Waste Management using Tech to Save Environment

Dashboard cameras, tablets and natural gas: These are some of the things Waste Management says it is using to save its customers' time and money, all while helping the environment.
Margate's garbage hauler recently gave the city commission a rundown on some of the technology they started using in 2013, including cameras to monitor driving behavior of the truck drivers, and starting the process of switching their fleet of trucks to compressed natural gas for fuel instead of diesel.
"We are always looking for ways for technology to help us improve," said Waste Management representative Louigi Pace.

WM Logistics Indore
The cameras, which are mounted to the windshield of each truck, have both forward- and backward-facing cameras to see outside and inside the truck. The recording is erased every 12 seconds, according to Pace, unless a "triggering event" happens, like slamming the brakes, fast acceleration or turning a corner too fast. If any of those happen, the recording will be sent to a manager for review.
"We use this to pinpoint unsafe driving habits, which we use for training in the district, and we use it to recognize safe driving habits," Pace said. "It's actually to promote and give a pat on the back to our drivers that are doing things right. It's very impactful because it's not a safety video where you are watching an actor in scripted scenes that show them doing all the right things. These are drivers that work with each other and see [each other] doing the right things."
Another new piece of technology for the drivers is a tablet which has GPS and their route assignments for the day. According to Pace, the company used paper route sheets up until last year. The drivers are able to log their progress in real time, so managers know exactly what customers the drivers are servicing at a given time.

"If a truck has a mechanical issue or a driver can't finish a route, we have to make sure that all of his customers are taken care of," Pace said. "Now, with a click of a mouse, we can move all of that work to another driver's tablet. I used to have to run around with photocopies of the route sheets; now it's just a click of a mouse. It helps us be more efficient and saves everyone's time."
Source:http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/margate/fl-mcf-wastetech-0423-20140424,0,3091619.story

Waste Management Residential Single Stream Video - Plastics 1-7 Accepted

Garbage stinks.But for Waste Management, that rather unpleasant smell is ripe

Garbage stinks.
But for Waste Management, that rather unpleasant smell is ripe with the opportunity to create renewable energy.
"With garbage, we actually create more energy than the entire solar industry in the United States," CEO David Steiner told CNBC Friday.

Waste Management said it made 9.82 million megawatt hours (mwh) of energy last year. The solar industry generated 9.25 million mwh in 2013, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Waste Management's approach to energy production starts with the decomposition of organic material in hundreds of its landfills across the country.

more at - http://www.cnbc.com/id/101615085?__source=yahoo%257cfinance%257cheadline%257cheadline%257cstory&par=yahoo&doc=101615085%257cEnergy+trash+talk!+We%27re+

Waste Management at Children's Museum of Naples

Recycling: How Can We Do it Better?

by Christine Losciale-Thoemmes 
You know that saying, “You don’t know what you don’t know?” Well, that’s kind of what this article is about, only in regards to recycling. I sometimes find myself unsure if I am recycling certain items correctly. I also have people asking me, “Is this recyclable?”, or “How do I recycle this?” And the truth is, sometimes I am just not sure. So, what I decided to do was to ask these questions to two of our local trash/recycling companies, “Haulaway” and “Waste Management”. I explained my dilemma, and I told them that I believed that if we knew the mistakes we were making many of us would certainly make an effort to correct them. They were more than happy to oblige, and answered all of my recycling questions. I even got to take a tour of Waste Management’s recycling facility in Denver. Now I get to share everything I learned with you so that we can all be better “recyclers” together.

