Hope you had a Happy and Safe 4th... Now to a recent government action.

Although you may already be aware of it, and it may not apply to most of you reading this, an item in the latest Recycling Today e-newsletter caught our eye. It involves scrapping (recycling) older vehicles.

“President Obama has signed into law a bill that offers credit for consumers swapping low gas mileage cars for those getting better miles per gallon.”

It continued, “After a fairly quick debate, the U.S. Congress, followed by the President, has signed into law a bill that will give some car owners up to $4,500 in credit if they trade in older vehicles that have low gas mileage to more fuel efficient vehicles.”

We find this program is costing some big bucks and won’t be available very long. “The program, called Car Allowance Rebate System (C.A.R.S) has been given $1 billion to pay for the program. The program will be run by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It is expected to run until Nov. 1, 2009.”

It also has a number of restrictions, some of which are: 1) Automobiles must be less than 25 years old, 2) Must get no more than 18 miles to a gallon, 3) Must be drivable, 4) Must be registered, 5) Must have been insured for the past year.

We also find, “... the law calls for the turned in vehicle to be destroyed.”

An argument was made this last point could negatively affect some poorer workers who cannot afford a new vehicle. By destroying these old vehicles (even if they do have poor miles-per-gallon), there will be a limited number of affordable vehicles available for them to buy and use to go to work in.

Switching subjects, but still involved in getting money for recycling. As mentioned before, a program called RecycleBank pays citizens for the amount they recycle.

An article in the same e-newsletter started: “RecycleBank announced that it is collaborating on a joint marketing agreement with Routeware, Inc., a provider of automated waste solutions. This agreement will offer municipalities and private haulers technology that keeps recycling easy for residents and both fast and economically responsible for municipalities and waste haulers.”

Using modern electronics, “Routeware, Inc. has developed a system that employs GPS technology that can accurately validate that a household has participated in the RecycleBank program. Trucks are equipped with an in-cab touch screen monitor to provide driver validation combined with GPS technology to correctly identify a household collection. No additional time is needed as this works during the pick-up process. Information is then transmitted to RecycleBank servers and households receive their earned Points.”

We’ve talked about the plastic bag vs the paper bag vs the reusable cloth bag more than once. Thus this item from Resource Recycling caught our eye as “The Madison, Wisconsin City Council this week passed its mandatory plastic bag recycling measure, which requires residents to recycle clean plastic bags at one of 23 collection sites around the city. The program, approved by a 17-to-one vote on Tuesday, would tentatively begin September 1st, and has penalties attached that could reach $400... “

Till next week, do have a great one...



Gloria and Ollie are local citizens concerned with the environment and helping others. Ollie is a graduate of Leadership San Marcos and they both received higher education at TxState University and worked on staff before retiring. Call them at 353-7432 or e-mail omaier@TxState.edu.