coming around to collect recyclables, which is the first time I have ever heard any mention of recycling on a plane. Check out this Scientific American article from 2009 about airline and airport recycling. Here’s an excerpt:
The U.S. airline industry discards enough aluminum cans every year to build nearly 58 Boeing 747s and enough paper to fill a football field–size hole 230 feet deep—that’s 4,250 tons of aluminum and 72,250 tons of paper. The 30 largest airports in the country, with the help of the airlines, create enough waste to equal the trash produced by cities the size of Miami or Minneapolis.
Unlike other aspects of the travel business, the airline industry has moved at a snail’s pace to get onboard the green revolution. Although hotels, for instance, have plenty of monetary reasons to encourage patrons not to have their towels changed every day, the airline industry has little economic incentive and even less government pressure to go green.
Several factors have discouraged airlines and airports from following the nation’s recycling trends, says Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). In December 2006 he published a report quantifying the waste from the industry and lambasting it for its lack of initiative toward recycling.
One of the problems is that airports have been reluctant to change their infrastructure to accommodate recyclable materials. Some airlines even separate the recyclables from the trash onboard the airplane, but if the airport is not equipped for recycling, it all goes into the same place. “Airports have been designed without recycling in mind,” Hershkowitz explains. “There are, for example, waste chutes that are all too convenient to dump trash. But there’s no chute for recycling.”
It will be interesting to see how the requirements for airline and airport recycling changes in the future – hopefully things will start to get better faster!
photo credit
3rd August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman has this update on the city’s recycling contract:
The City of Austin may soon part ways with its recycling vendor, ending a 2-year-old money-losing contract.
The City Council will consider a proposal Thursday to hire Texas Disposal Systems to process Austin’s recyclables for one year, and possibly two, at a plant the company plans to open next month in Creedmoor.
Bob Gedert , the city’s Solid Waste Services director, estimates the city will make $988,000 in the first year of the contract, but he cautions that the market for recycled goods can be volatile.
Check out the whole article for more details.
28th July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
As the Statesman reports, a new miniMAX program is being implemented in some state office buildings. This program will replace old trash cans with a large recycling container and a mini trash box hanging on the side (see photo below). The plan is to encourage recycling among state employees. Additionally, employees will be expected to empty their trash/recycling bins into centralized bins in their work areas. The state hopes that this self service approach to trash will increase awareness about what is being thrown out and what is being recycled by each employee. The state is also transitioning to daytime custodial crews. All of this together is expected to save the state more than $1 million a year.
My boyfriend works for a state agency that has implemented the new mini-bins, and he says the bins have an FAQ sheet attached that mention the bins will increase recycling revenue and similar programs have substanially increased recycling in other organizations. However, he has also noticed that people in his office are putting non-recyclables in their recycling containers, since there isn’t much room in the small one-gallon trash bins. The brief FAQ sheet attached to the bins provides some info, but it doesn’t directly explain what should go in each bin. Also, many commenters on the Statesman article are focusing on the “take your own trash out” aspect of the reforms, which is missing the point of trying to increase recycling. This seems like a well-intentioned move by the state, but it won’t be very effective if employees aren’t properly educated about the recycling process.
A new recycling bin with mini trash bin attached
8th July, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Last weekend I checked out Austin ReStore, which I found out about by reading another blog. The ReStore website explains, “As the costs of building materials rise, house maintenance and improvements become increasingly unaffordable. Austin Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, a building materials recycling and retail center, addresses this problem by providing good quality building materials at reduced prices, as well as supporting the mission of Austin Habitat for Humanity.”
And the website points out the environmental aspect of reusing building materials:
• The U.S. EPA estimated in 1996 that U.S. companies generate 136 million tons of building-related construction and demolition (C&D) waste per year.
• 92% of building-related C&D waste is from renovation and demolition.
• C&D waste is approximately 30% of all solid waste produced in this country, excluding road and bridge debris.
• U.S. EPA estimates that only 20% to 30% of C&D waste is presently recycled.
