Receiving props from long-running crime series “Law & Order” may have rubbed off on the Film Biz Recycling staff.

Although the original show ended in 2010 after a two-decade run and gave way to several spin-offs, Film Biz workers are filling its void with their own detective work at the Gowanus, N.Y.-based reuse center, which accepts props from TV shows, commercials, theater productions and runway events that took place in New York.

Film Biz Recycling founder Eva Radke said employees like to investigate deliveries to determine what a production was about.

“We get everything from paint to high-end furniture, lighting fixtures, linoleum, rugs and yarn. It all depends on what the show is,” said Radke, 40, who founded the business in 2008. “We do forensics.”

The center, with nearly 90 tons collected this year, has received items from commercials for major companies like Target, JCPenney and the Westin hotel chain to sitcoms such as “30 Rock.”

The nonprofit group doesn’t charge for dropping off materials, and 60% of what comes in is redistributed to local charities. The rest is sold through its Prop Shop to fund the store, which Radke calls a “resale boutique.”

The center also features the Re-Gallery that showcases work from artists, including some who work directly out of the center.

Radke said the artists get to use the shop space and materials while Film Biz receives a portion of their sales in a partnership where “everybody wins.”

Tyagi Schwartz, founder of Dog Tag Designs, has operated out of Film Biz for nearly a year.

Schwartz up-cycles and repurposes objects, creating furnishings such as lamps and tables out of them. For example, he’ll take an old fan or toy truck and use his electrical expertise to turn them into lamps.

He marks his creations with dog tags bearing when and where they were created to give them a sense of history.

The repurposing business is gaining steam during a stagnant economy, he said.

“I think people are starting to look at things a little differently,” Schwartz said. “I think now, people are aware of not wasting money and saving. I think that could be part of the gain in popularity.”

For 15 years, Radke worked in the entertainment industry as an art production coordinator on movies and commercials, including Campbell’s Soup ads and the film “Flight 93.”

After projects wrapped, it was Radke’s job to call dumpster companies or find new homes for the props.

Radke’s time in the business exposed her to the industry’s wasteful tendencies, and she said it helped her realize there was a need for an outlet that made use of props.

Before starting Film Biz, Radke formed a Google group in 2007 that served as a forum for her and around 30 colleagues that allowed them to tell each other what they had left over after productions.

“Waste can create green jobs, save neighbors money and help the industry reduce their footprint,” she said. “Instead of throwing it all into a dumpster, it comes here and creates opportunities. It’s not waste, it’s an opportunity. You can do something with it.”

Radke said she cringes when she thinks that most of the quirky props and vintage pieces in the 11,000-square-foot warehouse would have ended up in a landfill.

Film Biz is located just blocks from the Gowanus Canal superfund site, but Radke said a revolution is underway in a place that is riddled with “toxic areas” and “tons of brown fields” as the new economy takes shape.

“I think the model we built here is an integral part to the new economy. We have to look at what we’re doing and what we’re throwing away. It’s not the planet we’re saving, it’s us,” Radke said. “We need to use the resources we have on hand. That’s not political, that’s smart.”

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com
or 313-446-1653.

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The state of New Jersey is used to accepting New York’s trash, but this is trash of a different kind.

New Jersey’s garbage and recycling industries are vulnerable to intrusion by the mob, according to a report.

The State Commission of Investigation, an independent fact-finding group that exposes organized crime, public corruption and waste in New Jersey, found that mob-affiliated individuals who were banned from operating in New York have continued to skirt the law by moving to neighboring New Jersey and exploiting loopholes there.

Although the state implemented the A-901 program in 1986 that made background checks mandatory for garbage business executives, a lack of funding and manpower for the system has allowed criminal elements to infiltrate the lucrative waste collection industry.

There are about 1,300 licensed solid waste haulers in New Jersey and around 100 new companies apply for licensing each year.

The commission found more than 30 people in New Jersey with connections to the mob or criminal elements who were barred from the industry in New York.

Recycling operations, in particular, are susceptible to corruption because checks aren’t required for operators in that sector, said Lee Seglem, assistant director of the commission.

“We’re not suggesting that they’re in the grip of organized crime. The issue is the vulnerability of that happening,” Seglem said. “We’re concerned about what’s going on with contaminated soil and demolition debris falling into the hands of people who don’t care about public health. There should be a licensing structure set up for that.”

