United States Environmental Protection Agency Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5305W) EPA530-N-97-007 Fall 1997 http://www.epa.gov REUSABLE NEWS STATES READY TO MAKE "AMERICA RECYCLES DAY" A SUCCESS On November 15, 1997, thousands of events will take place all over the country to celebrate the first-ever America Recycles Day. The celebration was announced with a national press conference on October 1, which was held at the White House Conference Center and included a model store that featured recycled-content products. Vice President Al Gore is the honorary chairman for the event, which aims to increase consumer purchases of recycled products and to generate nationwide media attention and public support for recycling and the "buy recycled" theme. Participants who sign a pledge card to start or enhance recycling or to buy recycled products have an opportunity to win "The American Green Dream House," a home built with recycled-content and energy-efficient products. At least 40 states have agreed to contribute time, energy, and money to make the first America Recycles Day a success. To encourage states' planning efforts, a contest was held among the participating states to develop the best public and private partnerships and the most creative use of the national slogan "Keep Recycling Working: Buy Recycled!" The five winning states will receive cash prizes, as well as assistance with advertising and public relations. See below for a sampling of states' planned festivities. ************************************************************ 10 GREAT WAYS TO CELEBRATE AMERICA RECYCLES DAY 1. Commit to "buy recycled" at home and at work. 2. Think before you buy. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. 3. Start a paper recycling program in your office, school, or community. 4. Ask your recycling coordinator about adding steel, glass, or plastic to your community's recycling program. 5. Tell your local retailers you want them to stock more products made from recycled materials. 6. Encourage the use of recycled-content products in your business. 7. Leave grass clippings on the lawn as a fertilizer. 8. Start a compost pile with yard trimmings and food scraps. 9. Take children to visit a recycling facility or a landfill in your community. 10. Recycle your used motor oil and oil filters at an approved collection center, and buy rerefined oil for your next oil change. Courtesy of the America Recycles Day Web site, www.americarecyclesday.org. ************************************************************ Alabama Alabama sponsors are offering cash and weekend getaway prizes to those who sign the recycling pledge. According to Alabama Recycles Day coordinator Cindy Morehead, one of the most exciting give-aways will be a set of Alabama Auburn football tickets, which are "more precious than gold" to many Alabama residents. Alabama Power placed inserts about America Recycles Day in its October bills, and many communities in the state have committed to planning local celebrations. Events will include a wide variety of activities including recycling fairs, compost demonstrations, and household chemical collections. California Coordinators in California are tapping the resources of their local Marine Corps base, Camp Pendelton, to spread the word about America Recycles Day. The base will reach more than 100,000 people by printing an article and pledge card in its newsletter. Camp Pendelton's on-base television station also will air public service announcements to increase awareness. As event cochair, Bank of America will provide pledge cards in its employee newsletter, which goes out to more than 500,000 people nationwide. Other activities in the state include a recycling fair in Long Beach, a used computer "round-up" in Los Angeles, and buy-recycled demonstrations at a Home Depot Store in Ventura County. California's main goals are to provide support materials, such as banners and pledge cards, for local jurisdictions that need assistance, and to plan media events in major regions. Florida In Florida, consumers in 67 counties will receive inserts in their Florida Power and Light utility bills. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection will place pledge cards in its 4,000 employee paychecks, and 76 billboards-provided rent-free-will feature the theme "Keep Recycling Working: Buy Recycled!" In addition to these activities, counties throughout the state are planning a variety of special events. Sarasota County, for example, is sponsoring "The Florida House Buy Recycled Expo." Like the American Green Dream House, the Florida House is an energy-efficient home made with recycled-content products. Its grounds will be the site of the "Recycling Olympic Games," which include the paper airplane throw, steel can golf, aluminum can toss, and plastic bottle bowling. Each game uses all recycled materials and participants will be awarded a recycled-content prize at the end. Participants also will enjoy skits about recycling, music, buy-recycled exhibits, and can sign up for tours of the Florida House. Scrappy the clown, named after the Sarasota County Recycling Awareness Program, will be on hand to entertain visitors. During the