— Today again, a variety of things from around our nation and up north. First from the E-waste Recycling eNewletter, we’ll go to Pennsylvania.  

“A bill that requires the recycling of televisions and computer equipment has passed out of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and has since been referred to the Senate Committee on Environmental Resources and Energy.”

The bill includes a program in which“...   retailers would be barred from selling any brand of covered electronics from manufacturers not enrolled in the program.”

(That’s a pretty strong incentive to join in their program.)  

Now to the Resource Recycling eNewsletter and going west, we find: “Oregon has become the first U.S. state to implement a product stewardship program for architectural paint.”

We find that “The program specifically applies to latex and oil-based paints and is administered through ‘PaintCare,’ a non-profit organization created by paint industry trade group American Coatings Association.”

In this program, “Oregon is expected to collect up to 800,000 gallons of leftover paint annually.”

(That’s a lot of paint... Let’s hope it is put to good use... Like painting homes of those who could not afford it otherwise.)

Going north across the border, we find very favorable news up there. “The latest yearly status report from the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corp. (ABCRC) shows the province diverted over 91,156 tons of accepted containers from landfill in 2009 and improved the return rate to 77 percent.”

In this effort “Glass and aluminum containers accounted for the highest return rates, at 90.5 percent and 86.5 percent, respectively.  Over 78 percent of PET containers were returned in the province, along with 74 percent of all bi-metal cans.”

(Wouldn’t it be nice if our states tried to match or exceed that percentage?)

From that same eNewsletter, we also find “...  New York City will install 50 clothing collection bins around the Big Apple for used clothing, fabric and shoe recycling.”

And “Just in time for your next summer BBQ,  DIY website Lifehacker posted   instructions on how to take shipping pallets and recycle them into chaise lounges.”

(Sounds like another fun project for pallets, instead of my just stacking hay on them or using them for board-walks on our little orchard farm!)

Last week, we mentioned some of the comments made by Robert Gedert during the recent Comprehensive Municipal Solid Waste Task Force meeting in San Marcos. Here are some more.

He felt that we should reduce what we purchase to things we really need. This is because for every ton of waste in a household, there is 71 tons of waste in the developing or mining of the materials, the production of the item, the packaging of the item, the shipment of the items, etc.

He also mentioned that recycling is a creating a number of jobs. In fact, there are more people employed in it than the auto industry.

To the question of whether a recent national article stating we should leave bottle caps on when recycling plastic jugs and bottles applied to the local area too, he said that currently here in this area, it is best to remove them.

(What they do/want in other areas doesn’t necessarily apply here.)

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 Texas State University and worked on staff before retiring. For questions or comments, call 353-7432 or e-mail mailto:omaier@TxState.edu.