• About 245,000 residential structures and 44,000 commercial structures are demolished each year in the U.S.
• Landfills and incinerators are increasingly more expensive and problematic to open, operate, and close. One estimate is that it costs $1 million per acre during the life of a landfill.
Guy, Bradley. “The Value of Reusing and Recycling Construction and Demolition Waste.” Ecostructure Winter 2003: 72-78.
Anyone can shop at ReStore and choose from new and recycled building materials, and all proceeds benefit Habitat for Humanity. Located at 310 Comal Street, the store was a large warehouse with a variety of materials – new and used cabinets, plumbing parts, light fixtures, rugs, gardening tools, new and used doors, lumber, new and used tile, painting equipment, and more. I didn’t have any projects in mind so I mostly just walked around, but I did pick up an old hand towel rack to be mounted by the sink in our laundry room. They also had a ton of new office chairs for $10 and I thought of getting one, but the color wasn’t really my style and I don’t think I’m skilled enough to reupholster a chair. Here are some pics I took of the store:
air filters for $1
collection of plumbing parts
Office chair for $10. They had about 50 of these, all brand new. This one looks like it has a stain but I don't remember seeing that or else I wouldn't have considered buying it - I think it's just the lighting.
part of the warehouse
a nice file cabinet
some old but very sturdy shelves - would be great for a garage
I will be going back for sure!
24th June, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I’ve recently been having an ant problem in my garden, and a friend had mentioned that when she was having insect problems in her garden, she spread coffee grounds around her plants and the problem went away. I google searched “insect repellent and coffee grounds” and found that along with indeed being an effective insect repellent, used coffee grounds have several other uses. You can find the top 10 here, which include flea repellent and pet hair softener, deodorizer, and cellulite reducer.
Coffee grounds are also great to add to your compost bin – at the city of Austin composting class Carsi and I attended (which counted toward me getting a rebate from the city on my composting bin), we were told that the soil in Austin tends to be basic (as opposed to acidic), so adding coffee grounds to your compost and then eventually adding that compost to your soil helps to neutralize your soil.
photo credit
22nd June, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
After deciding to scrap all bids for construction of a city recycling plant, council will vote on Thursday to decide which of two proposals will replace its recycling contract with Greenstar, which will expire in September. Check out the Austin Business Journal for more details. You can also check out this Statesman article, which says:
City leaders want a local recycling plant that can handle large amounts of unsorted goods so the city can stop its current practice of paying Greenstar North America to truck recyclables to that firm’s San Antonio plant.
The Greenstar contract has been a money-loser for Austin, and it ends in September, though the city could extend it another year.
Mayor Lee Leffingwell and council members Martinez, Laura Morrison, Chris Riley and Randi Shade want city staffers to negotiate short-term and long-term recycling contracts with Balcones and Texas Disposal Systems. The full council will vote on that idea Thursday.
The contracts would come back to the council for a vote, so it could sign deals with one, both or neither, or extend the Greenstar deal.
City staffers would have to present the council with the short-term options by July 29 and long-term options in three months.
Council members Sheryl Cole and Bill Spelman voted against scrapping the bids and now want the city to negotiate only with Balcones for a long-term deal and extend the Greenstar contract in the interim.
Both said they want to choose Balcones to respect the work that went into the eight-month bidding process and because that firm has an excellent environmental record. Spelman added that he’s worried about setting a precedent of negotiating with a firm that recently broke lobbying rules.
16th June, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
Photo Credit
A few weeks ago, I lamented about how there are no places in Austin to recycle aseptic cardboard containers, also known as juice and milk cartons. After I posted that, I emailed the City of Austin to tell them I think they should provide that type of recycling. A little while later, Jessica King, Division Manager of the Solid Waste Services (SWS) Strategic Initiatives Division, sent me an email. She stated that those kinds of containers are made from complex layers of plastic, metal, and paper, and they are therefore pretty difficult and expensive to recycle. For that reason, the city’s current provider of recycling services, Greenstar, does not provide recycling for aseptic containers. She went on to say, “SWS hopes to work with Greenstar or the City’s future recycling processor to incorporate aseptic containers in the Single Stream Recycling Program in the future.” So hopefully we’ll be able to recycle these containers sometime soon! I will keep you updated if I get any more info.