week before America Recycles Day, professors at the Ringling School of Art will celebrate an Environmental Awareness Day by requiring students to prepare three-dimensional art sculptures out of materials recovered from trash. Massachusetts America Recycles Day marks the first time groups like MassRecycle, Massachusetts Food Association, Solid Waste Association of Massachusetts, and the Retailers Association of Massachusetts are combining their efforts. Partners are working together at events, such as the "Buy-Recycled" vendor fairs in Boxborough and Walpole, a 10th anniversary party for Boston's curbside recycling program, and tours of environmentally friendly companies. According to MassRecycle Director Dorothy Suput, they are breaking new ground by "building partnerships that go beyond the recycling industry working by itself." Safety Kleen will provide waste containers for used oil in at least six communities throughout the state, and several local companies are donating prizes, such as a recycled-content kayak and a bench made from 80 percent recycled plastic. Massachusetts hopes to facilitate a grassroots effort among its towns and counties, while generating media advisories throughout the state. Missouri Solid waste districts and cities in Missouri are busy coordinating community events highlighting recycling and buying recycled. In August, a state fair exhibit featuring products made from postconsumer materials provided buy-recycled information to hundreds of people. Missouri is planning a media blitz with public service announcements (PSAs) on television stations in Saint Louis, Kansas City, Saint Joseph, Springfield, and Columbia. The PSAs will include information about the Missouri Recycles Day hotline (888 325-MORA) and Web site www.mora.org, both of which allow residents to pledge online. On October 29, 1997, the Missouri Recycling Association hosted the state's kick-off rally in Saint Louis. Businesses in Kansas City and Missouri state offices will participate in a "clean your files day," and teachers in Kansas City and Saint Joseph will take part in workshops demonstrating recycling activities for classrooms. True Value Hardware Stores are placing information about America Recycles Day in their sales flyers, and the Missouri Lion Clubs are spreading the word by promoting increased collection of used eyeglasses. In addition, the household hazardous waste collection facility in Columbia will host an open house on November 15. GET IN THE LOOP BOOSTS SALES OF RECYCLED PRODUCTS What would it take to get the average consumer to buy recycled? The King County Commission for Marketing Recyclable Materials in Seattle, Washington, has found an answer. The Get in the Loop project, an EPA-funded initiative, has significantly increased the purchase of recycled products during a series of month-long intensive advertising campaigns. In 1996, nearly 1,300 retailers participated in the project, and witnessed sales increases of 11 percent for products with recycled content. In Washington State, grocery stores saw sales of recycled-content products rise more than 40 percent. Consumer education was the key to this success. Get in the Loop's advertising campaign shows consumers why buying products made from recycled materials is important, tells them which stores carry these items, and illustrates their choices in recycled products when they visit the stores. Once in the stores, unique postings on store shelves clearly tell purchasers which products have recycled content. Special posters, door stickers, and end-aisle displays reinforce the buy-recycled message. Selected markets in Washington, Oregon, Ohio, Texas, and Washington, DC, have all witnessed buy-recycled successes with Get in the Loop's unique approach. The project's plans for the future include helping many other states "Get in the Loop." For more information about the Get in the Loop project, contact John Dumas of EPA's Region 10 office at 206 553-6522. RECYCLING MEASUREMENT GUIDE AVAILABLE Have you ever had difficulty determining how much municipal solid waste (MSW) is recycled in your state or locality? Have you ever wondered what steps are involved in calculating a reliable state or local recycling rate? Would you like to see recycling rates measured in a consistent way? If so, a new EPA guide can help. "Measuring Recycling: A Guide for State and Local Governments" is designed to promote consistency in the way recycling data are collected, measured, and reported by state and local governments. State and local governments will find tips on how to measure the amount of MSW recycled and disposed of in their area, a standard equation for calculating a recycling rate, and standard definitions of MSW and recycling. The standard equation and definitions are part of a voluntary method for measuring recycling developed by EPA to help state and local governments improve their recycling measurement programs. EPA developed the guide in consultation with state and local government agencies experienced in measuring recycling rates. Real-world examples and tips from these agencies are included throughout the guide. EPA's guide will be useful to state and local governments that have not