In some instances, the commission found that individuals who were barred from direct-participation in the waste industry, continued to profit as “commercial landlords.”

To run their schemes, criminals operate behind the cover of supposedly legitimate companies, making money secondarily as real estate owners or through equipment leased to waste operations. Some also may have stakes in companies owned by relatives with clean records, according to the report.

Bruce J. Parker, president and CEO of National Solid Waste Management Association (NSWMA), said the solid waste industry consists of hardworking people, but he’s concerned that some may paint it with a “broad brush stroke” because of the stereotype that the entire industry is somehow involved in organized crime.

Parker said it’s an undeserved stigma.

“NSWMA supports 100% arresting criminals who are involved in the solid waste industry. We support law enforcement prosecuting people who are alleged to be in organized crime,” Parker said.

Phoenix-based Republic Services Inc., the second-largest waste company in the country, also issued a response to the report.

“Republic is not, and never has been, engaged in mob-related activity. We have employee training programs to avoid anti-competitive behavior,” Spokesperson Peg Mulloy wrote in an email. “Customers who work with us get great, reliable service, competitive prices and the peace of mind knowing that they are partnered with an outstanding, legitimate, Fortune 300 company.”

Under the A-901 law, “key employees” such as owners and managers for garbage companies must fill out detailed statements about their personal and financial backgrounds and get a fingerprint check.

Thanks to a loophole, workers such as consultants and sales representatives don’t get the same treatment even though they carry out key tasks, Seglem said.

The report indicated that sales reps can convert blocks of commercial clients to their company.

“There are certain types of individuals that never receive that type of scrutiny,” Seglem said. “Those positions were occupied by people who had criminal backgrounds. They were using those positions to govern how a company was operating.”

The report says the state should improve regulations by expanding background checks for garbage industry employees and requiring checks for those working in recycling.

It also recommends more money for law enforcement and the formation of a centralized list of criminals banned from conducting business in New Jersey.

Monetary support for A-901 hasn’t been at recommended levels since the mid-1990s, the report found.

In the last decade, funding for A-901 has dropped each year, going from $2.7 million in the 2001 fiscal year to $1.7 million in FY2010, which is much lower than the $4.8 million the commission suggested more than two decades ago, the report said.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s office didn’t provide a statement on the report, despite numerous calls and emails.

Carrying out detailed background checks, for example, is one area where sufficient funding is imperative.

“You need personnel dedicated to do that and it costs money,” Seglem said.

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com
or 313-446-1653.

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Open a phonebook in England and you’ll find several companies that specialize in cleaning trash bins.

However, it’s a different story when you cross the Atlantic Ocean, said Simi Bhachu, owner of VIP Bin Cleaning USA’s master franchise in the San Francisco Bay area.

VIP Bin Cleaning launched in the United Kingdom in 1997 and has since opened franchises around the world in places such as South Africa, Belgium, Australia and Canada.

Bhachu, an England native who moved to the U.S. in 2004, estimates that trash can cleaning has been a common practice in the U.K. for at least two decades.

But once she began operations in 2007, Bhachu found that her customers in Pleasanton and Dublin, Calif., had to be educated on the service’s benefits.

“It’s a concept that’s not well established in the U.S.,” she said.

Instead of people cleaning their own cans and potentially contaminating groundwater supplies by dumping gallons of tainted water on the curb, people can call companies like VIP Bin Cleaning that use four times less water during cleanup while ensuring that none of the wastewater ends up in storm drains.

Trash cans are placed in VIP’s mobile cleaning units where they are sprayed with a pressurized hose and deodorized with a cherry-scented solution that retains its smell for a month.

The mobile units use 66 gallons of water, which is good for cleaning around 150 bins.

Bhachu said mechanisms in the units retain the water for reuse throughout a shift. The water is bought from a local water treatment facility and returned to the plant at the end of each work day.

“I think it will gain traction here,” Bhachu said. “We have so many inquiries all over the country. People see it as a good business model.”

A pleasant smelling bin is especially important for those who live in places where containers have to be kept in garages, she said.

In the Bay Area, Bhachu said residents are required to separate their food scraps for composting, so conditions in those bins can be gross at times.

“You can imagine the state of [compost bins] after a couple of weeks,” said Bhachu, who recommends at least one cleaning per month. “Once we service the can, if you keep on top of it and have the service done regularly, you eliminate the whole problem.”

