A Word About Recycling with Ollie Maier
Although it concerned another state, a recent item in a Resource Recycling newsletter caught my eye. It referred to grants the North Carolina Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service (NCDEQ) awarded 20 companies.
Although the amounts awarded totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars, no award was greater than $60,000 and some were as low as $12,000. Even though the companies receiving the grants will be required to invest at least a 50% cash match, they already planned to invest over $2 million of their own money.
In explaining the reason for the grants, a NCDEQ spokesperson said, “Recycling businesses are valuable contributors to North Carolina’s long-term economic development while working toward a cleaner, more sustainable environment.”
The grants went to companies involved with construction and demolition debris, mixed recyclables, organics (composting), paper, plastics and textiles. It will mainly be spent on equipment including collection containers, balers, forklifts, trucks, molding gear to make plastic lumber and an optical sorter.
Through the grants and additional efforts, the programs are anticipated to divert 6,000 tons of concrete, 3,550 tons of mixed recyclables, 14,250 tons of food scraps and wood debris, 3,156 tons of mixed paper and cardboard, 15,387 tons of post-industrial and post-consumer plastic, and 1,223 tons of textiles from landfills.
Additionally, as stated in a NCDEQ press release, the projects funded by these grants will create jobs and redirect recyclables back into the economy, thereby diverting materials from the waste stream.
Now to the recycling of electronics. As it might be expected, the effects of the coronavirus will cause lower sales of new electronics this year, according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).
Some of the items the CTA believes will have less sales this year than last are: smartphones, a 6-15% decline; TVs, an 8-14% decline; and laptops, a 4-12% decline.
Already, there has been a 12.3% decline in the shipments of new PCs during the first quarter of 2020. Lower sales of new electronic items are also reflected in the reuse and end-of-life streams of older technologies.
Going overseas, I found an Irish electronics recycling firm has converted its refurbishing line to focus on assembling ventilators. The company, headquartered in Cork, Ireland, is making the ventilators in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
It converted its production line in under 24 hours to begin assembling ventilators. During the first week of April, the company was able to produce 22 ventilators and increased it to 61 the following week. They are hoping eventually to produce up to 50 ventilators per day.
The company has facilities in a number of places in the world, including those operating in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas and Virginia.
Switching to a local subject, in the monthly report of what citizens recycled at the local Green Guy Recycling Services drop-off site, here are the amounts for April:
- Metals: 1,540,064 pounds
- Cardboard: 143,480 pounds
- Paper: 45,430 pounds
- Glass: 26,970 pounds
- Plastic: 9.720 pounds
- Monitors: 9,780 pounds
- Electronic items: 1,711 pounds
- Used Oil: 1,010 gallons
- Used Oil Filters: 200 pieces
- Tires: 381
They also took in a number of printer cartridges, rechargeable batteries, Styrofoam peanuts and re-usables.
Note: As it might be expected during this period of the coronavirus greatly affecting almost every facet of our lives, the amount recycled for each item is down somewhat. Even with that being the case, we should all be proud of these amounts, plus that of curbside recycling and other local drop-off sites.
Till next week, do have an enjoyable and safe one.
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Ollie is a local citizen concerned with the environment and helping others. A retired Air Force fighter and instructor pilot, he is a graduate of Leadership San Marcos and received his degrees at Texas State University where he worked on staff before totally retiring. For questions or comments, he invites you to call him at 512-353-7432.
