Archived News Articles
2018  NEWS ARTICLES

2017 NEWS ARTICLES

New Green Ribbon Schools Nomination Deadline - December 31, 2017
Do you know a school or district that takes sustainability, health and environmental learning seriously? They might be a Green School. Consider inviting them to submit a nomination to become a Green Ribbon School!. The US Department of Education extended the deadline for Missouri to submit nominations to the Green Ribbon Schools program, so we are extending our deadline for you to submit to December 31, 2017..  Intent to nominate (not required, but greatly appreciated) is now November 30, 2017.  Check out the new timeline  - http://www.missourigreenschools.org/2018-mo-grs.html

 Read the interview of MORA Board Member Jerry Bartley, USAgain Territory Manager,  by St. Joseph News Press.
 Link here for the full article.                                                                                                   August 1, 2017
Rep. Keith Ellison, MN, sponsored the following Zero Waste Development and Expansion Act of 2017 (Introduced 02/14/2017)
  Link here to read more, open tab : TEXT                                              www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1034 
May 2017   Congratulations to Missouri Recycle Mania winners. UMKC placed 3rd in the nation in the Diversion Category, with a recycling rate of 82.144. Link here for detailed list of Missouri colleges and Universities ranking and diversion rate and here for Recycle Mania website. Here is a list of all Missouri Participating schools: 
National Compendium of State Disposal Bans & Mandatory Recycling Laws Released
The Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) has updated its compendium of state disposal bans and mandatory recycling laws around the country.  This unique resource provides state-specific information, including contact information, which materials are banned for disposal and to whom the ban applies, as well as what has to be recycled and by whom.  The document is available for free download: Disposal Bans and Mandatory Recycling in the United States. Use link below for more information.

​Interestingly, every state but one, Montana, has at least “something” banned from disposal in its solid waste facilities—at a minimum lead acid batteries, as is the case in Arizona and Wyoming.  And, twenty-two states have at least one mandatory recycling requirement. 
                         May 2017
Three Missouri Schools were nationally recognized for their accomplishments in sustainability, health and ​environmental literacy by the U.S. Department of Education's Green Ribbon Schools Program. 
     Maplewood Richmond Heights M.S.
     McKelvey Elementary
     Parkway North H.S.
Check out their stories at http://www.missourigreenschools.org/green-ribbon-schools/honorees.html#honorees2017If you would like to know more about the Missouri Green Schools or about participating in the US DoE Green Ribbon Schools program, visit http://www.missourigreenschools.org or contact Jan Weaver at [email protected]
​                                                                     May 2017
Closed Loop Fund Issues RFP for Polypropylene Recycling Projects at material recovery facilities (MRFs) or plastic recovery facilities that can collect, sort or process post-consumer polypropylene plastic.
  • Potential candidates include MRFs working in large municipalities that could upgrade their conveyors and optical sorters, advanced image recognition and robotics concepts to increase capture efficiency and facilities that could add or update star screens to reduce contamination in other streams.
  • Projects can receive up to $5 million each, with loan terms ranging from three to eight years. Preference will be given to projects that currently accept all sizes and formats of polypropylene packaging, could sort small format items and could attract co-investors, among other factors.                                                                                                  Read More     March 2017​
Power Point Update shown at the Feb. 2, 2017, Member Forum Luncheon, Holt's Summits, Winery, Holt's Summit, MO. 
Feb. 2017
2016 NEWS ARTICLES

​​Experts weigh in on top CRT glass issues
By Bobby Elliott, E-Scrap News    January 14, 2016
Participants of a webinar this week spoke openly about two particularly contentious issues facing CRT glass management: downstream capacity and manufacturer funding. The webinar, hosted by the Northeast Recycling Council's State Electronics Challenge and meant to serve as an update on the CRT recycling landscape, drew more than 450 listeners and featured presentations from Eric Harris, the associate counsel for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI); Jim Levine, the president of Regency Technologies; and Jason Linnell, the executive director of the National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER).
While noting commodity markets "are the worst we've seen in years," ISRI's Harris told listeners it's the cost of recycling CRTs that's hurting the industry, not capacity constraints.  "There simply is a negative cost to do it right," Harris said. "The bottom line is there are ample markets that exist domestically and internationally. It's our assessment that there is unlimited capacity."  Read more​

EPA Recycling Economic Information (REI) Report Key Findings of the 2016 REI ReportThe 2016 REI Report includes updated information about the number of recycling jobs, wages, and tax revenue. The report shows that recycling and reuse of materials creates jobs, while also generating local and state tax revenues. The 2016 REI Report used an updated analytical framework and a new Waste Input-Output methodology, which focused on the life cycle of materials. These refinements offered significant improvements over the 2001 REI Study in terms of a better definition of recycling and a reduction in double counting. This new methodology will assist decision makers and researchers in more accurately estimating the economic benefits of recycling and create a foundation upon which additional studies can be built.  Read the Full Report here.   Dec. 2016

​New 2016 E-cycle Report from Wisconsin        
Read Full Report here                                                                            Dec. 2016

National recycling rate now at 34.6 percent,   By Jared Paben       November, 2016                                      The United States' recycling rate notched up slightly in 2014, according to statistics released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  Read More.

EPA Celebrates America Recycles Day and the 750,000 Jobs Supported by Recycling         Today, in honor of America Recycles Day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing significant findings on the economic benefits of the recycling industry with an update to the national Recycling Economic Information (REI) Study. This study analyzes the numbers of jobs, wages and tax revenues attributed to recycling.            Read full story          November, 2016

Governor Nixon's Proclamation affirms November 15 as Missouri Recycles Day.