First of all I have to say, touring the recycling plant was an incredible experience. I knew there were machines, but what I didn’t know was how much work is still done by hand- helping to sort through and pull out unwanted items. Of these unwanted items the one that seemed to rank high on the list was PLASTIC BAGS. People recycle their newspapers without removing the plastic bags they got delivered in, and place their recyclables in plastic bags, and some people just think plastic bags can be recycled this way. After all plastic bags can be recycled, right? Yes, but not through your residential recycling pick up. Plastic bags must be taken to a local grocery or retail stores where plastic bag recycling is offered. When plastic bags do get mixed in with your other recyclables they can cause big problems for the recycling/sorting machines. It turns out these plastic bags can get caught around the spinning shafts causing damage to the machines. If you keep your recyclable trash in a plastic bag, just empty the items out into your residential recycling can for pick up.
Another common item residents try to recycle through home pick up is SHREDDED PAPER. This too is not to be recycled through your residential pick up. Again, you might ask, “Why, isn’t paper recyclable?” Yes it is! However, much like the plastic bags the shredded paper causes damage to their machines, it clogs the machine’s wheels of operations. Shredded paper CAN be recycled through other companies like: Iron Mountain and Shred it.
Here is a list of a few other items that come into the facility that cannot be recycled there:
• Extensions cords (not recyclable and get caught in the machines)
• Garden hoses
• Christmas lights/ light bulbs
• Medical waste/syringes
• Styrofoam
• Batteries and electronics.
Check with your town government to find out when the next chemical round up or electronic recycling even will be.

And finally, things we can do to be more helpful: Take the caps off of plastic and glass bottles/jugs/jars etc. This not only helps to flatten the plastic items, but sometimes the caps are made from different material then the rest of the item. This also helps to ensure the item will be empty as well. To be helpful at the curbside: Be sure your trash cans are clearly labeled as a recycling cans, especially if it’s one you purchased yourself; put some space between the regular (landfill) trash and the recyclable trash- on separate sides of the driveway if possible. In the end, “If we all do a little it will mean a lot”. For more helpful ideas go to one of Waste Management’s sites: www.ThinkGreenFromHome.com

http://lonetreemagazine.com/recycling-how-can-we-do-it-better/

Waste Management Rethink Your Resources from the Ground, Up (+playlist)

Waste Management to begin new contract for electronics recycling

Waste Management found itself in a predicament when its recycler of electronics had to pull out of the Fabius Township site

By Jef Rietsma
Journal Correspondent
Posted Apr. 11, 2014

Three Rivers

Waste Management found itself in a predicament when its recycler of electronics had to pull out of the Fabius Township site.

District manager Eric Shafer said Universal Recycling Technologies quit receiving subsidies from the electronics manufacturers at the start of the year. Consequently, it removed its electronics recycling box from the Waste Management site.

Cory Pyscher, e-scrap operations manager, shows a box of mangled hard drives at Schupan Industrial Recycling Services in Kalamazoo. Schupan and Waste Management in Three Rivers are entering into a contract for recycling of electronics.

“The problem that created was, by law, we have to take electronics because they are a household hazard … there’s mercury, lead, toxins and other materials that keep them from being put in the landfill,” he said. “So, they have to get recycled and without URT here, there wasn’t a regional facility nearby and we were having to send trucks up to Minnesota, which wasn’t cheap.”

Shafer said he has suggested patrons hold on to their electronics until the St. Joseph County Solid Waste Management Committee stages its twice-year collection at the fairgrounds.

Still, he knew Waste Management needed to have an electronics recycler on hand.

He eventually sent a request for proposal, seeking a local company to accept the electronics dropped off at the site, which led to a courtship with Kalamazoo-based Schupan Industrial Recycling Services.

The fact Schupan was in Kalamazoo was perfect, Shafer said. The only reservation was the company did not have a critical certification, which ensures the electronics it takes in meet critical standards.

Shafer said there’s a verification process called R2/RIOS, a government program that confirms a recycling company has gone through due diligence to handle its electronics in an environmentally friendly manner.

“Basically, it’s confirmation that anything we pass on to them isn’t going to end up in someone’s backyard, alongside some country road or in a third-world country,” Shafer said. “What really gained my confidence was comments and feedback from Solid Waste Committee members, who said the research they had done indicated Schupan had a stellar reputation, far and away.”

Shafer said Schupan’s Cory Pyscher, e-scrap operations manager, indicated the company has just about completed the R2/RIOS certification process. Once the procedure is official — Pyscher said it will be about mid-May — the two companies will have an official partnership.

“We’re excited to soon have a working relationship with Waste Management of Three Rivers,” Pyscher said. “The R2/RIOS is a huge deal for us, there are only 11 certified in the state, so it will open a lot of doors for us.”

Schupan has about 1,100 clients, including Colon, Burr Oak, Mendon, White Pigeon, Constantine and Three Rivers school districts, as well as the St. Joseph County Intermediate School District.