11th June, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
The Statesman reported that yesterday City Council rejected bids on recycling contracts with several companies. The city is looking to sign a contract with a company to build and operate a local recycling plant. As it is now, the city has a contract with Greenstar to truck our recyclables to a plant in San Antonio, but this contract is losing money for Austin, so a new, local facility is needed. The Greenstar contract runs out in September but can be renewed if another long-term solution hasn’t been found by then. Council Member Randi Shade stated, “We’re trying to find (a solution) that’s cost-effective for citizens and the city, and I don’t think any of the proposals were strong enough to move forward.” Check out the article for more details about the rejected bids.
26th May, 2010 - Posted by carsi - 3 Comments
Photo Credit
The city of Austin does not provide recycling for those waxy cardboard containers that milk, soymilk, orange juice, vegetable broth, some soups, etc. come in. This has been getting on my nerves lately because I go through SO many of those containers! At first, Katherine and I thought it’d be better to buy milk and juice in plastic containers, since those are recycled by the city. However, plastic is made out of oil, whereas these paperboard containers are made out of, well, paper, which is a renewable resource. Also, a lot of products (soy, almond, rice, and organic milk) don’t come in any other kinds of packaging. So I decided to go on a hunt for some place, any place, in Austin that would recycle these cardboard containers. Nothing. No one takes them. So I emailed the TCEQ to see if they had any suggestions. I got a response that sent me to this website, which lists locations for recycling certain products all over Texas. By searching for ‘paper – acrylic coated’ and ‘paperboard (chipboard) polycoated (aseptic packaging)’, a couple locations around Texas showed up, which is helpful, but not too helpful for Austinites, since the closest places listed are the cities of Bertram and La Grange. I think it might be a good idea to let the city know that we need to provide recycling for acrylic coated paperboard or aseptic packaging. If you feel the same way, tell Solid Waste Services or contact the Mayor and City Council Members and let them know we need more options for recycling this kind of packaging in Austin. And if any of our readers know of a place that I haven’t found where they recycle that stuff, please let us know!
12th May, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman had this article yesterday which says that of the 20 states which require manufacturers to take back their electronics and recycle them, Texas ranks last. The article notes that the Texas Campaign for the Environment did a study which “compared recycling on a per capita basis in Texas with other states that have “computer takeback programs.” Under the Texas takeback law, computer manufacturers doing business in Texas must provide individuals and home businesses with free recycling options for used desktops, laptops and monitors. Computers contain components with lead, mercury and other harmful materials. Environmentalists say burying computers in landfills or burning them in incinerators is unsafe.” The article also notes that ”the bright spot in Texas might be Dell Inc., which is responsible for about 85 percent of the computer recycling in Texas and provides convenient spots for consumers to drop off their computers, according to the report.”
Check out our entry on how easy it is to recycle your old electronic parts in Austin.
28th April, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
It’s been almost 2 years since I’ve lived in an Austin apartment, but I remember what a hassle it was to recycle during that time of my life. The apartment I lived in (The Lodge at Stone Oak Ranch) didn’t accept all recyclables, and since the recycling containers were kept in a small place between the dumpster and the fence hiding the dumpster, it was difficult to get back there, especially when the trash from the dumpster started to overflow near the end of the week. Since Austin is considering changing their apartment complex recycling policies, I though it would be interesting to survey my friends who live in apartments and find out what their recent experiences with recycling have been. Here are some of the highlights about their apartment complexes:
Kensignton Green Apartments (Allendale area)
- Managed by Rainier, a company that manages several apt complexes around town.
- Complex has two 90-gallon containers, one for aluminum, steel, tin, and plastics #1 -7, and one for newspaper only.