attempted recycling measurement, and state and local governments with a measurement program already in place that are interested in recalculating their recycling rate to be consistent with a standard national approach. In addition to explaining EPA's standard method, the guide provides suggestions and recommendations for addressing common measurement challenges, such as obtaining data from the private sector and avoiding double counting of data. The guide also contains several tools to aid state and local governments in measuring recycling, including case studies of successful measurement techniques, tips on capturing high-quality data, definitions of over 100 terms, worksheets for compiling data, and survey forms to distribute to the appropriate reporting entities. EPA is currently developing additional recycling measurement products designed to assist state and local governments in implementing the standard measurement method, including an Internet homepage, an electronic version of the survey forms and worksheets, and a fact sheet for states and localities recalculating their recycling rate according to the standard approach. RECORD-SETTING WASTE REDUCTIONS In a community with a name like Loveland, you'd expect the people to embrace their environment. Loving the land might even be a prerequisite for living there. Perhaps that's why this Colorado city has such an impressive waste reduction program. Through the cocollection of MSW with glass, plastic, ferrous and aluminum containers, newspapers, corrugated cardboard, aerosol cans, aluminum foil, kraft paper bags, and yard trimmings, Loveland has reduced its residential waste by 55 percent. Contributing to this waste reduction rate are a pay-as-you-throw program and drop-off centers for paint, batteries, motor oil, antifreeze, magazines, mixed office paper, and phone books. Loveland is just one of the many successful waste reduction stories documented by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), under a grant from EPA. ILSR is recording these success stories as part of EPA's Waste Reduction Record-Setters project, with a goal of encouraging businesses and state and local governments to develop their own innovative waste reduction programs. Although the past decade has witnessed a rise in waste generation levels, the national recycling rate also has risen, surpassing the 25 percent mark. Today, many communities, businesses, government offices, and institutions are reducing their waste stream by more than 50 percent, and in some cases by up to 90 percent. How exactly do they do it? And what can others learn from them? To answer these questions, ILSR identified 100 communities and nearly 200 businesses, institutions, and other entities (including libraries, hospitals, and military bases) with waste reduction rates above 50 percent. ILSR also examined states with high waste reduction goals in order to locate innovative waste reduction strategies. A series of case studies of communities and businesses identified through the Waste Reduction Record-Setters project will be released by the end of this year. The case studies will illustrate the lessons learned and provide tips others can use to set up their own waste reduction programs. For more information about the Waste Reduction Record-Setters project, contact Brenda Platt of ILSR at 202 232-4108. NEW TOOL TO MEASURE SOURCE REDUCTION POTENTIAL Source reduction is an increasingly popular waste management method. Many communities and businesses find that practices such as grasscycling, backyard composting, and double-sided copying can reduce waste management costs, help meet diversion goals, and extend landfill life. Before implementing these source reduction efforts, however, many solid waste planners want to know the potential waste reductions their efforts could achieve. That's where a new EPA tool comes in. "The Source Reduction Program Potential Manual: A Planning Tool" helps solid waste planners estimate in advance the potential of various source reduction programs. EPA defines source reduction as any activity designed to reduce the volume or toxicity of waste generated, including the design and manufacture of products with minimum toxic content, minimum volume of material, and/or a longer useful life. Program potential is the portion of a waste stream that could be reduced by a specific source reduction program. Knowing the potential of source reduction programs before implementing them can help planners develop cost-effective programs, secure management support, identify outreach needs, and estimate the financial savings the programs could achieve. The manual shows planners how to calculate the program potential for six source reduction options: three residential options (grasscycling, home composting, and clothing and footwear reuse) and three commercial, industrial, and institutional options (office paper reduction, conversion to multi-use pallets, and paper towel reduction). The manual also provides worksheets for solid waste planners to use in calculating the program potential for other source reduction programs. TIPS FOR RECYCLING MARKET DEVELOPMENT EPA's Jobs Through Recycling (JTR) program merges recycling and economic