Pyscher said old computers and computer accessories are broken into pieces and just about all parts are recycled in some manner. He demonstrated its hard-drive grinder, which consists of a pair of steel cogs that mangle the square-shaped hard drives into a piece of scrap in seconds. The key-operated machine is kept in a locked room so the hard drives and data they may contain are secure.

Read more: http://www.sturgisjournal.com/article/20140411/News/140419818#ixzz2ziM2QMEw

  

WM Logistics Quarterly Get-together -- April 2014

How Clean Energy and Waste Management turn trash into green fuel

      Modern society makes a lot of garbage. The decomposition of organic material from garbage in landfills releases methane gas, a potent global warming pollutant.

At the same time, the modern transportation system is powered mostly by fossil fuels and also releases global warming and toxic air pollution. Today, two California companies are turning rotting lemons (garbage) into lemonade (low carbon fuels for cars and trucks), and are showing that AB 32 creates a powerful incentive for new ideas and innovations.

Although the ultimate solution to the problem of waste generation and pollution from landfills must include reduction of waste going into the landfills, the fact is landfills aren't going anywhere any time soon.                                                                        

Many landfills combust methane from their garbage in onsite flares or engines, or vent it through carbon absorption systems. This release of combusted methane adds to the negative public health and climate impacts of the sites.

Clean Energy and Waste Management Inc. are looking to change traditional management of landfill gas, deploying an innovation that can help reduce pollution from the transportation sector and lead to reduced landfill emissions. Both companies are capturing landfill gas and turning it into an economically valuable commodity that displaces gasoline and diesel fuel from the economy. Also, provided that leaks are prevented when the landfill gas is captured, processed and distributed to consumers, the work of these two companies can help the climate and help California reach its pollution reductions goals. In addition, because processed landfill burns much cleaner than petroleum based fuels, using it in cars and trucks can result in cleaner air and other public health benefits.

Clean Energy produces a fuel named Redeem, available in either compressed natural gas or liquefied natural gas. Redeem is produced at landfills outside California and then pumped into pipelines for use in the state. The company has built and operates three biomethane facilities and estimates they will have 10 plants owned by third parties throughout the U.S. by the year's end. The low carbon fuel receives carbon credits from the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard when it is used in the state, creating an opportunity for additional value.

Waste Management, Inc., in partnership with Linde North America, a gases and engineering company, built a facility in 2009 at the Altamont Landfill in Altamont, Calif., which produces liquefied natural gas from biomethane. Of about 1,500 natural gas trucks that Waste Management has in its fleet, approximately half use the renewable liquefied natural gas. Where possible, Waste Management also makes liquefied natural gas available to the public. In total, according to Waste Management, the Altamont Landfill is responsible for 33,000 tons of CO₂ reductions per year, the equivalent of eliminating emissions from nearly 7,000 passenger vehicles.

According to company representatives, one of the biggest reasons for their massive investments is California's global warming law, AB 32. According to Harrison Clay, president of Clean Energy Renewable Fuels, "our company has seen significant sales in California because of programs like AB 32 and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard — policies like these that put a price on carbon make Clean Energy's Redeem a winner."

Waste Management tells a similar story. As Chuck White, director of regulatory affairs at Waste Management states, their fuel generates credits for sale in the Low Carbon Fuel Standard market and their customers — residential, commercial and government agencies alike — appreciate that the trucks that collect their waste are emitting significantly fewer harmful greenhouse gas emissions than traditional fleets.

Other stakeholders are taking note of the good work that Waste Management and Clean Energy are doing. According to Julia Levin, executive director of the Bioenergy Association of California, "The work by Clean Energy and Waste Management on biomethane is a triple win for California. They are demonstrating that we can produce clean-burning natural gas fuel that significantly cuts greenhouse gas emissions, reduces our dependence on fossil fuels and cleans up our air, while simultaneously closing the loop on waste."

In addition to reducing pollution through new technology, Waste Management and Clean Energy are showing leadership in other areas. Along with EDF, both companies are participating in a study led by West Virginia University to measure methane leakage from natural gas vehicles and fueling stations, the results of which are expected to be submitted for publication this summer.  

