I had the pleasure of starting my time back in B’ham the right way at the RE Store’s benefit for their new location. The most entertaining, and seemingly popular event of the night was Extreme Bowling. This is probably one of the most creative ways I’ve seen to raise money, ever… Who wouldn’t love to aim a bowling ball for ramps leading to old-school 5 gpf toilets, sheets of glass and chandeliers? I know I sure enjoyed watching…

My thanks to Lisa Friend for hooking me up with a ticket for the night! I also owe thanks to my friend Liz for being my personal photographer - Brian

The targets…

The lanes…

The intended damage…

Frame One…

Frame Two… It’s a Spare!

Here are some pictures of our SmartArt Contest. Artwork was made out of recycled materials and entered by various folks. The exhibit was put together by Hannah Swee, AmeriCorps Member with my office from 9/06-7/07. The exhibit was held at Whitman College during April in honor of Earth Day.

Sharon Baker Johnson, Coordinator
Waste Management Division,
Public Works Walla Walla County

Thanks for sending in your pictures Sharon!

It’s a vermi couch! Our reader David Skakel has sent in these pictures of his very unique worm bin/customer couch that he uses at the Gorge Rebuild-it Center in Hood River.

Thanks for the pictures David!

Rich McConaghy, Manager of Solid Waste Services & Water Resources Education Center for the city of Vancouver, has sent us a picture from the WSRA Conference.

This picture was taken at the Tuesday Cake and Ice Cream event - it includes many of the people that have been involved in Vancouver’s curbside program over the last fifteen years.  He also sent us a copy of his “15 Years of Curbside” flyer which attempts to estimate how much they’ve recycled in that time. Way to go Rich!

DELETE THIS NEWSLETTER

A Weekly Newsletter for Northwest Recyclers

Volume 20 Number 12 Week of 5-25-2007

Courtesy of Earthworks Recycling, Inc. Copyright 2007

Reach us or get a free subscription at: DTN@EarthworksRecycling.com

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In This Issue:

Editor’s Apology

Recycling Picture of the Week

2007 WSRA Award Winners

Recycling Required At Official Gatherings And Sporting Facilities

Fire At Illegal Dumpsite Sends Smoke Into Adams County Air

Ecology Contracts To Cleanup Tire Piles In Four Western Counties

May Issue Of The Closed Loop Scoop

Wal-Mart Awards Washington Schools For Recycling Efforts

Adverts

Number One Environmental Resource

Job Listings

Recycling Project Manager - City of Federal Way, WA

The End

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Editor’s Apology

Hello loyal readers – I apologize that this is the second copy of the newsletter this week… The first copy was chopped off in the middle, similar to a previous issue that was sent twice.

I will work to ensure that this doesn’t happen anymore!

Happy Friday – I hope you’re enjoying spring as much as I am!

Brian

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Recycling Picture Of The Week

If you’ve got any pictures from the WSRA conference (or any other recycling related pictures from the inland northwest) lying around, send them in!

To see the picture archive, visit:

http://DTN.EarthworksRecycling.com

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2007 WSRA Award Winners

This year’s WSRA award winners: Presented at the Banquet at the recent conference.

Recycler of the Year – Primary

Second Use Building Materials

Seattle

Recycler of the Year – Business Generator

Burgerville Restaurants

Vancouver, WA

Recycler of the Year – Deconstruction / ReUse

US Army Base

Ft. Lewis, WA

Recycler of the Year – Public Agency

Naval Station Everett

Everett, WA

Recycler of the Year – Most Innovative

Cedar Grove Composting

Recycler of the Year – Education

Mid Columbia Earth Month & Community Clean Up Group

Recycler of the Year – K-12

Mount Baker School District

Recycler of the Year – Institute of Higher Education

Pacific Lutheran University

Recycler of the Year – Individual

Cindi Lepper

Hall of Fame

Lois Young, Skagit River Steel and Recycling, Inc.

Greg Matheson, Recycle Systems, LLC

Charlie Scott, Cascadia Consulting Group

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners!

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Recycling Required At Official Gatherings And Sporting Facilities

Dear all:

Maybe you know about this new law already, but (well-connected as I am) I didn’t find out about it until Sunday, when I was at the state recycling convention. Let me know whether we can be of any help as you set up on-site programs. Our event recycling booklet is posted to the RE Sources’ website: www.re-sources.org

Lisa Friend

RE Sources

Effective July 22, 2007, Washington House Bill 2056 establishes that in communities where there is both a recognized curbside service and a commercial recycling service, a recycling program must be provided at every official gathering and at every sports facility — by the vendors who sell beverages in single-use aluminum, glass, or plastic bottles or cans — for the collection of those containers. Here is the text of the bill:

“In communities where there is an established curbside service and where recycling service is available to businesses, a recycling program must be provided at every official gathering and at every sports facility by the vendors who sell beverages in single-use aluminum, glass, or plastic bottles or cans. A recycling program includes provision of receptacles or reverse vending machines, and provisions to transport and recycle the collected materials. Facility managers or event coordinators may choose to work with vendors to coordinate the recycling program. The recycling receptacles or reverse vending machines must be clearly marked, and must be provided for the aluminum, glass, or plastic bottles or cans that contain the beverages sold by the vendor.”