​POSTPONED UNTIL A LATER DATE:  SW Missouri Recycling Industry Stakeholders Meeting, 11:00-1:00  Sponsored by Service Recycling, Joplin, MO.  3178 Kentucky Avenue, Joplin MO.  For more information call 417.434.1692            November, 2016

ISRI, JASON Learning Announce Themes for 2017 Student Recycling Video and Poster Contest
National competition aims to raise awareness around breadth of recycling.                               November, 2016
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) and JASON Learning are teaming up once again to invite young filmmakers, artists, and recycling advocates to participate in a poster and video contest to build recycling awareness. The contest is open to all students living in the United States and enrolled in grades K-12 during the 2016-17 school year. For the poster contest, entrants are challenged to create an original poster that highlights ISRI's role as the Voice of the Recycling Industry™. Students submitting videos can choose between creating a video that illustrates the process and challenges that go along with recycling their chosen “Bigger than the Bin”  item into a reusable form, or connecting with a professional working in the recycling industry who is an ISRI member, and interviewing them to learn about their work and career path. Top entries will be used to help educate the public on ISRI’s role as the Voice of the Recycling Industry™, how items are recycled that don’t fit in the traditional blue bin, and careers within the recycling industry. One poster will be selected as a finalist from each of three grade bands: K-4, 5-8, and 9-12; and one video will be selected as a finalist from each of two grade bands: 5-8 and 9-12, with two overall grand-prize winners awarded. 

Is Food Waste the Next Frontier for the Circular Economy?                                                         November, 2016
As much as half of all food produced in the United States each year is wasted. That quantity has increased 50 percent since 1974 - all while some two billion people go hungry or malnourished each year. Clearly, we have a problem, and it is only getting worse. The UN predicts that the global population will top nine billion by 2050. As the world looks to feed all those extra mouths, the enormous quantity of food that goes wasted - and what to do about it - will become an increasingly urgent problem.
 Read full story

​New Tool Kit available regarding Food in Landfills.  Click on the green title link.          November, 2016                      After more than a year of researching, interviewing, writing, editing, and revising, the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic recently published Keeping Food Out of the Landfill: Policy Ideas for States and Localities. This toolkit provides comprehensive information on eight different policy areas that states and localities can consider as they ramp up efforts to reduce food waste. The toolkit includes recommendations for each of the policy areas, which can be utilized by legislators, advocates, food donors, and food recovery organizations to call for policy changes. Each section of the toolkit describes the relevant federal laws, provides state examples, and offers the Clinic’s policy recommendations. The policy areas addressed in “Keeping Food Out of Landfills” are: Liability Protection for Food Donations;  Tax Incentives for Food Donations;  Date Labeling;  Food Safety for Food Donations;  Food Waste Reduction in K-12 Schools;  Feeding Food Scraps to Livestock;  Organic Waste Bans and Waste Recycling Laws; and  Government Support for Food Waste Reduction. We hope that many of you will find the recommendations in the toolkit useful to your work, and also to share with your networks. And thank you to the many food waste warriors on this list who provided invaluable insight, ideas and suggestions throughout the research process. Please let us know if you have any questions, and please share widely!​

Does Single Stream Recycling Work 
A good article about the ups and downs of single stream recycling on the St Louis Public Radio website.  Featuring two MORA members, Gary Gilliam from Resource Management and Brent Batliner of Republic Services. 
If you recycle at home, chances are you take advantage of a system called “single-stream” recycling: you mix all your bottles, newspapers, cans and containers together in a roll cart or dumpster, and a truck comes by once a week to pick them up.
But what happens next? Is that jumble of broken glass, paper, metal and plastic really getting recycled?  Hear from some experts: http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/does-single-stream-recycling-really-work-yes-and-no

What is a circular economy?  
Using the Ellen MacArthur Foundation definition -- a  circular economy is one that is restorative and regenerative by design, and which aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, distinguishing between technical and biological cycles. 
 Creating circular economies is central to meeting Green House Gas reduction goals, constraining  ambient temperature rise, and overall good stewardship of the Earth's precious physical and biological resources

EPA's  Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures 2013
Advancing SMM Infographic
Related Links Report Improvements and Enhancement Updates State Measurement Efforts   List of State and Local Waste Characterization Studies - A collection of state and local waste characterization studies
Assessing Trends in Materials Generation, Recycling and Disposal in the United States. The "Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures 2013" Report was previously named the "Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures." The report's new name emphasizes the importance of sustainable materials management (SMM). SMM refers to the use and reuse of materials in the most productive and sustainable way across their entire life cycle. SMM conserves resources, reduces waste, slows climate change and minimizes the environmental impacts of the materials we use.
New this year, is additional information on source reduction (waste prevention) of municipal solid waste (MSW), information on historical tipping fees for MSW, and information on the Construction and Demolition Debris generation, which is outside of the scope of MSW.

How2Recycle Label      Welcomes Nestlé USA And Purina As Its Newest Participants
Nestlé is the newest member of the How2Recycle Label Program. Selected Nestlé USA and Purina® brands will use the How2Recycle label to help communicate to the public how to recycle their packaging.
The How2Recycle label is a project of GreenBlue’s Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), developed to provide clear and concise on-package recyclability information and keep recoverable materials out of landfills. The brands join over 40 How2Recycle member companies using the label on packaging.  Read entire story.

2015 NEWS ARTICLES
Extended Producer Responsibility News
http://nextcity.org/features/view/cost-of-recycling-america-extended-producer-responsibility-cities  - EPR New in Oregon   May 2015