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2014/04/11/clean-energy-waste-management-trash-fuel

Recycling Therapy with "Waste Management Joe" Episode 1: Jimmy (+playlist)

Waste Management Phoenix Open 2014 Golf Ball Installation Time-lapse (+p...

Recycle, repurpose, reuse

Landfill industry finds profit in the old mantra of tree huggers

by Tim Loughran

Andy Warren needs to buy old roofing shingles.
The former Chesapeake firefighter quit that career six years ago “after seeing what people were throwing away … and thinking I could make some money from that.” Warren started Tidewater Green, a company that buys construction demolition debris that he reformulates into component products and resells.
Roof shingles and scrap wood are his raw materials. The wood is reprocessed and sold to burn for fuel. He grinds up old roofing material and sells the asphalt and fiberglass remnants to paving companies as additive to the aggregate those companies use for new roads and driveways.
Warren says his company’s revenue continues to grow at an average of 12 to 15 percent a year.  But he is fighting rising competition from landfills and other recycling companies in Hampton Roads that are trying to buy the same types of raw materials he needs to stay in business.  
“There’s so much demand, I can hardly keep up with it,” he says, and quickly pleads, “I really need more shingles.”

Since peaking in 2004 at 27 million tons, the volume of garbage and trash managed by Virginia’s hundreds of solid-waste companies fell to 20.2 million tons during 2012. That was the lowest total since 1998, the year before a prolonged public spat then-Gov. Jim Gilmore had with New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani over the amount of trash that Virginia landfill companies were getting from the Big Apple.
Company owners, industry executives and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) officials attribute the dramatic 25 percent decline during the past nine years to a unique marketplace dichotomy.
The Great Recession clobbered building activity and consumer demand for new products, so there was much less trash for construction companies, factories, households and retail businesses to throw away.
At the same time, cost-conscious manufacturers, builders and service companies have developed technologies that make developing new products from recycled materials more affordable than ever.
Increased demand for recycled materials has “doubled” that business line for industry giant Waste Management Inc., according to Jim Marcinko, the company’s director of operations for recycling and waste diversion in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and western Pennsylvania.
He declines to provide specific revenue information or current prices for the recovered and recycled materials. Nonetheless, Marcinko says, “we’ve seen commodity values increase considerably in the last five years.”
And unlike competitors who have not changed their ways, he says: “Instead of seeing a huge pile of trash, we see a big pile of opportunity.”
So does Peter Van der Linde, another aggressive recycling entrepreneur, who started a company serving the Char-lottesville area in 2008.
When he launched the business in the depths of the recession, he says, “I was lucky to find any buyer for my materials. Now they find me. They’re beating my door down.”
‘Narrowing of the playing field’
Jeffery A. Steers, director of the Division of Land Protection and Revitalization at the DEQ, says the trend to divert waste from landfills began in the 1980s, as states began to pass laws to comply with Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) that Congress passed in 1976.
In Virginia, pressure on landfill companies to increase investments in recycling and accept less waste accelerated after the General Assembly passed the law known as HB1205 in 1993, he says.
That law mandated that any existing landfill that did not meet tougher new requirements for construction and monitoring must be closed after it had reached its permitted capacity. The law also said that any landfill expansion after 1993 or new landfill construction could take place only under much stricter conditions.
The Virginia law, Steers says, forced the closure of “a couple of dozen” landfills in Virginia during the past 20 years. Now, he says, there are 55 solid waste landfills licensed to operate by the DEQ.
“Clearly, there has been a narrowing of the playing field,” he says. “The whole idea of simply putting [trash] in a hole in the ground, in a flood plain or by a river was not the ideal way to handle solid waste.”
In recent years, most “landfills recognize waste is a commodity,” Steers says. “A lot of things can be recovered, reused. There is a monetary value to waste, whether it’s municipal solid waste, industrial waste or construction debris … that has helped drive the trend to send less to landfills.”
During the past decade, as demand for recycled materials has grown, landfills routinely bury about two-thirds of what they collect every year, according to data compiled by the DEQ. In 1998, by contrast, landfills reported to the DEQ that they had buried 72 percent of what they collected.
Now that prices for scrap metal like steel, iron and aluminum are climbing steadily and organic material can be burned and sold to energy companies, landfill companies have begun digging up older sections of existing landfills to extract material to earn even more money.