(Thanks go to our friend and avid supporter Lisa Friend for sending this information along! Message sent 5/10/07)

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Fire At Illegal Dumpsite Sends Smoke Into Adams County Air

SPOKANE–Fire broke out at approximately 6 p.m. Thursday at an illegal underground landfill in Adams County, southeast of Othello.

The landfill measures about 1,000 feet by 120 feet wide and the fire encompasses an area of approximately 250 feet wide by 100 feet long. The buried garbage ranges from plastic tubs and fiberglass items to refrigerators and freezers. The trash pile underground measures about 20 to 30 feet high.

Continue reading this Washington Ecology News Release from 5/4/07 here:

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2007news/2007-115.html

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Ecology Contracts To Cleanup Tire Piles In Four Western Counties

OLYMPIA - The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) has awarded a contract to a team of companies to cleanup tire piles in Thurston, Lewis, Cowlitz and Jefferson counties. Tire Disposal and Recycling, a Portland-based business, and L&S Tire from Lakewood and Spokane will remove approximately 381,700 tires from 16 sites under the $631,916 contract.

To continue reading this Washington Ecology News Release from 5/16/07, visit:

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2007news/2007-130.html

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May Issue Of The Closed Loop Scoop

The May issue of The Closed-Loop Scoop is out! Article subjects include:

Climate-Friendly Future for China
Elementary School Food Waste Program
Island County Beach Cleanups
Composting Programs at State Correctional Facilities
Update on Rule Revisions

To read the latest issue, click on the link below (which will take you to a web page on which you will need to make one more click–on the link labeled “View this publication in Acrobat PDF format”–to open the actual electronic newsletter file).

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/biblio/0707002.html

We hope the newsletter provides you with useful information. Thanks for reading!

Jim Bill

(From a message sent by Jim Bill on 5/16/07)

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Wal-Mart Awards Washington Schools For Recycling Efforts

Wal-Mart Awards More Than $40,000 to Washington Schools in Honor of Students’ Efforts to Recycle

BONNEY LAKE, Wash.-(Business Wire)-May 16, 2007 - Through its Kids Recycling Challenge program, Wal-Mart today announced it is awarding $40,470 to 174 Washington schools for students’ efforts to become responsible stewards of their environment. The company’s Kids Recycling Challenge effort is the largest plastic bag recycling program of its kind ever undertaken.

Finish reading the story on the American Digital Networks Production website:

http://digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20070516005038/wal-mart-awards-more-than-40000-to-washington-schools-in-honor-of-students-efforts.html

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Adverts

Advertise here to over 600 people every issue! Run five lines, 3 times for $15. Have you got more info than five lines? We’ll talk. jim@earthworksrecycling.com.

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Number One Environmental Resource

The Environmental Services Directory for Washington State, first published in 1990 and online at www.esdwa.com since 2001, continues to be ranked #1 in Google, Yahoo and MSN searches for environmental services in Washington State.

This frequently updated online directory contains hundreds of listings and is easily searched by category, keyword or company name.

It also contains one of the most comprehensive calendars of meetings and events of interest to Washington’s environmental industry.

For more information, visit www.esdwa.com or contact Jerry Mattox, publisher, at JerMattox@msn.com or 206-282-2591.

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NEWSPAPER WANTED! I’m not kidding! Do you have some extra, dry old newspaper? We might be paying the price you want. Need not be de-ink quality. Bales preferred, loose not out of the question. You’ll never know if we can pony up the price unless you call. Contact Jim or Jeri at Earthworks Recycling, Inc. at (509) 534-1638 or Jim@EarthworksRecycling.com .

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Job Listings

Have a recycling related position available at your company? Advertise here, for free! To get the ball rolling, send your ready for press job listing to Jim@EarthworksRecycling.com

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Recycling Project Manager - City of Federal Way, WA

Recycling Project Manager (0.5 FTE) City of Federal Way, WA [closes 6/8/07]

Manage business and residential WR/R outreach services and operations [site visits, educational materials, event management, and grant reporting].