- Recycling containers located near dumpster.
High Oaks Apartments (North Austin)
- Offers trash pickup from individual apartment units twice a week, but no pick up from individual units for recyclables. Residents can take recyclables over to containers by dumpster.
- For my friend that lives in this particular complex, recycling containers are on the other side of the apartment complex, making it less likely she will recycle.
- No advertising about recycling.
Windriver Crossing (North Austin)
- Offers recycling, but containers are on the other side of apartment complex for this particular friend.
- Apartment has one set of bins which are usually full.
- No advertising about recycling.
The Heritage at Hillcrest (East Austin)
- does not have recycling because it has fewer than 100 units.
Oak Park Apartments (near UT)
- Accepts paper, glass, and plastic.
- Complex is compact, so residents don’t have to walk too far to get to recycling.
Rio House Apartments (17th & Rio Grande)
- Does not offer recycling because it has fewer than 100 units.
- Friends that are residents don’t get to recycle often.
From listening to my friend’s experiences at their current apartment complexes, the general consensus is what you would probably expect – people don’t recycle as much if the recycling containers at their complex are kept far from their apartments or if their complex doesn’t offer recycling at all, and people often don’t end up recycling beyond what their complex accepts. Here’s Carsi’s review of the current apartment recycling policy, an update on city council’s consideration of the policy, and my review of the apartment recycling in Portland.
Hopefully city council will change the current policies soon and we’ll see an increase in apartment recycling!
19th April, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Carsi and I have written before about the recycling requirements in Austin apartments (in general and compared to Portland). The Statesman today has more details on a proposal city council could consider this summer which would require apartment complexes with fewer than 100 units to recycle.
The article states that “The financial impact of the proposal is unknown, but the city would either pick up and process recyclables from some of the properties or require them to contract with private haulers” and that “currently, Austin requires only apartment complexes with at least 100 units and offices with at least 100 employees to recycle and pay private haulers to pick up the materials. The city provides containers and picks up recyclables from single-family homes, duplexes, fourplexes and some small businesses. Larger apartment complexes must recycle four materials of their choice, and larger offices must recycle two.”
The article also notes that “an additional 2,015 offices and 5,469 multifamily properties would have to comply with the proposed rules.”
29th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments
I saw this craft idea in the Martha Stewart magazine (a little embarrassing, but I love me some Martha) and wanted to try it out using some old gift wrap, and something more environmentally friendly than mod podge.
Since I save any wrapping paper I get when people give presents to me or my husband, I had this gold and purple tissue paper on hand…
and I used a mixture of flour and water rather than mod podge – usually 2 parts water to 1 part flour works well. I used the purple tissue paper for the first layer (the inside of the egg), some strips of ads from my Martha Stewart magazine for the middle layer, and the gold tissue paper for the 3rd layer.
The flour ended up showing on the surface of the eggs – I’m not sure if mod podge would have shown up less. But if you tried to make eggs using the off-white paper shown in the magazine, the flour probably wouldn’t show as much on the surface anyway. This was a fun project and it would be fun to do with children, and then have them set their eggs out for the Easter bunny to fill.
Rather than filling any baskets or eggs with that green plastic fake grass, try using shredded paper, which is what I am going to use. Check back on Easter Monday and I’ll have a picture of the egg in all its chocolate filled glory – like I said, it would be a good project to try with kids, and will look festive filled with candy, but mine didn’t turn out as pretty as the ones from the magazine.
29th March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
Recently, the Downtown Austin Blog expressed its very justified frustrations about the terrible recycling situation downtown. The post points out that the city provides no single stream recycling downtown, so most complexes offer very limited and usually not-so-convenient recycling options. Additionally, only 10 bars downtown have opted in to a glass recycling program, which means most of the beer bottles and cans produced each night are just thrown away. The city has taken on the task of reforming its recycling ordinance, so let your council member know that recycling downtown needs some help, or email Jessica.King@ci.austin.tx.us if you have a question or suggestion for the city staff.
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