Operators now use this “landfill mining” process to generate additional revenue and empty valuable real estate for future dumping of materials that don’t yet have a resale value. During 2012, the first year that DEQ tracked the practice, landfills across the state reported recovering more than 72,000 tons of reusable material.
In a modern-day reprise of the classic Mark Twain story about the fictional Tom Sawyer’s remarkable ability to convince his friends that they’d have fun doing his chores for him, landfill companies have extended their moneymaking efforts to the curbsides and strip malls of Virginia.
Using their hauling companies, landfill companies have persuaded their household and commercial customers to do some of their work for them — sorting out for separate collection the easiest items to resell, like paper, cardboard, metal and plastic — in the name of keeping the state’s environment clean.
These efforts seem to be working. The DEQ reports the state’s solid waste recycling rate was just 30 percent in 2004. By 2007 that rate was up to 39 percent, and by 2011 it had risen to 43.5 percent.  In 2012, the state’s recycling rate slipped to 41.5 percent.
‘Zero waste’ target
Late last summer the Virginia Department of Corrections began dismantling the 900-bed Mecklenburg Correctional Center. It’s the second such demolition undertaken under the DOC’s “zero waste” initiative. The first was the 2010-11 demolition of the old Southampton Correctional Center.
From 12 buildings on 19 acres of land in Southampton, the DOC reported that it sent just 80 cubic yards of debris to a landfill. After transferring an estimated $381,000 in used equipment, appliances and fixtures to other DOC facilities, the agency said it earned $316,000 from the resale of recycled metals and $1.1 million from the sale of crushed concrete.
In Mecklenburg, the goal is to limit what the DOC has to send to a landfill to just 50 tons of demolition debris, or 2 percent of the project’s estimated total, says Tony Parnell, the DOC environmental specialist supervising the project.
Parnell says that with the constant flux in prices that recycling wholesalers are paying for construction debris, it’s still too early to predict accurately how much the DOC eventually will earn from recycling most of what it knocks down. He says the early estimates from potential buyers range around $800,000 for the metal he expects to extract from the site and another $800,000 for the crushed cement, brick and cinderblock.
Fifteen inmates, under the watchful eyes of seven supervisors, worked through the autumn, winter and early spring to remove everything from shelving, glass, bedding, linens, tables, doors, office furniture, kitchen equipment and appliances to light bulbs, lockers, bunk beds, wire, sinks, showerheads and bathroom fixtures.
Total demolition of the first of several buildings was scheduled to begin in mid-March. By the time the project is completed in 2016 the DOC also plans to mine and resell all the many thousands of lead bullets buried in the site’s firing range, used for decades by area police officers.
Parnell is confident he can find buyers for almost everything useable at the site, save some wood debris and different types of insulation material, including fiberglass and Styrofoam. Until recently he had the same concerns about the miles and miles of thin Cat5 telecommunications wire his men had pulled from the first building to be torn down.
“A lot of companies want plain communication cable. My problem was how we were going to strip the coating off all the wire we had without breaking it,” Parnell explains. “But I think I’ve found a new company up near Winchester that will be able to take all my wire, test it and reuse it as is.”

http://www.virginiabusiness.com/news/article/recycle-repurpose-reuse

Waste Management and Recycling

Waste Management, NRG and two other companies form renewable energy venture

Houston-based Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WM) has joined with oil and gas giant NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG) and two other companies to form a venture dedicated to producing renewable fuels and chemicals, according to a press release.

The four companies, including Pasadena-based Ventech Engineers International LLC and energy technology company Velocys, based in Abingdon, U.K., teamed up to develop smaller-scale, gas-to-liquids technology using the gas created by landfills.
Joe Vaillancourt, Waste Management's vice president of corporate venturing, explained that the venture would take advantage of each of the company's strengths: "Velocys’ leading smaller-scale GTL technology, Ventech’s engineering capabilities and NRG’s clean energy development expertise."
NRG's involvement would include its ability to acquire and transport large quantities of natural gas, the release noted.
Velocys, which has a presence in Houston, has developed a chemical reactor that mixes several gasses produced by landfills and turns them into liquid hydrocarbons.
Ventech, for its part, will be the engineering contractor on the project.
And Waste Management would provide the landfills.
The first facility demonstrating the new technology has already been operating at Waste Management's East Oak landfill in Oklahoma for more than a year, according to the release.
But the facility is also still under development, with the venture still to decide whether to proceed with the project later in 2014.
Waste Management was last in the news when it  acquired Summit Energy Services and Liquid Logistics, both of North Dakota.