For a complete job description and application, follow this link:

http://www.cityoffederalway.com/Page.aspx?view=269&job=157

or, contact Rob Van Orsow (Solid Waste Coordinator) @ 253.835.2770

(Thanks Rob Van Orsow for submitting this job listing!)

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Congratulations to all of the WSRA Award winners! You don’t win those things sitting on your hands!

My daughter Savanna and I had a great time at the WSRA conference. She had a good time meeting lots of new people and seeing what a big recycling world it is out there past the gates of our modest little junkyard here in Spokane.

I’ve said this before, but one limitation of the conference is the amount of time to talk to everyone.

Just to talk five minutes each to 250 people would be over 20 hours of straight yakking.

There…enough about recycling for one week. Now Savanna and I have been playing Ultimate Frisbee for about a year with a group of friends, which makes an old guy like me have to hustle to keep up.

Here’s an interesting theory I heard about the word ‘Frisbee.’ About a century ago, deep in the Swiss Alps, in an ancient village that still exists, the cowherds came up with a new pastime. In their unique dialect, the word for a cowplop is ‘Fris’. Well, during the long boring hours of protecting the cows from the occasional mountain bear, they started flinging dried cowpies towards each other for a diversion.

The cowpies, which were about an inch or two thick and about a foot across on average, held together quit well because of freeze-drying at night in the cold mountain air and the long fibers of the high altitude grasses. They got quite good at making them ‘bee’ thru the air. ‘Bee’, being their term for ‘fly’.

Gradually, the sport and term spread to almost every corner of the world. Now you know the origin of the modern sport that literally translates to, “Flying Cowpie.”

Believe it…or not! Jim

We’ve received a picture from David Repa of Free Geek Vancouver in BC. Free Geek does computer donation pick ups, with a spin… They use a bicycle and trailer to do their pickups on a case-by-case basis.

David has sent us a picture of this recycling in action!

“On this particular run, a volunteer named Ryan pulled approx. 285lbs of computer equipment from a downtown lawyers office.

On the way back we were pulled over by the police and questioned about where we got the computers. Sustainability isn’t easy!!”

Thanks go to Lisa Friend for referring David to us, and thanks for sending the picture in David!

Here’s a sneak peek of Jim’s latest ad for Earthworks that he’s dreampt up. Enjoy!

Thanks Bob O’Neal of Corporate Recycling Services for providing us with the following interesting picture!

USS New York

It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center.

It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship’s bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, “those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence,” recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. “It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.”

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the “hair on my neck stood up.” “It had a big meaning to it for all of us,” he said. “They knocked us down. They can’t keep us down. We’re going to be back.”

The ship’s motto? “Never Forget”

Our faithful reader Gretchen Newman of the Washington Department of Ecology has sent us some pictures from her recent 3-week trip to Chile. She was visiting her daughter’s family and traveling to the south and the east.

Here’s what she found:

I found these clean, well-advertised recycling bins in a park overlooking Santiago called Cerro San Cristobal. They accept cans, glass, plastics and “others” which includes paper products, textiles and probably just about anything remotely reusable. These bins are new since I lived there in the 1990’s. Most of the recycling collection in Chile is still done by individuals or families who walk the streets at night with push carts going through the trash for anything recyclable or reusable. Santiago has a bad air pollution problem, ranking as one of the most polluted cities in the world. The smog was light that day.

This country cider mill in the south of Chile, near Valdivia, was washing out old pisco bottles by hand for reuse as cider bottles.

The only other organized recycling collection that I observed, was these large bell-shaped bins for glass collection in the metropolitan areas. They are placed by CODEFF, a Chilean member-run environmental organization (National Committee for Defense of the Flora and Fauna). This one is in Valparaiso, on new-years day, full to the brim with wine and champagne bottles from the night before. Valparaiso is world-renowned as a new-years eve destination, for the parties, great views and fireworks. ¡Feliz Año Nuevo a Todos!

Thanks Ellen Cunningham for sending us this cute picture of her sister’s work!

Wouldn’t it be great if some of the smaller towns in Washington could have recycling sheds like the one in Hancock, N.H.? My sister-in-law, Kim Cunningham, has a new mission in life - to rescue stuff in the recycling shed and turn it into art. Unlike the San Francisco artists, who apply for the position, are paid, etc. Kim, who is a full-time artist, does this for fun! She has created dozens of art pieces, most of which can be displayed on the wall. The recycling shed is open 12 hours a week and volunteers are there to screen the in-coming stuff. In a newspaper article about Kim, she noted that dump-goers enjoy discovering that things they had taken to the recycling shed or scrap pile were being put to good use. Here is a dump art project she designed for my horse-loving daughter.