Bhachu said there isn’t a particular age demographic that utilizes VIP’s services with customers ranging from young couples with children to the elderly. The company thrives with townhouses, apartments, single-family homes and schools.

“We were thinking the higher-end homes would be our target markets, but that’s not true at all,” she said.

Cleaning garbage bins with bleach and dumping the remnants in a storm drain may be convenient, but it isn’t best option for the environment, said Jay Price, who runs a Mr. Clean-A-Can franchise in Nicholasville, Ky.

That wastewater is home to bacteria and chemicals that could endanger groundwater sources, Price said.

Mr. Clean-A-Can is a national operation with seven franchises in Kentucky, California and Florida.

“We try to do a simple service and do a good job at it,” Price said. “It’s going good. The hardest part is spreading the news about why we do what we do.”

The cans are placed in the back of the company’s hydraulic-assisted trucks, which do the majority of the work.

The trucks utilize an on-board cleaning device that disinfects the bins while retaining leftover water in a filtration system. A biodegradable chemical also keeps the water clean so it can be reused.

Technicians then spray the bins with a deodorizer that kills odor-emitting enzymes.

The wastewater is later disposed at a wastewater treatment facility, Price said.

In addition to residential cleanings, the company also sanitizes 95-gallon trash carts for waste haulers such as Waste Management Inc., Republic Services Inc. and Veolia Environmental Services.

“All of that gunk out of the trash bins is being put into the street and running back into the creek,” he said. “Conservatively, there are a couple billion gallons of water going down into the storm drains contaminated with chemicals and nasty bacteria.”

While VIP Bin Cleaning and Mr. Clean-A-Can spread the bin-cleaning culture, Shelia Herrera of Clean Can Technology in Farmington, N.M. is looking to get in on the action by selling her 2007 patent of a fully-automated cleaning truck.

The truck, which will have a fully-contained water filter for wastewater reuse, can lift a bin while sanitizing its interior and exterior in a process that will take less than one minute.

To craft a design, Herrera partnered with NASA’s Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program, Sandia National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

She said a prototype should be built within the next six to eight months.

“I have a team of engineers and we’re working on our funding right now with some investors,” Herrera said. “We have a great design.”

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com or 313-446-1653

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After nearly two years as a school zero-waste coordinator in Vermont, Gwen Lyons-Baker has come across an interesting trend: Bigger appetites lead to smaller food composting yields.

“What we found is that elementary schools tend to divert more food scraps,” said Lyons-Baker, who works for the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District (CVSWMD). “Older kids eat more.”

CVSWMD’s school composting program has reached 100% participation this school year in the seven school districts it covers, adding more appetites – big and small – to its roster.

Under the program, which began in 2004, the waste management district promotes food composting through instructional videos, trivia and other games for about 10,000 students, faculty and staff at 28 schools.

The company also provides a one-year waste-hauling subsidy to help pay for compost collection. The subsidy amounts, which can reach $1,300 for a large school or $400 for a smaller one, depend on how much food they divert.

Lyons-Baker said the waste district also tracks diversion data for the schools.

Money is usually the biggest hurdle for schools trying to start zero-waste initiatives, Lyons-Baker said.

“A lot of the roadblocks are financial,” she said. “As for the attitude around composting and zero waste, people are open to doing it.”

Chris Hennesy, vice principal of Spaulding High School in Barre, Vt., said there was minor resistance to the program at first because people were unsure what to do.

Change can be difficult, Hennesy said, but the program ended up being well-received.

Now the school is in its third year of food composting and it has saved thousands of dollars in collection fees. The high school has 970 students.

“It’s something that is very easy to do,” Hennesy said. “If it is run by students, it has a better chance of success. That’s why it’s been successful.”

Christian Pruitt, food service director for Twinfield Union School in Plainfield, Vt., said in an email interview that the initiative has been beneficial because it gives students a “hands-on education in a basic cycle of life.”

He said the kitchen staff diverts its waste just like the students do. The school has participated in the CVSWMD program for three years. In the past decade, Pruitt said the school attempted composting with other groups with only limited success.

“The youngest students are the most receptive to the composting. They will correct me if I call something ‘trash’ that belongs in the compost,” Pruitt said. “It is part of the everyday routine in our cafeteria. The high school students are not as interested in compost as they are in their own everyday drama [but] they tolerate the composting program.”

Lyons-Baker said the instructional video for older students, which features students rapping and dancing, has gotten a great response by making composting seem “hip and cool.”