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2014/03/waste-management-nrg-and-two-other-companies-form.html

Waste Management Product Recovery Group Overview (+playlist)

Waste Management will use compressed natural gas to fuel its fleet of trucks.

Waste Management will soon begin replacing its diesel-fueled garbage collection vehicles with more environmentally friendly trucks powered by compressed natural gas, possibly converting the entire fleet by next year.
Officials of the trash hauler were granted three ordinance variances by the Plainfield Township Zoning Hearing Board that will allow Waste Management to establish a CNG fueling station — for both its fleet and the general public — near its corporate offices and Grand Central Landfill.
By going green, the company hopes to reduce fleet emissions and increase fuel efficiency. The company has set up more than 50 natural gas fueling stations across the country, 22 of which are open to the public or outside fleet operators.

The board approved variances to allow Waste Management to establish a retail fuel center without a convenience store or auto service facility as a second principal use to providing fuel for its fleet. The trash hauler and landfill operator was also granted a variance to allow for outdoor, above-ground storage.
Federal and state law requires fuel storage to be above ground for inspection and maintenance, but the township's ordinance mandates below ground storage, Waste Management's attorney Matt Goodrich said.
Waste Management received an $806,248 grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, plus $490,000 from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The township Planning Commission considered the application March 17 and recommended approval of the variances.
Once the fuel is pumped on-site via an existing UGI line, Waste Management will use a compression buffer vessel to store the gas above ground before it makes its way to the fuel stations. One will be constructed initially but up to three can be built if demand is there, said Brian Bogar, design manager for ET Environmental of Mystic, Conn.
Stations for both the fleet and the public will be monitored by security cameras around the clock, he said. Public pumps will operate on a card swipe system and will walk the consumer through an on-screen tutorial before issuing a PIN code. After receiving training, truck drivers will be retrained annually.
Waste Management will order 25 collection trucks powered by compressed natural gas to replace half its fleet, with the remaining 25 likely to be replaced by next year, said area fleet director Jim Pryor, who oversees New York City, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
Once replaced, diesel vehicles will be dispersed to Waste Management facilities in Delaware, North Jersey and Maryland that aren't yet set up for CNG, said John Hambrose, Waste Management community relations coordinator for the greater Mid-Atlantic area.
Trucks can go just as far on diesel as an equivalent amount of CNG, but the cost of CNG is much lower, Pryor said. The company employs more than 2,700 trucks nationwide fueled by CNG, he said.
"Our goal is to be 100 percent CNG," he said. "Next year, Pen Argyl could be 100 percent CNG."
Kevin Duffy is a freelance writer.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-plainfield-township-waste-management-fleet-

Waste Management Single-Stream Recycling: Take a tour of our Philadelphi...

Life Cycle Thinking: Helping Our Stakeholders Help The Earth

When it comes to being good stewards of the earth, we all want to do the right thing.  We strive to reduce our carbon footprint, avoid products that harm the air and water, and use recyclable materials whenever possible. But, good intentions only get us halfway.  It also requires strategic thinking.

Waste Management is proud to join its business, academic and community partners in the Sustainable Materials Management Coalition which last week released an important new guidance document entitled, “Guidance on Life-Cycle Thinking and Its Role in Environmental Decision Making.”

Life-Cycle Thinking is a fancy term that speaks to an important process. When end-users purchase a good or service, they don’t always see the larger sequence of events that preceded their purchase.  How were the raw materials sourced, and what were the environmental implications of that step? How was the product manufactured, and what environmental footprint did that phase leave behind? How do the end-users consume the product, and how will they dispose of it?