development through innovative approaches to business recruitment, outreach, and financial and technical assistance for recycling businesses. The program now supports recycling market development efforts in more than 30 states and Native American tribes. A new publication EPA is developing, "MarketShare: Successful Strategies Learned from the JTR Experience," goes straight to JTR grantees working in the trenches and documents their market development tips and strategies. Here are just some of the new guide's recommendations: * Target a few key commodities. Select commodities that comprise a major portion of the waste stream, that will add significant recycling capacity and economic value, and that can be successfully collected. Understand the types of businesses and industries in your area that utilize the materials, and locate available research, financing, and technical resources. * Develop your market through one-on-one communication. Attend conferences, give presentations, and make on-site visits to reach your target audience as often as possible. Learn to quickly sift through candidate companies and identify the potential "winners" in which to invest time and effort. * Learn about recycling and economic development. Know the supply of commodities in your service area and learn the right "language" with which to talk to economic developers. Sign up for economic development training to better familiarize yourself with the field. * Target community development banks for business financing. Community development banks may be more willing to spend time with recycling businesses than the "traditional" lending institutions. They also can afford to be more speculative since many are non-profit organizations and can borrow at lower rates than traditional banks. Commercial banks may be more willing to sponsor loans in conjunction with community development banks because they lend credibility to the investment. * Provide quantitative documentation to back up qualitative information. Provide the financial community with concrete economic and financial information. Consider conducting a study of the economic impacts of recycling businesses in your state, such as value added and job creation, and refer to studies conducted by the Northeast Recycling Council, the Southern States Waste Management Coalition, Massachusetts, Iowa, and North Carolina. MarketShare will soon be available along with a market development bibliography, a directory, and other information on recycling and economic development. Visit the new JTR Web site at www.epa.gov/jtr to download these and other documents regarding business development, financing, and technical assistance. For more information on the JTR program, contact John Leigh of EPA at 703 308-7896 or via e-mail at leigh.john@epamail.epa.gov. BUY RECYCLED: THE BEAT GOES ON For nearly a decade, the highly successful Environmental Defense Fund's (EDF's) consumer-awareness media campaign has been on the airwaves and newsstands. The campaign, sponsored by EPA, state agencies, and the Ad Council, is continuing its theme of Buy Recycled and Save. Since 1988, the value of donated advertising has exceeded $220 million. According to Joel Plagenz, EDF's Director of Public Affairs, the donated advertising the campaign generated in 1996 was worth over $42 million, making this a record year. This success was principally attributed to increased media interest in recycling and the participation of actress Joanne Woodward as the campaign's spokesperson. This year, Ms. Woodward will again be urging consumers to close the recycling loop by checking product labels for the highest percentage of postconsumer recycled content. In addition, the buy-recycled ads will feature a tag line promoting November 15, 1997, as America Recycles Day. You can support this effort in your community by contacting your local media outlets and asking them to use the Ad Council's buy-recycled public service announcements. The materials were mailed in August, but if your outlet cannot locate the packet, it can call the Ad Council at 800 933-7727. You may also visit the buy-recycled Web site located at http://www.edf.org, or call 800 CALL-EDF to obtain a shopper's brochure. HELPING PURCHASERS CLOSE THE LOOP If you've ever wondered how to modify a purchasing specification to require the use of recovered materials, or where you can find a list of recycled-content office products, Richard Keller can help. Director of Training for the EPA-sponsored Buy Recycled Training Institute, Keller knows the tricks of the buy-recycled trade and helps government purchasers nationwide find more efficient ways to close the recycling loop. In fact, over the past 4 years Keller has instructed more than 4,000 local and state purchasers in over 90 workshops devoted to helping buy-recycled programs get off the ground. Sponsored by EPA and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the 1-day workshops show participants how to identify, purchase, and find information on products made from recovered materials as well as provide an opportunity for participants to network with each other on buy-recycled issues. Topics discussed in the workshops include writing specifications