The elementary version of the video takes a more traditional approach, giving students a breakdown of what items can be composted and the benefits of doing so.

“Everyone here is environmentally-minded. There are very few schools I came across that were hard to convince,” Lyons-Baker said. “They were open to merging it into their curriculum.”

CVSWMD received a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get the program started. The money helped to pay for trucks and outreach materials.

Students have responded to the program because they know they’re making a positive impact on the environment, she said.

“I think they’re drawn to it because they can take ownership of it. They believe they can make a difference,” Lyons-Baker said. “I’m so happy this program reached 100%. The students are so excited and so invested. They like the program and enjoy doing it every day. It’s exciting to see the kids get into an environmental program.”

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com
or 313-446-1653.

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GPS systems inside of Albuquerque, N.M., garbage trucks allowed city officials to catch drivers behaving inappropriately.

The theory behind the GPS installations was to improve route efficiency, but data sent back to the city also showed that some drivers were taking extended lunch breaks, running personal errands, leaving the city and running side businesses from the trucks, said the city’s Chief Operations Officer John Soladay.

Soladay said he was disappointed with the “grossly inappropriate behavior,” but he emphasized that the majority of the city’s 250 drivers are exceptional.

Soladay said there were about 20 “actionable” incidents uncovered thanks to the GPS data, but he made sure to point out that officials didn’t blindly look at a screen and make rash decisions. The GPS findings let them know that further investigation was needed, he said.

For example, Soladay said a driver leaving town is a clear indicator that something is wrong.

The GPS signal sends an alert to managers every three minutes that briefs them on information such as speed and what direction the driver is heading.

Soladay said disciplinary actions for some ranged from suspensions to terminations, but most received warnings to correct the activity. He said the majority of the cases were resolved earlier this year.

“You don’t fire drivers based on blips on a screen,” he said. “You fire them based on their behavior.”

The city spent around $250,000 on 254 GPS units for its frontline and backup fleets. In early 2009, 50 units were initially installed and the rest of the vehicles were outfitted about 18 months ago.

The investment has paid off so far with the city attributing an estimated $750,000 in savings to the units because of route modifications and improvements to driver training.

In some instances, Soladay said data found that drivers didn’t take the fastest route to the city landfill, which is about 20 miles west of town.

GPS systems made a similar impact in Clearwater, Fla., since their installation three years ago, said Rick Carnley assistant director of solid waste and general services.

Carnley said the data unveiled a series of issues such as drivers idling too long or speeding. It also showed that some workers who should’ve been in a specific area for a task were actually somewhere completely different.

“It’s a very good management tool,” Carnley said. “In some cases, it’s more [effective] than we anticipated. I was surprised with the accuracy.”

Soladay said Albuquerque officials also can verify complaints about “risk issues” such as speeding more effectively because of GPS.

Albuquerque spends about $105,000 annually for monitoring of the units by FleetBoss GPS, the company that made the systems.

“The vast majority of complaints we get about drivers, we’re able to prove or disapprove quickly and resolve the problem,” he said.

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com or 313-446-1653.

Almost every hour, the Louisiana coastline loses a football field-sized piece of land.

And with it goes the region’s first line of defense against flooding and stability in the seafood, oil and gas industries, said Val Marmillion, managing director of America’s WETLAND Foundation in Louisiana.

To give the wetlands a boost last month, the foundation teamed with numerous organizations, including the Coastal Conservation Association, Martin Ecosystems and oil company Shell to place 187 “floating islands,” made of recycled PET plastic bottles, in shallow waters along Isle De Jean Charles, La.

The islands are filled with native plants in an attempt to build an off-shore “reef” of new wetlands.

Marmillion said it’s important to “stimulate inventive ideas by small entrepreneurs” to see if restoration efforts can be effective in small, targeted projects like this one.

“People are migrating northward. It doesn’t take a storm for tides to rise,” he said. “The region is living in a disaster economy – Gustav, Ike, [Katrina]. The region has been so damaged. We’ve got our hands full as far as raising public awareness and its impact nationally.”

If all goes according to plan, the grasses from the floating islands will take root to the earth below, serving as an anchor. In turn, the islands will trap sediment from the flowing water to form land.

Baton Rouge-based Martin Ecosystems developed the islands, which are 5-foot-by-8-foot pallets of recycled PET with a Brillo pad-like texture. The company, members of local Indian tribes and children placed the structures in the water.

