This week, the City Council for North Salt Lake, which is a town just north of Salt Lake City in Utah, has opened up the discussion to start a curbside recycling program for their residents for the very first time. Council members are weighing the pros and cons of starting a mandatory or an optional recycling program for their residents.  A mandatory program would require their residents to recycle at their curb whereas with an optional recycling service allows residents tofreely choose if they wanted to participate.  Although this idea is still in preliminary stages, residents have already voiced their concerns about mandatory, stating that it's not the government's role to enforce recycling behaviors. 

Do you think that governments should help jump start recycling behaviors amongst their residents through mandatory recycling programs? Or, should it be the decision of the resident to determine if their recyclables are better off being recycled or trashed?  Give me your comments by going to the Contact page on the left menu bar.  I'll publish the best comments!

Information for this story from The Salt Lake Tribune. 

The Southeast Recycling Development Council (SERDC) will host a few free recycling workshops in Alabama at the end of July.  These workshops are geared towards assisting communities to streamline recycling collection, connect with the recycling industry, and improve program economics.  The workshops are welcome to anyone but most particularly those who are involved with recycling at any university, city or county, environmental educators, and recycling coordinators. 

Here are the dates and locations of the Alabama workshops:
July 21: Birmingham
July 22: Montgomery
July 23: Mobile

Visit SERDC's website for more information on these workshops.

Each Tuesday we will have dual text in English and Spanish. 

Cada martés tendrémos texto doble de inglés y español.  

As part of a program to raise awareness about energy use, Alcoa and the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment (ISSE) at the University of Tennessee worked together to provide environmental products to students at Alcoa High School in East Tennessee.  Each environmental product was given to the students to increase energy efficiency and promote individual action towards a decreased impact on the environment.  One of the products given to the students was an Alcoa recycling bin to help students recycle in their daily lives. 

Como parte de un programa levantar la conciencia del consumo de energía, Alcoa y el instituto para un medio ambiente seguro y sostenible a la universidad de Tennessee trabajaban juntos a proveer alugnos productos ambientales a estudiantes a la escuela secundaria de Alcoa en el este de Tennessee.  Cada producto ambiental fue dado a los estudiantes para aumentar la eficiencia energética y promover acción individual para disminuir el impacto en el medio ambiente.  Uno de los productos dado a los estudiantes fue un cajon de reciclaje de Alcoa para ayudar a los estudiantes reciclar en sus vidas diarias.

Trash Trip is a blog to to show how waste is handled from coast to coast in the US.  The creator of the blog was motivated to explore the different ways that trash and recyclables are managed all across the country.  Visit the Trash Trip site for updates, including photos, as she continues her journey from the west to the east. 

This week RecycleBank launched their first pilot  recycling program in the state of Arizona in the city of Mesa, a town just outside of Phoenix.  RecycleBank is a rewards based recycling program that offers residents incentives to recycle at their curb.  These incentives come in the form of rewards points and discounts to a wide range of area merchants. 

Alcoa helped Mesa in starting the state's first RecycleBank program by funding the ID chips that are placed on each residential recycling bin.  The ID chips will help to record how much each household recycles and thereby how many rewards points are awarded.  The more a household generates, the more rewards points they will receive. 

RecycleBank has programs in about 19 states and just recently started a program in the United Kingdom. 

Check out Good Morning Arizona's TV coverage on this new program in Arizona!

Each Tuesday we will have dual text in English and Spanish. 

Cada martés tendrémos texto doble de inglés y español.  

Visit this website from the State of North Carolina to see their newest recycling commercials.

Visite este sitio del estado Carolina de Norte para ver nuevos commerciales de reciclaje. 

Based on today’s London Metal Exchange market, the retail price for used beverage cans is around $.40 per pound.  The day’s wholesale price for mills is around $.55 per pound.  The retail price refers to the amount charged to store customers, such as at a scrap metal buy-back center.  The wholesale price describes the amount paid by large sheet mills buying large quantities of used beverage cans. 

Disclaimer:
* Wholesale Prices shown are indicative prices only, and are not an offer to buy from Alcoa or its representatives.
* Prices are for used aluminum beverage cans in bales or briquettes in truckload lots delivered to aluminum sheet mills in the USA.
* Quality specifications are subject to the unique requirements of each mill.
* Retail Prices are indicative prices only, and are not an offer to buy from Alcoa or its representatives.
* Prices are for loose or flattened used aluminum beverages cans delivered to local scrap buyers.
* Quality and prices will vary by region and sellers are advised to consult with local scrap buyers for specific market conditions.

Beginning in October 2009, North Carolina will impose new disposal bans on wooden pallets, plastic bottles, and oil filters.  In past years, the State has already passed laws to ban yard trimmings, whole tires, used oil, lead-acid batteries, white goods and aluminum cans from entering the landfill.  These disposal bans are intended to keep recyclable material out of the landfill while providing jobs and a boost to the economy with processing recyclable materials for future use in new products. 

For processing PET bottles in North Carolina, DAK Inc. and Shaw Carpets are teaming up to recycle more than five billion PET bottles each year into polyester fiber for carpeting.  This partnership will create 100 new jobs. 

Information for this story from BioCycle. 

Both California and Hawaii announced record breaking increases in the recycling rates for their beverage container redemption programs. 

The California Department of Conservation announced that they achieved a 74 percent recycling rate for beverage containers in 2008, which is 7 percent higher than their 2007 levels.  The material that experienced the largest increasein the past year was HDPE plastic, which rose to a 91 percent recycling rate in 2008 in California.  Aluminum beverage containers were recycled at 83 percent, glass was at 72 percent, and PET plastic was recycled at 61 percent. 

In 2008 Hawaii achieved a 77 percent recycling rate through their nickel deposit program, which is a 5 percent increase from the year before.  Hawaii officials speculate that higher participation in 2008 could be due in part to the economic downturn. 

Information for this story from Resource Recycling.