Let’s look at an example that is referenced in this guidance document: the movement for locally sourced food products. If the idea is to support local farmers and prime the pump of the hometown economy, there’s a lot of merit in this initiative. If the idea is that locally sourced goods are more environmentally responsible than products from larger, more distant entities, then the truth is more complicated. As the report explains, “In 2008, researchers at Carnegie-Mellon reported a detailed life-cycle inventory of GHGs associated with foods, looking at eight different standard food categories. The study showed that 83 percent of the average U.S. household’s annual carbon footprint for food consumption comes from producing the food (such as from the energy used to power farm equipment and the use of fertilizers that derive from natural gas).“ Even if we assume that local farmers employ the same chemicals and processes as larger farms to create their product, the greenhouse gas reductions associated with local sourcing are only in the 4 to 5 percent range.

Or another example: “compostable” plastics, which many consumers prefer in hopes that they are consistent with a zero-waste philosophy.  But, buyers beware: products don’t always deliver on the promise of their labels.  In reality, when deposited in a compost pile, many of these plastics decompose into carbon dioxide and water; in effect, none of the resources that went into producing these goods can be recovered.  Additionally, people frequently fail to separate “compostable” plastics; at the end of the day, they often end up in landfills. When we focus on just one stage in the life-cycle of a plastic product, we miss the larger picture.

The idea behind this new report is to get businesses, governments and nonprofits thinking… about Life-Cycle Thinking.  Organizations that procure goods and services want to do right.  At Waste Management, we want to help them translate good intentions into impactful decision-making. Taking a step back and seeing the whole process will help us become more efficient and discerning in how we move toward that unquestionably worthy end goal.

http://thinkinggreen.wm.com/web/wmblog/home/-/blogs/life-cycle-thinking-helping-our-stakeholders-help-the-ear-1

Recycle Often. Recycle Right. Official Video - Waste Management

Waste Management Named a Project of the Year by Environmental Leader

The Waste Management Phoenix Open was named Project of the Year by Environmental Leader in its Product & Project Awards, the magazine announced today. As title sponsor of the Phoenix Open, Waste Management demonstrates its commitment to environmental sustainability at the annual Zero Waste golf tournament.

The Environmental Leader Product & Project Awards is a program recognizing excellence in products and services that provide companies with energy and environmental benefits or in projects implemented by companies that improved environmental or energy management and increased the bottom line.
With today's crowded playing field, energy and sustainability professionals have a notoriously difficult time knowing what products to choose to help their companies increase energy, environmental and sustainability performance. The Environmental Leader Product & Project Awards give companies a solid base of products, vetted by experts, from which to choose.

"The caliber of the entries this year was even more impressive than last year, and showed the excitement and innovation taking place in the industry today," says Paul Nastu, publisher of Environmental Leader. "There was tough competition for those that entered, and the products that were awarded Top Product or Project of the Year are those that the judges say have viable attributes that set them apart from others in the field."
Scores were determined by a panel of independent judges headed by Matthew Littlefield of LNS Research and also including judges from companies including Anheuser Busch InBev, Arrow Electronics, Autodesk, Citigroup Inc., Con Agra Foods, Environmental & Operational Risk Management, GlaxoSmithKline, ISS Facility Services, Microsoft, Owens Corning, Power Advocate, Puma, Sam's Club, Sustainability and Risk Management Reputation Limited, Trupoint Advisers, the University of California Berkeley, Williams Creek Consulting, and YES Bank.
One judge said of the Waste Management Phoenix Open Zero Waste Event, "This project demonstrates what can be achieved when you intentionally apply design to achieve your sustainability goals. They engaged all stakeholders and applied a life-cycle approach to prepare and execute the event."
In 2012, Waste Management launched the "Zero Waste Challenge," an initiative aimed at controlling materials brought into the event. In 2014, Waste Management continued the "Zero Waste Challenge" for a third year as part of its company-wide effort to reach its goal to triple the amount of recyclable materials nationwide by the year 2020 and extract the most value possible from all of the materials the company manages.
The Zero Waste Challenge ensures that all of the waste generated is recycled, composted, or used in waste-to-energy facilities with vendors only using products and materials that can be composted or recycled at their end-of-life. The company follows ISO20121 standards for sustainable event management and report using the Global Reporting Initiative framework.
"We have made the Waste Management Phoenix Open zero waste because it's an achievement of our environmental sustainability goals and it sets a great example of what's possible to sporting venues everywhere," said Dave Aardsma, chief sales and marketing officer for Waste Management. "It's gratifying to be recognized by Environmental Leader and its company of judges."
Aardsma said that since 2010, the Waste Management Phoenix Open has purchased 100 percent renewable energy from the local utility meaning that even the electric golf carts run on alternative energy. The water used by caterers for cooking and cleaning is used again in the portable toilets. The company makes sure that vendors who create signage for the event make them from sustainable materials that can be recycled, composted, or reused year after year.
Waste Management has been a partner of the Phoenix Open for more than 13 years, providing waste, recycling, and portable restroom services. As the title sponsor, Waste Management, in partnership with the PGA TOUR and The Thunderbirds, is dedicated to making the Waste Management Phoenix Open the greenest tournament on the PGA TOUR. The tournament has also become a major platform for showcasing Waste Management Think Green solutions, including the Four Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle and recover.
About Environmental Leader
Since 2006, Environmental Leader's website and daily email newsletter have provided the definitive and objective voice in reporting on business-related energy, environmental, and sustainability issues, while Energy Manager Today is the leading daily trade publication keeping corporate executives informed about energy management news. For more information visit www.environmentalleader.com or www.energymanagertoday.com.
About the Environmental Leader Product & Project Awards