Two saltwater plants, smooth cordgrass and seashore paspalum, were planted into holes on the islands and secured with peat, said Nicole Waguespack, co-owner of Martin Ecosystems.

The islands are connected with a stainless steel cable and solidified by anchors that are driven into the soil 15 to 18 feet deep until reaching clay.

Establishing wetlands will ensure that commercial centers like New Orleans don’t take the brunt of severe weather, Waguespack said.

She said generations of families have lived near wetlands and made a living in the coastal economy.

“As we lose more and more, what’s next? New Orleans?” Waguespack said. “The next line of defense is going to be New Orleans.”

Thomas Dardar Jr., principal chief of the 17,000-member United Houma Nation that resides in six parishes along the coast, said water has been “a way of life” for his people for centuries.

In about 2003, he said, the Army Corps of Engineers told Isle De Jean Charles residents that they would have to move eventually because their land was outside of the protection zone of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf of Mexico levee system that’s under construction.

Dardar said his people are aware of the dangers of living near the coastline, but they aren’t going to abandon their land.

“It’s our people, our heritage, our way of life. We’ve been living here for many centuries,” Dardar said. “It identifies who we are. … To native people, the land is sacred.”

Dardar said he’s optimistic about the islands and thankful that organizations invested resources to help alleviate the land loss.

“Time will tell if it’s going to work,” Dardar said. “Agencies looked at it and deemed our community worth saving. They put time, effort and money into experimental work. If it does work, it can grow from there. You know what? At least it’s a beginning. It gives us a little hope and encouragement.”

The island project, which consisted of four sites and more than 1,500 total feet, was the largest undertaking by Martin Ecosystems.

It will take about a year for the grasses to take root in the 3-foot waters; the group will monitor progress on the project for the next year.

Waguespack said the islands were a success at Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge in New Orleans, the largest urban wildlife refuge in the U.S., after being installed two years ago.

“We’ve seen plants jump off and start to grow around the islands,” she said.

Marmillion said the coast has been starved of sediment by the levee system on the Mississippi River. So far this year, the coastline has lost 30 million square yards, he said.

“Louisiana is experiencing the greatest loss of land on the planet,” Marmillion said. “As the land deteriorates, saltwater intrusion eats up the grasses. … It’s actually a very serious problem. The country hasn’t seemed to make it a priority. It’s a huge economic and environmental issue.”

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com or 313-446-1653.

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The waste incinerator in Harrisburg, Pa. has burned through more than just garbage over the past four decades. It’s burned through money, the patience of residents and now the city’s solvency.

Earlier this month, Harrisburg became the first state capital in memory – perhaps in history – to declare bankruptcy, thanks to the $310 million debt that hangs over the Harrisburg Resource Recovery Facility.

The incinerator has been a money pit in Harrisburg since it was built in 1972, with the biggest chunk of investment coming when the city spent $125 million to rebuild the facility in 2003.

Finally, on Oct. 12, with $65 million of its debt due, the City Council voted to declare Chapter 9 bankruptcy instead of adopting a recovery plan developed by the state and Mayor Linda Thompson.

The decision has touched off a legal battle. The mayor refused to sign the declaration, calling it illegal, and a week later, the state enacted a takeover of the city’s finances. Gov. Tom Corbett is now able to declare a state of fiscal emergency and take money management responsibilities from the city. Under the law, the governor also can appoint a receiver to lead the fiscal recovery.

Despite the filing, the city isn’t “in a state of bankruptcy” and is still “paying its bills,” said Robert Philbin, Harrisburg’s director of communications and a senior adviser to the mayor.

Philbin said the mayor’s recovery plan involves selling the plant, which would trim about half of the debt, and leasing city parking facilities for 30 to 40 years.

The $310 million, he said, is an “impossible debt burden.”

“If those two assets don’t eliminate the $310 million, any stranded debt would have to be absorbed by the stakeholders. Those are the main steps for recovery,” Philbin said. “[The mayor] has the support of the governor and county commissioners. Fifty-seven percent of the voters favor moving the plan forward and only 13% of residents approved bankruptcy.”

On Nov. 23, a federal judge will hear from attorneys representing the city, state, county and the four council members who filed for bankruptcy to determine if it will stand, he said.

Warnings in 2003

Back in 2003, Mike Ewall, speaking on behalf of the now-defunct Coalition Against the Incinerator, warned the council about pouring another $125 million into the facility, which was shut down that year because it failed to meet federal clean air regulations.