for recycled products; assessing the price, availability, and quality of recycled-content products; and locating government and private-sector resources that can help jump-start buy-recycled programs. "I tell (the participants) a lot of products they're already buying and paying less for are made from recycled materials," Keller says. "Many of them aren't aware of that." Institute workshops have taken place in each of EPA's 10 regions, and several are planned for late 1997. For more information, contact Richard Kochan, Buy Recycled Institute Director, at 202 822-9058. WASTEWI$E HONORS GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS PARTNERS In conjunction with the National Recycling Coalition Congress in Orlando, Florida, EPA's WasteWi$e program honored its charter government partners and new business partners. The event, held on September 21, 1997, was a celebration of the WasteWi$e program's recent expansion to include tribal, state, and local governments. Just like the 550 current WasteWi$e business partners, government partners will set goals for waste prevention, recycling, and buying recycled products; track their progress toward meeting those goals; and update EPA on their accomplishments. At the event, WasteWi$e program manager Joanne Oxley welcomed and recognized the new partners, and Bob Colburn of the Walt Disney Company gave the keynote address. The event also featured a panel discussion by three local government partners-Sarah Lynn Cunningham of the Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer Authority, Kentucky; Charles Reighart of Baltimore County, Maryland; and Scott Cassel of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts-on internal efforts to reduce waste. Opportunities for informal networking followed the discussion. For more information about the event or the WasteWi$e program, call 800 EPA-WISE. EPA PARTICIPATES AT NRC CONGRESS With the theme "It's a Small World After All," the National Recycling Coalition's 16th Annual Congress and Exposition took full advantage of its Lake Buena Vista, Florida, locale. From September 22 through 24, 1997, industry leaders and recyclers from across the country had the opportunity to share ideas and innovations, as well as to explore the waste management facilities of Walt Disney World. As a sponsor of the conference, EPA offered five informative sessions focusing on source reduction, reuse, and recycling opportunities. Among these, "EPA's Recycling Measurement Guidance," an interactive session held on September 23, gave participants the opportunity to discuss EPA's new methodology for calculating recycling rates (see related article above). Hope Pillsbury of EPA described the products and outreach initiatives EPA has developed to assist state and local governments in their recycling measurement efforts. Ellen Pratt from the Northeast Recycling Council moderated the session. Speakers included state officials from Washington and Kansas who shared their experiences implementing EPA's methodology. For more information about the session or EPA's recycling measurement efforts, contact Hope Pillsbury of EPA at 703 308-7258. RESOURCES Landfill Fact Sheets Available EPA recently developed two fact sheets to educate landfill officials about new and innovative technologies and products that meet the performance standards of the Criteria for Municipal Solid Waste Landfills (40 CFR Part 258). "Landfill Reclamation" (EPA530-F-97-001) describes this relatively new approach to expanding MSW landfill capacity, recovering valuable resources, and saving money. "Geosynthetic Clay Liners Used in Municipal Solid Waste Landfills" (EPA530-F-97-002) discusses this new technology currently gaining acceptance as a barrier system in MSW landfill applications. Both fact sheets provide valuable information on these new technologies and present case studies of successful reclamation projects and geosynthetic clay liner applications. Just the Facts Which states have household hazardous waste collection programs? What percentage of auto batteries are recycled? How many millions of tons of yard trimmings are generated each year? If you're curious about the answers to these questions and others like them, you'll want to check out EPA's newly updated "Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Factbook," which is accessible on the World Wide Web for Microsoft Windows users. The electronic reference contains hundreds of useful facts and figures, in over 250 formatted screens, about the state of MSW in the United States and throughout the world. The new Web version even provides links to state solid waste Web sites and includes the names, addresses, and e-mail addresses for state solid waste agency contacts. The Factbook is available free from EPA, and valuable information from it can be reprinted or electronically cut and pasted into reports, presentations, and other documents without restriction. To become a Factbook user, download the Windows version or access the Web version at: http://www.epa.gov/ epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/factbook.htm. For more information, contact Steven J. Levy, Factbook Editor, by e-mail at levy.steve@epamail.epa.gov.