— Let’s start off today with some good news. A couple of nice items from the latest Plastics Recycling eNewsletter.

The first concerns a new CEO for RecycleBank. (You may recall that’s the system where citizens with curbside recycling can earn certificates to redeem at local businesses for their efforts in recycling... It’s not yet in San Marcos, but something like it is being considered.

The article starts off: “Environmental action rewards program, RecycleBank, introduced its newest CEO, Jonathan Hsu, filling the shoes left behind by former CEO and co-founder, Ron Gonen, who stepped down from the CEO position with RecycleBank to ‘make way for the level of leadership that brings along a broader set of experiences.’"

In accepting the CEO position, Hsu said in part, "RecycleBank has accomplished a great deal in its relatively short history, so now is the perfect time to bring this momentum to a broader audience... “

And also from this same eNewsletter, “ The Athens, Alabama City Council has voted in favor of investing $1.3 million to triple the bottle washing capacity of Custom Polymers' local plastics recycling plant.  

“The expansion will add 40 permanent jobs — by January of 2011 — and bring total wash capacity to 150 million pounds, resulting in the production of 70 million pounds of recycled PET flake and 30 million pounds of recycled food-grade PET pellets for sale annually.”

(It’s always nice to hear about more people being able to get jobs.)

Now an item from Resource Recycling that may cause the U.S. to lose jobs. “Unless current trends in U.S. government policy and regulation are reversed, the United States will become the raw material supplier for Chinese paper production, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute.”

It continued, “This rather ominous warning is meant to draw attention to the continued decline of U.S. manufacturing jobs in the paper industry and the relative explosion of Chinese paper-making capacity — having grown 21.5 percent, year-over-year, despite the economic recession.”

It mentions, “... Chinese paper production has tripled since 2000, passing the U.S. in 2008 to claim the title of the ‘world's largest producer of paper and paper products.’"

This is taking place even though their per capita consumption of paper and paper products is about one-sixth that of the U.S. So where is all this paper going? You guessed it. China is “... the second-largest exporter of paper to the U.S., after Canada.”

(Let’s hope our mills stay open and even expand... And most of this paper is recycled in the end rather than going to the landfills.)

Now, as a former hunter and someone who believes in the Second Amendment, an item that caught me eye, “The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has partnered with Tamco Steel, Inc. to recycle over 8,000 guns .  The confiscated firearms will be melted down and made into rebar as part of the 17th annual Project Isaiah gun disposal drive.”

(Let’s hope they got those firearms only from the bad guys... And the rebar is used to build more roads or buildings where needed.)

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. For questions or comments, please call  353-7432 or e-mail http://omaier@TxState.edu.