The incinerator could’ve been closed in 2000 under U.S. EPA rules, he said, but a consent order from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection allowed it to stay open a little longer.

Ewall, founder and director of the Energy Justice Network in Philadelphia, said he could boast by saying, “I told you so,” but he’d rather see the incinerator closed once and for all.

He said the city should declare bankruptcy, shut down the incinerator “at all costs,” and implement a zero-waste program to create jobs.

Recycling operations, Ewall said, create 10 times more jobs than incinerators, “but the city has chosen not to go down that route.”

“I would be much happier if they found a way to shut down the incinerator in this,” he said. “They made a terrible decision. … Maybe there is some hope for them to shut it down.”

Some good news

Through all of the controversy, Covanta Energy Corp., which began operating the plant in 2007, says a great turnaround story is looming in the background as the plant’s waste processing yields have surpassed the city’s expectations.

When Covanta began operating the plant in early 2007, it had to correct a slew of issues to get the facility back on track, said Paul Stauder, the company’s senior vice president of business management.

The city approved a deal with Colorado-based Barlow Projects Inc. in 2003 to retrofit the plant and upgrade its pollution control technology, but the company never finished the work and later filed for bankruptcy.

By the time Covanta took over operations, only one boiler out of three was working. The second one was down and the third wasn’t even finished, Stauder said.

Meanwhile, the ash-handling equipment was flawed, a turbine was in need of an overhaul and the water feed pumps for the boilers were in bad shape. Adding to the list, an elevator didn’t work and the roof wasn’t sealed properly.

Covanta had to run on two boilers for its first year, Stauder said, so it scaled back in order to control emissions and combustion. He said it was difficult at first, but “we slowly made improvements to make it more reliable, safer and easier to run.”

Covanta provided $25.5 million to the city to finish construction of the facility and it is still owed $20 million, Stauder said.

“The interesting part is that the plant right now is running well. There are no significant issues,” Stauder said. “The finances associated with the plant caused a lot of the problems. Now, it generates $7 million that goes back to the Harrisburg Authority [the plant’s owner]. The authority uses that to fund their own operations.”

Under their agreement with Harrisburg, Covanta was expected to process 270,000 tons of municipal solid waste annually, but the facility is now topping that with 290,000 tons and is capable of generating power for about 12,000 homes.

The site wasn’t worth much when Covanta got to it, he said, but the turnaround has restored some value if the city decides to sell.

“The authority and the city have a real asset that has value,” Stauder said. “If they didn’t hire us, they wouldn’t have a functional facility. They can sell for $125 million. We’re very proud of it as a company.”

The plant also sells 100,000 megawatts of power to PPL Corp. an energy company based in Allentown, Pa., each year.

Additional revenues were expected to come from selling steam, but the city-owned steam line failed several years ago and was never repaired, Stauder said.

Steam sales accounted for around $40,000 to $50,000 per month before the 2007 failure, according to the Patriot-News, Harrisburg’s daily newspaper.

The steam line had connected the plant to NRG Energy Center of Harrisburg, a steam producer, the paper reported.

Lipstick on a pig?

Not everyone is a believer in burning waste to provide energy.

Ananda Lee Tan, North American program coordinator for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives in San Francisco, said incinerators can go through money quickly because of their inefficiency, especially when trying to generate electricity from them.

Instead of investing $125 million into the incinerator in 2003, Tan said Harrisburg officials likely could’ve generated more cash by “simply recycling and composting all the waste that they burnt.”

Many incinerators, Tan said, are built in working-class communities where there aren’t powerful environmental groups to help defend them and prevent residents from getting “burdened with industrial toxins” and airborne particulates that can accumulate in the body.

To Tan, updating incinerators is much like putting lipstick on a pig. He said that pollution control upgrades, while helpful in reducing emissions, don’t always solve the problem because leftover ash that ends up landfills can still be contaminated.

Covanta’s Stauder disagrees. Considering the facility can generate electricity, steam and recycle thousands of tons of ferrous metals, the incinerator is very efficient, he said. Not only that, the power provided is a much cleaner alternative to landfill operations that provide methane power.

“We think they’re very efficient in the tasks that they have,” Stauder said. “Compared to other operations, we think it’s extremely efficient.”

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com
or 313-446-1653.

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Looking to turn yourself into a lizard this Halloween?

Creative reuse centers like The Scrap Exchange in Durham, N.C., have you covered.

