By Rob Watson, Chief Science Officer, EcoHub; Founder & Co-Chair SWEEP Steering Committee When materials are separate and relatively clean, they are called feedstocks. When they are mashed together after discarding, they are called garbage, even though the basic molecules composing the discarded materials are little changed from the original feedstock. Separation (plus a little […]
Category: Blogs
Lifecycle Thinking Across the Value Chain
By Susan Robinson, Waste Management’s Senior Public Affairs Director and Co-Chair of SWEEP’s Steering Committee In early February, a group of over 100 stakeholders from across the value chain gathered in Arizona to learn more about Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) and to brainstorm next steps for implementing this framework policy in the U.S. Part of […]
Environmental Leading Practice: Color-Coding Recycling Collection
By Bob Gedert, SWEEP Steering Committee Member, President National Recycling Coalition Using “leading practices” in recycling collection can possibly achieve diversion of 90 percent of discarded materials from residential homes, based on recent waste characterization studies. Is it realistic to establish a collection program that diverts 90% of household discards? Such high diversion goals […]
Overcoming Obstacles to Municipal Recycling
By Duncan Watson, Assistant Public Works Director, City of Keene, NH Most industry estimates indicate that the US generates over 400 million tons of municipal solid waste each year. Currently, over 60 percent of this waste is disposed of in landfills, with the rest recycled or incinerated for energy. The embodied energy and resources of […]
Defining Sustainable Materials Management for Local Communities
By Susan Robinson, Senior Public Affairs Director, Waste Management; Member, SWEEP Steering Committee Twenty to thirty years ago when we were first thinking about city-wide recycling programs, we saw recycling as an important way to reduce our environmental impact by reducing the use of virgin resources. Â Â We measured our success by the amount of material […]