In its second year, the Environmental Leader Product & Project Awards recognize excellence in products and services that provide companies with energy and environmental benefits, or in corporate projects that improved environmental or energy management and increased the bottom line. It is a five-point rating system designed to offer companies feedback and recognition. Third-party judges came from the following companies: Anheuser Busch InBev, Arrow Electronics, Autodesk, Citigroup Inc., Con Agra Foods, Environmental & Operational Risk Management, GlaxoSmithKline, ISS Facility Services, Microsoft, Owens Corning, Power Advocate, Puma, Sam's Club, Sustainability and Risk Management Reputation Limited, Trupoint Advisers, the University of California Berkeley, Williams Creek Consulting, and YES Bank.

Source: http://www.individual.com/storyrss.php?story=189539291&hash=0516c200c387a16d26fcaf028cc3e6f5

Ironman Events Chooses Waste Management to Reduce Waste, Increase Recycling

In an effort to reduce the environmental impact of its triathlon events, World Triathlon Corporation’s Ironman Series of events has chosen Waste Management as its official environmental solutions provider for all events throughout the US, the company announced.

Waste Management says it will work with Ironman event organizers to develop solutions for reducing waste and increasing recycling at each race.

The waste management company says it offers event services such as renewable energy alternatives, water conservation techniques and new technologies to recover the resource in waste. It will work with Ironman to control materials allowed into the event to ensure they can be reused, recycled or composted; use volunteers to educate race attendees; monitor recycling and compost receptacles; engage with the community and communicate goals to all stakeholders; track carbon footprints; and report on sustainability efforts.

Ironman COO, Shane Facteau, says that it is important for Ironman to be “environmentally responsible and take care of the cities that host our events.”

The Ironman series of events is the largest participation sports platform in the world, the company says, having grown from a single race to more than 190 events across five brands.

The Phoenix Open PGA golf tournament also worked with Waste Management as its title sponsor. Waste Management says that during the 2013 event,  it sent zero waste to landfill from more than half a million people who attended. The Waste Management Phoenix Open also purchased 100% renewable energy, used graywater in portable toilets, and achieved GOLD certification from the Council for Responsible Sport.

One of Waste Management’s efforts for the Phoenix Open is the annual Waste Management “Green Out,” an event that asks all fans attending the event to wear something green to show their support for the green/eco-sensitive efforts of the tournament. For every person who wears green, tournament host Thunderbirds donates money to three nonprofit organizations. In 2013, the organizations were Keep Phoenix Beautiful, which received 50% of the funds, Arizona Forward (35%) and Keep America Beautiful (15%). Waste Management says that in 2012, almost a third of the tournament’s fans wore green, and nearly all PGA tour pros donned green gear. The event raised $50,000 for Keep Phoenix Beautiful.

Other event partners that have chosen Waste Management as their environmental solutions provider include the Houston Marathon, the Shell Houston Open, and the Valero Texas Open.

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2013/07/31/ironman-events-chooses-waste-management-to-reduce-waste-increase-recycling/