Or, if you’re looking to unload an old costume from last year instead of throwing it away, you can swap it with someone to commemorate National Costume Swap Day.

And for those in the Twin Cities looking to create a fancy getup, the Boo-tique at Arc’s Value Village Thrift Stores in Minnesota has costumes and accessories that were collected throughout the year.

Sales are up 15% this Halloween season compared to last year across Arc’s Value Village Thrift Stores, said Pam Carlson, director of community relations for Arc Greater Twin Cities, which owns the four shops.

More than 75,000 items are on sale at the Boo-tique, which is like “a store within a store,” she said.

College and high school-aged students frequent the shops around Halloween to prepare for parties. Some, she said, assemble several different outfits because they want a fresh costume for each party they go to.

“You can have a green Halloween when you shop at thrift stores. You can put together a costume for $10,” Carlson said. “You’re putting together your own. You won’t find two other people at a party with the same exact thing.”

Green Halloween, a nonprofit organization that promotes environmentally friendly Halloween practices, teamed with Swap.com and Kiwi Magazine to provide an online outlet for people to set up costume swaps.

The holiday was on Oct. 8 this year, but people can still organize swap events online, said Lynn Colwell, co-founder of Green Halloween.

About 140 registered swaps took place for the holiday this year, and there are still about three dozen that will occur in the coming weeks. Last year, there were 70 registered swaps.

“Swapping has become the new shopping,” Colwell said. “People are going to look for new ways to save money.”

The Scrap Exchange, a nonprofit reuse center, collects 40 tons of waste annually from manufacturers, businesses and residents.

Foam, zippers, plastics and household items like windows and tiles line the 22,000 square-foot center, providing a plethora of costume possibilities.

“It’s a busy season for us,” said Ann Woodward, executive director of The Scrap Exchange. “We love the fact that people are going out and showing how creative you can be with these materials.”

One year, a mother made a Wall-E costume for her son from materials she picked up at the center, Woodward said.

When the woman took her son to the mall for Halloween, the boy could barely walk around because so many people had surrounded him to get a look at his costume that was modeled after the Disney robot.

“There is unlimited opportunity,” Woodward said. “There is no idea that can’t be manifested. Whatever you can think of, you can make it here.”

MaryEllen Etienne, executive director and founder of the Reuse Alliance, said materials at reuse centers can be useful for Halloween party decorations, so “it’s not just about costuming.”

The New York-based Reuse Alliance is a nonprofit reuse advocacy group.

“This is definitely one of the biggest times of the year for the reuse industry,” Etienne said.

At The Scrap Exchange, which is a Reuse Alliance member, customers can purchase bags of varying sizes and fill them with items or they can take advantage of the open studio and pay $5 to have everything in the warehouse available to them for an hour-and-a-half.

If people are convinced that a lizard costume is the way to go, center employees will offer “technical assistance” to make it happen, she said.

“We’ll talk about how to do that,” Woodward said. “ ‘What kind of eyes do you want? What kind of scales do you want on your body?’ People can make it here.”

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com or 313-446-1653.

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The search for an alleged missing baby at an Avon, Mass., recycling facility earlier this month has been called off, but police say they are still looking at potential leads and are not ready to conclude that it was a hoax.

The Newton Police Department and Massachusetts State Police searched through more than 100 tons of debris between Oct. 1 and Oct. 4 at the Recycle America Alliance facility after a Newton, Mass. resident found a note in an empty cardboard box inside of his recycling bin saying that a 15-year-old girl named “Bimini” was abandoning her four-month-old infant “Sonny.”

There were no signs such as a blanket or pacifier that would indicate that a baby was in the box, according to WCVB-TV in Needham, Mass.

According to The Enterprise newspaper in Brockton, Mass, there are two people in Newton named “Bimini,” but neither is connected to the case.

Officers went through the debris at the Waste Management-owned facility with rakes, shovels and by hand, but the search was suspended after Oct. 4 with no success.

On Oct. 12, Newton police said they haven’t been able to confirm if there was a missing child, but they will continue to follow up on leads.

Carrie Griffiths, a Waste Management Inc. spokesperson, said the company takes its cues from law enforcement during these situations.

Depending on instructions, the company may segregate loads or shut down facilities if it is asked to. It’s handled on a case-by-case by basis, Griffiths said.

“We have safety procedures and safety policies. Those apply to any number of operations we’re conducting,” she said. “We work with them cooperatively.”

Griffiths said Waste Management has been working with public health agencies to raise awareness about baby abandonment. She mentioned that there are safe-haven laws that allow people to drop off children at hospitals as well as police and fire departments.

In Massachusetts, infants no older than seven days old and showing no signs of abuse or neglect can be legally surrendered, according to the state’s Health and Human Services Department.

Authorities are asking the letter-writer to come forward.

“We have to know if the incident is real, if there’s a child involved, or if it’s a prank gone out of hand,” Newton police Lt. Bruce Apotheker told The Enterprise earlier this month. “We have investigators spending time investigating this.”

Police also canvassed the neighborhood where the note was found, but no one said they heard cries or anything suspicious, the Boston Herald reported.

Griffiths said baby abandonment is a serious issue.

“Baby abandonment is a national issue,” Griffiths said. “No one wants this to happen. It’s horrifying.”

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com or 313-446-1653.

The Coca-Cola Company has taken a stance against bottle deposit laws, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t pursuing recycling in other ways.

Gary Wygant, director of recovery development for Coca-Cola Recycling LLC, said the company has launched several recycling initiatives across the nation in recent years to spur material recovery, ranging from a recycling partnership with Atlanta’s Turner Field to donating bins to the National Mall in Washington.

Wygant said consumer awareness is a major factor in recycling success, so the company will deploy its five Recycling Education Vehicles (REVs) 600 times this year.

In years past, the vehicles have made stops at NASCAR races, the Super Bowl, World Series, NCAA Final Four and the national conventions of the Democratic and Republican parties.

Coke expects to reach more than 20 million people with the vehicles this year. In 2010, REVs engaged 19 million people, he said.

The vehicles have video screens, interactive displays and educational games about the benefits of recycling.

“We take an approach to recycling at Coke that is three pronged,” Wygant said. “In order to generate more recycling, we need to provide education and awareness. Make sure the consumer has access to recycling. Then you have to make sure that material is being recovered responsibly and brought back into the supply chain as a valuable commodity.”

Wygant said the company favors a more comprehensive approach to recycling instead of focusing on a small amount of the waste stream like deposit measures do.

The American Beverage Association agrees.

“Invest in comprehensive recycling programs and infrastructure,” said Chris Gindlesperger, director of communications for the Washington D.C.-based association. “Address all materials in the waste stream. [Bottle deposit laws] are costly and outdated. There are many recyclable materials that need to be addressed.”

However, critics say municipal recycling programs aren’t always sustainable.

Anthony Leteri, president of USA Recycling Facility Services in Kings Park, N.Y., said communities often are forced to cut recycling services because they’re too costly.

USA Recycling operates a recycling transfer station, taking in items such as bottles, paper, wood and other nonhazardous waste.

“When you offer an incentive to anyone to generate some revenues, it increases productivity,” Leteri said. “If you look at any city with a bottle law, you can’t show me a case where this isn’t a true story. I have a tremendous respect for the company, but in this issue, I think they need to do their homework.”

To make sure people have access to recycling, Wygant said Coca-Cola has placed 130,000 bins across the nation, including a few hundred at the National Mall, “America’s front lawn.”

Coke also donated two trailers for Mall use, each containing 200 recycling bins that can be easily deployed during events.

Cans collected at the Mall are taken to material recovery facilities, which Wygant said are “underutilized.”

“There is a lot of capacity there. What we need to do is fill it up,” he said. “We do deals to get commodity from them. It’s good commerce.”

As part of Coca-Cola’s access strategy, the company launched Reimagine centers in November at Kroger grocery stores in Arlington, Plano, and Garland, Texas.

People with no access to recycling can drop off their bottles at Reimagine machines stationed in store parking lots and, in return, receive My Coke rewards points they can save to redeem prizes such as McDonald’s gift cards or tickets to Six Flags over Texas in Arlington.

They also can donate points to schools that may be used to purchase supplies, he said.

The company estimates that more than 300,000 containers will be recycled monthly by each machine, keeping 70 tons of waste out of landfills each year.

Wygant said the Reimagine program should expand to more locations next year.

“It’s important to make sure that containers are being converted and used for a useful purpose,” Wygant said. “It’s been recovered; it’s not being incinerated; and it’s creating jobs. For every unit of recycled material, where one job exists for the landfill, 2.5 are created at recycling operations. That’s very powerful. Those materials have real economic value.”

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